Vegan black bean brownies with peanut butter frosting

Healthy and delicious dessert, both at the same time, is it possible? Yes, it is, and this recipe will prove it! These vegan black bean brownies are so tasty you won’t believe what’s hiding in there. Serve it to friends, but wait till the end before revealing the secret ingredient to see their expression totally in shock. It is so rewarding.

What are the key ingredients to make these vegan black bean brownies?

The base is made out of black beans! Nutrient dense and fiber packed canned black beans! You won’t taste them and it provides a perfect texture when making dense and chewy brownies.

Also part of the base, you will find lots of oats instead of flour. The oats are crushed in a food processor, so in this case too, you won’t realize they are there. They provide even more fiber and precious nutrients.

Now I hear you wondering where is the sweet taste coming from, its a dessert after all, right? Medjool dates to the rescue, once more. The sticky sweet, caramel-like and chewy dates also help hold everything together.

Cacao vs cocoa?

Both comes from the cacao bean (seed) and usually are used to prepare chocolate products.

But here is the main differences:

– CACAO is the unprocessed option. This means that the bean is cracked out of its shell, ground and packaged. Its mostly used for vegan and unprocessed chocolate product. It contains a load of anti-oxidants and is therefore the healthiest version.

– COCOA is the processed option. The beans are removed from their shells, but then brought to a factory where the beans are roasted in high heat and processed, then ground into cocoa powder. The manipulation of the beans makes cocoa a less healthy option since lots of its health benefit (anti-oxidants) have been eliminated in the process.

How to make these vegan black bean brownies?

You will have to first boil the dates in water for 5 minutes to soften them.

Then, add them and the other ingredients (except for the chocolate chips) to a food processor to prepare the dough. Super easy! Transfer to a bowl and fold in the chocolate chips.

The dough goes in a square oven safe container and pop in the oven.

Once the brownie is cooked, top it with an easy and delicious 5 minutes peanut butter frosting. You only need 4 ingredients, one bowl and a little whisk to make this healthy frosting!

This brownies is also delicious eating cold, so it makes for a perfect dessert to make ahead! Just prepare it when you have more free time, store it in the fridge and you will have a satisfying healthy dessert for your busy week to come.

How to store it

These brownies can be stored in a air-tight container in the fridge for up to a week.

They also can be frozen. Just be sure to cut them before so you can grab individual pieces out of the freezer.

You might also like these Chocolate recipes:

• Chocolate banana milkshake
• 3 ingredient chocolate pudding
• Peanut butter and chocolate raw cookie dough

I hope you will love these brownies as much as we do! If you try them, please leave a comment below and rate the recipe to let me know how it was.