This recipe for rich and fudgy healthy brownies is so completely delicious that you will never believe the healthy ingredients!
The best healthy brownies
Imagine a homemade secretly healthy brownie recipe that can easily its own in taste and texture against any regular chocolate brownie.
There is no flour, no refined sugar, and more than five grams of protein packed into each and every super chocolatey fudge brownie.
The wholesome brownie recipe can be vegan, oil free, low fat, egg free, dairy free, and cholesterol free, with fiber, potassium, and iron.
Also try this healthy Frozen Yogurt Recipe
Flourless brownie ingredients
These super chocolatey low calorie brownies call for the following ingredients: unsweetened cocoa powder, baking powder, quick oats, pure maple syrup (or honey or raw agave), banana, nut butter, pure vanilla extract, chocolate chips, and black beans.
For flourless and grain free brownies, the half cup of quick oats can be replaced with an equal amount of almond flour if desired.
There is also keto and paleo brownie recipe option included in the recipe.
Feel free to use your favorite nut butter, such as almond butter, cashew butter, or peanut butter. Or for an allergy friendly option, sunflower butter also works well.
Use chocolate protein powder instead of the antioxidant rich cocoa if you want high protein brownies. Just be sure to choose a protein powder with a flavor you already know that you like for baking.
The gluten free brownie recipe calls for a standard fifteen ounce can of black beans. If you want to use cooked beans, measure out one and a half cups after cooking.
I have not tried any other beans or legumes in place of the black beans here. However, I do have a different recipe for Chickpea Brownies if you want to use garbanzo beans.
For the chocolate chips: I like to use Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips in the recipe, or you can use whatever chips you have on hand. My preference is for dark chocolate, but semi sweet, milk chocolate, and white chocolate all work too.
For a no sugar variation, Lily’s dark chocolate chips are a great option.
Or you can even make your own Sugar Free Chocolate Chips.
Liquid sweeteners that do well here include pure maple syrup, raw agave, honey (not for vegans), date syrup, or even keto syrup for sugar free brownies.
Healthy brownie recipe video
Above, watch the step-by-step video
Healthy brownies without banana
The recipe below uses banana to add natural sweetness without added sugar.
If you are allergic to the fruit, do not have any on hand, or just dislike the taste of banana brownies, make these popular Black Bean Brownies instead. It’s a similar recipe, but with no banana.
Or you might also really like these healthy Sweet Potato Brownies.
To answer a common reader question: You might be able to sub applesauce, avocado, or Greek yogurt for the banana if you also add some sweetener to replace the sugar from the banana. I have not tried this substitution so cannot say how it will taste.
Be sure to report back if you experiment.
How to make vegan healthy brownies from scratch
To make the plant based brownies, start by reading through the recipe instructions and gathering your ingredients.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and line an 8 inch baking pan with parchment paper or grease the pan well. Set it aside.
In a high quality food processor, blend everything until completely smooth. You can mix in the chocolate chips either before or after blending, but be sure not to leave them out!
Smooth the healthy brownie batter into the prepared pan. If desired, you can sprinkle some extra dark chocolate chips on top. Place the pan on the oven’s center rack.
Bake the healthy chocolate fudge brownies for fifteen minutes. Let them cool before cutting into bars or squares.
If you want them extra gooey and fudgy (definitely my preferred way to eat brownies!), you can eat them right away.
Otherwise, refrigerate the pan overnight, very loosely covered, and the delicious chocolate dessert will firm up considerably as excess moisture escapes.
They also have a deeper, sweeter, and richer taste a day after they are made.
Chocolate brownie storage tips
Store leftover brownies in the refrigerator for up to four or five days.
Or slice and freeze the brownie bars in a single layer or with parchment in between layers. Thaw the frozen brownies before serving, and enjoy for dessert or snack whenever a brownie craving hits in the future.
Try topping the recipe with cream cheese or chocolate frosting, melted chocolate chips or chocolate ganache, or Banana Ice Cream if desired.
With all the protein, fiber, vitamins and antioxidants, who is to say you couldn’t even eat these wholesome chocolate brownies for breakfast???
Health benefits
When cut into nine servings, each brownie is just 150 calories.
And the recipe contains 5.6 grams of protein and 5.7 grams of heart healthy fiber.
They are low in saturated fat, low sodium, and high in iron, with calcium, quercetin, and potassium.
Plus, the superfood black beans and unsweetened cocoa powder provide nutritious vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
Easy healthy brownie recipes
Healthy Brownies
Ingredients
- 1 can black beans
- 3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup quick oats (for low carb, try these Keto Brownies)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup or honey or agave
- 1 banana (see banana free options listed above)
- 1/4 cup nut butter of choice or coconut oil
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips (not optional)
Instructions
- To make healthy brownies, first preheat the oven to 350 F. Blend all ingredients except the chocolate chips in a food processor until completely smooth. (A blender can work if you must, but the texture and taste will be better in a food processor. I use this food processor.) Stir in the chips. Smooth into a greased or parchment lined 8×8 inch baking pan. If desired, add extra chocolate chips on top. Bake on the oven's center rack for 15 minutes. Let cool before cutting. If they are too fudgy and gooey for your liking, you can place them in the fridge overnight, during which time they firm up even more. View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
Healthy Dessert Ideas
oh katie, I can feel and taste and SEE the fudgey-ness FOR SURE in these pictures! You captured it! I am in love with these 🙂 You are my go-to healthy dessert girl!!
Me too! I KNOW when I make a CCK recipe, that I will love it. I tried these brownies after you first posted them, and I seriously like them BETTER than normal brownies!
The fact that they have only 100 calories and healthy ingredients? Icing on the cake, or brownies ;).
When I first saw the recipe, I jotted it down, but I didn’t have any immediate plans to make it. But then I read this comment, that says it’s better than regular brownies, and suddenly I was intrigued and had to make them to see for myself!
I admit that I was skeptical at first. But now? Incredibly enough, I agree! These are so fudgy that they’re almost more like fudge than brownies, even. Definitely not for someone who likes their brownies cakey. But I’d much rather have a fudgy brownie than a cakey one.
Thanks, CCK. I will definitely be making these again and again!
hey, i love your recipes, and your healthy approach to life! i was just wondering do you ever worry about calories/your weight, or are you pretty care free?
Thanks Clara!! 🙂
I am not 100% carefree… but I’ve come a long way! Most days, I am happy with my body. I don’t know if you saw this page, but I wrote more about it all here: https://lett-trim.today/about/about-me/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
As for calories, I pretty much don’t count them. But sometimes I have to be careful to get enough food because of how active I am. So if I’m feeling sluggish on a particular day, I’ll try to think back to everything I ate that day (or the day before) and see if maybe the reason I’m tired is that I wasn’t eating enough.
I can tell they’re fudgy, mostly. But maybe you can send some to all of us to taste-test and be sure? 🙂
I love brownies, especially topped with some coconut ice cream, or Rice Dream ice cream.
Love the photo of you and your dad.
YES YES YES! My favourite dessert– my absolute most favourite dessert is… errr… I don’t know actually. (Sorry for my dry sense of humour. Oops.) There’s banana cake, chocolate cake, fudge cake, brownies, carrot cake, scones, blondies, … the list goes on! 😀
By the way, your dad looks really good! He’s got the “George Clooney”/”Robin Williams” look if you know what I mean!
LOL! I will have to tell him that. It will make his day!
My absolute favorite dessert? Oh, it’s so shameful… but I LOVE cookie cake. You know, the giant chocolate chip cookies with the super processed icing words on it that they sell at – what am I saying? Everyone knows what cookie cake is.
But usually I tell people my second favorite dessert, to save face, which is warm gingerbread topped with lemon ice cream. Not sorbet – ice cream. It’s an important distinction.
I still need to try Katie’s chocolate chip cookie pie! It looks like the cookie cakes from my childhood. Maybe that’s next on the list, if I can stop eating these brownies long enough to make something else!
Fudgy brownies are the ONLY kind, IMO. If I want cake, I’ll eat cake. Ptttoey on you, cakey brownies! These look soooo goooood, Katie. NOM.
Current favorite dessert I can eat a home is Liz Lovely Gluten Free chocolate mint cookies! I keep them frozen and eat them frozen, too. Soooo fudgy. The GF chcolate moose ones are also fantastic as are the regular snickerdudes! Find them. Eat them.
I really like raw desserts at restaurants. The most epic desserts I’ve ever had have been raw. I had a really amazing pumpkin pie in a raw place in Florida – it was carrots(!) and brazil nuts, no pumpkin at all. Craziness. I also have had many many amazing coconut cream pies at various raw places. Coconut cream is my favsies so I always get it. 🙂
Green Owl in Madison, WI makes a great cooked coconut cream and The Cheese Factory in Wisconsin Dells has the best cupcakes ever. Chocolate cake that’s rich and dense but fluffy with impeccable chocolate buttercream. They also do a great maple walnut cookie and the best vegan burrito I’ve ever had. 😉 Epic epic food. We always swing into the Dells when we’re driving from St. Paul to my folks in Wisconsin just to eat there.
I need to stop before I get going on the dark chocolate and pear crepes I had in Portland! Haha. I love food. It’s a good thing I also love running! 😉
I need to get to Portland!
Go in October! I’m running the marathon on the 9th and I’ll be in town a week. 😉 We could NOMMMMM like a boss. 😀
Haha I am so glad someone else likes the word NOM. Can you believe I caught flak for using it on my 2-bite brownie post? What’s wrong with nom??? 🙁
What? Don’t people have a sense of humor? I actually have a bondiband for running that has a little shark on it… and the words “OM NOM NOM” underneath his little gaping mouth. I love it! I wear it on long runs when I plan to eat a bunch afterward. Hah.
Oh, how I love brownies. And like Melissa just said, FUDGY is the way to GO 🙂
I bought the tofu yesterday and now the apples are on the stove. Can’t wait to it out. Apples…please cook quicker.
My fav dessert – anything involving chocolate…brownies…ice cream…
Oh my gosh I have to try these this weekend. Brownies are my FAVORITE! I actually avoid making them because I can eat an entire pan in a few days… I tried to make vegan brownies before with applesauce and they were dry and cakey. I like gooey fudgey brownies and these look like they will be perfect! Is the tofu what makes them fudgey??
I think it’s maybe part of it… but even more than that, it’s probably the fact that I undercook them! 😉
Great minds think alike! We both posted chocolatey desserts today. Although yours is FAR superior!
As you know, this is my new FAVORITE brownie recipe. Favorite. It is amazing and I highly recomend it to everyone who reads this!
I’ve tried all sorts of healthy brownie recipes and all the other ones pale in comparison.
And now I’ll stop sounding like an infomercial, but I really am obsessed with these!
I think I’ll have to make another batch today, now that you posted this.
🙂
Haha Katie, I’m obsessed with these brownies too! I tried your “fudgey version” after you posted it on the 2-bite brownie post, and I fell in LOVE :).