These secretly-good-for-you chocolate workout brownies are high in protein, gluten free, oil free, vegan, and they can even have no sugar added.
If you are one of those people who love healthy desserts and how amazing they make you feel, be sure to put these brownies on your “must try” list.
Made up of just six plant-based ingredients, without any refined sugars or flour, the clean eating protein brownies are super quick and easy to prepare.
Also Try These Keto Muffins – Just 6 Ingredients
If you’re bored of energy bars, this could be your new favorite workout recipe.
They are great for:
Runners
Dancers
Weight Lifters
Yogis
Cyclists
Swimmers
Sports Players
And basically everyone else who loves chocolate and wants to incorporate it into a healthy, on-the-go snack.
Brownies with superpowers.
It’s like grabbing a post-workout energy bar, but with cleaner ingredients than most packaged energy bars – no soy protein isolate, sucralose, or high fructose corn syrup.
I know it’s completely frustrating when a healthy-tasting recipe claims to taste exactly like a real hot fudge brownie… so I will tell you right now:
These are not supposed to be like a decadent dessert. Just as you wouldn’t serve a tray of Luna Bars at a fancy dinner party or bake sale, I wouldn’t recommend the workout brownies for a party either.
They are definitely more of a healthy snack or dessert meant for people who enjoy the wholesome taste and nutrition of healthy desserts.
If you are one of those people, hopefully you will love this recipe as much as I do!
Here are the ingredients you’ll need:
If you want a good protein powder recommendation to use in the recipe, I really like the plant-based protein by ALOHA.
All of their products are organic and free of soy, gluten, dairy, and artificial ingredients, and they use a combination of pumpkin seed, hemp seed, and pea protein, with 18g protein per serving. I was also happy to see the protein powder doesn’t contain stevia, so you don’t get that weird aftertaste many other chocolate protein powders seem to have.
**Note: The link to their website is not an affiliate code. I don’t make any commission on sales of their products. I love both the taste and the company’s philosophy, and this was the brand of protein powder I used for the workout brownies.
So if you want to make the recipe exactly like I did, I know using ALOHA protein powder yields good results.
(Watch The Recipe Video Above)
Brownie Frosting Options:
Basic Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Or, if you want to keep these brownies super healthy like I did, you can make your own chocolate “frosting” by simply combining cocoa powder with an avocado and a little sweetener of choice – here’s how to make avocado chocolate frosting.
You can also top them with Coconut Ice Cream and fresh berries, for a healthy post-workout fudge brownie sundae!
Chocolate Workout Brownies
Ingredients
- 1 cup overripe mashed banana or applesauce (for low carb, try these Keto Brownies)
- 2/3 cup nut butter of choice, or allergy-friendly sub
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 3 tbsp chocolate protein powder (such as this one), OR sub additional cocoa powder
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup, honey, or agave, OR additional banana
- optional mini chocolate chips, crushed walnuts, etc.
Instructions
- Notes: If using applesauce or unsweetened protein powder, or if planning to eat the brownies unfrosted, I recommend including the sweetener of choice. Using peanut butter gives a peanut-butter flavor, while almond or cashew butter taste more neutral. Sunbutter or pumpkin seed butter can be used for allergy-friendly brownies. You can use regular unsweetened cocoa or a combination of regular and dutch.Preheat oven to 325 F. Line an 8×8 pan with parchment paper. If using natural nut butter, gently warm it until it is easily stir-able. Combine all ingredients in a bowl, stir until completely smooth, and spread into the prepared pan (see video). Bake on the center rack 20-25 minutes (20 for super fudgy brownies) – they will be undercooked when you take them out. Let cool, then loosely cover with a paper towel and place in the fridge overnight, during which time they will firm up without losing their fudginess. They are also much sweeter the next day! Frosting options are listed earlier in this post, and you need about 1/2 cup total. Once cut, the brownies can either be stored in the fridge for 2-3 days or in the freezer for up to a month. You can even eat them straight out of the freezer if you wish! As mentioned, they are more of a healthy snack than a decadent dessert – if you enjoy healthy desserts and snacks, hopefully you will love these!View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
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I’m a runner and these perfect for me! Thanks Katie.
This might be a strange question and I know it might be annoying to be asked about substitutions, but I’ve seen more and more recipes using avacados. Do you think those could be subbed for the banana or applesauce, or would they not be moist enough?
You can definitely experiment, and be sure to report back if you do, for other readers. You might have to add some extra sweetener.
These look great! I am about to try them with pumpkin because I have an open can that I need to use. I’ll let you know how they turn out!
Awesome idea using the protein powder, on my must try list! I’ll be making these in bulk and I’ll freeze them to add to smoothies for a nutrient (and flavour!) boost 🙂
Dear Katie,
I wanted to write to you and thank you for the protein powder recommendation. I do not use stevia, and finding a vegan protein powder without stevia that actually tastes good has been near impossible. Vega and Garden Of Life both have stevia, and I don’t like the taste of Sunwarrior at all. But I read your post and have always liked your recipes so I figured it couldn’t hurt to try one more. And I am so glad I did!
I haven’t made these brownies and probably won’t to be honest, because I prefer my protein powder in the form of smoothies, but I wanted to thank you for the recommendation because you have no idea how happy I am to have finally found one that I like!
I want to try these. I was wondering how much extra banana I would add?
Thank you.
Melissa
If using the added sweetener, you just use one cup. Otherwise you use the 1 1/4 cup.
These are such a great 3.30pm work break snack! I made a half batch yesterday – just to try them – and I wish I made a double batch! Great flavou and texture. I made with my cookies and cream protein powder as I don’t have chocolate flavour and still works a treat. Plus I used 1/2 peanut butter and 1/2 tahini paste so it wasn’t too peanutty flavour. I topped with your healthy chocolate frosting too… YUM! Would recommend.
Delicious brownies! I made my brownies with the banana and sunflower butter option. I intended on making them for after workout later in the day…but ended up eating a brownie for breakfast. 😀 Thanks for the recipe!!
I’m gonna need to make these very soon… too much starch makes me sick, so I’m having to cut wheat, rice and other ingredients high in starch out of my diet until my body can handle them again… but I do love me a brownie (or two) very much. Your bean brownies would probably work well for me too, now that I think about it. Can’t wait to try!
Can anything be substituted in place of the nut butters?
I’m not a fan of the flavors of many of these… especially the peanut/sun/hazelnut… looking for suggestions that replace this versus continuing to throw out due to this flavor… Thoughts?
I made them with pumpkin seed butter at one point, which was delicious.
You can even use a mashed, baked sweet potato.