Is it a snack, a dessert, or a meal? Well, it’s whatever you want it to be! Chock-full of high anti-oxidant chocolate and superfoods, these flourless brownies taste like pure decadence, but they’re really a meal in a bar. While your taste buds spin for joy, your body is soaking up nutrient-dense goodness. Surprisingly, they’re made with whole vegetables and fruits, cacao, hemp, chia, and protein powder. If you use one of these natural zero-carb sweeteners, they’re 100% guilt free – meaning you get pure satisfaction, super-low carbs, no calories from sugar, and no blood sugar spike. Hooray! I’m tempted to eat the whole pan, but instead I eat one and freeze the rest, so I can have one when I need a lift. A food processor or blender is helpful but not required – and it saves time to use a machine, as there’s no need to cook or dice the veggies – you can add them raw and coarsely chopped. However, if you’re mixing by hand, they should be grated, or cooked and mashed. To avoid soggy brownies, it’s best to use mostly firm roots or squash, and less liquidy fruit and veggies such as apples or chard. Yield: one 9-inch square pan.
Eat your veggies! There’s a lotta nutrition in these brownies. You can chill them in the pan for an hour or so, and it’s easier to slice.
Yes, those are my teeth marks in it. Yummy!
Ingredients
- 3 large eggs at room temperature
- 1/4 cup chia seeds
- 250 grams vegetables and fruits such as sweet potato, squash, carrot, beet, turnip, pumpkin, chestnuts, soaked cashews, green banana, green plantain, spinach, chard, Granny Smith apple, or a mixture, including stems and peels when appropriate.
- Paleo sweetener: (1 cup honey, or 1 1/2 cups Just Like Sugar Table Top natural chicory root sweetener, or 1/4 cup PureLo Lo Han Sweetener by Swanson, or your favorite sweetener.)
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted but not hot
- 1/2 cup almond butter
- 1/2 cup hemp nuts
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon unprocessed salt
- Zest of one orange
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1/2 cup pure cacao powder
- 1/4 cup your favorite protein powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup coarsely chopped nuts (walnuts, almonds, pecans, etc.), soaked and toasted if possible. (See All About Nuts)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 9-inch square baking pan with parchment paper so it hangs over the sides like handles.
- In a food processor or blender add the eggs, chia seeds, and vegetables and/or fruits. Mix well until completely liquefied.
- In a food processor or a mixing bowl, add to the egg mixture: sweetener, coconut oil, almond butter, hemp nuts, vinegar, vanilla, salt, zest, cinnamon, and nutritional yeast. Mix until smooth and creamy. The mixture should be rather liquidy and light in color.
- Next add the cacao powder, protein powder, and baking soda. Mix well until it has thick pudding-like texture.
- Pulse in the walnuts so they remain in large pieces.
- Spoon into baking pan. Bake for 25 – 35 minutes. Allow to cool 30 minutes, cut into squares and eat.
