Traditional baking recipes tend to be heavy on animal products, with butter and eggs making up key components of many popular cakes. If you’re a fan of baking but are taking part in Veganuary, therefore, you may be concerned about missing out on your favorite sweet treats. You’ll be relieved to know that it’s perfectly possible to make all your old favorites vegan-friendly. Here’s how to make vegan brownies using beets.

If you aren’t familiar with beet brownies, this may at first seem like a strange combination. The addition of beets adds a natural sweetness and moisture to the brownies, and they have become popular in vegan cooking. Beets are rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals, and their earthy flavor is often subtly masked by the richness of the chocolate. If you’re not a fan of beets, therefore, you shouldn’t be able to taste them in the brownie itself.

The below vegan brownie recipe comes from Ashley Madden, and it uses chickpea and gluten-free flour alongside the beets. The brownies also contain walnuts, and they’re an ideal recipe for your first vegan baking session.

Here’s how to make them.

Beet brownie recipe

If you're new to plant-based eating and are looking for some vegan baking ideas, these beet brownies are a great place to start

Vegan beet brownies made to a plant-based recipe

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Servings brownies

Ingredients

10 oz (300g) beets (2 small to medium-sized beets), scrubbed and chopped into 2˝ (5-cm) chunks (2 cups chopped)
1 cup (120 g) chickpea flour
¾ cup (75g) gluten-free oat flour
1 cup (150 g) coconut sugar
1 cup (88g) unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp (9g) baking powder
½ tsp sea salt
1 cup (100g) walnuts, divided
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
¾ cup (175 ml) unsweetened almond milk or organic soy milk
½ cup (88 g) mini vegan chocolate chips (plus more for garnish if desired), optional

Instructions

First, roast the beets: Preheat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC). Remove any gnarly stems or thick-skinned areas from the beets. Place the beets in a small casserole dish and pour a little bit of water into the bottom of the dish, just enough to cover the bottom. Cover the dish tightly with tinfoil and roast the beets for 45 to 60 minutes. They’re done when they’re just fork-tender. Remove the beets from the oven and keep the tinfoil on for 15 minutes so they continue to steam. Then, remove the foil and let cool completely. I like to turn the oven off at this point and come back to the brownies a few hours later. Once the beets are cooled, peel off the skins.
Start making the brownies: Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line an 8-inch (205-cm) square baking pan with parchment paper so that the parchment hangs out over two opposing sides.
In a large bowl, mix together the chickpea and oat flours, coconut sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Be sure to break up any clumps of coconut sugar.
Set aside ¼ cup (25 g) of the walnuts (we’ll use these to garnish the brownies). In a high-speed blender, combine the remaining ¾ cup (75 g) of walnuts, vanilla, milk and roasted beets and blend until completely smooth. It will resemble a hot pink milk shake.
Add the blended mixture to the bowl of dry ingredients and mix until well combined. The batter will be thick. Fold in the chocolate chips. Transfer the batter to the prepared baking pan and smooth out the surface.
Chop the reserved walnuts and scatter them over the top of the brownies, lightly pressing them into the batter. You can also sprinkle some additional chocolate chips on the surface, if desired. Bake for 27 to 30 minutes. The brownies are done when small cracks appear on the surface and the middle is just about firm.
Remove the brownies from the oven and let them cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack. Once cooled, lift the brownies out of the pan by pulling on the parchment paper, and transfer them to a cutting board. Cut into 12 to 16 brownies.
These brownies are superfudgy, so be sure to wipe the knife clean with a damp cloth between each cut for nicely shaped brownies. These will keep in the fridge in a tightly sealed container for up to 3 days. Otherwise, keep in the freezer for up to 3 months.

If vegan chocolate chips aren’t in your diet, you can omit.

This recipe was republished with permission from Ashley Madden (owner of Rise Shine Cook). The recipe features in her vegan cookbook, Plant-Based Delicious. You can follow Ashley on Instagram here.