Pumpkin Brownies

The best healthy pumpkin brownies – vegan, gluten-free, and oil-free

In this post, I want to show you a variation of my beloved zucchini brownies. This time, the secret ingredient is not zucchini but pumpkin. If you’re thinking now, vegetables in a cake? That doesn’t fit. Don’t worry, you won’t be able to taste the pumpkin.

These healthy brownies are vegan, gluten-free, nutrient-dense, and best of all a true chocolate dream. 🙂 By the way, you don’t need refined sugar, oil, butter, wheat flour, or chocolate bars for this recipe.

Vegetables as a secret ingredient

If you’re already familiar with some of my sweet recipes, you’ve probably noticed that I like to mix vegetables into the batter. It may seem like an unusual ingredient for a cake at first glance. But I assure you, it tastes fantastic and no one will notice the vegetables.

At first, I started mixing vegetables into my overnight oats. For example, I hid zucchini, carrots, and cauliflower in them.

Through trial and error, I found that pumpkin is also suitable for sweet dishes. Because, like other vegetables, it provides excellent juiciness. So you don’t have to use oil or butter for your cake. In addition, vegetables provide your body with extra nutrients and fiber.

Furthermore, you’ll find delicious vegetable creations in my new cookbook, Ein Bauch voll Glück: Vegan Happy Food. After all, they wouldn’t have made it into the book otherwise. For example, it features a delicious carrot cake, eggplant chocolate cake, sweet potato with apple & cinnamon, cauliflower rice pudding, and chickpea nut ice cream. It may sound weird at first and not really delicious. But see for yourself and try it out. You won’t be disappointed. 🙂

Quick preparation

Brownies can be prepared in just a few minutes. That means if you don’t have a lot of time, I recommend this healthy brownie recipe. For this one, you don’t even have to cook the pumpkin before you put it in the oven. The dates take the longest to bake and soak. If you have a high-powered blender, you can even omit the latter.
Another way to save time is to use date paste instead of dates. This can be prepared in advance. It keeps for a long time because of the high sugar content in the fruit. Here, the natural sugar serves as a preservative. This means you always have your paste on hand for other dishes.

Tip: In many oriental stores, you can buy packaged date paste.

Pumpkin brownies step-by-step instructions:

1. Preparation

First, preheat the oven (circulating air) to 180 °C.
Then line a square cake pan with baking paper. (20×20 I used.)

2. Prepare pumpkin & soak dates if necessary

Now cut the pumpkin into small cubes. Because this will make it easier for your blender later.
If you don’t have a strong high-powered blender, soak the dates in the plant milk for 1 hour. Overnight would be even better. Alternatively, date paste is also suitable.

3. Mix all solid ingredients

Now put the pumpkin, dates, and walnuts in a blender.
Puree everything until a homogeneous mass is formed.

4. Add the rest of the ingredients and puree.

Next, add oat flour, cocoa powder, flaxseed, plant milk, apple cider vinegar or lemon juice, baking powder or baking soda, and a pinch of salt to the blender.
Now everything needs to be mixed again.

5. Baking & cooling

Afterward, spread the batter evenly in your baking pan lined with parchment paper.
Bake the brownies at 200 °C top/bottom heat for about 30 minutes.

Finally, the pumpkin brownies just need to cool. Then you can enjoy them.

Have fun trying them out!

Here you can find a short video tutorial for the delicious easy brownies.

Are you in the mood for more sweet pumpkin recipes?

• The perfect vegan Pumpkin Pudding Pie Halloween Edition
• Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls – Vegan
• Pumpkin porridge with caramelized pear
• Pumpkin Spice Donuts – clean and healthy
• Pumpkin Pecan Pie – glutenfree, vegan and paleo
• Pumpkin Spice Cookie Dough

I also wrote a blog post with my favorite pumpkin recipes. There are more delicious ideas for pumpkin lovers.

Why I love the pumpkin brownies ♥:

• They are oil-free and still super moist.
• Pumpkin provides additional vitamins, minerals, and fiber.
• Dates inherently provide the sweet taste.

5.0 from 2 reviews

Pumpkin brownies - vegan, gluten-free and oil-free

 

Author: Annelina Waller

Nutrition Information

• Serves: 12

• Serving size: 12
• Calories: 166,6

• Fat: 5,7
• Carbohydrates: 23,7
• Protein: 3,3

Recipe type: sweet

Prep time:  20 mins

Cook time:  30 mins

Total time:  50 mins

Print

These pumpkin brownies are perfect when you need something quick & easy. They taste super chocolaty and have an incredibly moist texture. You can eat the brownies as a dessert, a sweet breakfast, or in the afternoon with friends. Because your loved ones will love to taste them too. But maybe you'd rather not tell them that they contain pumpkin until after you've tasted them.

Ingredients

• Dry ingredients:
• 200 g pumpkin, diced and raw
• 100 g oat flour (oat flakes ground in a blender)
• 70 g walnuts, ground
• 40 g cocoa powder
• 2 tsp flaxseed
• ½ tsp baking soda/baking powder
• pinch of salt
• Moist ingredients:
• 250 g soft dates
• 250 ml vegetable milk
• 2 tsp lemon juice or apple cider vinegar

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven (circulating air) to 180 °C.
2. Put the pumpkin and dates in a high-powered blender. If you don't have a powerful blender, soak the dates in the vegetable milk for about 1 hour beforehand (overnight would be better). After that, they can be blended very easily.
3. Now add the walnuts to the blender.
4. Now mix everything well together.
5. Add oat flour, cocoa powder, flax seeds, lemon juice or apple cider vinegar, plant milk, baking powder or baking soda, and a pinch of salt to the blender.
6. Blend until smooth and creamy.
7. Transfer the brownie batter to a cake pan lined with parchment paper.
8. Bake the brownies for about 30 minutes at 200 °C top/bottom heat.
9. Let it cool and enjoy.
10. Enjoy your meal!

Notes

Baking pan: 20 by 20.

You can also use other nuts, such as ground almonds.

Store the remaining brownies in the refrigerator. This will make them last longer.

3.5.3251

Have you made my vegan pumpkin brownies? Then let me know here in the comments or share a picture on Instagram. I appreciate your feedback and hope you like the recipe as much as I do.

Your Annelina