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Make these decadent Beet Brownies that are secretly healthy when you want to get some extra veggies in your diet! They are gluten-free, full of protein, and good for you, all while tasting rich and chocolatey.
These healthy beet brownies are full of antioxidants, protein, and fiber, all hidden inside a moist chocolate brownie. Whether you’re hiding veggies from the kids or just figuring out a way to get more vegetables into your diet, these brownies are perfection. They make a great snack or an excellent dessert.
If you like healthy brownie recipes, you will love my Collagen Brownies and Spinach Brownies!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Healthier Version of Brownies: Who doesn’t love brownies?! The only thing that could make them better is if they were good for you! These healthy beetroot brownies check both of those boxes.
- Full of Healthy Fat, Protein, and Antioxidants: The beets add fiber, antioxidants, and other nutrients in addition to the protein in the eggs and healthy fats from the coconut oil to make a nutritionally balanced dessert.
- Sneaky Way to Eat More Veggies: While beets do have a strong, earthy flavor, it is masked by the chocolate, maple syrup, and extracts in this recipe. Roasting the beets also helps mellow that strong flavor.
Ingredients
- Beets: These root vegetables are great for your digestion from the fiber and help naturally lower your blood pressure from nutrients like potassium and folate. This makes them the perfect addition to a dessert, making it healthier.
- Maple Syrup: Skip ultra-processed sugar and use a natural sweetener like maple syrup and honey to sweeten the brownies.
- Coconut Oil: Brownies need a bit of fat to make them moist and fudgy. If you can have dairy, you could also use butter instead.
- Cocoa Powder: Get the rich chocolate flavor by adding cocoa powder, which is also nutrient-dense.
- Flour: These brownies made with beets are also gluten-free. They use almond flour, which has more protein and fiber than wheat flour and coconut flour, which absorbs the extra moisture the beets add to the brownie batter.
See the recipe card below for exact ingredient amounts, nutritional information, and detailed instructions.
Variations & Dietary Modifications
- Make Them Nut-Free: If you can’t have nuts, you can swap the almond flour for gluten-free oat flour instead. You’ll also need to double the vanilla extract and omit the almond extract.
- Use Flax Eggs for Vegan Brownies: Make these beet brownies vegan by using 2 flax eggs instead of regular eggs. Combine 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed with 3 tablespoons of water and let the egg sit for 5-15 minutes until it turns gelatinous. I used flax to make this single-serving mug brownie.
- Try Brownies with Other Vegetables: Adding pureed veggies to brownies is a great way to sneak in extra nutrients. Try this recipe with roasted butternut squash or pumpkin. I also have a great chocolate chickpea brownies recipe!
How to Make Beet Brownies
While this beet brownie recipe certainly isn’t quick and easy, the extra effort is worth it! You’ll need to have an oven preheated to 425°F, foil, a blender, a square baking dish, and at least 2 hours to make this recipe from beginning to end.
- Step 1: Roast the Beets. Start by washing the beets and removing the stems. Then wrap them tightly in aluminum foil, place them on a baking sheet, and roast them at 425°F for 45 minutes.
- Step 2: Peel the Beets. Once the beets are fully cooked, remove them from the foil and let them cool for 20 minutes. Carefully peel the skin from the beets and slice them into quarters after they cool.
- Step 3: Blend the Ingredients and Bake. Preheat your oven to 350°F and grease an 8×8 baking dish with cooking spray. Add the beets and the rest of the ingredients (minus the chocolate chips) to your blender or food processor and blend them until the beets break down and the ingredients are fully blended and smooth. Transfer the batter to your baking dish and bake it at 350°F for 22-25 minutes. They are done when you can insert a toothpick and remove it cleanly from the center.
- Step 4: Add Chocolate Chips and Cool. Once the beet brownies are finished, remove them from the oven and add the chocolate chips to the top. Let them cool for a full 30 minutes before slicing them into 16 equal bars. Add them to a dessert platter with my strawberry oatmeal cookies.
Expert Tips
- Don’t Overmix the Batter: The beet brownies will turn out dense and gummy if you mix the brownie batter too much. Stop blending the batter as soon as it turns smooth to avoid overmixing.
- Cool Completely Before Cutting: Be sure you let the beet brownies cool for a full 30 minutes before cutting them into bars. Hot brownies will crumble and fall apart if you cut into them when they’re hot.
- Refrigerate Leftovers: Store leftover beet brownies in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. You can also wrap and freeze individual brownies for up to 2 months. Just thaw frozen brownies for 24 hours in the refrigerator before enjoying them!
Serving Suggestions
Add some more vegetables to your daily diet with these brownies with beets. They have extra nutrients like fiber and antioxidants, while also tasting rich and chocolatey. You can serve these to your picky kids, or enjoy them as an adult who just wants to eat more vegetables. Pack them in your lunch box, enjoy them for an afternoon pick-me-up, or have a nighttime sweet treat.
- Enjoy any extra beets by making beet hummus as a snack or pre-dinner appetizer.
- Purchase extra beets and bake them with other root vegetables to make this roasted winter vegetables side dish. It pairs perfectly with simple proteins like pot roast or rotisserie chicken.
- Make a whole meal full of sneaky vegetable dishes and serve these beet brownies for dessert after enjoying my high-protein skillet lasagna.
Beet Brownies Recipe FAQs
If you don’t have a full 45 minutes to roast the beets in the oven you can cook them quickly in the Instant Pot. Place the beets in the Instant Pot on a trivet over a cup of water. Set it to High Pressure for 15 minutes and then do a Quick Release of the pressure. Let them cool before peeling off the skin and slicing them.
Technically, you could purchase precooked beets at the grocery store to use in these brownies; however, the act of roasting them helps the beets develop a less bitter flavor. It also caramelizes and sweetens the juices of the beets. Precooked beets tend to be more bitter than roasted beets.
The beets release a lot of moisture when blended. The coconut flour in this recipe helps absorb that moisture. If the batter is still runny and thin, you can add another tablespoon of almond flour to help thicken it.
More Healthy Dessert Recipes
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Healthy Greek Yogurt Brownies
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Healthy Cookie Bars
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Healthy Key Lime Pie Bars
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Chocolate Avocado Brownies
If you tried this Beet Brownies recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you go in the 📝 comments below.
Beet Brownies Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 Beets, 8 ounces
- 2 Eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ teaspoon Almond Extract
- ⅓ cup Maple Syrup
- ⅛ cup Coconut Oil, melted
- ¼ cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 2 tablespoons Coconut Flour
- 1 cup Almond Flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 2 tablespoons Dark Chocolate Chips , or dairy free chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 F. Wash and remove stems of the beets. Place them on tin foil, wrap tightly and place on a baking sheet.
- Bake at 425 F 45 minutes. Remove from the oven, unwrap the tin foil and cool 20 minutes. Carefully peel the skin from the beets and slice into quarters.
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare a 8×8 square baking dish with a small amount of cooking spray.
- Place beets with all ingredients (except chocolate chips) in a food processor or blender. Blend on high until beets are broken down and all ingredients are fully blended. Transfer the batter to the prepared baking pan.
- Bake at 350 F 22-25 minutes until a toothpick can be inserted clean into the center.
- Remove from the oven, add chocolate chips to the top of the brownies and cool 30 minutes in the pan before slicing into 16 bars.
Video
Notes
- Don’t over mix the batter or else the brownies will turn out gummy or dense. You should stop blending as soon as the batter turns smooth.
- Let the brownies cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting them into bars so they don’t fall apart.
- This batter is very forgiving and the beets don’t need to be exactly 8 ounces. It can be a little more or less and still turn out great!
- Store leftover brownies in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
could you tell me what the 2 beets would equal in oz?
I do not know specifically the weight. I am going through old recipes and will be updating this to be more specific at a future date. However, I have found when I’ve made this recipe to be very adaptable to any size of beets.
This is my question as well. If you could provide the weight, or even a general description of the size. In my local grocery store, as well as in the farmers market, I find beets vary from golf ball size to large grapefruit size.
The picture of the beets in this post are the ones I used. You can use that picture as reference to size until this recipe gets retested at a future date.
I don’t like beets. I have a can of beets. My hubby liked them. Can I use canned beets in this recipe since I don’t like to waste food but I don’t want to eat them either. Please give me an answer as I have a pot luck to go to and thought that would be a good recipe to use.
I have not tried canned beets myself, but I’m thinking you should be able to.
These brownies are divine! It’s going to be anew staple at my home- no flour and no sugar- but hat could be better! I used olive oil instead of coconut though. Can you tell me how it would make a difference if I used coconut? I also loved that everything just went into the blender and no mixing bowl! Thanks!
I’ve been looking for a beet brownie recipe, and this is the one I’m going to try! Thanks.
These are amazing thank you!!! Love them!!! and I hate beetroot too! lol 🙂
Made these for a gluten free friend and he said they were the best gluten free dessert he ever had. Didn’t have vanilla extract so replaced it with 2 dates, and left out the coconut flour. Prepackaged cooked and peeled beets are a time saver as well. Thank you for the recipe.
I love that you used precooked beets. Such a time saver and I’m so glad you like them! These brownies are the best.
I love beets so much. And I always chocolate beet brownies. Thanks for the red velvet brownie idea. This dish is perfect for our weekend. My family will love this brownie.
I don’t like beets either, so I roasted 2 to use in a sweet recipe. I had another one picked out but decided to search one more time before baking. The “evil laugh” caught my attention, as did the ingredients – no double boiler, and only a little maple syrup instead of a cup of sugar. Mine came out very moist with a cake-like consistency. These taste earthy, but not overly so. I think they are perfect. Thanks for the recipe!
Glad you liked them and good substitutions too!
could I sub a different flour for the almond flour?
You could try oat flour or whole wheat. I haven’t tried them, but thinking they should work.
I’ve made a double batch can they be frozen I am using them for lunch boxes
Not sure whether or not they will freeze. Let me know how it works!