Fudgy and decadent vegan beetroot brownies with a smooth avocado chocolate mousse frosting. Approved by vegans and non-vegans alike!
These vegan beetroot brownies are one of my most decieving recipes on this blog. Despite having beetroot and avocado as key ingredients, they are:
- Rich and fudgy
- Decadent
- Addictive
- Indulgent
They also happen to be refined sugar free and eggless! If you love the idea of healthy vegan brownies but don't want beetroot, see my recipe for sweet potato brownies or my 5 ingredient no bake vegan brownies.
Ingredients to make the vegan beetroot brownies
We need some simple ingredients including:
- Plain or all-purpose flour
- Beetroot puree (I made mine from scratch)
- Vegan-friendly chocolate
- Coconut sugar. Cane or brown sugar will work too.
- Cocoa powder
- Ground flax or chia seeds. This helps the flour bind together, otherwise the brownies are crumbly.
- Baking powder and baking soda
- A little sunflower oil but any other liquid oil will work.
- A little plant-based milk or water
But why do we put beetroot in brownies?
Other than being a healthy vegetable, adding beetroot to brownies has several delicious benefits!
- The water or juice from the beetroot makes the brownies extra fudgy (and moist). Fruit and vegetables tend to make cakes more dense. You know how banana bread is more dense than a normal vanilla cake?! It's just like that!
- The beetroot gives the brownies a beautiful red hue which is reminiscent of red velvet baked treats!
For brownies, this is just what we want. Perfect. Fudginess.
I haven't tried substituting the beetroot for other vegetables, but I imagine pumpkin and black beans would work. Let me know if you try other vegetables!
Will the brownies taste like beetroot?
It depends! If you puree your beetroot finely enough and with enough melted chocolate, you won't taste the earthy red vegetable.
If you do happen to taste the beetroot, it's very faint! My partner isn't a huge fan of beetroot and he devours these brownies!
I've served these brownies to non-vegans multiple times and they don't always notice there is beetroot in them. My brownies are often slightly red, so they just assume I added food colouring to them, haha!
Will the frosting taste like avocados?
No! Similar to the beetroot in the brownies, if you add enough sweetener and cocoa powder to the avocado frosting, you're on your way to bliss.
If you've never had avocado mousse/avocado frosting before, just imagine the creaminess of avocado with the irresistable taste of chocolate. Combine those elements and BAM!
For the frosting, I used:
- A ripe avocado. If your avocado has some brown spots and a little too ripe, it definitely still will work well!
- Cocoa powder
- Medjool dates, pitted
- Maple syrup or any other liquid sweetener
Making the vegan avocado mousse frosting
You can use dried dates instead of medjool dates but just make sure you soak them in water beforehand so they become soft!
To make the avocado frosting, I simply added all the ingredients to a small food processor and blitzed it. Alternatively, you can add the ingredients to a medium bowl and blend them with a hand blender.
If your frosting is too thick to blend, I'd strongly recommend adding a little liquid to help your food processor or blender. You can use plant-based milk, some of the excess beetroot water from boiling it or just water.
However, add the liquid a little at a time as you still want a thick spreadable frosting, not a chocolate drink!
Depending on the quality of your medjool dates, you may have some tiny chunks of dates throughout the frosting. If so, add some liquid and keep on blending.
If you have time, allow the frosting to sit for 1 hour as this will force the pieces of dates to soften. When you blend it again, it'll be easier!
I hope you enjoy this recipe!
More healthy vegan brownie recipes:
Or other vegan chocolate recipes:
You may also like:
Beetroot Brownies with a Chocolate Avocado Frosting
Ingredients
Brownie Dry ingredients
- 1 ⅔ cup (210g) plain or all-purpose flour, (or sub spelt or wholemeal flour)
- 1 cup (160g) coconut sugar, to taste
- ¼ cup (25g) cocoa or raw cacao powder
- 1 tbsp (12g) ground chia or flax seeds
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
Brownie Wet ingredients
- ~1 cup (200g) beetroot puree* (about 1 medium size beetroot)
- ¾ cup (165g) melted vegan chocolate
- ¼ cup (65g) light-tasting vegetable oil, such as sunflower or rapeseed, (or sub yoghurt or apple sauce)
- 3 tbsp (45g) dairy free milk, such as almond, soy or coconut
Chocolate Avocado frosting
- 1 medium-size avocado, skin and seed removed
- ¼ cup (25g) cocoa or raw cacao powder
- 4 medjool dates, pitted
- 1-4 tbsp maple syrup, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a 20cm (8-inch) square baking pan with baking paper.
- Add all the dry ingredients to a medium-size bowl and mix until there are no lumps. Add all the wet ingredients to the bowl and mix until combined. Pour the batter into your baking pan and smooth the top.
- Bake the brownies in the oven for 15-20 minutes (shorter if you like them fudgy, longer if you like them more crispy). The brownies are ready when the surface is dry. They will set more over time. Allow the brownies to cool in the baking pan.
- To make the frosting: Add all ingredients to a food processor and puree until it is as smooth as possible.
- When the brownies are cool, spread the surface with the avocado frosting.
- The brownies can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 5 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Notes
This post was originally published in June 2015 and updated in February and October 2020.
Please leave a comment below if you made this recipe, have any questions or thoughts! Your comment will help other readers and Rainbow Nourishments.
Always on the lookout for another brownie recipe to try out and this one did not disappoint ... easy, tasty, moist and fudgy ... thank you Anthea
Yay, soo glad to hear! Thank you so so much!
An excellent and forgiving recipe (I used roasted beets) - thank you!
Oooh roasted beets sound lovely, thanks for your feedback!
I'm in love with these brownies. They turned out amazing! I also made them glutenfree by using potato flour and almond flour instead of normal flour. They are really fudgy and have a rich chocolate taste. I'll definitely bake them again.
That's amazing and sooo cool that those gf flours worked for you! I'll need to try that combo next time :). Thanks for your comment!
I've had a couple of raw beetroot lying in my fridge and landed here when searching for recipes with beetroot that don't taste beetroot 🙂 They came out beautiful, I used an orange flavoured dark chocolate and grated some orange zest on top, amazing result! 🙂
Thanks so much for taking the time to leave your feedback! I looove the idea of using orange flavoured dark chocolate and so glad you enjoyed the brownies!
absolutely fool-proof, they came out just perfect. made my own beetroot puree too, just cut, boil and blend. gonna be a new favourite go-to!
Aw that's the best news Lisi!! Thanks so much for your kind feedback!
Excellent recipe!! Everyone should try it! <3
Thanks so much! And loved your remake on IG! xo
Hi Anthea, I really enjoyed making these brownies with you on the Food Waste Free cookalong! They turned out great, so yummy! In response to Zerubbabel's earlier question about the oil, I didn't put it in as I don't remember if we were instructed to on the cookalong! (I may have missed that bit!) I just added a tiny bit more oat milk to bring it together, and they came out fine and tasted awesome!
I have also made your jackfruit tacos, which were a huge hit! Thank you so much, I will definitely be trying more of your recipes! xxx
Hi Donna! Thanks so much for being in the cookalong and for your lovely comment! Glad your brownies worked without the oil and it sounds like you troubleshooted things well :). And ooh that makes me happy you enjoyed the tacos too! I need to make them for dinner sometime soon. Thanks again! xoxo
Loved this recipe. First time making beetroot brownies and they turned out great. I used extra beetroot though which made them redder and extra fudgy. You can taste it but it's not overpowering. The frosting is so yum too!
Hi Daniela, thanks a lot for your kind comment! So glad to hear you enjoyed it and that extra beetroot worked for you 🙂
Hi there, thank you for posting this recipe. I had an abundance of beetroots so was looking for new ways of using them and this recipe fit the bill exactly. From the pictures I could see that the brownies look rather cakey, so I just went ahead and baked them in two cake forms, combining the two sponges with a layer of blackcurrant jam and dusting with powdered sugar. I cut the (in my case brown) sugar in the recipe to about 120g knowing that there'll be jam and sugar dusting involved.
I also combined all the liquid ingredients and whole chia seeds directly in a blender and blended all together until smooth - didn't even melt the chocolate beforehand, just broke it up and let the hot beetroot melt it during the blending process. It all fit into a personal serve ninja cup, so the clean up involved just that cup and a bowl for mixing the wet and dry ingredients together.
The result is a very flavourful moist sponge, which plays beautifully off the blackcurrants. Not too sweet, ideal with an afternoon coffee. I could imagine it with some fresh figs or blackcurrants on top served as a birthday cake, you could never tell it's vegan or beetroot-based either. Kudos also for using regular cupboard ingredients, will definitely use this recipe again.
Thanks for your feedback Lenka! I love the idea of combining two layers of the brownies with jam. I've updated the pictures recently as the brownies are actually quite fudgy. It turns out that if you add a little too much liquid (which I've done in the past), the brownies are rather cakey, like how you described!
Also, good idea to combine the chia seeds with the liquid ingredients and add the chocolate to it too! Thanks again for your feedback xo
What's a good substitute for the 1/4 cup of oil in this recipe? It makes me feel sluggish after eating...
Try 1/4 cup applesauce or coconut yoghurt! If you do, let me know how you go!
Hi there, Anthea.
I love your blog. I’m not a vegan, but I stumbled upon your blog a few days and and I honestly think I could be converted by it.
Anyway, I LOVE the idea of beet root brownies, but my body doesn’t react well to all-purpose flour, so I’m thinking of replacing the all purpose flour with either almond flour or coconut flour, but I’m not sure how to convert all purpose to almond flour or how to convert all-purpose to coconut flour. Could you help me out?
Thank you so much,
Grace.
Hi Grace! Thanks so much for your kind words! With replacing all purpose flour, I can recommend a 1:1 combination of almond flour/meal and rice flour (so about 100g of each). I haven't tested this recipe with gf flour but if you try it, let me know how you go!
Can we replace part of the oil with something else? For example applesauce, greek yogurt, nut butter?
Sorry for the late reply! I haven't tried those replacements but other readers said it works with applesauce or yoghurt!
Hi, Can I replace the chai seeds with something else??
Hey, you can replace them with flax seeds or maybe psyllium husk!
Hi Anthea, i just discovered your website and your instagram page and let me say i'm in love with everything on your blog.. all your recipes looks amazing and yummy.. i've always been interested in raw dessert and as a vegan italian girl i'm really interested to expand my knowledge on the subject..
i'm gonna try these delicious brownies as i love brownies and beetroot... =D
How big is the baking tray you used??? what can be used instead if almond meal???
Thank you for your time..
Keep going like this
Hi Alice!
Aw, that's so sweet of you. Thank you!
Oh these brownies were delicious. I'll definitely have to make them again soon. For the recipe, I used a 22x22cm square baking tray. Instead of almond meal, you can use any other nut meal or brown rice flour. If you use non-nut flour, you may have to add some oil (say 1/4 cup) as the almond meal has natural oils in it.
I hope this helps xo
Hi, how much do you think the beetroots you used weighted? Btw I love your recipes and can't wait for the e-book 🙂
Hi Sara! I think each beetroot weighed about 150-180g. I hope that helps and I can't wait to finalise my ebook 🙂
I am in complete admiration of your dedication to the brownie, and deeply grateful that you spent so much time (and did so many experiments) to perfect the mighty brownie; and let me tell you it looks like you have nailed it! I bet the beetroot adds such a richness to the chocolate, and that colour is fabulous! I'm 100% definitely making these as my next batch of brownies, thank you so much for sharing such a gorgeous recipe! xxx
Haha, thanks so much lovely! And my absolute pleasure. It was probably one of the more fun desserts to create as it's all essentially a brown mess without much form! Yet, it tastes so ridiculously amazing. The effort to taste ratio is definitely in our favour. I hope you enjoy making and eating them xoxo