Today, we want to share with you our vegan matcha brownies recipe, an exciting spin to the classic American brownies. If you love green tea, then you'll be so happy to use matcha powder in these gooey treats. And they're not just delicious, but super healthy too!
Matcha (aka powdered green tea leaves) is not just great for preparing tea but also a fantastic addition to sweet treats and desserts. It lends a bittersweet and faintly nutty flavour to any bake, including these yummy brownies.
Using matcha powder in recipes is very easy. Think of it like cocoa powder: one or two spoons are enough to give colour and flavour to your dough or batter. In this case, matcha gives our brownies a greenish hue and grassy aftertaste. Just by looking at them, you know you'll get a lot of plant-based goodness!
Besides swapping cocoa with green tea powder, we made a few more changes to the classic recipe to keep our brownies 100% vegan and healthy. We tried to use as many wholesome, plant-based ingredients as possible without compromising on taste.
For example, we replaced butter with nut butter to keep the fats low, and we used mashed beans and bananas to give our brownies a lovely creamy feel. This means our matcha brownies are also flourless and gluten-free.
Beans are not just great for texture, but they also power up these brownies with lots of plant-based proteins. With a single brownie square, you'll get almost three times more proteins than with a regular chocolate brownie — awesome!
Ingredients
| Canned Cannellini Beans (drained weight) | 600 g |
| Large Ripe Bananas | 2 |
| Baking Powder | 2 tsp |
| Matcha Powder | 2 tbsp |
| Nut Butter (cashew, almond, or peanut) | 90 g |
| Maple Syrup | 120 mL |
| Almond Extract (optional) | 1 tbsp |
| Chopped Blanched Almonds | 80 g |
Step 1
Rinse the cannellini beans thoroughly and then leave them to drain excess water on a colander.
Then, add them to a blender, followed by bananas, baking powder, matcha powder, nut butter, maple syrup, a pinch of salt and the almond extract if you're using it.
Blitz all for a few minutes until you have a smooth and creamy batter.
Step 2
Now, transfer the matcha batter into a bowl and incorporate half of the chopped almonds.
Step 3
Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) and lightly grease a 20 cm (8 inches) square baking tin.
Pour the brownie batter into the tin and level it with a spatula or the back of a spoon.
Then, garnish it with the remaining chopped almonds, lightly pressing them down into the batter.
Step 4
Bake the matcha brownies for 40-45 minutes at 200°C (390°F) static.
Cover the tin with foil or baking paper for the last 15 minutes of cooking time if the almonds are browning too quickly.
Once ready, let the brownie slab cool down completely into the tin before slicing it into squares.
Help yourself with a spatula to lift the matcha brownies, as they will be quite soft and gooey.
Tips
You can swap cannellini beans with butter beans or chickpeas.
Instead of almonds, you can use cashews, pecans or dark chocolate chips. You can also use white chocolate, but make sure it's dairy-free if you want to keep the recipe vegan.