Andrew Olson
I bet you can’t guess what secret ingredient we’re using in these cookies! It starts with a K and rhymes with Yale. If that doesn’t give it away, it’s also pictured above and mentioned in the title.
Yes, these cookies are made with KALE. Kale (the nutrient-packed superfood) and chocolate (my primary reason for waking up each morning) all wrapped up into a moist cookie? This, my friends, is the stuff of dreams.
Even though we’re adding 1/2 cup of kale right into these cookies, you’ll never know it’s there. By blending it along with some applesauce, the taste totally disappears. For a “healthy” cookie, these guys are super moist, fudgy, and delicious. Eating your veggies just doesn’t get much easier than this…
Makes about 9 cookies
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 3 tablespoon cocoa powder
- 2/3 teaspoon baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 1/2 cup chopped kale
- 3 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons non-dairy milk
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1/3 cup sucanat (unprocessed sugar)
- 2 tablespoon coconut oil
- Vegan chocolate chips (optional)
Preheat the oven to 330º F.
Step One
Make a “flax egg” (my standard egg replacement in baking) by combining 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed with 2 tablespoons water. Set aside for 5 minutes to form a gel.
Step Two
In a large mixing bowl, sift all the dry ingredients together (flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt). Sifting is important here to give the batter the right consistency.
Step Two
In a blender, combine about 1/2 cup loosely chopped kale with 1/2 cup apple sauce, 3 tablespoons of non-dairy milk, and 2 tablespoons of maple syrup until completely pureed like a green smoothie. Add this to a separate mixing bowl along with the other wet ingredients: Sucanat (or coconut sugar, or any other type of natural sugar), softened coconut oil, that flax egg, and 2 tablespoons of non-dairy milk. Whisk this for a full minute or two until all the ingredients are incorporated.
Step Three
Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir gently with a wooden spoon until mostly combined, but do not over mix. A few lumps are preferred to over mixing the batter and creating rubbery cookies.
Step Four
Spoon this batter into cookie-sized rounds and flatted them onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. This batter is much more sticky, almost like brownie batter, and it will take a bit of coaxing to get them into the right shape. Then, bake for about 12-14 minutes at 330º F until cooked thoroughly.
Options & Upgrades
If you want to throw in a few non-dairy chocolate chips, you won’t get any complaints for that. Also, I did something weird with the cookies pictured… I added 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper into the dry ingredients and made Spicy Kale Chocolate Cookies. If you’re into that kind of thing, this extra spicy kick at the end is incredible.
You are my hero.
hahaha, I don’t know if I can handle the pressure of being your hero! 😮
I am going to have to agree with jenni here. How do you come up with these crazy/good combinations. You Must write that book
My family has been vegetarian for a long time, but I am slowly trying to win them over to more of a vegan lifestyle. So many cookbooks and blogs I’ve found have recipe after recipe that call for “non diary cheese” and veggie crumbles. I am a real food lover, so these recipes make me cringe. I’ve always thought I could never be vegan for that reason.
But a few months ago, I found your blog. I’ve made probably 10 of your recipes, and my family loves them all!! I am discovering that avocados really sub well for cheese in recipes, and I don’t miss the dairy at all! haven’t tried any of your desert recipes, but this one looks really good! I dont have applesauce on hand though. Do you think raw apple would work since we are pureeing it?
That’s amazing, Rebecca! Congratulations! 🙂 I’m really happy to hear that my recipes have been helpful in this transition.
Hmm, pureed apples may work, although you may want to watch the overall texture of the batter in that case. It may require an extra tablespoon or two of non-dairy milk.
What can I substitute for oil?
Hi Stephanie, it’s only a little oil, which I found necessary to keep the right texture. You may be able to get by with extra applesauce, but 100% oil-free baking can be a dangerous game 🙂
Looks awesome, Mr. Chef! Is there a GF option that you have tested? I have several friends who eat GF….
Ah, sadly I have not. I imagine any GF flour you use for other baked goods would work well here.
That is just so crazy I have to try it!! 🙂 How would these compare taste/texture wise to black bean cookies? (If you’ve ever tried them)
Hmm, I’ve made black bean brownies and those are great (if you use the right recipe) but they are also a little more dense and gooey than these.
Hi, I live in Indonesia where Kale is not an everyday veggie that easy to found. Can I substitute with something else? Do you have any suggestion? Spinach, collard, bokchoy, or anything else??
Thank you…
Hmm, good question, Veronica! I’m not sure how any other leafy greens might would, but people often make cookies with grated (not blended) zucchini and you may want to try that.
what a great idea to incorporate kale. I’d like to try them!
These look brilliant! I’m _so_ stoked to try them, and I’ll be using gluten-free flour so I’ll let you know how they work. Thanks for the great recipe, Andrew!
Thanks so much, Gin! I’d love to hear how they turn out with GF flour!
Hey Gin,
How did they come out? im a GF Vegan lol.. who also cant have soy.. ahah so of course nothing store bought works for me… lol.. let me know how it comes out please.. thanks
Yay, I’m looking forward to these! How brilliant to sneak kale into a dessert! I notice a few others are using g-f flour, too :0). My plan is to use almond meal with these – I’ll try to remember to post how they turn out :0).
Oh & you’re not the only one that the addition of cayenne sounds good to! Hot peppers & chocolate are a perfect match! That reminds me to make my spicy, chocolate, banana muffins, again! I haven’t made those in good long while!
Thanks, Abbi! I like the almond meal idea… lemme know how it turns out 🙂 Ooh, spicy chocolate banana muffins?! That sounds incredible!
Hi Andrew–looks great–when/where do you add the flaxseed “egg?”
Thanks! Mikyla
Whoops! Thanks for pointing that out. It goes with the wet ingredients in step two and I’ve updated the post to reflect that.
I just made these this morning! I melted 4 squares of the Trader Joe’s pound plus 72% dark chocolate and added it into the wet ingredients. You need to bake the cookies a little longer because of that, but wow do they taste super awesome! Thanks for another great recipe!
Oh, that’s an awesome idea! Adding extra chocolate is always a good thing 😀 I’m so glad you liked them!
Andrew,
Is there an alternative to substitute for coconut oil without altering the recipe? I am allergic to all forms of coconut.
Thank you!
Sure, you could use practically any other type of oil, perhaps vegetable/canola would work well.
I made these over the weekend and wow! Fantastic! I added vegan semi-sweet chips and the cayenne pepper. The pepper definitely puts it over the top. I’m so happy I found this website and will try LOTS more of these recipes. Thanks so much!!
Yay! I’m so happy you enjoyed them, Michele!! 🙂
Just baked these and they are very good! Tastes like chocolate cupcakes. I did mine with all purpose gluten free flour from cloud 9 (company). I also added some chocolate chunks from Prana! Next time I will also add the cayenne! I doubled the recipe and it gave me 24 cookies!
Awesome! I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Stephanie! I’m glad to hear they worked well with GF flour, and yes – chocolate chunks/chips are a must in these cookies 🙂
OMG these are amazing, I am really into kale at the moment, and made these today, for a friend, I did have to test one, then another and so on, until her gift of cookies was substantially smaller than originally planned! I am veggi rather than vegan and live in the UK so some of the ingredients are pretty expensive over here, I made the following subs which worked: egg for flaxseed, dairy for non dairy milk, just because I had those in and then maple syrup is really expensive over here so substituted for golden syrup and also coconut oil is pretty pricey too so subbed for rapeseed oil and the cookies came out really tasty thank you 😀
Thanks so much for reporting back, Lucy! I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed these cookies. Haha, I think we’ve all been there – you make something for a friend and half of it magically disappears 😉
Hi. Just to clarify, do we add 5T of non dairy milk instead of 3T? (3T goes in with the apple sauce + maple plus another 2T is added w the sucanat,coco oil, flax egg)
Yes, thanks for pointing this out. I updated the ingredient list to reflect the *five* tablespoons of non-dairy milk that should be used here.
Awesome. Thanks a lot!
I just made these and they are great! Mine turned out like brownie bites 🙂
I made these cookies with some variations added honey, unsalted butter, fresh apples in place of apple sauce and still loved it. I used milk and regular sugar as these were the ingredients available at home.
Thank you for wonderful recipe