Desserts · Brownies & bars

Black bean brownies

Name: Black bean brownies
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 28 min
Total time: 38 min
Yield: 16 servings
Ingredients: 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed well; 3 egg; 2/3 cup cocoa powder; 2/3 cup granulated sugar; 3 tbsp canola oil; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 1 1/4 tsp baking powder; 1/4 tsp salt; 2 oz dark chocolate 70-85%, chopped

The flourless brownie the internet keeps proving works: black beans blended into the batter in place of flour and most of the butter. Fudgy, and nobody guesses.

Time: 38 min (10 prep + 28 cook)
Servings: 16
Per serving: 132 kcal
Protein: 4 g

Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.

Ingredients

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed well400 g
3 egg150 g
2/3 cup cocoa powder60 g
2/3 cup granulated sugar130 g
3 tbsp canola oil45 g
1 tsp vanilla extract5 g
1 1/4 tsp baking powder5 g
1/4 tsp salt2 g
2 oz dark chocolate 70-85%, chopped60 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Rinse the beans until the water runs clear and drain them properly — unrinsed beans are exactly the tinny note people claim to taste.
Blend everything except the chopped chocolate until completely smooth, at least a minute.
Stir in the chocolate and pour into a lined 20 cm (8-inch) pan.
Bake at 175°C for 25–28 minutes until the edges set and the centre is just firm. Cool completely — warm, they taste of bean; cold, they taste of brownie.

Alternative

Fudgy browniesthe butter-and-flour original4

Why this score

easy to overeat

Dense calories with little protein, volume or fiber to fill you up.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

11% of kcal

37% water

27 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

11%

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 2105 kcal goes into the pot, 857 g of ingredients comes out as ~700 g of food → 301 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 301
Protein: (11%); 9 g
Fat: (40%); 14 g
Carbohydrates: (49%); 39 g
of which sugar: 21 g
Fiber: 8 g
Sodium: 323 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

More desserts

Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.