VEGAN CHOCOLATE LENTIL PROTEIN MUFFINS
Who knew muffins packed with protein and lentils would taste so rich, chocolaty, and decadent?! These are so, so good and no one would ever know that the main ingredient is red lentils or that they are vegan and gluten-free. They are moist without any added oil, filling, and a great sweet breakfast alternative to donuts, but taste just like a dessert. These muffins are what I call a great, fun weekend breakfast! I strongly urge you to weigh the ingredients, especially the red lentils, following my gram weights listed.
These lentil muffins come from my brand new vegan cookbook, Vegan Wholesome! This book, just like the title suggests, is full of wholesome, nutritious and absolutely delicious vegan recipes. There are lots of high protein options, like dinners, lunches, soups, casseroles, breakfasts etc. I’m so proud of this book and these protein lentil chocolate muffins are a delicious recipe from the book.
I am sharing this recipe for free from the book as a thank you to you for supporting me for so long on this blog and social media. Thank you to so many who have purchased my book and shown support.
This is my full-time job, so selling books allows me to continue to provide free recipes to you all for almost 13 years now!
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I hope you love these muffins. Don’t judge the batter by the taste, because the batter doesn’t taste good, haha. But the end result muffin is divine and does not taste like lentils!
The magic in these muffins are the red lentils. We are blending them up into a fine flour. They provide protein, fiber and structure to the muffins!
This recipe is also included in the breakfast chapter in my cookbook, along with other incredible vegan high-protein and nutritiously, delicious recipes to change your life for the better!!
Get my book here and get your 10 FREE BONUS RECIPES HERE!! Thank you for all the love and support. I love you!
Vegan Chocolate Lentil Protein Muffins
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (144g) dried red lentils
- 1/4 cup (28g) superfine blanched almond flour
- 6 tablespoons (48g) tapioca starch
- 6 tablespoons (36g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons (200g) pure maple syrup
- 1/2 cup (120g) unsweetened applesauce
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup (180g) dairy-free semisweet chocolate chips
NOTE
- Always use a scale for accuracy when baking, following MY gram weights listed. You never need cups, just the scale and bowl and make sure to zero out in between each ingredient.
- I use this scale.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line 12 cups of a muffin tin with parchment paper liners.
- In a high-powered blender or food processor, blend the red lentils until a superfine flour forms. The finer, the better, as this will affect the outcome of the muffin texture.
- In a large bowl, combine the lentil flour, almond flour, tapioca starch, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and whisk really well.
- Add the maple syrup, applesauce, vanilla, and chocolate chips. Gently stir and fold the ingredients together just until a moist batter forms. Do not overmix. (Warning that if you taste the batter, you’ll taste lentils, but don’t worry, the end baked product is fabulous.
- Divide the batter among the 12 muffin cups. I like to use an ice cream scoop, as it gives the perfect amount to each liner and creates a dome top, resulting in better risen and fluffier muffins.
- Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center muffin comes out clean, about 18 minutes.
- Cool 15 minutes in the pan before eating, so they can firm up. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Could I use this gluten free 1 to1 flour (Ardent Mills Gluten-Free All-Purpose 1:1 Flour Blend typically contains a mix of white rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, whole sorghum flour, brown rice flour, organic quinoa flour, and xanthan gum)?
Hi Bianca, unfortunately, the almond flour and lentil flour are crucial to the result and moisture because of the fat content. They won’t be good without it and super dry and likely dense. I am assuming you are referring to subbing the almond flour?
Can you use regular flour if you don’t have almond flour?
No regular flour won’t work here. The almond flour is crucial to the texture an moisture because of the fat content. They won’t be good without it.
Could I replace starch with psyllium husk? I can’t use fruit, so is the applesauce necessary?
No that won’t work. Yes, the applesauce provides lots of moisture. You can try yogurt instead but it may make the muffin more dense/chewy/gooey.
Can you use green lentils instead of red?
Hi Kris, red lentils are much more tender than green, so they really work best here.
I have Besan (chickpea flour). Will that work instead of red lentil flour?
Hi Joanne, I don’t think so, as they are pretty different than lentils. I wrote the recipe based off of lentils so I can’t say how it would turnout using chickpea flour, but my guess is they would turn out rather dense.
Is the nutritional information correct? It says 408 calories per muffin, but also says yield is just 2 muffins, but on your recipe page is states 12 muffins. Please confirm nutritional information.
Thanks in advance.
Kathy
Hi Kathy! The nutrition is for 2 muffins (as one serving), which is listed on the left side in parenthesis. It makes a dozen, but 2 muffins count as one serving. Hope that helps make more sense!
Do you think corn starch would work instead of tapioca starch?
Yes, for sure! Although they will dry out quicker. Tapioca holds a bit better and adds more moisture.
Hi! Love the recipe. Just one question: What can you use instead of tapioca starch? Could I use arrowroot?
Hi Angelica! No, I would not use arrowroot. It consistently does not produce good results in my baking. Cornstarch would be a better sub!
I will definitely be making these again. I used a combination of date syrup and mashed banana for the sweetener, and they were sweet enough. I ground up the red lentils with my coffee grinder.
Made these as special breakfast. I figure it’s the same as having pancakes for breakfast 🙂 They were moist and fluffy! I was able to grind the lentils into a very fine powder in my Vitamix and used a scale as recommended. They came out perfect! It came together super quick and was ready in an hour which was perfect as I was pressed for time. Make them!
So happy to hear it!
I am late to the party but I love these!! Made them tonight and not only was it quick, it’s absolutely delicious. The only change I plan to make is to use chocolate chips sweetened with date sugar, I just didn’t have any on hand so I used what had. DELICIOUS!!!
I made them as dessert for meal prep so I will have 2 per day for the next 6 days. I left a few in freezer to see if they freeze well. But if not, I can whip up another batch in no time. Thanks so much for the recipe.
Update: They probably should not be chilled. I can taste the beans after refrigerating them so I will follow your advice and keep them room temp since there was not a hint of the bean taste when I initially made them. Again, thanks so much!! I am also enjoying several receipts from your first book at the moment.
These came out great. Weighed all ingredients and non vegan kiddos liked them. Thank you for sharing!
That is wonderful!
These were scrumptious! So here’s my question: Can these muffins be made into a cake, and if so, how would you suggest changing the recipe? Thanks so much!
Hi Bonnie, so happy you enjoyed them! I have not tried testing this as a cake and I’m not too sure the texture would hold up as well. A lot of muffins don’t always transfer well to a cake since texture and structure can vary much more in a large cake can versus small muffin tins. But if you want to try it, it would probably take 5-10 more minutes, just look for the same doneness with a toothpick.
OK, what is this sorcery??? I just discovered you through your Plantstrong Podcast interview and decided to give these muffins a whirl. These are better than any conventional chocolate muffins I’ve ever tasted–and definitely better than other vegan-baking recipes I’ve tried. The texture and taste are spot on, and I love baking with my scale! I just ordered both your cookbooks and can’t wait to try more of your recipes. Thank you so much for sharing this gem!
This was so wonderful to read Rita, thank you so much for the glorious review!!
These are great with no (taste) trace of lentil! I omitted the chocolate chips to reduce the sugar and I really enjoyed them. Sort of a chewy brownie texture.
So happy you are loving these!
I thought about omitting chocolate chips too! But didn’t want to mess up my first time so decided not to. I’m glad you tried it, I’ll have to try that the next time. I may substitute the chocolate chips for nuts instead.
I don’t have a scale and used cup measurements. These are Delicious. My 5yo swiped three (looked back at sugar content and had some regrets but overall, love the ingredients!)
Wonderful to hear!
Can you use cacao powder instead of cocoa powder?
Yes, that should work!