These vegan breakfast cookies taste like dessert, but are healthy enough for breakfast! Flavored with banana, peanut butter, oats, quinoa & chocolate!
We're big fans of breakfast cookies around here, aren't we? There have been a lot of different flavors so far including Zucchini Bread Quinoa Breakfast Cookies, Carrot Cake Quinoa Breakfast Cookies and even Pumpkin Pie Quinoa Breakfast Cookies – and honestly, I think these new ones might be my favorite.
If you haven't tried quinoa breakfast cookies before, you might wonder, “are these actually suitable for breakfast?”
Yes, my friend, they are.
These cookies are gluten-free, vegan (which means no dairy, eggs, or honey), oil-free, and naturally sweetened. The base is banana, flaxseed meal, peanut butter, and a little bit of maple syrup. Then we mix in oats, quinoa flakes, chia seeds, some spices, and then our add-ins.
So basically…it's like we're eating a bowl of oatmeal but in cookie form.
How to Make Vegan Breakfast Cookies
Similar to other cookies, you basically just mix them all together, pop them onto your baking sheet, and baking them up. They're soft and gooey, but the star of the show with these cookies is the ingredient list.
The goodies inside these gluten free breakfast cookies are just too hard to resist!
- Chocolate. I mean let's be honest…chocolate just makes everything better. And when you have an excuse to eat chocolate for breakfast, you know it's going to be a good day!
- Peanut butter + banana which if you know me, is pretty much my absolute favorite combo ever! These peanut butter banana cookies are pure deliciousness.
- Chopped dates which again…obsessed. These add a really nice caramel flavor and are part of the reason why I called them chunky monkey cookies!
- Oats + quinoa flakes. Unlike using just oats, the quinoa flakes add more protein which makes each cookie just a teeny bit more filling.
And fifth, well….they're cookies. for breakfast. I just can't even.
Flax Eggs for Vegan Baking
In order to make these quinoa breakfast cookies vegan, one of the key components is the flax egg. If you're not sure what a flax egg is, we have a post that shows you how to make a flax egg at home. It's super easy!
Flax eggs are basically just a vegan egg replacer. They act similarly to eggs in that they help bind the ingredients together and keep them from falling apart.
If you're not vegan, or don't really care about making these breakfast cookies vegan, you can simply swap the flax egg with a regular egg!
Storage Suggestions
Since you're probably going to want to keep these for a few days, let's quickly talk about the best ways to store them:
- Counter: you can keep these at room temperature for 2 – 3 days in a sealed container
- Refrigerator: store these in the fridge for up to one week and reheat them in the microwave to make them gooey again
- Freezer: if you want to make a double batch/eat them more slowly, you can freeze them for 3 – 6 months. Again, pop them in the microwave to thaw them and get them nice and warm!
But I have a feeling these soft, gooey, chocolatey, sweet, healthy AND vegan breakfast cookies aren't going to be around that long!
More Vegan Breakfast Cookie Recipes
- Blueberry Muffin Quinoa Breakfast Cookies
- Carrot Cake Quinoa Breakfast Cookies
- Sea Salt + Date Quinoa Breakfast Cookies
- Lemon Poppy Seed Quinoa Breakfast Cookies
Chunky Monkey Vegan Breakfast Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 flax egg 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal + 3 tablespoons water
- 1/2 cup peanut butter or nut/seed butter of choice
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 medium banana mashed (+ slices for topping, optional)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup quinoa flakes
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
- 2 medjool dates pitted and chopped
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Whisk together the flaxseed meal and water, and set aside.
- Beat together peanut butter, syrup, banana and vanilla in a large bowl. Add flax egg and mix to combine.
- Pour in oats, quinoa flakes, baking powder, spices and salt to the bowl and stir together. Fold in chocolate chips, walnuts, dates and chia seeds.
- Drop 2 tablespoons of dough onto the baking sheet and repeat until no dough remains.
- Bake cookies on center rack for 15 - 18 minutes until edges are golden brown. Remove and let cool on the pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.
- Enjoy at room temp or slightly reheated in a microwave.
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I was wondering if there could be a replacement for the peanut butter. My husband has severe digestive problems and there is not any nut or seed butters that we have found that he tolerates so far so if there is a replacement for that I would appreciate knowing…thanks
Hmm no, we haven’t tested a way to make breakfast cookies without nut butter. You could check out this post: The How-To Guide to Healthy Breakfast Cookies and see if that helps give you any ideas of substitutions you could make.
Love these cookies, but have allergies to oats. Recommendations for rolled oat substitution?
Hmm, you could try just using quinoa flakes, but that might be a little intense. Maybe coconut flakes?
👍 great look good
Thank you!!
I love these cookies! I have been trying to find creative ways to use my bananas and what better way to make cookies!
I was instantly drawn to these, made a batch and cookies been gone instantly.
My family is in love with these cookies and immediately asked me to make more! I even brought them to work and they love them too, requesting for more.
Thank you for this awesome recipe 🙂 I can’t wait to try more of your creations of deliciousness.
Woohoo! Makes me so happy to hear that!
WoW these are sooo delicious!! 😋I’m in awe at all the wonderful flavors going on!!! This is my favorite cookie recipe I’ve tried of yours, they’re not even gone and I already want to make more so I dont run out! Thank you for sharing 💓💓💓
Awh I’m so glad you liked them! Thank you!!
These cookies are amazing! I made these and had to hide them from my husband because he wouldn’t stop eating them. Lol. I’m definitely going to try your other recipes. Thank you for making such healthy and delicious recipes xxx
YAY! So happy you enjoyed it!
Do quinoa supposed to be cooked before adding to all ingredients please?
They’re quinoa flakes not regular quinoa 🙂 So they’re a dry ingredient!
Can you use regular quinoa if you don’t have flakes?
That should work!
These are delicious, and filling! Will they still be as good if they are frozen?
Absolutely!
Wonderful recipes
Hi. Those cookies are awesome. I’m eating them now. Crispy outside and perfect texture inside. I didn’t have quinoa flakes so I used coconut flakes and I put 1 egg plus a little flax seeds and some hemp seeds. I didn’t put dates or maple syrup. Because I’m trying to cut all the sugar. And I putted 1/2 teaspoon more baking powder. They turn out beautiful. Thank u for shearing recipe. All the best to you. Hugs
So glad you enjoyed them!! They’re so so good 🙂
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Omg ???? these are amazing !!!!
I’ve just found you due to finding a box of quinoa flakes in the back of my cupboard which I needed a recipe for !! I used raisins instead of dates and cacao nibs instead of chocolate drops and the result was amazing ???? looking forward to trying many of your guilt free treats ….yes I was once a sugar addict but learning now how to satisfy my sweet tooth within having sugar laden rubbish !!
Many thanks ????
Yay I’m so glad you enjoyed them!! xx
Hi again ….could you tell me if your cookies are suitable for freezing ??
Really fancy batch baking and freezing them .
Regards
Diane ????
Hi, I recently tried out your toasted coconut breakfast cookies and am planning to try these but just have a couple of questions! Did you use natural peanut butter or just the regular stuff? Also, you specify medjool dates but I happen to have deglet Noor in my cupboard…is there a reason why you specify medjool? thanks!
You’re going to love them!! You can use any kind of peanut butter you want – I just prefer natural myself 🙂 And nope, you can definitely use deglet dates! xx
Sé de los grandes beneficios de la quinoa, agradezco tus recetas.Las pondré en práctica,,ya que tengo un nieto que va al jardín,están perfectas, para su colación. Gracias
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I found the texture of these to be strange… kind of cake-like, instead of cookie-like. How do I make them more crunchy? They tasted good but the texture thing threw me off.
I’d say cook them for longer next time 🙂 Or let them dry out in the oven a bit!
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Hi, can I leave out the maple syrup? Is that for sweetness or for binding? I’m trying to keep themse as low sugar as possible. Thanks!
It’s for sweetness mostly 🙂 I haven’t tested without maple syrup though, so I can’t say for sure that they’ll turn out as pictured!
I am allergic to bananas. What amount of applesauce can be substituted for the banana?
Should be about 1/4 – 1/3 cup 🙂
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Hi Alyssa,
How much is 1 cup? I am always confused 🙂
This recipe looks soooo good, want to try it ASAP 🙂
Thank’s xx
1 cup of what may I ask?
Hi Alyssa,
I meant, you are saying 1/2 cup of this and that… but what cup is it? ????
We always use grams in recipes ☺️
Thanks
Ahhh it’s just a standard US measuring cup. I think you can google the conversion to grams 🙂
Can these be made without the oats or has anyone tried that? Allergic to everything ????♀️
I haven’t tried, but I think you could make them with just quinoa flakes 🙂
These “cookies” are so awesome, they have so much flavor and my kids just love them. This time I left out the dates because my kids didn’t care for them last time (I want to try making a paste and using that next time) and they were still plenty sweet for our tastes! I love that these have quinoa, oats, peanut butter, and a flax egg, that’s all stuff I feel no guilt whatsoever about feeding my kids!
I did have a hard time finding the quinoa flakes though, no luck at any grocery store (including Whole Foods) so I ended up buying them off of Amazon for like $15! Oh well, they’ve lasted for quite a while and I wouldn’t want to make the cookies without them 🙂
Glad you all enjoyed them! I think you could also do all oats next time and be totally fine if you want to save on the quinao flakes 🙂
These look awesome, thanks for the share, going to bake these for my two little boys!
I think they’re going to LOVE them!
Just wanted to let you know that when I read ‘quinoa flakes’ I assumed it was some kind of breakfast cereal, so I subbed in cornflakes and they turned out well! Nice crunch. Not quite as healthy but an interesting variation.
Wow, so cool! Excited to try that 🙂
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It looks delicious ???????????? but are you sure for the nutrition facts table ? Is one of this have 2 calories??? Wooooow
Please reply to me ASAP ????????????
We’re working on updating the nutrition info for all of my recipes, so stay tuned! These cookies tend to stay in the 125 – 150 calorie range per cookie 🙂
I would just add to flaten them out, since not stated I expected them to spread and flatten during baking! I did half way through, not ideal. Very good cookies, thanks
Thanks for the note!
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I can honestly say this is truly the best healthy cookie on earth. I substituted oats for the quinoa flakes and didn’t add the dates and vanilla (because I didn’t have either).
These look so good! I am trying to avoid eggs though and don’t have flax seed. Would chia seed with water instead of flax seed with water work? Thanks. I’m planning to make these soon substituting Oats for the quinoa flakes.
I haven’t tried it, but I think so! Let me know how it goes 🙂 xo
I made a “flax egg” for the first time to make these cookies. Once you try it, you will see that it instantly turns into an “yolk like” consistency. I do not think chia seeds would work at all in the same way. Maybe ground chia? Also I just used uncooked quinoa (organic) and they turned out fine! Maybe cooking the quinoa first would be better but, overall, these turned out pretty good! I’m strictly nursing my first baby (almost 5 months) and I’ve acquired a real “sweet tooth”. These CMC’s are pretty darn good to curb that sweet craving!!! I’ll let you know what my best critic (I.e., husband) has to say about these ones!
Can I use quinoa flour (I don’t have flakes) instead of the flakes? THank you!
I haven’t tried with flour vs. flakes, but if you do, I’d say you would want to reduce the amount. Start with 1/4 cup of flour and add more until you get the right texture!
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Did you come up with a quinoa grain version instead of flakes? My concern is flakes cost 4x the grain. Which is not good if you want to eat these EVERYDAY.
I do not have a quinoa version, sorry! But you could use quick cooking oats instead and maybe just try stirring in some cooked quinoa for the protein 🙂
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These look amazing. My little boys are allergic to oats, what would you recommend I sub in for them?
More quinoa flakes will work I think 🙂
If I were trying to calculate the nutritional values, do you have an easier way than taking the sum of the ingredients and then dividing it by serving size? My grandma is on a fairly strict low sodium diet but she might enjoy these… I’m definitely making them for myself but would need to figure out the total sodium per cookie before she could give them a try.
Thank you for any input.
You can use a calculator like this one 🙂 https://www.caloriecount.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php
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Hi there! I made these cookies this morning with the ‘help’ of my toddler and they’re delicious! Is it ok to freeze them? If there’s any leftover that is ????
I think so, yeah! So glad you enjoyed them 🙂
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Hi there! New to your blog and already a huge fan! Love anything to do with quinoa. I came in search of quinoa breakfast cookies and breakfast bowls since I typically use quinoa in savory dishes and want to try something new! Question, are the quinoa flakes a must or is it possible to use regular quinoa? I’m sure the texture would be different but curious if you’d ever tried it? Thanks so much!
Hi there! First, welcome!! So happy to have you here 🙂 I actually haven’t tested these with regular quinoa, but what I think you might be able to do is replace the quinoa flakes with rolled oats and add in about 1/4 cup of cooked quinoa. Again, can’t guarantee results, but that’s where I would start 🙂 I’ve had a lot of requests for that, so I think I need to come up with an option that doesn’t use flakes!
This recipe looks delicious. I just found your site today.
Hope you give them a try! And welcome 🙂
I’m ok woth eggs. Can I substitute the flax egg with real egg? I dont have flax seed at the moment and want to bake them today! 🙂
You can totally just use an egg 🙂 xo
I would love to see this in an orange-cranberry variation <3 or even lemon Poppy seed with lavender honey…
Adding it to the list!
I hate to tell you but OATS are not gluten free. There is a major toss up on these and anyone with gluten sensitivity or celiacs should not be eating OATS.
I always tell readers to make sure to purchase certified GF oats if they have celiac or a severe gluten intolerance 🙂
Thank you for this recipe. Knowing I’d like it, I doubled the batch. Only change was to use blueberries in place of the choc. chips. This will be easy breakfasts at home or during travels. And, yes, they are so good.
So glad you enjoyed them! I’m now doing a monthly breakfast cookie flavor, so make sure to check back regularly to see the new ideas 🙂
Blueberry Crumb!
Check out my blueberry one 🙂
https://www.simplyquinoa.com/blueberry-muffin-quinoa-breakfast-cookies/
Hello! I have a quick question, I don’t have quinoa flakes, but I do have quinoa seeds. I am a total lover of healthy breads and cookies, and I have been craving to make some of your recipes, but I see that they usually call for flakes and not seeds!
Is there a way that I can substitute the seeds for the flakes?
Thank you so much!
I haven’t tried making it with cooked quinoa, but if you have quick cooking oats, you could just swap those in for the flakes. My mom actually made these the other day and said she used almond flour and it worked well, so you could try that too 🙂 xo!
Hi, are the quinoa flakes cooked or raw when adding
I am thinking yes because I just made them with the uncooked flakes and they were amazing…
So glad you enjoyed them!
They’re raw when you add them in 🙂 Glad they worked for you!
Any ideas on what to substitute for the oats… I am grain free.
How about more quinoa flakes?!
These look fab!
You requested other flavors
what about:
toasted peacan, coconut, strawberry, chocolate chip?
LOVE those ideas! I have a blueberry muffin one coming tomorrow and have a toasted coconut one already too. The strawberry and also chocolate chip sounds amazing. Thanks, Carly!
I need these in my life *goes to buy bananas*
They’re seriously SO addicting 🙂
Hi Alyssa, these cookies look delish! however, i don;t know if we have quinoa flakes here (Vancouver Canada), can it be substitutes with another form of quinoa or can they only be made with the flakes?
Hi. I live in Toronto and found the Quinoa flakes at Bulk Barn…. Pretty sure those stores are across the country. Or try a health food store (whole foods for example) and they’re sure to have it.
Haven’t tried the cookies yet… But got all the ingredients yesterday and planning on making them today. They look very promising!
Thanks for letting us know!! xo
This looks delicious! I am a very recent quinoa convert. Now, I have no idea what I was waiting for! I make meals for my two young boys, my hubbie and myself, plus my stepfather a few days a week. My older son is 12 and is a Type 1 diabetic (used to be called “Juvenile Diabetes”-it is an auto-immune disease). We try very hard to eat healthy and balanced, but are just at the early phases of this journey. Do you happen to have the nutritional data for your recipes? Specifically, serving sizes and carbohydrate information? Thank you!
So happy you’ve found quinoa and that it’s helping you and your family. Those are exactly the types of comments I adore hearing 🙂 I actually don’t have the nutritional data, but here’s a really helpful website that you can use to analyze any recipe you find online. Simply copy and paste the ingredients, enter the serving size and it will give you everything you need! www.caloriecount.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php
xo Alyssa
You have some really great looking meals I have tried Quinoa and I like it a lot I’m just trying to find more dishes that will help with weight loss and detox I find some of these to be.
Hope you give the cookies a try – they’re a fave around here!
These breakfast cookies are excellent. My two picky teenagers liked them too. They have great flavor, texture and taste. I would definitely recommend these cookies. Thanks so much for the recipe
So glad you enjoyed them! xo
I can relate. I’m on a five-day fast and I know it’s not a good idea to browse food blogs this week, but here I am, drooling over breakfast cookies. Hello chocolate. I want to curl up in a corner and eat a plateful of those cookies by myself.
I hear ya there 😉 Glad to be done with mine and ready to make a batch of these beauties this weekend!
Hi Alyssa,
Just made these and eaten one. Lovely, nutritious and easy to make. Thank you so much for making my non refined sugar journey easier. I substituted blueberries and a full cup of flakes instead of oats and chocolate. Also added a tap of poppy and sesame seeds. Looking forward to trying more of your recipes. Sonia
SOO glad that you enjoyed them!