If you're a fan of carrot cake, then you'll LOVE these soft, nutty & healthy breakfast cookies! Make a big batch and freeze them for on-the-go treats.
For a while, I went through a frittata phase, then there was the chia bowl phase, followed by a bit of a smoothie kick… which brings us to my current morning trend: cookies for breakfast!
But before you think I’ve completely given up on myself, hear me out – I make these cookies with lots of good things – carrots, oats, flax, walnuts, pepitas, cranberries, and QUINOA. Yes, carrots and quinoa – it almost sounds like a salad, but I promise you these “healthier” cookies are so delicious and energizing in the morning. They’re also vegan, gluten-free, and sweetened with maple syrup instead of refined sugars. They’re about halfway in between a muffin and a cookie – big, hearty, and filling, but also sweet and nutty – they’re almost like eating carrot cake for breakfast!
Quinoa Cookies Tips
Let’s talk for a second about quinoa in cookies. I recommend that you use leftover quinoa here. I like to make a big batch of quinoa early in the week for easy toss-together lunches and dinners. Store your cooked quinoa in the fridge so that when you’re ready to bake these breakfast cookies, it’s ready for you.
If you haven’t baked with oat flour before – it’s so easy. No need to go shopping for fancy flours, just blend your oats in a food processor for about a minute, and you have oat flour. It’s gluten-free, but be sure to seek out certified gluten-free oats if gluten is a problem for you.
Over here, my family is obsessed with these. They’re best straight out of the oven, but they also freeze incredibly well (hence, my 1 cookie per day breakfast obsession).
More Favorite Breakfast Treats
If you love these quinoa breakfast cookies, try one of these breakfast treats next:
- Carrot Cake Cookies
- Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies
- Healthy Banana Muffins
- Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Blueberry Muffins
- Pumpkin Muffins
- Healthy Banana Bread
For more healthy breakfast ideas, check out this post!
Quinoa Breakfast Cookies
- 1 cup oat flour
- 1 cup (additional) whole rolled oats* (see note)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup cooked quinoa
- 1 cup finely shredded carrots
- 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed + 5 tablespoons warm water
- ½ cup almond butter
- ¼ cup coconut oil, melted
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup nuts and/or seeds (I used walnuts + pepitas)
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Use a food processor or a blender to process the 1¼ cups rolled oats into a fine flour and measure out one level cup. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, the remaining 1 cup whole oats, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and sea salt. Fold in the quinoa and then the shredded carrots, stirring until the carrots are completely coated with flour.
- In a small bowl, combine the flaxseed and warm water and set aside to thicken for about 5 minutes. In a medium bowl, combine the almond butter, coconut oil, and maple syrup and stir well to incorporate. Stir in the flaxseed mixture.
- Add the wet ingredients to the bowl of dry ingredients and fold until just combined. Stir in the walnuts, pepitas, and cranberries.
- Scoop about ¼ cup of batter for each cookie onto the baking sheet. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool on the pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
- When cookies are completely cool, they can be stored in an airtight container or frozen.
Family loves these ! Great empty the pantry cookies. So many combos to substitute banana/carrots/apples with or without chocolate chips, with or without nuts. Even tried it with brown rice because no quinoa – do not recommend the brown rice.
Today I need to use up a bag of shredded carrots. But – I don’t have enough flaxseed – maybe 1 tablespoon. We are not vegan but like the ground flaxseed taste in these.
What should I do? Can I do 1 tablespoon flaxseed/2.5 tbs water and 1 egg? Or should I forgo the flaxseed and just use 2 eggs?
Love these and even though not fast to make they are delicious and healthy. I didn’t have any almond butter so I used organic peanut butter. Not sure if I could have replaced the almond butter with tahini. Great breakfast and snack option to have especially since they can be frozen. Thanks Jeanine.
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
These taste great, texture is pretty good, it’s a definite keeper, but dang if it didn’t take me an HOUR to make. I wish the prep time would be listed properly. Between making the quinoa, cleaning carrots then grating them, grinding flax seeds, heating warm water and mixing stodgy almond butter, there’s a lot of muscle and prep involved. And I had store bought oat flour, so I didn’t even grind my own. So many recipes seem to write prep time like you have a sous chef doing your prep. Well this girl doesn’t! Lol. Please don’t take this as ingratitude. I do really like this recipe. Thank you for sharing it.
And my husband, who is leery of anything “healthy”, says they’re great too!
Thank you for the feedback, I’m so glad you enjoyed them, I’ll be more mindful of the prep times.
Hey! These look great but I can’t seem to find the nutritional values.
Hi Linda, I’m sorry, I don’t post nutrition facts, but you can plug the ingredients into a site like my fitness pal.
I’ m confused about the quantity of oat flour to use. The ingredients list calls for 1 cup oat flour and an additional 1cup of whole rolled oats. But the Instructions (#2) say to process the 1 1/4 cups rolled oats into a fine flour. Where did 1 1/4 cups of rolled oats come from? How much oat flour do I use before adding 1 cup rolled oats? Please clarify. Thanks!
Hi Phyllis, oh I’m sorry this reads confusing.
You use 1 cup of oat flour (if you make it yourself, pulse 1 1/4 cups oats in a food processor to yield that 1 cup).
And then mix in the additional 1 cup of whole rolled oats into the batter.
Can avocado oil be used instead of coconut oil? I do try to avoid coconut products as they are very high in saturated fats.
Hi Tammy, that should be fine.
Can rice or millet replace the quinoa?
Hi Laurie, I haven’t tried either one so I can’t say how they’d hold together (I wouldn’t use rice, I think it would get gummy or crunchy). If you want to omit the quinoa, I would make these breakfast cookies instead: https://www.loveandlemons.com/breakfast-cookies/
Sally 09.02.22
Substituted the flax and water for a large egg and the maple syrup for crushed raspberries. Also added some xylitol. Next time I’d add a bit of ginger plus more xylitol as I was too cautious but they were great. Cooked 20 mins on 175 electric then flipped them over for 12 mins. Like a chewy cookie. Yummy
Is there something else I can use instead of the almond butter? My doctor has me on a food sensitivity diet… I can’t have peanuts, almonds, coconut, gluten, dairy etc.
I’m sure I can substitute the coconut oil. But not sure about the almond butter?
Hi Trinity, unfortunately a nut butter is what binds these together. If cashew butter was an option, that would work. Sunflower butter might work, but I don’t prefer it’s taste.
My thoughts: you could try pumpkin seed butter or tahini (sesame seed paste). I’m sorry but I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but those are my “go-to’s” in other recipes.
Good luck! I’d love to hear back if someone tries those!
Do you have the nutrition information for these great cookies?
I’m sorry, I don’t post nutrition info but you could plug the ingredients into a site like my fitness pal.
Excellent!! My sweetheart’s medical issues are really difficult to cook for. I was looking for recipes for using quinoa, and came across these. They are perfect! No sugar, no gluten, no dairy. I was afraid they would have no flavor, but we both love them. Great recipe ?
I’m so glad you both enjoyed them!
I’m in love with these! I followed the recipe exactly & they turned out perfectly! Thank you!
This checks all my current craving boxes and I can’t wait to try it out! I’m curious, what kind of flour/liquid adjustments would I have to make if interested in adding some unflavored pea protein powder?
Hi Sydney, without trying, I’m not sure. I might just try swapping some of the flour? It’s hard to say.
Thanks anyways! Experiment time!
Sharing my variation, had heaps of ripe bananas on hand so I subbed banana paste for maple syrup. Also milled the add ins as I’ve found they’ve always broken away other times I’ve made this and they turned out amazing! Alot easier to handle. My daughter loved them. ?
I’m so glad you both loved them!
Did you do a 1-1 sub with the banana? This sounds like a great mod!
I did! Wasn’t sure how it would turn out but thought since they were both wet ingredients it should work. Turned out amazing and blitzing the add ins worked well too.
Made these today and they came out great! Perfect amount of sweetness, loved the different textures and flavors. I wasn’t sure where to find flaxseed, so I took your suggestion in one of the comments and used an egg with one tablespoon of water. That worked really well—I baked them for the full 18 minutes, let them cool on the baking sheet for about 10 before transferring to a wire rack, and they held together just fine. Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
I’m so glad you loved them!
These are absolutely delicious! I made a few modifications to the recipe for my kiddos. I used plain non-fat greek yogurt in place of the almond butter (their school is nut-free); I put the carrots, seeds (I used pumpkin and sunflower) and cranberries in the food processor to chop them up small (some reviewers said the big items “fell out” of the cookie/crumbled); I also substituted an egg for the flax mixture. I was a little skeptical how sweet they would be but they came out amazing! It’s definitely going in our favorites folder! Thank you!
These were great! I substituted one egg as I’m not vegan…might have needed more as it all wasn’t binding super easily? Not a huge deal because they came out as cookies and are yummy!
These look excellent! If I want to use eggs us it one egg or two – to replace the flax seed?
Do you freeze these baked? And simply dethaw them to eat or do you freeze the dough and then bake them? Thanks!
I freeze them after they’re baked and cooled. I thaw them in the microwave for 20 seconds or so. I haven’t tried freezing the dough, I don’t know if that would work well for these.
Hi, I was looking for a healthy vegan snack yesterday and found your recipe. Made the cookies last night and followed the recipe exactly. However as others have mentioned I found the baked cookie too moist and crumbly, even when doubling the cook time. Since cooling on a cookie rack didn’t help much I re-baked them this morning for another 30 min. Texture and firmness much better. Bottom line: these are a great cookie!! I will be sure to try your other recipes. Thank you!!
Hi Kathleen, I’m glad you enjoyed them – be sure to let them cool directly on the baking sheet after you take them out without moving them, not on a wire rack.