Healthy Pepita Seed Cookies (vegan, flourless, oil-free)

You only need three ingredients to make these incredibly easy and delicious Healthy Pepita Seed Cookies. They are entirely fruit-sweetened, oil-free, flour-free and nut-free. If you’ve been looking for an amazing nut-allergy-friendly cookie recipe, this it it!

Whether you’re nutritarian or just looking for a truly healthy vegan cookie recipe, I think you’re going to love these…

What ingredients do you need for these Healthy Pepita Seed Cookies?

1. raw pepita seeds (a.k.a. pumpkin seeds)
2. very ripe banana(s)
3. date sugar (optional – Just Dates is my favorite brand)

It’s important to use very, very ripe bananas for this recipe. As you can see above, the bananas I used in recipe development were almost entirely black. As bananas ripen their sugar content increases making them sweeter.

You want brown-black bananas for this recipe.

How to ripen a banana quickly: Place the banana in a brown paper bag with one or two ripe apples. The ethylene gas from the apples will help the banana ripen faster. Place the bag in a warmer area in the kitchen and check progress daily.

What makes these cookies so healthy? 

These Healthy Pepita Seed Cookies use whole-food ingredients instead of more processed ingredients that are typical in vegan cookie recipes. Each cookie has 53 calories and 2.9 grams of fat.

Bananas work beautifully as an egg-replacer and sweetener (I learned this when I developed this Samoa cookie recipe). Next, I decided to make these cookies nut-allergy-friendly by using raw pepita seeds in place of flour and fat.

Finally, you can keep these cookies super-simple by only using the banana and pepita seeds. The date sugar is optional, though I highly recommend it (see substitutions below for more information).

How to make Healthy Pepita Seed Cookies:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or Silpat pad.

Mash the banana well with a fork. You want to mash the banana well so that there are no lumps and as smooth as possible.  Reserve the mashed banana.

Next, add the raw pepita seeds to a high speed blender bowl. Gradually increase the blender speed to high and blend for 30 seconds. Scrape the sides of the blender bowl down. Blend for another 20 seconds or until a fine, flour-like consistency is achieved.

After you’ve made the pepita seed flour, add all the ingredients to a medium mixing bowl and mix the batter well.

The cookie batter consistency will be thick and sticky.

Use a 1-1/2 tablespoon cookie scoop to portion out the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Do not overfill the cookie scoop or you won’t have enough batter for 12 cookies. Fill the cookie scoop just slightly under 1-1/2 tablespoon.

Fill a small bowl with cool water. Wet your fingertips and press down each ball to make a cookie-like shape.

Gently press the optional whole pepita seeds into each cookie as shown.

Bake at to 350°F for 14 to 16 minutes or until just browning on the edges and the tops of the cookies feel firm to the touch.  The bottoms of the cookies will be a golden brown.

Allow the cookies to fully cool before handling.

What texture are these Healthy Pepita Seed cookies? 

The cookies are soft, sweet and satisfyingly chewy!

As you can see in the photo above, the bottom of the cookie is more cake-like and the top of the cookie is a bit more moist and fudge-y.

How do these cookies taste?

They are sweet and nutty with a strong banana flavor. Using the optional date sugar helps to counter the banana flavor and makes the taste a bit more caramel-y.

How many cookies can you eat when following the nutritarian lifestyle? 

If you’re following the Aggressive Weight Loss Plan I recommend enjoying one to two cookies for breakfast or dessert.  

Each cookie contains just over 14 grams of pumpkin seed. There are 28.3 grams in an ounce. Dr. Fuhrman recommends a maximum of 1 ounce of raw seeds and nuts per day.  Keep that in mind when meeting your fat allotment for the day.

If you’re following the maintenance plan, you have a higher nuts/seeds/avocado allotment so you could enjoy up to four of these cookies for breakfast or dessert!

What substitutions can you make to this recipe?

With only three ingredients there’s not much room for substitutions.

Date sugar: The date sugar is optional or you can reduce the amount to 1 tablespoon. If you don’t include the date sugar the yield will reduce to 11 cookies and the flavor will be more banana-prominent. If you’re not following the nutritarian lifestyle feel free to substitute the date sugar with coconut sugar.

Do not substitute date sugar with date syrup or maple syrup. This will cause the batter to be too watery and the consistency will be wrong.

Almond meal can be used in place of the pepita seeds. Use 1-1/2 cups almond meal and note that you will not need to blend the almond meal before mixing the batter.

Storage recommendations:

Room temperature: The cookies last for up to 3 days at room temperature stored in a glass container with a tight fitting lid.  Do not put them into the container warm, they must be fully cooled first before storing at room temperature.

Refrigerator: The cookies last for up to 7 days in the fridge when stored in a glass storage container with snaplock lid.

Freezer: The cookies keep for up to 3 months stored in an airtight container, separating layers with freezer paper.

Defrosting and reheating:  If frozen, allow cookies to come to room temperature first.  For thawed or refrigerator-stored cookies, you can microwave for 20 to 30 seconds or air fry at 350°F using the “air fry” setting for 40 seconds.

If you’re looking for more delicious nutritarian cookie recipes…

Check out my premium cookbook Nutritarian Celebrations where I share eight more incredible cookie recipes:

• No-Bake Peanut Butter Fudge Balls
• Apple Oatmeal Cookies
• Cranberry Coconut Cookies
• Zesty Lemon Blondies
• Chocolate Cherry Cookies
• Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites
• Oatmeal Pumpkin Cookies
• Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

4.75 from 4 votes

Print

Healthy Pepita Seed Cookies (vegan, flourless, oil-free)

These incredibly-delicious cookies use three simple whole-food ingredients and have only 53 calories per cookie!

Course Breakfast, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword baked, gluten-free, healthy, holidays, nutritarian, oil free, refined sugar free, vegan, wfpb baking

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 16 minutes

Total Time 26 minutes

Servings 12 cookies

Calories 52.6 kcal

Author Kristen Hong

Ingredients

• 1 cup + 3 Tbsp. raw pepita seeds (170 grams)
• 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp. mashed very-ripe banana* (150 grams)
• 2 Tbsp. date sugar, optional (18 grams)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or Silpat pad. 

2. Add the raw pepita seeds to a high-speed blender and start at a low speed gradually increasing to high. Blend for about 30 seconds. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides and blend on high for another 10 to 20 seconds or until a flour-like consistency.

3. In a medium mixing bowl, add the pepita flour, mashed banana and optional date sugar. It will form a wet and sticky dough. 

4. Using a 1 1/2 Tbsp. cookie scoop, portion out cookie dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Do not over-fill the cookie scoop or you won’t have enough batter for 12 cookies.    

   Use water to wet your fingers and press down on each ball to make a cookie-like shape. 

5. Add optional whole pepita seeds as a garnish. Bake at 350°F for 14 to 16 minutes until just browning on the edges and the tops of the cookies feel firm to the touch. Allow the cookies to fully cool before handling.  

Recipe Notes

*You want to use the ripest bananas possible. The peel can be almost entirely black. The more ripe the banana the higher the sugar content. Depending on the size of your banana you may need 1 to 2 bananas to get enough mash. Mash the banana very well, making it as smooth as possible.

Storage: 

Room temperature: The cookies last for up to 3 days at room temperature stored in a glass container with a tight fitting lid.  Do not put them into the container warm, they must be fully cooled first before storing at room temperature.

Refrigerator: The cookies last for up to 7 days in the fridge when stored in a glass storage container with snaplock lid.

Freezer: The cookies keep for up to 3 months stored in an airtight container, separating layers with freezer paper.

Defrosting and reheating:  If frozen, allow cookies to come to room temperature first.  For thawed or refrigerator-stored cookies, you can microwave for 20 to 30 seconds or air fry at 350°F using the “air fry” setting for 40 seconds.

Nutrition Facts

Healthy Pepita Seed Cookies (vegan, flourless, oil-free)

Serving Size

 

1 cookie

Amount per Serving

Calories

52.6

% Daily Value*

Fat

 

2.9

g

4

%

Saturated Fat

 

0.6

g

4

%

Sodium

 

1.1

mg

0

%

Potassium

 

40.8

mg

1

%

Carbohydrates

 

8.5

g

3

%

Fiber

 

0.7

g

3

%

Sugar

 

3.5

g

4

%

Protein

 

1.6

g

3

%

Vitamin A

 

1.44

IU

0

%

Vitamin C

 

18.45

mg

22

%

Calcium

 

7.5

mg

1

%

Iron

 

1

mg

6

%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

I’d love to know what you think if you give this cookie recipe a try.

Your comments and recipe ratings motivate me so much to keep creating memorable and delicious recipes!