With oats, raisins, walnuts, and a touch of cinnamon, my spirulina cookies are a wholesome and delicious way to get some healthy greens into your diet!
If you've ever had spirulina, you know that it's a nutritional powerhouse that doesn't exactly taste great. Spirulina, while very good for you, tastes like what it is: algae. So if you want to get it into your diet, you have a few choices — do your best to choke it down, take it in pill form, or do what I do, and disguise it in a tasty snack. These spirulina cookies are my favorite way to exercise that last option!
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These cookies are packed with tasty and wholesome ingredients. We've got raisins, maple syrup, oats, cinnamon and nuts! All of of this is perfect for disguising the intense flavor of spirulina. They make for a batch of cookies that's pretty healthy too, while keeping things totally vegan and gluten-free!
But make no mistake, these are a healthy snack, and not an indulgent dessert. And although the flavor of the spirulina is somewhat covered up, it's still there. If you're looking for something more desserty, check out my vegan oatmeal raisin cookies, or even my blackstrap molasses cookies (which are also pretty nutritious!).
Ingredients You'll Need
- Oat flour. You can buy oat flour at the store, or make it by grinding up rolled oats in a food processor. Be sure to use certified gluten-free oats if you want to keep the recipe gluten-free!
- Rolled oats. Again, use gluten-free if needed.
- Spirulina. You can buy powdered spirulina at health food stores, or order it online.
- Cinnamon.
- Salt.
- Baking soda.
- Overripe bananas. Use bananas that are yellow with lots of brown spots. You know, the same type you'd use to make vegan banana bread.
- Coconut oil. If you have another favorite baking oil, feel free to use it.
- Maple syrup.
- Vanilla extract.
- Raisins. You can leave these out if you don't like them, or swap them out with another type of dried fruit, like cranberries or cherries.
- Chopped walnuts. These can also be omitted, or replaced with other nuts or seeds like pepitas or pecans.
How They're Made
Below is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
Step 1: Start by preheating your oven to 350°F and lining a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.
Step 2: Combine the dry ingredients. Whisk your oat flour, oats, spirulina, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt together.
Step 3: Mash the banana in a separate mixing bowl. You can use a potato masher or a fork to do this.
Step 4: Stir the melted coconut oil, maple syrup, and vanilla extract into the mashed banana.
Step 5: Add the oat flour mixture to the bowl with the banana mixture, and stir it up to create a sticky (and very green!) dough.
Step 6: Stir the raisins and walnuts into the cookie dough.
Step 7: Drop your dough by rounded 1 ½ tablespoonfuls onto your baking sheets, then flatten them out a bit.
Tip: Leave a little space between your cookies, but it doesn't need to be much. They only spread out a tiny bit!
Step 8: Pop your cookies into the oven and bake them for about ten minutes.
Step 9: Let them cool on the baking sheets on cooling racks for a few minutes. You can then transfer them directly to the racks to finish cooling.
Shelf-Life & Storage
Spirulina cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for about two days, in the fridge for about a week, or in the freezer for up to three months.
Frequently Asked Questions
Spirulina is a form of algae, and it has an intense green, planty flavor. Think of the flavor of spinach, but way stronger! You can taste it in the cookies, although the other flavors help to disguise it.
They are if you use certified gluten-free oats and oat flour.
You sure can! The cookies can be baked in batches. Just make sure to let the cookie sheets cool between batches, or use fresh cookie sheets.
More Vegan Snacks
Like this recipe? If so, please stop back and leave me a review and rating below if you try it! Also be sure to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram, or subscribe to my newsletter for more recipes like this one!
📖 Recipe
Superhero Spirulina Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup oat flour
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 2 tablespoons spirulina powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 overripe bananas
- ¼ cup coconut oil, melted
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ cup raisins
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the oat flour, oats, spirulina, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
- In a separate large mixing bowl, use a fork or potato masher to mash the bananas.
- Stir the oil, maple syrup, and vanilla into the bowl with the mashed banana.
- Add the oat mixture to the bowl with the banana mixture, and stir everything well until a soft dough forms.
- Stir the raisins and walnuts into the dough.
- Drop the dough by rounded 1 ½ tablespoonfuls on the baking sheets, then flatten each cookie slightly.
- Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, until lightly browned.
- Place the baking sheets on cooling racks when they come out of the oven. Let the cookies cool until set, then remove them from the baking sheets and transfer them directly to the cooling racks to finish cooling.
- Serve.
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Has anyone tried subbing applesauce for the banana? I don’t have any ripe bananas around and I’m dying to make these.
This looks like an awesome, less expensive and easy alternative to any of the "power bars" out there. I'm looking at training for a ultra marathon on a vegan diet. I'm making theses and putting them in my snack pack for sure!
Oh perfect! I hope you enjoy them!!
So green!!! But then looks healthy. Although I have read about spirulina, I haven't decided to try it yet. But maybe making these cookies will help me decide. Allow me complete the ingredients first. Thanks Alissa! :)
I think these cookies are a great way to introduce yourself to spirulina if you've never tried it. Just don't get scared when you first open the jar of spirulina - it's pretty intense in both color and smell. Much more palatable once mixed into the cookie dough!
They definitely look greener than they taste...if that makes any sense. You can taste the spirulina just a bit, but if you ate them blindfolded you might just be fooled into thinking you were eating a regular old oatmeal raisin cookie :)
I have to admit they LOOK a bit intimidating but when I read the ingredients they look YUM! Goes to show you we should never judge a book by its cover!