Vegan Sweet Potato Cookies
The easy vegan sweet potato cookies call for just a few healthy ingredients and make a delicious breakfast, snack or dessert!
If you’re looking for a healthier cookie option, you’re going to love these delicious sweet potato cookie! Sweet potato pairs perfectly with maple syrup, oats, cinnamon and nut butter for a wonderfully buttery texture – without butter!
These cookies are vegan (no eggs and dairy-free) and are naturally gluten-free. They also have no added oil and are naturally sweetened with wholesome maple syrup.
These cookies are healthy enough for breakfast or an everyday snack but totally decadent enough for dessert too, especially if you add chocolate chips! Fun to make and even more fun to eat, enjoy these any time for a sweet treat!.
Why You’ll Love these Cookies
- Dietary Needs: These cookies are vegan, gluten-free, oil-free and flourless!
- Ingredient Highlights: No flour, no eggs and no dairy needed!
- Easy to make in one bowl in 20 minutes with simple ingredients.
- Soft texture and delicious sweet and spiced flavour.
- Great way to sneak nutritious sweet potato into your diet.
- Perfect healthier dessert or snack anytime of day.
Ingredient Notes
Complete list of ingredients with amounts and instructions is located in the recipe card below.
- sweet potato – you’ll need cooked, mashed sweet potato for the recipe, if you don’t have any on hand, use this how-to guide for baking sweet potato
- oats – rolled oats, large flake oats and quick oats all work
- maple syrup – use pure maple syrup or substitute with agave syrup if needed
- peanut butter – use natural peanut butter (no added oils or sugar), if you can’t do peanut butter, almond or cashew butter works
- flax – make sure you’re using ground flax, not whole flaxseeds
- baking soda – this is totally optional but I like the texture and bit of “cookie” flavour it added
- spices – I’d recommend using the ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon for the yummiest flavour but if you’re missing ginger or nutmeg, that’s ok
- chocolate – use dairy-free chocolate chips like Enjoy Life or Camino or for a lower-sugar option, you can use chopped dark chocolate or sugar-free chocolate chips
- pepitas – aka raw pumpkin seeds, optional but a nice addition! walnuts, pecans, coconut or any other add-in would also work here
How to Make Sweet Potato Cookies
Before You Start: Line a baking tray with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350 F.
Note that you’ll need cooled and mashed sweet potato to make the cookies. If you don’t have any on hand, you can bake some in the oven according to this recipe or use your preferred cooking method.
Step 1. Add the vanilla, sweet potato maple, syrup and peanut butter to a large mixing bowl and stir until completely smooth.
Step 2. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir into a thick, sticky dough.
Step 3. Use a spoon or cookie scoop to divide the dough into 14 cookies on the baking tray.
The cookies will not spread or change shape during baking, so press each down a little to create the shape you want before baking.
Bake for 16 minutes then let cool on the pan for at least 20 minutes. After that, they’re ready to enjoy!
Quick Note: The cookies will be fragile when they first come out of the oven, so make sure you let them cool before handling!
Recipe Variation
This recipe as written was the best tasting version but it can be adjusted to suit your nutritional needs. For a somewhat healthier cookie that uses half the amount of fat and sweetener, you can use:
- 1 cup sweet potato
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
This version is denser and more like baked oatmeal or a dense muffin but is lower in sugar, calories and fat. It depends what kind of cookie you’re looking for! They’d be more like my banana baked oatmeal or pumpkin oatmeal bars.
I also tried just about every ratio of sweet potato to maple syrup and nut butter in between and they all work but some are tastier than others so feel free to experiment with what works for you.
Add-In Options
Use up to 1 cup combined of any of these add-ins to switch things up!
- chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate
- raisins, cranberries or chopped dates
- crushed walnuts
- chopped almonds
- chopped pecans
- hemp seeds
- sesame seeds
- raw sunflower seeds
- pumpkin seeds
- shredded coconut
FAQs
It can be! They are naturally gluten-free, just make sure you use gluten-free certified oats if needed.
To make these wfpb cookies, replace the chocolate chips with cacao nibs, raisins, chopped dates or unsweetened dried cranberries.
I think so but I haven’t tested it myself.
Yes. These will work with any kind of cooked sweet potato puree. You can use canned, bake your own or cook the sweet potato in an Instant Pot or microwave.
For more details, check out my post on how to bake sweet potato.
Storing
- Let cool completely before storing.
- Fridge: Store in a sealed container for up to 1 week.
- Freezer: Store in a sealed container or freezer bag for up to 3 months.
- Room Temperature: Store in a sealed container for 3-4 days.
Did you try this recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Click here to leave a review.
Print
Vegan Sweet Potato Cookies
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 16 mins
- Total Time: 26 minutes
- Yield: 14
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This vegan sweet potato cookie recipe works for breakfast, snacking or dessert! Flourless, easy to make and studded with chocolate chips, these delicious sweet and spiced cookies are sure to become a new family favourite.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup cooked, mashed sweet potato (180 g)
- 1/2 cup maple syrup (140 g)
- 1/2 cup peanut or almond butter (120 g)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 2 cups rolled oats (200 g)
- 1 tsp baking soda, optional
- 2 tbsp ground flaxseed (14 g)
- 1/2 cup dairy-free chocolate chips (85 g)
- 1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds (optional, 75 g)
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking tray with parchment paper. You can use a light coating of non-stick cooking spray if you don’t have parchment on hand.
- Add the sweet potato, maple syrup, nut butter and vanilla to a large mixing bowl and stir well until completely smooth and combined.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and stir into a thick, sticky dough.
- Use a spoon or cookie scoop to scoop 14 evenly-sized clumps of dough onto the the tray (you can do 12 slightly larger cookies if you prefer). Press each cookie down a little as they will not spread or change shape during baking.
- Bake the cookies for 16 minutes then let cool on the pan for at least 20 minutes. The cookies will be quite fragile when they come out of the oven so it’s important to let them cool and firm up.
Notes
For help preparing sweet potato for this recipe, check out my post on how to bake sweet potato.
Storing: Let cool completely before storing. Store in a sealed container at room temperature for 3-4 days, in the fridge for up to 1 week or freezer for up to 3 months. If frozen, thaw at room temperature briefly before enjoying.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
- Calories: 162
- Sugar: 8.6 g
- Fat: 7 g
- Carbohydrates: 21 g
- Fiber: 3 g
- Protein: 5 g
Keywords: vegan sweet potato cookies, flourless sweet potato cookies
Originally published October 21, 2016.
These are SO delicious with a soft and tender texture! I only had purple sweet potatoes so they looked a little like ‘mud cookies’, instead of Deryn’s beautiful golden ones. Got past appearances quickly though because they’re just so yummy!
★★★★★
Haha, glad you enjoyed them despite the colour! Thanks for letting me know.
Had some leftover sweet potato and was craving some healthy cookies. Your recipe was perfect. I dropped the choc chips ( no cacao for me atm) , didn’t have pumpkin seeds, so used a generous amount of pecans instead, and used up some remaining pumpkin spice. Very delicious, next time I will try with 1/4 cup of maple syrup and peanut butter. Thank you for a great recipe.
★★★★★
So very glad to hear you enjoyed them! Those adjustments sound perfect.
This was a great recipe! I’ve made sweet potato cookies before but without the nut butter they just didn’t have the right “cookie” texture – I really did like this addition to my usual recipe! I blended most of the oats for a few seconds to get a slightly finer texture and also used sunbutter so my son can take them to his nut-free school. I also used a combination of Kabocha squash and sweet potato blended because that’s what I had. With the spices, I don’t think it really matters. I did have one oddity though — I stored my cookies in a plastic bag in the fridge and the next day they had turned kind of green on top. I’m assuming something in them oxidized? Did anyone else have this same issue?? I will try storing in the freezer with the next batch!
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Hi! It’s actually the sunflower seed butter (the chlorogenic acid in them) reacting with the baking soda, so specific to using Sunbutter instead of nut butter. Nothing to worry about though, it’s a harmless chemical reaction, they just look a bit funny! Glad you enjoyed the recipe.
I’ve been searching for healthier snack options for quite a while since I got onto this WFPB journey, my doctor recommended, after being diagnosed with CKD among other things. Even on this new lifestyle, there are certain things I can’t eat at the moment, unless a miracle happens. But in the meantime, finding gems like this one is exciting.
I eliminated the baking soda, since it was optional, trying to avoid sodium where possible, but still added the salt. I made it with 1/2 cup of walnuts and 1/2 cup of coconut flakes, since I can’t have chocolate. Others mentioned using applesauce instead of maple syrup. Next time I’ll try that option. I ate one at room temperature, and it was delicious. I placed some in the fridge and some in the freezer, since someone mentioned eating it straight from the freezer. I bet it’s got a nice crunch. With the walnuts it gave the cookie a slight crunch even at room temperature. Thanks so much for this recipe. I’ll add it to my cookbook.
★★★★★
You’re very welcome, Debbie. I’m so glad you enjoyed them. Thanks for the detailed review!
Hi. I’d love to make these. Is there a way to make these grain-free? What can I use in place of oats?
Hi, I’m not sure because I haven’t tested them without a grain or grain-based flour. You could possibly use almond flour or chickpea flour but you’d probably have to adjust things a bit to get the right consistency!
I have a question about the alternate recipe you suggest: are those three ingredients (sweet potato, nut butter, and maple syrup) intended to be the whole recipe, or just replace certain parts of it? I can’t quite tell.
Thank you.
Use 1 cup sweet potato, 1/4 cup maple syrup and 1/4 cup peanut butter instead of the amounts listed in the recipe and use those amounts along with all the other ingredients. Thanks!
So easy, fast, & delicious! I ran out of almond butter so I used 1/2 almond & 1/2 peanut butter. For the add-in’s I used 1/2C chopped dates & 1/2C raw pumpkin seeds. My kids had them after their swim practice & LOVED them! I did too! Thanks, Deryn!
★★★★★
Great recipe. I made the cookies today without any nut butter. I followed pretty much the rest of the recipe, but used 1/4 C of maple syrup and substituted the other 1/4 C with apple sauce. The cookies are soft and just lovely. Next time I make them I won’t use chocolate chips, instead maybe some raisins or chopped apricots. The toasted taste of the pumpkin seeds along with the sweet potato and spices give the cookie an interesting taste, as if it had cardamon in it. Thanks Deryn. I’ve been looking for a healthy no oil cookie.
You’re welcome. I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
Has anyone made these without the nut butter?
I haven’t tested them without nut butter. It adds moisture, helps bind and improves the texture so I’m not sure how they’d turn out without the added fat. You could maybe try reducing by half or substituting half with applesauce or banana. If allergies are an issue, you can use tahini or sunflower seed butter.
Sorry didn’t see your reply. Thanks. They’re great cookies even without the nut butter. They held together great. Carried some to a coffee date.
★★★★★
Deryn, I shared your recipe with the Well Your World Facebook group.
These were so good!! Very yummy! My kids loved them too!!!
★★★★★
So glad everyone enjoyed them! Thanks so much for the review.
First time making these cookies and I absolutely love them! So easy and even more delicious..
★★★★★
This was my very first attempt at making something WFPB. I changed apple sauce for maple syrup and pecans for pumpkin seeds. The cookies were delicious! I put them in the freezer so I wouldn’t eat them all. But, guess what, they are even better eaten frozen. Thanks so much for your recipes.
★★★★★
That’s awesome, Sharon! So glad you enjoyed them! Glad the applesauce worked out.
You’ve done it again Deryn! I made the “healthier” version and they were fantastic! Thank you!! Can’t wait for more recipes like this!
You’re so welcome, Gillian! I’m so glad you loved them. The feedback is much appreciated and definitely helps me decide what kind of recipes to create…more cookies, ha! Thanks!
WOW! These are fantastic! My whole family loves them. Great way to use leftover sweet potatoes. Thank you for another winner!
★★★★★
Thank you so much, Bev! So glad everyone enjoyed them. And yes, perfect use for leftover sweet potato!
Perfect for my grandkids!! so good! and easy!
★★★★★
Great! Hope everyone enjoys them.
Fantastic!!! I subbed Applesauce for the Maple Syrup (too expensive for me!). Came out perfect!
★★★★★
Good to know they worked with applesauce! I couldn’t test these anymore haha, we ate SO many! I’m so happy you enjoyed them.
I made this and it came out better than I thought it would! Haha although I did make a few changes- Im allergic to coconut so I omitted it and used vanilla and brown sugar and quick oats- I also added dark chocolate chips and mashed down cookie with a fork and sprinkled tops with med coarse sea salt!! Wow!! So many great add ins come to mind like collegian and maybe even a protein powder! Definitely chia seeds!!
I did have to bake at 350 for 20min but I also live at 8800’
But this is a great start to my day!
Yaaay!! Cookies for breakfast!! 🙂
★★★★
Haha, who doesn’t love cookies for breakfast! Glad you enjoyed them.
Hello, is there a chance I can make this with butternut squash instead of sweet potato ?
That should work ok, I haven’t tried it though.
Great for kids lunch boxes. Thanks Deryn !
★★★★
You’re very welcome. Glad you and the kids are enjoying them!
How long should I bake the sweet potato before mashing it?
Until you can easily peirce it with a fork, depending on the size of the potato, 30 to 45 minutes.