A delicious cookie that’s both vegan and packed with wholesome ingredients? Yep! These vegan oatmeal chocolate chip cookies combine the heartiness of oats with rich, melty chocolate for the perfect guilt-free treat. Whether you’re vegan or just love a good cookie, this recipe become a favorite in no time!
Why You’ll Love This Vegan Oatmeal Cookies
I love being able to share recipes that are delicious, easy, and just so happen to be good for you recipes. Take these vegan oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, for example. Using a base of walnuts, maple syrup, and a touch of coconut oil in place of butter and regular eggs, these are just darn tasty and not-so-shabby, nutritionally speaking.
Like many cookie recipes, you can make the dough several days in advance and keep it covered in the refrigerator. Take it out when you’re ready to bake and scoop it onto your cookie sheets.
They are full of fiber and contain no refined sugar. No animal products either, if that’s important to you. You can even make them gluten-free by using gluten-free oats. Serve them with a glass of your favorite non-dairy milk and enjoy every last bite!
Ingredient Notes
These really are the best vegan oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. With simple ingredients and 15 minutes of baking time, these vegan cookies have the perfect texture and are full of ooey gooey goodness.
- oat flour: You can easily make your own oat flour. See step 2 in the recipe card.
- baking soda
- fine grain sea salt
- ground cinnamon
- raw walnuts or walnut meal: You can also use raw cashews/cashew meal or raw pecans/pecan meal.
- melted coconut oil or olive oil or avocado oil
- 100% pure maple syrup
- vanilla extract
- rolled oats: To make this recipe gluten-free, make sure to use gluten-free rolled oats. For best results, use old-fashioned rolled oats, though quick oats will work in a pinch.
- vegan chocolate chips
See the recipe card below for exact ingredient amounts.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Step 2: *If you need to make oat flour, place 1 ¾ cups rolled oats in a food processor and process until powdery.
Step 3: Place the dry ingredients: oat flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl and whisk together.
Step 4: Place walnuts in a food processor and blend into a fine meal. Add oil, maple syrup, and vanilla and process until the mixture has the consistency of natural nut butter (this serves as our egg replacer!)
Step 5: Stir walnut mixture into flour mixture. Fold in 2 cups of rolled oats and chocolate chips.
Step 6: Use a 1 ¾ -inch ice cream scooper (or cookie scoop) to form dough into balls, and place the cookie dough balls on the parchment lined baking sheet. You can fit 12 on a sheet. Flatten cookies slightly with a damp hand. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until cookies begin to turn golden brown and the tops look dry.
Step 7: Cool for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Recipe Tips & Substitutions
- Mix-ins: Feel free to add other mix-ins such as shredded coconut, chopped nuts, or additional chocolate chunks or chips.
- Oil: I prefer oil in this recipe, but you can use vegan butter if that’s what you have on hand.
- Make your own Oat Flour: If you need to make oat flour, place 1 ¾ cups of rolled oats in a food processor and process until powdery.
Storage Tips
Store baked leftover cookies in an airtight container for up to a week at room temperature. For longer storage, let the cookies cool completely on the cooling rack. Then, store the cooled and baked cookies in a freezer-safe container or freezer bag for up to 3 months.
If you have leftover dough, store it in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 3-4 days.
To freeze the cookies unbaked: Arrange them in a single layer on the baking sheet and place the pan in the freezer. Once the cookies are frozen solid, transfer them to an airtight container and keep them frozen until you’re ready to bake. Then just place them on a prepared baking sheet directly from the freezer and add another minute or two to the baking time.
More Vegan Cookie Recipes
- Vegan Thumbprint Cookies
- Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies
- Cranberry Orange Oatmeal Cookies
- Carrot Cake Oatmeal Cookies
- Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal Cookies
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Vegan Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups oat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 cups raw walnuts or walnut meal, or cashews/cashew meal or pecan/pecan meal
- 3 Tablespoons melted coconut oil or olive oil or avocado oil
- 1 cup 100% pure maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 12 ounces or 1 ½ cups chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- *If you need to make oat flour, place 1 ¾ cups rolled oats in a food processor and process until powdery.
- Place oat flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a mixing bowl and whisk together.
- Place walnuts in a food processor and blend into a fine meal. Add oil, maple syrup and vanilla and process until mixture has the consistency of natural nut butter.
- Stir walnut mixture into flour mixture. Fold in 2 cups rolled oats and chocolate chips.
- Use a 1 ¾ -inch ice cream scooper to form dough into balls, and place on baking sheets. You can fit 12 on a sheet. Flatten cookies slightly with a damp hand. Bake 13-15 minutes or until cookies begin to brown and tops look dry.
- Cool a few minutes and then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Store baked leftover cookies in an airtight container for up to a week at room temperature. For longer storage, let the cookies cool completely on the cooling rack. Then, store the cooled and baked cookies in a freezer-safe container or freezer bag for up to 3 months.
- If you have leftover dough, store it in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 3-4 days.
- To freeze the cookies unbaked: Arrange them in a single layer on the baking sheet and place the pan in the freezer. Once the cookies are frozen solid, transfer them to an airtight container and keep them frozen until you're ready to bake. Then just place them on a prepared baking sheet directly from the freezer and add another minute or two to the baking time.
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Hello – Can you make these without the walnuts or are they in there for a specific reason? Thanks!
No, you can’t make this recipe without the walnuts since they provide binding and fat. You can substitute raw cashews and pecans if you want, though.
Hi Pamela,
My daughter is anaphylactic allergic to tree nuts and peanuts. Could I substitute sunflower seeds or pepitas instead?
I have not tried this recipe with either, so you’ll be in uncharted territory. Sunflower seeds do contain a compound that reacts with baking soda and will tint the batter green. It’s not toxic, just a weird color. Since pepitas are already green, the cookies will likely be green if you grind those up, too.
Holy Sh-t! These are amazing! Finally a vegan, gluten-free Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookie that actually tastes GREAT! You’ve made me so happy Pamela. I’d begun to give up hope of ever eating another delicious cookie in my life. I’ve tried so many recipes, so many GF flour combos to no avail. Excuse the above vulgar language but those were truly the first words out of my mouth upon biting into this delicious treat. God bless!
haha! Too funny! I think they’re awesome, too. If you like these, you should also check out the GF pumpkin oat cookies. 🙂 https://pamelasalzman.com/vegan-pumpkin-oatmeal-spice-cookies-recipe/
Just making sure that these cookies are not supposed to have baking podwer in them since you mention ‘aluminum free’ baking soda. Thanks!!
Thanks for catching that, Sally! No such thing as aluminum-free baking soda. But no baking powder in here. Thanks!
Hello! I am just wondering if you think this could work with cashews in place of the walnuts?
Hello! In the comments, I noticed someone used pecans and cashews instead of walnuts, so I think using all cashews should work. I tried the pumpkin version of this cookies with all pecans and it turned out great!
Soooooo delicious!!! Thank you thank you. Have to give them away quick before I devour them all. Just wondering how these are vegan if they have the chocolate chips?
You have to buy vegan chocolate chips!
This look delicious… wondering what brand, kind of chocolate chips do you prefer.Sometimes I buy a chocolate Bar of 80% and crush it and add to cookies, but not sure the chocolate chips.
I buy whatever is organic, usually Whole Foods brand.
I made these and am in heaven!! So good! Do you happen to know the calorie or fat intake?
I’m so glad you like them! Unfortunately, I don’t know the fat or calorie count, but there are so many sites with calorie counters where you can plug in the ingredients and get the info you need.
It’s 192 calories per cookie (based on 30 cookies).
Hi Pamela,
This looks like a great recipe! I don’t really enjoy the flavor of maple, though. Is it a prominent flavor in the cookies once baked? Or is there a healthy alternative you’d suggest trying?
Thanks!
Hi Cate, I don’t detect a maple flavor at all here, but your best bet is to use Grade A maple syrup (instead of Grade B) since that has a more subtle maple flavor. I have never tried another sweetener, but if you go for it, maybe go half honey and half Grade A maple syrup. These cookies are fantastic, you have to make them!
SO GOOD!!! I went with the grade A maple syrup, light amber. It worked great, delicious without even a hint maple. I think I may need to get the walnuts and oats to a finer powder, but the cookies are amazing. Thanks for your response!
Hooray! You can also buy oat flour. My Whole Foods sells small bags of Bob’s Red Mill oat flour and you might even be able to find it in the bulk bins (since it sounds like you’ll want to make these again!)
Best. Chocolate. Chip. Cookies. Ever! I would never have thought of making a base with walnut butter. I try to sneak in walnuts whenever I can since they have omega-3’s in them so this is great. I think I will throw away all my other chocolate chip recipes and just stick with this one from now on. Thank you for creating these delicious treats!
You’re so welcome! Thank you for taking the time to leave your feedback — it’s very much appreciated! These are hands-down my kids’ favorite cookies 🙂
My son is allergic to nuts, can the walnuts be skipped?
Hmmmm, unfortunately, the nuts are pretty critical to this recipe. They actually get pureed with the coconut oil and syrup and take the place of butter and eggs. Sorry!