If you love lemon desserts, my Flourless Gluten-Free Vegan Lemon Chia Seed Cookies are the perfect spring and summer cookie with crispy golden edges! They are made with only 7 clean, real food ingredients and are full of bright flavor without eggs and butter!
Estimated reading time: 15 minutes
Table of Contents
Why You'll Love This Recipe!
My top 3 favorite reasons:
- Ready to Enjoy in About 30 Minutes: just two quick steps to prepare them then their ready to put in the oven to bake!
- 100% Gluten-Free + Vegan: no white flour, eggs, butter or refined white sugar!
- Made with Clean, Real Food Ingredients: you only need 7 real food ingredients to make this recipe!
Karielyn
Jump to RecipeMy Gluten-Free Vegan Lemon Cookies are the perfect spring and summer dessert cookie.
I substituted the traditional lemon + poppy seed variation with a lemon + chia seed combination. They have a slightly tart flavor from the lemon and a subtle crunch from the chia seeds.
They're a delicate cookie but holds well together once you let them completely cool after taking them out of the oven and have a nice golden outer edge.
You can feel good about making my healthy recipe because it is gluten-free, vegan, dairy-free, grain-free, flourless, egg-free, soy-free, paleo-friendly, contains no refined sugar, and is Medical Medium® Compliant.
"Feel good about what you eat..."
- Karielyn Tillman
Ingredients
Here are the healthy ingredients I used to make this recipe. Try to buy organic if possible.
- Cashews
- Coconut Oil
- Lemon Juice
- Coconut Sugar
- Coconut Flour
- Chia Seeds
- Himalayan Pink Salt
That's it! My Gluten-Free Vegan Lemon Cookies are super easy to make!
Frequently Asked Questions
Unfortunately, not in this recipe.
The reason I used homemade cashew butter in this recipe is because store-bought cashew butter can sometimes be runny or extra-oily.
Because of this, it wouldn't be thick enough to hold the cookies together.
When you put raw cashews in the food processor, it will make a thick, paste-type nut butter which is what holds the cookies together.
Unfortunately, not in this recipe.
The coconut flour really does make a difference in this recipe.
When you use coconut flour, it will absorb excess moisture and prevent the cookies from spreading on the cookie sheet and the coconut oil pooling.
For this reason, almond flour, or any other type of flour, would not work as a substitute.
In my opinion, yes!
Traditional lemon and poppy seed cookies usually include S.A.D. (Standard American Diet) ingredients like these:
S.A.D. Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies: white flour, eggs, butter (or worse, margarine), refined white sugar
My healthier version is made without any flour, eggs, butter, refined sugar and are 100% gluten-free, vegan, and made with real food ingredients!
Yes! As you know, I am a clean dessert expert and I have many flourless cookie recipes, as well as an entire chapter in my CLEAN DESSERTS cookbook!
Here are some of my favorite flourless cookie recipes:
1. Flourless Vegan Snickerdoodle Cookies
2. Flourless Vegan Chocolate Pistachio Cookies
3. Flourless Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies
4. Gluten-Free Vegan Flourless Caramel Thumbprint Cookies
5. Gluten-Free Vegan Flourless Fudgy Chocolate Avocado Cookies
And here are some of my favorite bars + squares recipes:
1. Vegan Flourless Zucchini Brownies
2. Vegan Flourless Double Chocolate Avocado Brownies
3. Gluten-Free Vegan Pecan Pie Bars
4. Gluten-Free Vegan Raw No-Bake Black Forest Bars
5. Gluten-Free Vegan No-Bake Caramel Apple Bars
You can feel good about making any of these recipes because they are all gluten-free, vegan, and made with clean ingredients!
You can store them in an air-tight BPA-free container at room temperature to keep them as crispy as possible.
Karielyn's Experts Tips + Ingredient Substitutions
Here are some of my expert tips to make this recipe perfectly:
- Cashews: To make this recipe, I used "unsalted" and "unroasted" raw cashews. The cashews will be used to make a homemade cashew butter which is thicker and needed for this recipe. I have tested the recipe with store-bought cashew butters, and they are a little too runny and the cookies will not hold together well. It will only take a few extra minutes and a food processor for this step.
- Coconut Oil: I added this to help process the cashews in making the homemade cashew butter. If you don't like the taste or smell of coconut oil, you can use "refined" coconut oil which has zero coconut taste or smell.
- Lemon Juice: You could use store-bought bottled lemon juice, but to get the best flavor, you would need to use freshly squeezed lemon juice, especially since it's the main flavor in the recipe.
- Unrefined Granular Sweetener: You can use your favorite granular sweetener, but I like to use organic coconut sugar.
- Coconut Flour: I added this to give the cookies a little structure and crispiness since it's great at absorbing any extra moisture. Unfortunately, almond flour will not work as a substitute here.
- Chia Seeds: I used these as a replacement for poppy seeds and to add a little extra nutrition to the cookies, but they could be omitted if you prefer or even substituted with poppy seeds.
- Himalayan Pink Salt: This is my salt of preference; however, feel free to substitute with your favorite sea salt.
Order Recipe Ingredients
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Gluten-Free Vegan Lemon Chia Seed Cookies
Ingredients
For the cashew butter:
- 2 cups organic raw cashews
- 2 tablespoons organic coconut oil
For the cookies:
- 2 tablespoons organic lemon juice freshly squeezed
- ¼ cup organic unrefined granular sweetener
- 3 tablespoons organic coconut flour
- 2 tablespoons organic chia seeds
- 2 pinches Himalayan pink salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Prepare the cashew butter:
- Add the cashews and coconut oil to a food processor and process until they are creamy and smooth. This will take about 3-5 minutes as the cashews will turn from nuts, to flour, then to nut butter. Stop every minute or so to scrape the sides and help it along.
Prepare the cookies:
- Transfer the cashew butter to a medium-size mixing bowl then add the remaining ingredients for the cookies.
- Stir everything together until it is well combined.
- Take out a spoonful at a time, roll the mixture into a small ball, then flatten it in the palms of your hands to make a small cookie shape, about 1 ½ inches in diameter.
- Place the cookies on the prepared cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 12-14 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown.
- Allow the cookies to completely cool before removing them from the cookie sheet. If you don't, they will be crumbly and fall apart.
- Store in an air-tight BPA-free container.
- Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Information
Copyright Notice
The instructions, notes, and photographs for this recipe by Karielyn Tillman of The Healthy Family and Home™ website are copyrighted material. This copyrighted work is protected and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International License and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) and cannot be legally used without my written permission.
More Healthy Vegan Lemon Recipes
- Lemon Mousse Tarts
- Raspberry Lemon Mini Cheesecakes
- Lemon Meltaway Balls
- or my Real Food Vegan™ 14-Day Meal Plan Program with 42 plant-based vegan + gluten-free recipes made with clean, real food ingredients just like this one that you will love!
Meghan says
I have organic raw cashew butter, can I use that instead of making my own? If so, do you have a recommendation on how much to use? These sound delicious!
Karielyn Tillman says
Hi there Meghan! I've tested the recipe with different store-bought cashew butters, and I found it didn't work as well.
The reason I used homemade cashew butter in this recipe is because store-bought cashew butter can sometimes be runny or extra-oily. Because of this, it wouldn't be thick enough to hold the cookies together.
When you put raw cashews in the food processor, it will make a thick, paste-type nut butter which is what holds the cookies together.
However, you may want to give it a try with what you have, especially if it's not extra runny. If you do, I would use the same amount. You may need to add a little extra coconut flour but be careful not to add too much because it will make the cookies too dry. Try adding (1) teaspoon at a time, but only as needed.
Thanks for the question and I hope it works out 🙂
Laurel says
Just made these. Very good! I didn't have coconut flour so I used almond flour, which is less absorbent of the liquid. They ended up pooling lemon juice which was sort of greasy from the coconut oil at the bottom of the bowl as I formed them, so I had to keep mixing them. I think that might be different with coconut flour so I'll have to try that. The taste is light and slightly crispy--perfect texture. I sweetened with coconut sugar, so mine were a bit darker in appearance than the picture. These will be great with tea! Thank you!
Karielyn says
Hi there Laurel! Yeah, unfortunately the coconut flour really does make a difference in this recipe, for the very reason you described. When you use coconut flour, they shouldn't spread on the baking sheet and will hold together well after they've completely cooled on the baking pan. I love your idea of using coconut sugar as a sweetener too!
I hope you give them another try with the coconut flour...they are one of my favorite cookies to enjoy with a warm cup of tea as an afternoon snack 🙂
Melissa says
Lemon treats are so happy! Cookies for breakfast?! YES!
Karielyn says
Hi Melissa! Yes! Yes! and Yes! I totally agree! Hope you enjoy them 🙂