Chewy cookies without ANY butter, flour, eggs or SUGAR! Your taste buds won't believe these Lemon Cookies are low-CARB! (Vegan, Paleo & Keto approved)
Chewy Lemony DELISH
Chewy cookies are the BEST cookies! A little firm and a little crisp around the edges with a warm tender center. Mmmmmm! You won't believe how SIMPLE these are! Just a few wholesome ingredients -- blended together. Unbelievably GOOD. So throw out your sugar, flour, butter and mixer. These cookies change everything.
Life-Changing?!
Life changing?! YES! Because of the "NOs" -- No flour, no grains, no butter, no sugar/maple syrup, no eggs, no soy, not even almond flour. No artificial sweeteners, nothing highly processed, no strange things you've never heard of. Only real food 🙂 This is gonna change the way you make cookies!
So what's in them?! Cashews, coconut oil, lemon, and flax, plus my one of my favorite low-carb sweeteners. No mixer or mixing bowl needed. Everything is thrown in a food processor! GAME CHANGER. You'd never guess that blending cashews makes such perfect cookies, but they DO! 
How Sweet! Sweetener Recommendation
This isn't my first lemon cookie recipe (I've also made these and these) but it IS my first time making a lemon cookie without any form of sugar! And I'm so thrilled with how they turned out! Definitely one of the top 5 cookies I've ever eaten.
Since cashews have a natural (MAGICAL) sweetness on their own, you don't need much to sweeten these. I used just a little pure stevia powder. (Only ⅛ teaspoon is sweet enough for 18 cookies! I still can't believe it.)
And there is NO metallic funky flavor & no overpowering "weird" stevia taste, like some other brands. Even my hubby who doesn't care for stevia-sweetened treats LOVED these cookies! I always look for stevia with no fillers or additives (because they wreck my stomach mostly) but I also want it to be as natural as possible and this one has ONE ingredient, Yay! 
For Wonderful Lemon Flavor
Lemon lovers, you're gonna go crazy for these scrumptious lemon cookies. You need 3 lemons (zest & juice) to get that bright zingy flavor.
TIP: using a microplane makes zesting 100x faster and easier. Seriously. What used to take me several minutes is now done in seconds.
If 3 lemons still isn't enough lemon for ya, you can always add a few drops of lemon essential oil, too, just like I did in my Instant Lemon Mousse 🙂
Lemony COOKIE DOUGH
I DARE you not to eat the cookie dough STRAIGHT outta the food processor, lol. I almost left mine as dough because it's SO delicious that way! (And no raw flour or raw eggs to worry about!) So it's up to you, delicious dough or chewy cookies! Decisions, decisions 😉
If you make these, be sure to tag me on Insta @emily.likes.food #prettypies I LOVE seeing your pretty pie creations!
Life Changing Lemon Cookies (Low-Carb, Vegan, Paleo)
Ingredients
- 2 cups raw cashews
- ⅓ cup coconut oil
- 2 Tbs ground flaxseed
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- Zest of 3 small lemons
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon pure stevia powder
- Pinch of turmeric - optional for color
- Pinch of pink salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
- In a small bowl, whisk together flax and lemon juice and let stand for a minute to thicken.
- Place cashews in food processor and blend into a coarse flour.
- Add remaining ingredients including lemon/flax mixture and blend again until a ball of dough forms.
- Use a cookie scoop to form 1 heaping Tbs size balls and place on cookie sheet. Flatten to ¼" thickness with a spatula (cookies will not spread)
- Bake for approximately 11 minutes until lightly golden and fragrant. (Don't be alarmed if a little oil releases from the dough. It will reabsorb).
- Allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing. ENJOY! 🙂
Notes
MORE Low-Carb Lemon Desserts
gia gries
what is the nutritional value per cookie?
Emily
I'm sorry, I don't have it, but you can paste the URL for the recipe into MyFitnessPal.com for a quick calculation.
Pedantic
I didn't do the math on the entire recipe ... just the values on the raw cashews which are extremely high in carbs... based on just the nut value, no other ingredients they come out to 3.8 carbs per cookie ... too high for me!
Lisa Kramer
I just made these and had to throw them away. Too oily. I used coconut cooking oil. I also doubled the recipe. Any ideas? I'd like to try the recipe again. Please help.
Emily
Oh no! I'm so sorry! I would try a single batch and reduce the oil to 3-4 Tbs. If the dough seems to dry, you could add 1-2 Tbs cashew butter instead of oil. Let me know if that works for you.
Emily
Oh and I just remembered- over processing the dough an cause the oil to release. Process just just until combined. Hope that helps!
Jen
Hi Emily,
I just found your website and I love your recipes! They're healthy AND easy. Can't wait try them out, thank you!
Emily
Aww thank you Jen! I hope you enjoy them
Amanda
Hi! I don’t like the flavor of coconut oil in baked goods, and I don’t use stevia...any other suggestions?
Emily
Have you tried refined coconut oil? It doesn't have a flavor.
Or other than that I would use palm oil or maybe cashew butter.
And for the stevia, try 1/2 cup coconut sugar or equivalent low-carb sweetener & taste the dough and see if that's sweet enough. Maybe add a little more.
If you try a sub, let me know how it turns out 🙂
Bianca
These were wonderful! My were much thinner than the picture but other than that turned out great—the taste was fantastic . Thanks so much for the recipe!
P.S. Any similar cake/cupcake recipes?
Emily
Yay!! So glad you liked them! You are welcome.
I'm still working on cake recipes. Those are a little trickier to make. But I do have a lemon pie that's one of my absolute favorites https://prettypies.com/recipe/lemon-delight-pie/
Jo
Emily, these are amazing! I made them for my work mates - our dietary requirements include vegan and diabetic so I often struggle to find recipes to please everyone but these flew off the plate. I've been asked for the recipe by 3 of my colleagues :-). Thank you so much!
Emily
You are so welcome!! I'm so thrilled you guys enjoyed them and that you were able to find a recipe that fit different dietary needs.
Thanks for your feedback, Jo. You made my day!
K
Isn't this too much carbs tho? The whole point with keto diet is to maintain a low carb count. All the cashews will blow you out of ketosis.
Emily
Only if you eat too many at once 😉 Cashews are perfectly acceptable on Keto in moderation. Each cookie is 3 net carbs. If it fits your macros, go for it. If not, pass.
Jess
Cashews are my favorite, but my daughter is severely allergic. I may try these with macadamia nuts and see how they work.
Emily
Let me know how it goes if you try it 🙂
Jacqueline
Would Truvia work?
Emily
I haven’t tried baking with it before so I’m not sure. Many sugar-free sweeteners change the texture of baked goods so it’s recommended to use the ingredient listed or a tested alternative. You can try pure monkfruit extract or another concentrated extract like it.