snack

Gluten Free Vegan (Flourless) Black Bean Brownies

December 19, 2012 by Veronica Grace 66 Comments

Ooh black bean brownies… Have you ever heard of them before? They’re gaining popularity in the vegan, gluten free and health food movement. It’s a completely flourless brownie and has very few ingredients.

This is my take on the black bean brownie inspired by Dr. Fuhrman’s recipe. If you’re looking for something that is vegan and gluten free and a “better for you” treat, check these out.

I promise you will not taste beans in this recipe! When they are pureed they act as the batter in brownies and plain unsalted black beans have little flavor anyway. This recipe is also sugar free! It gets its sweetness from whole pitted dates, so it has natural fibre and vitamins in it instead of plain old sugar.

The only thing really essential to making this recipe is having a food processor or a high powered blender with a tamper such as a Vita-Mix. You need to get these ingredients pureed into a batter/dough to press into the pan.

If you’re craving brownies you should give these a try!

Gluten Free Vegan Black Bean Brownies

(Inspired by Dr. Fuhrman’s Black Bean brownies)

Makes 12 brownies

Ingredients:

1 19 oz./793 g can black beans (salt free) or 2 cups fresh cooked black beans, drained
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp almond butter or peanut butter
12 large medjool dates, pitted (18-24 if using smaller dates)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tbsp ceylon (sweet) cinnamon
2 tbsp quick/instant oats (optional, use only if mixture is too wet)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F/ 177 C.

2. Chop the dates into small pieces. Combine black beans, dates, vanilla and almond butter in a food processor or Vita-Mix and blend until smooth. (Food processor preferred.)

3. Add cocoa and cinnamon and blend again. (Do NOT add cocoa until the previous ingredients are blended or it will be virtually impossible to mix)

4. If mixture is too dry, add another tablespoon of peanut butter. If mixture is too wet, add oats and process again.

5. Line a square baking pan with parchment paper leaving enough to fold up the sides.

6. Spoon mixture into pan and spread out with spatula or hands.

7. Bake for 30 minutes.

8. Allow to cool and then cool in the freezer for 2 hours to set up before slicing.

9. Top with frosting or fruit if desired and serve.

Nutritional Info: 12 Servings Amount Per Serving: Calories 134.0 Total Fat 2.3 g Saturated Fat 0.5 g Polyunsaturated Fat 0.4 g Monounsaturated Fat 1.2 g Cholesterol 0.0 mg Sodium 10.1 mg Potassium 349.4 mg Total Carbohydrate 28.3 g Dietary Fiber 5.8 g Sugars 16.0 g Protein 4.2 g

Have you ever had black bean brownies before? What’s your favorite way to use black beans?

Low Fat Vegan Carrot Pumpkin Spice Muffins

November 19, 2012 by Veronica Grace 6 Comments

Hands up who likes carrot muffins? Now hands up who likes pumpkin raisin muffins?

Why not have both!

These muffins are inspired by a combination of Oh She Glows Carrot Spice Muffins and my own Pumpkin Raisin Muffins recipe.

These Carrot Pumpkin Spice Muffins are so delicious that I’ve made several batches of these. Best part is no one will be able to tell they are vegan. They’re a really dense and flavorful muffin.

And it’s a great way to use up any leftover carrots in the fridge as well. During the fall I always keep a couple of cans of pumpkin in the pantry to make delicious pumpkin baked goods. This is a great alternative to pumpkin pie for a Thanksgiving or Holiday treat as well.

Bring them to work, potlucks, pack for kid’s/spouse’s lunches etc. Everyone will be raving about these satisfying muffins and be asking for the recipe.

You may want to make 2 batches of these to use up a full 15 oz./425 g can of pumpkin. I have made them with less than 1 cup of pumpkin puree and they turned out just fine too.

Low Fat Vegan Carrot Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Dry ingredients:

1 & 3/4 cup stone ground whole wheat flour (or spelt, kamut, oat etc.)
1/4 cup cane sugar
1 tbsp ground chia seed
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ceylon cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt

Wet ingredients:

1/2 cup maple syrup
1 cup canned pumpkin (or fresh cooked, mashed)
1/4 cup water
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups grated carrot (3 medium ones or 2 large )
1/2 cup raisins
1/3 cup chopped walnuts *optional

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F/204 C.

2. Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk to combine.

3. Combine wet ingredients in a large bowl and stir.

4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until just combined.

5. Use silicon muffin tray, or a regular muffin tin lined with muffin cups and spoon mixture evenly for 12 muffins.

6. Bake for 23-25 minutes until toothpick in centre comes out clean.

7. Allow to cool before removing from pan.

8. Store in air tight containers or ziploc bags.

Have you ever had carrot pumpkin muffins before? What’s your favorite way to use canned pumpkin?

How To Make Raw Vegan Veggie Stuffed Collard Wraps

January 24, 2012 by Veronica Grace 21 Comments

How To Make Raw Vegan Veggie Collard Wrap Sandwich

Raw Collard Wraps With Veggies, Sprouts and Guacamole

Are you looking for a quick and healthy wrap that’s maybe low in calories and more whole foods based? Or maybe you’re looking for a gluten or wheat free sandwich option. Well check out my raw veggie collard wraps!

So… I totally forgot to add these delicious collard wraps to my recipe program Savory Raw Dinner Recipes because they were so easy to make I did not write the recipe down! LOL. When I compiled the recipe book I did not have it on my computer and I forgot about it. So I’m posting it here for you instead. These raw collard wraps are really easy to make if you have access to large size flat collard green leaves and are really impressive to non raw foodies.

If you haven’t checked out Savory Raw Dinner Recipes, I highly recommend you do. I created the recipes and did all the photography myself. These are possibly the sexiest lower fat gourmet recipes you’ve ever seen. Even if you just enjoy some healthy food porn photos, you should check it out!

If you live in the south you can find collard greens at most grocery stores or Walmart, but if you live in the north or in Canada you’ll have to go to Whole Foods or your local community health food store.

In the South it’s about 88 cents (USD) for a bunch of collards. In Canada, it costs us about $2.99 (CAD) for a large bunch. Overall, it’s a pretty cheap wrapper to make a raw burrito or sandwich, just make sure you select a bunch of collards that have lots of large flat leaves, not bent, crushed or small leaves as you’ll more likely end up having to make tiny raw vegan tacos instead because you can’t wrap the collards like a burrito.

If you DON’T have collard greens, it won’t really turn out the same. The key to this wrap is the collard green’s very large, strong and pliable leaf. You can try using other greens, but what you’ll get instead is more of an open face sandwich/taco/boat that you sprinkle toppings in and eat kind of like a hot dog! Probably tastes the same, but will look different. You can try both style of raw wrap.

This is what a collard leaf looks like whole. You will see it’s flat and not curly like kale.

Raw Collard Wraps With Veggies, Sprouts and Guacamole

How To Make Raw Vegan Collard Wraps

Serves 2

For this recipe you’re going to need:

2 large collard green leaves, washed
1/2 ripe avocado (should give to your thumb when pressed)
julienned or spiralized carrot and/or beets
julienned cucumber
julienned pepper
julienned zucchini
A few sprouts (If you have, I used alfalfa, you can use sunflower, pea shoots etc)
Seasonings if desired: lime/lemon, salt, pepper, olives

Tools:

A sharp knife
Flat surface

Step 1: Lay your collard leaf out flat on a cutting board stem side facing UP. Next take your sharp knife (it needs to be sharp, and not a serrated one, I cut myself once sawing into my finger) and angle it down and into the stem of the leaf. Shave the stem from the leaf horizontally and away from you. You want to do this so you can roll and fold your collard leaf without it cracking and splitting. Keep shaving down the stem a bit at a time, until it is flush with the leaf and then cut the edge off the stem end so it is straight at the bottom. Test your collard leaf now to see if it will roll easily into a small burrito. If it does, you’ve got your collard stem thin enough. Once you do this once, you’ll understand what I’m talking about.

Step 2: Spread 1/4 of a ripe avocado (half of your 1/2 avocado) onto you collard leaf leaving an inch or two from the bottom end of the stem. Spread it in the middle area only, not all the way out to the sides and top. Season if desired over the avocado for flavour.

Step 3: Lay your veggies and sprouts nicely in the bottom portion to middle of your collard leaf, still leaving and inch or two at the bottom part of the stem. Keep everything in the middle and far away from the top and sides, just like you would fill a burrito.

Step 4: Roll the bottom stem end of your collard leaf up and away from you and make a full roll. Tuck in the sides of the leaf and continue rolling and tucking in as you go. Keep your roll tight so when you cut it your filling doesn’t fall out.

Step 5: Hold your wrap tightly and then carefully slice it in half. If desired you can skewer it with a toothpick to hold it together and set it on a plate.

Step 6: Repeat for the other wrap.

I would recommend sticking with a thick creamy filling like avocado, guacamole or my Lower Fat Hemp Hummus (from Savory Raw Dinner Recipes) instead of using a fruit or vinegar based dressing, as the taste of collards is quite strong and with just a vinegar or lemon base it won’t really be that delicious. Unless you’re like a hard core raw foodist, in which case you probably eat raw kale by the bunchfuls… every day… Just kidding! Rock on! 🙂

Serve this wrap with a raw soup, green salad or fruit salad. This is not a low fat recipe, technically because the veggies and wrap have so little calories. This is why I did not use an entire avocado for the recipe, otherwise it would be very fatty. I want to emphasize that on it’s own this is a very LOW CALORIE wrap, pretty much a snack. Since we don’t want to load up on nuts, seeds and oil on a low fat raw vegan or 80/10/10 diet, this should be part of a meal. We enjoyed this with a fat free soup recipe from Savory Raw Dinner Recipes and lots veggie sticks with my raw hummus. You just can’t see it from the photo, but the soup was present!

I have seen some restaurants steam the collard leaves as well for those who prefer a milder taste (sort of like steamed cabbage in a cabbage roll) so that’s always an option if you’re looking for a softer texture in your wrap!

What do you think of these wraps? What did you fill yours with?