We’re in Seattle and we’re living across the road from the supermarket. I can actually see into the vegetable section from our balcony. And so I’ve suddenly gone from zero variety in my food options to endless variety and holy moly it’s overwhelming. I think I needed a few days just to let it all sink in. I gradually purchased items that I knew I was missing in Mexico – red lentils, kale, mushrooms, yams, sweet potatoes, quinoa, spelt flour, maple syrup, wild rice – until now it looks like I have a food hoarding problem. The fun part now is using up all the wonderful things I’ve bought. These muffins are a result of that!
I was inspired by these muffins using carrot juice as the only sweetener. I wanted to make mine a bit more ‘carrot cake’ like though, so I added coconut and walnuts and I think next time I might add raisins too.
These muffins aren’t sweet like you’ll be used to. They’re kind of like pancake sweet – so if you’re the kind of person who can eat pancakes on their own then you’ll gobble these up. If you’re not, and you’re more like Ivan, then you will drizzle these with maple syrup and eat them with a fork and exclaim ‘Mmmm damn these are good’ as you reach for your 2nd and 3rd muffin.
If you want to add some sweetness in the muffin I’d suggest adding 1/4 cup maple syrup or honey to the mixture.
Carrot & Coconut Muffins
- 2 tbsp chia seeds + 6 tbsp water
- 1.5 cups spelt flour
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1/4 cup coconut
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/4 cups pure carrot juice
- 3 tbsp oil
Turn oven on to 200 degrees F.
Mix the chia seeds and water in a bowl and set aside.
Combine the flour, oats, coconut, walnuts, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl.
Mix the carrot juice and oil together. Check to see if the chia seeds are gloopy. Add them to the juice and oil. Whisk well.
Add the wet to the dry and stir til combined. This is where I might add some raisins, some grated carrot or some maple syrup.
Fill a greased muffin tray with the mixture. Mine made 12 average sized muffins.
Eat with soup. As a snack. In the morning. As a dessert with maple syrup…
