These Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins are a dream come true. Healthy and yet delicious, they are a great breakfast option or perfect as a mid-morning snack.
For the past couple of weeks, my boyfriend and I have been tried to eat more plant-based. This is not because of recent trends. When I was in Germany during my year abroad, I didn’t really have a functional kitchen. In fact, my student apartment counted 6 flatmates and only two small mini-bar style fridges. The temperature never went below 3 degrees and they were always crammed. The result was that finding space to put your food in it was hard (it was definitely a first come first served basis), but even when I had some space where to squeeze a few items, they would always go off within a day or two. That’s because the fridge was too crammed and not cold enough. After the second pack of chicken gone black and countless pints of milk thrown away way before their best-before date, I decided I was tired to waste food and money. I started thinking of my kitchen as being effectively deprived of a fridge and was determined to find a way around it (also because I kinda needed to survive). So I started considering switching to a predominantly plant-based diet.
Having a lot of cupboard space, I could stock on tinned and dry goods such as beans and pulses, grains, chopped tomatoes and so on. I could get a couple of fresh veg on a daily basis so that they wouldn’t need refrigerating for too long. And things like tofu were so small that they could fit in fridge nicely whilst also taking more time to go bad (even in those dire circumstances). It was a life-saving choice and a very delicious one too! The more I was trying out plant-based recipes, the more I liked experimenting with spices, textures and cuisines. I have always loved food and cooking, but despite my family eating a largely vegetarian diet, vegan food was a whole unknown territory for me and I loved the challenge it gave me: eating healthy, on a budget and with limited fridge space. You might think I am nuts but I did find it fun and rewarding. And whilst I still had cheese from time to time and had meat and fish when I was eating at restaurants, I would say that 90% of my meals were vegan.
When my time in Germany was up and I went back to the UK, I wasn’t ready to give up on all the amazing foods I had discovered during my time abroad. I still ate animal products, but I incorporated a lot of plant-based recipes in my weekly meal plan. So far so good. Since moving out from uni though, and commuting every day to work, I have been finding it harder and harder to eat vegan. It’s because I have been lazy, mainly. I do dump a lot of chicken in a slow cooker and batch-cook a curry for the week. Or use a few eggs for a pie that will cover my lunches for a good four days. It’s easy and that’s why I do it. But after a while, I realized that the less plant-based foods I included in my week, the less I felt confident cooking them. I felt as if I was starting to forget how to make some very basic vegan recipes I had been enjoying for two years. Plus, it might be placebo but I did feel a bit more bloated and unfit. So I decided to reverse this by having a vegan week.
For us, it was a win win situation. This food was going to be good for us, for the environment and, to be totally honest, for our wallet. Not every single recipe was a hit with my very carnivore boyfriend, but some were actually so good, they have now been part of our weekly meal plan for a few weeks.
After that week, we have gone back to incorporate a lot of vegan options during the week and it feels much more balanced than it was before.
So that’s how these muffins came about. I find that I go through massive phases when it comes to breakfast. Some weeks, I will eat nothing but porridge. Others, it’s breakfast tacos. Others it’s bread and honey (yes, you read that right, I am a simple girl after all). And this time around, I craved something sweet, but healthy. Plus my bananas were starting to look a bit off. So I just went for it. And the result was so great.
These muffins are full of fibre, thanks to the rolled oats and the bananas, are very low in sugar, and yet they are still moist and indulgent (big shout-out to my dark chocolate chips here). I used two chia eggs for making them vegan, but you can use flax eggs. Or, if you don’t care about it being vegan, two normal eggs will do just the trick. You can play around with a few ingredients, by substituting granulated sugar with any sweetener of your choice, or the soy yogurt with any non-dairy alternative too (or again, dairy if that’s everything you got).
Just a word of warning, though. The dough of these muffins is much more dense than your average baked treat. So if you want to make them all pretty and use paper tins like I did, GREASE THEM. You can use anything, vegan melted butter, coconut oil, olive oil, I don’t care. But grease them. I learned this the hard way, when I first made them and I peeled off the paper and found half of it had attached on the muffin. Not the nicest, believe me. So whatever you do, grease your paper tins.
But apart from that, these muffins are great. I have been having them for breakfast and packed a few of them with me to work as a mid-morning snack. I do suspect these would be great as a post-workout snack too, as they are so nutrient dense. I also love the fact that they are not too sweet, and yet sweet enough. The bananas have a nice sweetness in and of themselves, but the sugar and the chocolate chips really elevate these muffins, so that they are not another tasteless, sugar-free healthy bake.
Ingredients:
makes 6 muffins
2 small overripe bananas
4 tbsp plant yogurt (I used soy)
135 gr rolled oats
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp chia seeds
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
40 gr dark chocolate chips
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Method:
Preheat the oven at 180°C.
Now make the chia "eggs": in a bowl, add the chia seeds along with 5 tbsp water. Mix together and leave aside to set.
In a food processor, blend the oats until you get a fine powder and transfer them to a bowl. To this add the cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and sugar. Combine everything together. Add the chia “eggs”, yogurt and chocolate chips. You should have a dense, wet dough. If it is too dry, add more yogurt or a splash of plant milk.
Grease some muffin tins with margarine, coconut oil or any other vegan butter/oil you prefer. Spoon the mixture into the tins, until they are ¾ filled.
Bake in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes.
These muffins can be stored for 4 to 5 days.
Enjoy!
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