Low Fat Chocolate And Banana Bread ~ Vegan And Refined Sugar Free

Call it a bread or a cake, but this is the ultimate healthy thing I have ever baked. All purpose flour has been replaced with whole wheat flour and refined sugar with jaggery. Indians and Sri Lankans widely use jaggery in many of their desserts, jaggery is wholesome unrefined sugar, it is made from concentrated sugarcane juice and processed in a natural way and no chemicals are added at any stage of its processing. It has got high protein, vitamin, iron and it has 50 times the mineral content of refined sugar.

Jaggery has got lot of health and healing benefits and moreover it tastes great. It's rich caramel kind of aroma is heavenly. There are many varieties of jaggery and all have distinct tastes, some are more salty and lighter in colour while some are darker with less salt and more sweetness. Jaggery is great for nibbling too, I have seen many people eat chana and gur together to kill boredom. 

My dad used to go on his official tours to these small villages where they made this jaggery, and while returning he used to bring big blocks of dark coloured disc shaped jaggery. Mom used all her strength and might and with a hammer she used to break the disc and we nibbled on the small pieces.

For another interesting jaggery recipe, check this previous guest post by my dear friend Farwin of Love And Other Spices where she shared her famous Sril Lankan "Aggala" recipe.

Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Flour- 1 Cup
Banana- 1 Large
Jaggery- 1/3 Cup ( Adjust little more or less depending on the sweetness of the jaggery)
Chocolate Chips- 1/4 Cup
Canola Oil- 2 Tbsp
Cinnamon Powder- 1/2 Tsp
Baking Powder- 1/2 Tsp
Baking Soda- 1/4 Tsp
Almond Milk- 3/4 Cup
Walnuts (Roughly Chopped)- 2 Tbsp
Salt- 1/4 Tsp ( if the jaggery has got salt then omit this)


Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven at 180 Degrees C.

2. Take a banana, peel and cut it in small discs.

3. With the help of a fork mash the bananas and add cinnamon powder, oil and chocolate chips in that, mix and keep aside.

4. In another bowl take whole wheat flour and add salt, baking powder, baking soda and chopped walnuts.

5. Powder the jaggery in a mixer and add it in the flour. Now add the banana mixture in the flour and with the help of almond milk, fold everything together gently.

6. Grease a loaf pan or a small cake tin...choose a tin so that the mixture is atleast 3/4th of the tin. Now pour the bread batter in the prepared tin and keep it for baking in the pre heated oven for 35-40 minutes or till a skewer inserted in the centre of the bread comes out clean.

7. Take out the bread from the oven and let it cool completely before inverting it out of the tin.

8. Now invert the bread in a plate and cut in wedges or slices.

My kiddo enjoyed this bread with a glass of juice. 

Sweet Milk Bread

Most of the kids develop special liking to a particular food and then it gets very difficult to wean them off from it. My kiddo is very fond of this specific brand of milk bread, and she is so used to it that she finds other breads almost inedible. The advantage of living here in Dubai is that we get so many varieties of almost everything. Big supermarkets have their own bakeries and they produce dozens of kinds of breads, you name the type of bread and you are sure to get it fresh. 

So why am I baking bread when it's so readily available for under 5 Dhs for a large packet.........

It's my kiddos love for milk bread which tempted me to make it for her, and I was really happy with the result. The bread turned out to be very soft and mildly sweet with subtle flavours of cardamom and saffron. And my stubborn kid who always wants her bread toasted loved this bread to the core...she smothered the bread with nutella and enjoyed it warm straight out of the oven.

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour- 3 Cups

Active Dry Yeast- 1.5 Tsp

Saffron- A big pinch 

Milk- 2 Tbsp

Condensed Milk- 1/4 Cup (See notes at the bottom of the post)

Salt- 1 Tsp

Butter- 2 Tbsp

Cardamom Powder- 1/4 Tsp

Luke Warm Water- 1 1/2 Cup Approximately

Procedure:

 Soak saffron in 2 tbsp of warm milk.

In a large bowl take all purpose flour and add salt, cardamom powder and yeast.

Melt the butter and let it cool, once cool add it in the flour mixture.

  Now add in milk infused with saffron and condensed milk.

Add water little by little and make a soft dough by kneading for atleast 5-6 minutes. The dough will be little sticky. Transfer the dough in an oiled bowl and cover with a cling film or damp kitchen towel. Keep the bowl in a warm place and allow it to rise so that it doubles in sizes, this will take around 45 minutes to 1 hour. We have very hot and humid weather here and my dough took around 35-40 minutes to double in size.

Once the dough has risen, punch it back and knead again for another minute or so. Place the dough in a greased loaf pan and cover it. Let it again rest for another 45 minutes.

Brush the top of the dough with little melted butter and keep the risen dough in pre heated oven at 180 Degrees C and bake it for 35-40 minutes or till the crust turns golden brown in colour. Keep an eye during the last few minutes as I did not and  my loaf's crust turned dark brown. When tapped the bread should sound hollow. Invert the bread onto a cooling rack and when it gets little cool, cut it into pieces. 

Notes:  My loaf turned out to be mildly sweet, but for a sweeter version instead of 1/4 cup add in about 1/2 cup of condensed milk and reduce the amount of water proportionately.

Rosewater Scented Thandai Spiced Biscuits

It has been quiet here from sometime and I am finding myself short of words now, it was difficult to stay away from my passion of food and blogging and I could not resist myself to come back with a post. 

We have been experiencing quite a few sandstorms since last month, usually I avoid going out in dusty weather but blame my fate, we went out on one such dusty day and I  subsequently fell ill with very bad allergic cough, which was not settling since weather continued to be bad, and after N number of doctor visits, drowsy days, sleepless nights, 5 boxes of tissues, 4 bottles of cough syrup and lots of homemade medicines later, I am finally al right...phew..what a relief.  

I missed playing holi and stayed away from Thandai, but I badly wanted to drink thandai and as drinking anything cold was not an option for me, I made biscuits instead with the thandai spice. These biscuits were super good with spices like fennel, cardamom and black pepper and fragrant with rose and rosewater. They were perfect for tea time.

Ingredients:


Powdered Sugar- 75 Grams
Butter- 100 Grams
Salt- A Pinch
All Purpose Flour- 150 Grams
Corn Flour- 30 Grams
Baking Soda- 1/4 Tsp
Ground Thandai Masala - 1/4 Cup 
Rose Water- 2 Tbsp


Procedure:

• Beat sugar, butter and salt together with a hand held beater on medium speed till creamy.
• In a separate bowl sift together all purpose flour, cornflour, baking soda, thandai spice powder.
• Add this flour mix into the butter mixture. Now add in rosewater.
• Mix everything together to form a dough. Divide  the dough into two parts. Out of one part make a rectangular log . Wrap the log in cling film. Repeat the same with other round of dough.
• Keep both logs to chill in the refrigerator for about an hour.
• Preheat the oven at 180 degrees C.
• After an hour take out the logs and cut them into approx 1/8 inch thick slices.
• Arrange the slices about 1/2 inch apart in a greased baking tray and bake in the pre heated oven initially for 12 minutes then flip the cookies and bake again for another 5-6 minutes. 
• The cookies will firm up on cooling.
• Once completely cool, store in an airtight container.

Choco Coffee Cake ~ A Guest Post For Grishma At Zaika Zabardast

Some time back, I saw a Facebook message from Grishma of Zaika Zabardast where she invited me to write a guest post for her wonderful blog, and I did not even think twice as there are two strong reasons for it....first that it's my first guest post and I was really honoured and secondly Grishma is a lovely person. Most of you must be familiar with her blog Zaika Zabardast. I remember stumbling to her site and the first thing which attracted me was her site's name, so catchy and I loved her recipe and fabulous pictures. She is a lacto vegetarian like me and is a pretty girl who seems to have so much of energy.

I am sharing a super easy and vegan choco coffee cake which can be made in a jiffy. Check out Grishma's space for the recipe and do say hi to her. Also visit her Facebook page and tweets @zaikazabardast for beautiful pictures and yum recipes.

And I am linking this cake to Priya's Healthy Diet Event~Baked Goodies hosted by me.

Onion And Garlic Focaccia

" This is the best thing you ever made ".......... this is what my husband said after having this Focaccia bread. And I said , then what about all those dishes which I made during past 8 years of married life ? He did not answer this, and I too left the conversation at that point. Some times, some things are better left unspoken...right? 

And now coming to the bone of contention I.e the Focaccia, I got the basic olive oil dough recipe from the book Artisan Bread In Five Minutes A Day. This is the first recipe I tried from this book and enjoyed a lot. There is no kneading required and the result is one delicious bread. Serve it for breakfast or stir up some soup and enjoy your dinner.

Ingredients: 

Basic Olive Oil Dough Recipe: ( This is the original proportion for the dough but I have halved the ingredients while making the recipe) :

Lukewarm Water- 2 3/4 Cup

Instant Yeast- 1 1/2 Tablespoon

Salt- 1 1/2 Tablespoon

Sugar- 1 Tablespoon

Olive Oil- 1/4 Cup

All Purpose Flour- 6 1/2 Cups

Other Ingredients which I added in the dough: 

Chopped Spring Onions- 3 Tablespoons

Garlic- 3 Cloves (Pounded)

Green Chillies- 2 or 3 (Crushed)

For Topping: 

Olive Oil- 2 Tablespoon + 1 Tablespoon for greasing

Red Onions- 1/4th of small onion ( Thinly Sliced)

Italian Seasoning- 1 Teaspoon

Coarse Sea Salt- For Sprinkling On Top

Procedure:

• In a food container which has lid add in luke warm water, yeast, salt, sugar, spring onions, garlic, green chillies and olive oil together so that everything is mixed well.
• Then in that mix in the flour without kneading, using a spoon. If the dough is too sticky, use wet hands to incorporate the last bit of flour.
• Cover (not airtight), and allow to rest at room temperature until dough rises and collapses (or flattens on top) approximately 2 hours.
• The dough can be used immediately after the initial rise but I refrigerated the dough overnight as it is easier to handle cold dough.
• Twenty minutes before baking pre heat the oven to 425 Degrees F with an empty broiler tray on any shelf.
• Grease the baking tray with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and set aside. 
• Take out the dough from the refrigerator and with the help of little flour shape it into a ball. Now place the ball in the prepared baking tray and with the help of hands press the dough from all sides, flatten it as thin as required. Keep it covered with a damp cloth for resting for about half an hour.
• Meanwhile heat 2 Tablespoon of olive oil in a small pan. Add in onions and sauté until softened but not browned. Keep it aside.
• Now after the dough has rested make some indentations with thumb in the dough. Sprinkle the sautéed onions along with its oil sparingly over the surface of the dough. Do not add lot of onions else the surface may not brown attractively. 
• Sprinkle Italian seasoning, coarse sea salt on top of the dough.
• Now before keeping the tray inside the oven, pour 1 cup of hot water in the empty broiler tray which is already inside the oven. Place the baking tray inside the oven and quickly shut the oven door. 
• Bake for about 25- 30 minutes or till the crust if golden brown in colour. Baking time may vary according to the thickness of the focaccia.

Serve warm.

Linking this to Vardhini's Bake Fest hosted at Tomato Blues.

Handvo/ Savoury Lentil And Vegetable Cake

I am very fond of Gujarati dishes, one such dish which is very much liked by me and my family is Handvo or Ondhwa. This is a baked savoury cake made with combination of rice with lentils and vegetables. This is very healthy and ideal for breakfast. Even my daughter who rarely eats anything apart from bread for breakfast, enjoyed this a lot. This recipe is from my dear friend Meghana's blog.

I have used store bought Handvo flour for this, but this should not be confused with readymade Handvo mix. 

Those who cannot get this flour, look out my notes at the bottom of this post.

Ingredients:

Handvo Flour- 2 Cups

Grated Bottlegourd- 2 Cups

Fenugreek Leaves- 2/3 Cup (Chopped)

Corn- 1/4 Cup

Onion- 2 Medium Sized (Chopped)

Ginger-1 1/2 Inch Piece and Green Chillies- 2 ( Make a paste out of it)

Jaggery- 1 Tbsp

Turmeric- 1 Tsp

Red Chilli Powder- 1/2 Tsp

Salt- To Taste

Yoghurt- 1/2 Cup (Well Beaten)

Canola Oil- 2 Tbsp

Baking Soda- 1/2 Tsp

For Tempering:

Oil- 2Tbsp

Mustard Seeds- 1 Tsp

Cumin Seeds- 1/2 Tsp

Whole Red Chillies- 2

Asafoetida- A Pinch

Sesame Seeds- 1Tsp + 3 Tbsp for sprinkling on top

Procedure:

• In a mixing bowl mix together all the ingredients except baking soda and tempering. Make a medium consistency batter with some water and let the batter rest overnight.
• In the morning check seasoning and consistency, if required add little more water.
• Preheat the oven at 190 Degree C. Grease a baking dish with oil and keep aside.
• Prepare the tempering by heating oil in a pan. After the oil gets hot add in asafoetida, mustard seeds and cumin seeds, once they splutter add in red chillies and 1 Tsp of sesame seed.
• Mix this tempering with the batter and now add in baking soda. Mix well.
• Pour this batter in the baking dish and sprinkle generously with sesame seeds.
• Place in the pre heated oven and bake for about 45- 50 minutes. Bake until the corners turn slight brown and a toothpick inserted should come out clean.
• Now broil for another 5 minutes to get a crispy crust.
• Remove the dish from the oven and let it cool for around 15 minutes before cutting into slices. 

Serve warm with green chutney and/or ketchup.

Notes:

• These can be made vegan as well by omitting yoghurt and adding vegan buttermilk and juice of 1 lime.
• Those who cannot get handvo flour can use this combination instead- 1 Cup of rice + 1/4 Cup- Pigeon peas+2 Tbsp- split bengal gram +2 tbsp- split green gram +1Tbsp -split black gram. Soak the rice and lentils overnight and grind them in a smooth batter in the morning using little water. Now mix other given ingredients except tempering and soda. Add little water in the batter if required. Now keep this mix for about an hour and proceed as per point 3 in the procedure written above.

Sending this to my own event Veggie/ Fruit A Month- Bottlegourd which was started by Priya of Mharo Rajastan.

Sweet Cinnamon Roasted Chickpeas

I am so much hooked to Pinterest these days, its a great place to pin and categorize all things which we like. There are great resources out there ranging from photography to yum recipes, and I am loving it. I came across this recipe in Pinterest which is from The Pastry Affair and I knew that this is one of the recipe which is easy to make, healthy and quite addictive. Apart from the baking time, this requires just a few minutes of assembling. 

Ingredients:

Chickpeas/ Garbanzo Beans- 2 Cups cooked or one 15 ounce can

Cinnamon Powder- 1 Teaspoon

Granulated Sugar- 1.5 Tablespoon

Canola Oil- 3 Teaspoons

Maple Syrup/ Honey- 1 Tablespoon

Procedure:

Preheat the oven to 190 Degrees C. Drain and rinse the chickpeas and keep aside. In a small bowl mix together oil, cinnamon and sugar. Now mix this paste with chickpeas so that beans is evenly coated. Spread the chickpeas on  baking sheet and bake for 45-50 minutes, shake the tray in between for one or two times. After 45 minutes check for the crispiness. If more crispiness is required then bake for few more minutes.

After the beans are baked take them out of the oven and pour maple syrup/ honey on it while it is still hot. Evenly coat the beans with the syrup and let dry for sometime. Store in an airtight container, but mine never made it to the container, the beans were devoured within the first hour of baking :)

Sending this to Priya's CWS event held at Saffron Streaks.
Also linking this to Priya Mahadevan's Fast Food Not Fat Food event hosted at Priya Sreeram's Bon Appetit.

Bottle Gourd Chocolate Cake

New Year...new outlook towards life...new resolutions...and a new you...is what we all have in our minds. But do we need excuse of new year to start something which is good for us...No... Each day is a new day which brings lots of hopes, promises and good things in life, and the resolutions are meant to be broken..so do not make resolutions but make good choices and take decisions which have positive effect in life. 

I used to make resolutions every year but now have stopped making them cause I know I will not be able to stick on even a single of those. But I have promised myself to try to live each day to its fullest, to spend more quality time with my DH, play lot more with my daughter and make more new friends but cherish the old ones for ever :)

I am a big fan of veggies in baked goodies, earlier I have made a beet bundt, carrot muffins and even a savoury pumpkin scone, so now this time I sneaked bottle gourd in chocolate cake. The cake turned out to be super moist and no body could guess that bottle gourd was in it..hehe (evil smile).

I dressed up the cake with chocolate sauce and it was divine.

( Recipe inspired from goshthatssovegan)

Ingredients:

For the Cake-

All Purpose Flour- 1 Cup

Unsweetened Cocoa Powder- 6 Tbsps

Sugar- 1/2 Cup + 2 Tbsps

Baking Soda-1 Tsp

Instant Coffee Powder- 1 Tsp

Salt- 1/8 Tsp

Canola Oil- 1/4 Cup

White Distilled Vinegar- 1 Tsp

Vanilla Extract- 1 Tsp

Water- 3/4 Cup (Approx)

Bottle Gourd- 1 Cup grated and packed

For Chocolate Sauce-

Sugar- 1/2 Cup

Soy Milk or Dairy Milk- 1/2 Cup

Unsweetened Cocoa Powder- 1/2 Tbsp

Salt- A Pinch

Vanilla extract- 1/4 Tsp

All Purpose Flour- 2 Tsp

Procedure:

For The Cake-

• Preheat the oven at 180 Degrees C for 10-15 minutes.
• Grease a cake tin with oil and line up with a parchment paper then grease the top of the paper with oil and keep aside.
• Grate the bottle gourd and measure 1 cup packed and keep separate.
• Sift all the dry ingredients ( flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, coffee, salt) together in a large bowl.
• Make a well in the centre and pour the wet ingredients ( oil, vinegar, vanilla, water) in it.
• Mix all the ingredients together. 
• Squeeze out water from the gourd and mix the grated gourd in the prepared cake mixture. Stir gently till everything is combined.
• Pour the batter in prepared cake tin. Choose a cake tin so that batter is more than 1/2 in the tin.
• Bake the cake in the preheated oven at 180 Degrees for 35-38 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. I baked the last 10 minutes with the top of the cake covered with aluminium foil.

For Chocolate Sauce-

Combine all the ingredients together in a saucepan and mix well so that there are no lumps. Boil the sauce for   

about 2 minutes in slow heat. Remove from heat. The sauce thickens as it cools. If the sauce gets too thick then add in more milk and heat it up a bit.

Pour the sauce on the cake and serve warm.

Sending this cake to Veggie/ Fruit A Month- Bottle Gourd which is a brainchild of Priya of Mharo Rajasthan and currently being hosted at my space.

Also linking this to Cooking Concept's Chocolate Fest.

Vardhini's Bake Fest #3 hosted at Pumpkin Farm.

Srivalli's Chocolate Mela

Vardhini's NewU event

Suma at Veggie Platter's Cook Eat Delicious Desserts event.

Cookielove~ Savoury Cookies~ Mathri

This is the time for love blog hop and the theme for this month is cookie...so get ready for some cookielove. My family loves cookies and I always keep my cookie jar full, my DH and daughter have got sweet tooth and always prefer sweet cookies but I like to munch on savoury ones with my cup of tea. These spiced cookies are called Mathri in India and are generally deep fried. These cookies are very crunchy and flaky, the more the amount of fat used the more crunchy these will be.

Instead of deep frying I have baked these cookies and to make them vegan I have used canola oil instead of ghee (clarified butter).

I have used dried fenugreek leaves (Kasuri methi) to flavour these cookies.

Another spice which I have used is Black pepper..really adds a pep to these cookies. But these spices are optional and can be adjusted according to the tastebuds.

Ingredients: 

Whole Wheat Flour- 1 Cup

All Purpose Flour- 1/2 Cup

Gram Flour (Besan)- 1/2 Cup

Semolina- 2 tbsp

Turmeric Powder- A pinch

Raw Sugar- 1 tsp

Dried Fenugreek Leaves ( Kasuri Methi)- 1 tbsp

Black Pepper Powder- 1 tsp

Cumin Coarsely Crushed- 1/4 tsp

Salt- To Taste

Oil/ Clarified Butter- 1/2 Cup (hot)

Warm Water- 1/2 Cup to make the dough

Procedure:

• Preheat the oven at 200 Degrees C.
• In a large bowl mix together all the ingredients except oil and water. 
• Add hot oil to the flour mix little by little and mix everything together with a spoon. 
• Now add warm little by little and bring the dough together. Do not knead.
• Now transfer the dough on a clean surface and roll with a rolling pin. The dough will not be sticky because of the presence of fat.
• Roll the dough to the desired thickness and cut into round shapes with the help of cookie cutter.
• Arrange in a baking tray and bake on the top rack for about 10 minutes, after 10 minutes turn over the cookies and let them bake for another 10 minutes. 
• Keep a close eye on these as they brown very quickly.
• Let the cookies cool  and store them in an airtight container. These cookies have shelf life of almost a week.

On another important note we celebrated UAE National Day on 2nd December. UAE turned 40 this year. This is a country which has provided good opportunities to many in all the fields along with being a safe and  multicultural nation.

And the kids celebrated the National Day in school with great joy and my daughter came back home singing "Let's salute the UAE on 2nd of December...."

And on this day I am celebrating my first blog anniversary. It had been a fun year filled with lots of good experiences...I got to know so many wonderful bloggers without whom this journey of mine would not have been possible. 

From being Raji who was only a mother and a wife I transitioned into being Raji At Vegetarian Tastebuds and truly cherished each and every day of blogging. Each new post brought me close to new friends. I came to know people from different countries and learnt about their food cultures, I tried my hands on various cuisines which I never thought I would try, I stepped towards a healthy life and I started socializing on social network sites like Facebook and Twitter...what more can I ask? 

I sincerely want to thank each and every reader of mine who has taken time out to read my posts and drop in their comments.A big big thank you.  

Sending these cookies to Vardhini's Bake Fest event hosted by Sangeetha at Spicy Treats and to Radhika's Let's Cook #10 event.

Now Coming to the Cookielove..I am co hosting this blog hop along with-

Badger Girl Learns to Cook/ Kimberly Aime/ @BdgerGrl

Baking and Cooking, A Tale of Two Loves/ Becky Higgins

BigFatBaker/ Erin Meyer/ @BigFatBaker

Bloc de recetas/ Salomé/ @Blocderecetas

Bon a croquer /Valerie/ @Valouth

CafeTerraBlog/ Terra Baltosiewich / @CafeTerraBlog

Cake Duchess/ Lora/ @cakeduchess

Creative Cooking Corner/ Karriann Graf/ @KarriannGraf

Easily Good Eats/ Three-Cookies

Georgiecakes /Georgie Kubarych /@georgiecakes

Hobby And More / Richa/ @betit19

knitstamatic / Deb/ @knitstamatic

Mike's Baking / Mike R./ @mikesbaking

Mis Pensamientos / Junia/ @juniakk

No One Likes Crumbley Cookies / T.R./ @TRCrumbley

Oh Cake / Jessica Hose/ @jesshose

Queen's Notebook /Elizabeth Quirino/ @Mango_Queen

Savoring Every Bite /Linda Geiler/ @Spicegirlfla

Simply Reem / Reem /@simplyreem

Soni's Food for Thought / Soni/ @sonisfood

Teaspoon of Spice /Deanna Segrave-Daly/ @tspbasil

That Skinny Chick Can Bake!!!/ Liz / @Thatskinnychick

The Art of Cooking Real Food / Laura /@TAofCRF

The Spicy RD / EA Stewart /@thespicyrd

The Wimpy Vegetarian /Susan Pridmore /@chezsuzanne

Vegan Yack Attack! /Jackie Sobon/ @veganyackattack

December is #cookielove month!

Please join in on the #cookielove fun by linking up any cookie recipe from the month of December 2011. Don't forget to link back to this post, so that your readers know to come stop by the #cookielove event! The twitter hashtag is #cookielove 

Vegan Carrot And Cranberry Breakfast Muffins

Muffins for breakfast...mmm...who would not love them and they are great for lazy and cool weekend mornings when I wake up late and drag myself to the kitchen to make my cuppa and then again curl on the couch trying to steal some more minutes of sleep. On the other hand my DH wakes up at 6 even on weekends and is already finished with his gym and tea even before I get out of my dreams, then he looks at me with a smile expecting to get breakfast soon and I set off to the kitchen to whip up something quick for him. To save my husband from the misery of waiting for his breakfast on weekend,  I made these muffins a day before and refrigerated them to be used for next mornings breakfast.

So the result...a happy husband and a happy me.

When I was clicking the pictures my daughter came back from school and wanted to lend her hands for the shot resulting in this picture.

These muffins stay good for 2-3 days when stored in refrigerator. Just microwave them for a minute and they will be ready for tasty breakfast.

I was inspired by Sukaina of Sips And Spoonfuls to create recipe card.

Click on the recipe card to print the recipe

Vegan Beet Bundt

Since I took the vegan challenge I had not made any dessert or sweet as most of the Indian sweets I make are made with ghee and milk. But when I saw this vegan bundt cake at Food Librarian's space I was amazed at it's texture and since I had all the ingredients handy, I immediately put on my baking gloves.

The cake turned out to be super moist and had rich flavour. Beetroot gives this cake a wonderful red colour and softness. 

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour- 1 Cup

Beetroot Puree- 1 Cup ( Steam 2 medium beets and purée in a blender)

Canola Oil- 1/4 Cup + 1 Tbsp

Unsweetened Cocoa Powder- 4 tbsp

Vanilla Extract- 1/2 tsp

Packed Brown Sugar- 3/4 Cup

Baking Powder- 1 tsp

Salt- 1/8 tsp

Confectioner's Sugar- For dusting (optional)

Procedure:

• Preheat the oven at 190 degrees C and grease the bundt pan and keep aside.
• In a bowl cream together oil and brown sugar. Add in the beet purée, cocoa powder, vanilla extract and mix together.
• In another bowl sieve all purpose flour, salt and baking powder together.
• Add this dry mixture to the wet beet mixture and mix everything together just until combined.
• Pour the mixture in the prepared bundt pan and bake for 35- 40 minutes or till done. If a screwer inserted in the centre of the bundt comes out clean, the bundt is done.
• Wait for the bundt cake to cool and then invert in a plate.

My husband and daughter liked their cake with generous dusting of confectioner's sugar and I enjoyed mine plain.

Note-Instead of cocoa powder 1/4 cup of any non dairy choco chip can be substituted .And dairy choco chip can be substituted for a non vegan version.

Sending this bundt to National Bundt day at Mary- The Food Librarian's space.

Also linking this to Srivalli's Kid's Delight Event hosted at Cooks Hideout space.