Extreme Vegetable Muffins

Extreme Vegetable Muffins
Home Cooking



I'm not sure if muffins are the best way to describe this. One of the things I ate last week was a low-fat vegetable frittata from a cafe near my uni. I didn't have time to eat it for lunch (such a hectic week in clinic) but once reheated, it made quite a nice meal at night.

My fridge was loaded with a collection of vegetables (my favorites being carrot, zucchini and pumpkin) so it was intuitive for me to try my own version. Every now and again, you'll come to realize that I'm actually not that knowledgeable about food at all. I didn't really know what a frittata was and just assumed it was like a savory muffin in the shape of a tart. I've since learnt that a frittata is basically an omelet loaded with 'stuff'. Therefore, what I made is better categorized under muffin since I used flour and rising agents as well as egg.




It's not like a conventional savory muffin though - these are chockas full of vegetable goodness with the batter serving little more than to hold them together. I used zucchini and carrot grated up in the batter and chunks of pumpkin and sweet potato to give some body and bite.

Extreme Vegetable Muffins
Makes 6

Ingredients:

• 1 small carrot
• 1 med-sized zucchini
• 1 small sweet potato
• 150g butternut pumpkin (small wedge)
• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1/4 cup self-raising wholemeal flour (or normal wholemeal flour + 1/2 tsp bicarb)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup of skim milk
• 2 eggs
• grated Parmesan cheese, for sprinkling

Procedure:

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grease and line a 6-hole muffin tin.
2. Grate the carrot and zucchini into a small bowl.3. Skin and chop the sweet potato and pumpkin into relatively even small cubes. Place in a bowl and microwave on high for 2min. Set aside.4. In a large bowl, mix together the 2 flours, the salt and the baking powder.
5. In a medium-sized bowl, gently beat together the eggs with the milk. Add this to the dry ingredients and stir to just combine.
6. Finally, stir in the vegetables (grated zucchini and carrot, and the sweet potato and pumpkin) to coat with the batter.7. Spoon into the lined muffin tins. Sprinkle a bit of Parmesan cheese on each one.8. Bake for about 20min or so until they are risen and the Parmesan is golden on the top. An inserted skewer should come out reasonably dry (unless it has been inserted into a chunk of pumpkin).9. Serve either at room temperature or slightly warm with some cream cheese.


I'm really pleased with how these turned out. Not bad on their own but absolutely elevated with cream cheese. I was planning to store and eat these throughout the week but it's now day 2 and they're all gone. Really healthy, tasty and not difficult to make at all.