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It has happened guys- I am featuring a recipe on the blog! The last time I posted a recipe was in March– which I am a little shocked about. I thought my last recipe was from Vegan Mofo 2015. But part of me hiding away from recipe making has been because I’ve had a little mental block. When I first got pregnant I was just mentally and physically drained. Then when hunger started to kick in, I got pretty tired of sugar fast. Why? Sugar was in almost all snacks that were quick to eat on the go.

Snacking in a healthy manner can be hard. Especially since I have lots of specifics. I work in framing and it is important that my hands are clean. I work with lots of historical documents, works of art, and sometimes completely worthless junk. But something like an apple I have to sit down, eat, then wash my hands. Hummus and veggies? Oh please. Way too messy and time consuming! So I often will snack on a clif bar, crackers, or worse- candy. So I am constantly trying to think of something to eat that is dry but has no sugar.

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So I started to think about zucchini bread. Most zucchini bread in the USA are sweet. I have even posted a chocolate zucchini muffin on the blog way back in the day. I searched high and low for zucchini quick breads, and usually found savory recipes that used yogurt or different types of cheeses in them. I made one since I had leftover yogurt. But, I wanted to make a recipe that didn’t need a “fake” vegan food. Plus, the recipe made a whole loaf, and I figured if you are making zucchini bread, it is probably summer, and you don’t want the oven on for an hour. Muffins it would be.

I think I made 3 different batches before nailing this recipe. The biggest problem was that the muffins were too dry. The flavors were always amazing. But it would be painful to eat, and crumbs would get all over the place.

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So if you make these muffins, you can use cupcake lines if you are like me and are lazy about cleaning up. Or you can oil your muffin pans, which probably would give better results. Just make sure your muffins cool ALL THE WAY DOWN before taking off the cupcake liners. Otherwise they’ll just stick to the paper (ie. don’t do what I did for that photo. Wasn’t worth it for the sexy steam shot.)

Nutrition? Well, they are a great quick little snack. They are about 160 calories per muffin, and pack 5 grams of protein. If you used enriched all purpose flour and fortified nutritional yeast, the stats are pretty nice. 65% of B1, 54% of B2 (riboflavin), 30% B3 (Niacin), 45% of B6, 15% Folate, 7% Vitamin C, 17% Vitamin K, 10% calcium, and 8% of iron. You can see more of the stats here, I skipped the macros partly because it will be heavily influenced by what type of pesto you use. I used a avocado based pesto, so the fat content is different than the one I plugged into Cronometer (which is probably a traditional basil-olive oil based pesto)

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So what makes these muffins so full of B vitamins? A mix of flours. I bought a bag of kamut/khorasan flour awhile ago since it was on sale. This isn’t gluten-free, but an older variety of wheat. Which kind-of means it is packing a lot of natural vitamins that have been lost with modern varieties. But it does have a certain texture so I mixed it with some regular whole wheat flour and all purpose flour. And help give a savory flour I also mixed in some chickpea flour which helped give a more complex nutritional profile as well. Truthfully I think the flour is more nutritious than the zucchini.

Savory Pesto Zucchini Muffins
Yields 12
Savory zucchini muffins that are great for on the go. They are also vegan, and full of various nutritious flours.
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Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
30 min
Total Time
45 min
Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
30 min
Total Time
45 min
Ingredients
  1. 2 tbsp ground flaxseed
  2. 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp water
  3. 2 cups shredded zucchini
  4. 1/2 cup kamut/khorasan flour
  5. 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  6. 1/2 cup all purpose flour
  7. 1/2 cup chickpea or besan flour
  8. 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
  9. 2 tsp baking powder
  10. 1 tsp baking soda
  11. 1/2 tsp salt
  12. freshly ground pepper
  13. 1/4 cup pesto of choice
  14. 1 cup soy milk
  15. 1/4 cup canola oil
Instructions
  1. 1 Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C. Take a muffin pan and line with cupcake liners or grease up with some oil.
  2. 2 In a medium size bowl mix together the water and ground flax seed. Set aside to gel up
  3. 3 Grate the zucchini. I used a medium sized summer squash (about 10 oz) and got 2 cups, to give you an idea of what sized squash to use. Take the shredded squash and place in a metal sleeve. Squeeze some of the liquid out and let sit to further drain. You mainly want to get rid of excess water.
  4. 4 Mix together the dry ingredients, kamut flour, whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, chickpea flour, nutritional yeast, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pepper.
  5. 5 In the bowl that you mixed the flax seed, combine the other wet ingredients- pesto, soy milk, and oil.
  6. 6 Add the wet mix to the dry. Mix until the flour is moistened, but be careful not to over mix. Fold in the zucchini.
  7. 7 Pour batter into the prepared muffin tins. Bake for 30 minutes.
  8. 8 Let muffins cool before removing from pan and enjoy!
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