When my Beautycounter friend Amy Carter shared her secret spinach muffin recipe that fooled even her tiny humans into thinking they were dessert, let’s say I was intrigued … and relieved because now there’s hope for all parents struggling to get their picky kiddo’s to eat their veggies. I wish I knew about this clever recipe when raising my kids.
#SpinachMuffinMagic is what I’d call it!
The recipe Amy shared was called Popeye Muffins from thegreenforks.com. I made a few changes to make it whole food plant based no salt, oil or sugar (WFPB no SOS) compliant and they turned out super delicious. My first attempt I used oat flour while in the second iteration I opted for chickpea flour. Much to my surprise there wasn’t a noteworthy difference between the two. This recipe strikes a perfect balance of sweetness, effectively masking any trace of spinach flavor. The dark green color may look intense, yet funny enough, it could pass as camouflage on St. Patrick’s Day. With everything healthy in this recipe the more your little leprechaun’s eat the healthier they will be!
Ingredients
- 2 cups oat or chickpea flour (you can make your own flour by processing rolled oats or dried chickpeas into fine powder)
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup chopped raw pepitas
- 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 (6 oz. bag) fresh baby spinach
- 1/2 cup mashed banana (about 2 bananas)
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 3 – 4 unsweetened dry apricots
Directions
- Wisk together dry ingredients and set aside (flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, pepitas)
- Place milk and spinach in a high speed blender until completely pureed. Add the banana, applesauce and vanilla and blend until completely mixed.
- Pour pureed mixture into the dry mixture and fold together with a wooden spoon or plastic spatula until completely combined.
- Fill silicone muffin pan with the batter 3/4 full.
- Top the muffin batter with small pieces of dried apricots
- Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until tootpick inserted in center comes out clean.
