Getting an invite to Cheryl and Ulle’s farm to pick blueberries is something I look forward to every year. I mean no where else could you pick blueberries among a friendly herd of Sheltie pups, a family of happy quacking ducks, honking geese and clucking chickens in the setting of a gorgeous farm on a hot summer evening. Cheryl and Ulle’s blueberries aren’t just any blueberries. These are the sweetest, juiciest and most flavorful blueberries EVER!! Every year I come home with a big huge bag of berries and dream of all the ways I am going to eat them.
Well today I started thinking about blueberry muffins. A few years back I made a batch of vegan muffins but wasn’t happy with the way they turned out. Yesterday I tried a new recipe in Fork Over Knives and all I can say is OMG!
These muffins are INSANELY DELICIOUS.
The recipe made 12 muffins. Today there are only 5 left. The good news is they are extremely healthy so, in the words of Dr. Michael Greger, “the more you eat the healthier you are!”
It is recommended that we get one daily serving of berries and three servings of other fruit a day. Berries are singled out for their potent anticancer properties. Berries are second only to herbs and spices as the most antioxidant packed food. Among all the berries, blueberries are the star performer.
Ingredients:
- 12 dates pitted
- 1 cup unflavored, unsweetened plant based milk
- 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
- 3/4 cups millet
- 2 tsps. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 tsp. lemon zest
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
- 1/2 cup roughly chopped walnuts
Directions:
- In a bowl cover the dates with the plant based milk and set aside (so the dates soften).
- Grind the oats and millet in a high speed blender and place into mixing bowl. Add the baking powder and cardamom and stir with a fork.
- Place the dates and plant based milk in a blender and blend until smooth. Add the date mixture to the bowl of dry ingredients along with the applesauce and lemon zest. Mix with a spoon until all the ingredients have been disappeared.
- Fold in the blueberries and chopped walnuts. Spoon the batter into a silicone muffin pan or parchment muffin papers filling each cup 3/4 full. Since the batter does not contain oil the muffins may stick to regular cupcake papers.
Note: The use of cardimom and lemon zest add a really special flavor to these muffins so neither should be omitted. Also, the dates give just the right amount of sweetness and have a low glycemic index (between 44 – 53) compared to table sugar which has a high glycemic index (100). Foods with high glycemic index raise blood sugar quickly. Foods with low glycemic index release glucose slowly and steadily.
