Black bean, Lentil and Beetroot brownies

This week I have been trying out a few new recipes. The recipes have been really delicious but they don't use whole cans of bean/lentils etc. This really annoys me because I am then left over with a bunch of food that I wouldn't really freeze and that I have no plans for for next week. So I decided to try and make some brownies to use all these ingredients up. I also had some left over roasted beetroots (that I had picked from our garden and roasted) so I thought I would add them in as I have made chocolate beetroot cake before and it was yummy! As a result, this recipe uses weird amounts of beans and lentils (ie. not full can amounts) so feel free to try this with a full can of black beans instead of a mixture of lentils and beans.

This recipe is very easy to prepare (just blend, fold, bake) and results in some dense brownies that are not too sweet and are quite rich in chocolate flavour.   

Black bean, lentil and beetroot brownies

Ingredients

190 g black beans, well rinsed
130 g lentils, well rinsed (can omit these and add a whole can of black beans instead)
70 g roasted beetroot
80 g brown sugar (1/2 cup firmly packed) (if you are a sweet tooth, add 3/4 cup sugar or 120 g)
1/2 cup cocoa
2 eggs
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
10 g coconut oil
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup (110 g) roughly chopped walnuts, pecans or chocolate chips

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius (350 F).

2. Place black beans, lentils, beetroot, brown sugar, cocoa, eggs, vanilla extract, coconut oil apple cider vinegar, baking powder and baking soda in the bowl of a food processor and blend until smooth. 

All of the ingredients ready to be blended.

3. Fold through the walnuts.

Folding through the walnuts.

4. Grease a muffin tray and spoon the batter into the tray (this recipe made 12 large brownies and 6 mini brownies). Spread the batter out unless you want some rustic looking brownies like mine. 

Baking time!!

5. Bake for 20 minutes or until cooked through. 

Mmmm! Brownies!

 6. Enjoy!

Mini Lemon and Poppyseed Friands

It's citrus time again! Specifically, lemon time. I love lemons; their tang, the smell of the zest... Mmmm! Delish! This year, my friend from work had lots and lots of lemons on her tree and I was lucky enough to acquire some of these lemons so we have been having a lot of lemony foods including: lemon chilli chicken pasta, lemon and coconut braised chickpeas with spinach and of course lemon friands. 

Lovely lemons

Friands have, funnily enough, always scared me to make. I have no idea why, maybe it's because they are French?! Recently, I decided to give them a go and I found that they are actually really easy and delicious. I love the dense almond texture and the flavour that the almonds give the mixture. I was craving this almondy flavour and texture combination so I decided that I would make some friands and mix in some of the lovely lemons I had around the place.

These friands are lightly lemony and with the addition of poppyseeds, they have an extra bit of crunchy texture in there- I really enjoyed them and I hope you do too. 

Lemon Friands (makes approx. 25)

Ingredients

195 g (1 1/2 cups) pure icing sugar, sifted (I have used icing mixture and they have worked fine)

75 g (1/2 cups) plain flour

155 g (1 1/2 cups) almond meal

3 eggs, lightly whisked

180 g unsalted butter melted and cooled (so you don't cook the eggs)

1 large lemon or 2 small lemons, zested and juiced

1/8 cup poppyseeds

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.

2. Melt and cool the butter (using the microwave is fine).

3. Grease you mini muffin pan or friand pan.

4. Combine, sugar, almond meal and plain flour in a bowl and make a well in the centre.

I used organic almond meal which gave the friands some colour, if you don't want this just use blanched almond meal.

5. Add the eggs and butter and mix until well combined.

The eggs and butter in the well.

6. Add the lemon zest, and juice and the poppyseeds and stir through.

Mixing in the lemon and poppyseeds. 

7. Fill your muffin pan with the mixture and bake for 15-20 mins or until golden on top.

Mini friands ready to be baked.

 

All nice and golden and yummy.

8. Dust with some icing sugar and serve. 

Nom Nom! So lemony and delicious! 

So to summarise:

Lemon Friands (makes approx 25)

Ingredients

195 g (1 1/2 cups) pure icing sugar, sifted (I have used icing mixture and they have worked fine)

75 g (1/2 cups) plain flour

155 g (1 1/2 cups) almond meal

3 eggs, lightly whisked

180 g unsalted butter melted and cooled (so you don't cook the eggs)

1 large lemon or 2 small lemons, zested and juiced

1/8 cup poppyseeds

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.

2. Melt and cool the butter (using the microwave is fine).

3. Grease you mini muffin pan or friand pan.

4. Combine, sugar, almond meal and plain flour in a bowl and make a well in the centre.

5. Add the eggs and butter and mix until well combined.

6. Add the lemon zest, and juice and the poppyseeds and stir through.

7. Fill your muffin pan with the mixture and bake for 15-20 mins or until golden on top.

8. Dust with some icing sugar and serve.

9. Enjoy!

These little guys are so easy to make! So why not have a go? 

Are you afraid to attempt to cook any food in particular?