Banana chocolate muffins

This was my first attempt at making vegan muffins, and they turned out pretty awesome!


Ingredients:

(Makes 12 muffins)

3 ripe bananas
1/4 cup sunflower oil
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 bar dark chocolate (100g), chopped into rough chunks


Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 200º and line a muffin tray with 12 muffin cases.

In a large bowl mash the bananas with a fork until they're completely pulverised, with no lumps.

Add the sugar and oil and mix until well combined.

In a separate bowl combine the flour, salt, and baking soda and then add to the wet mixture, mixing only enough to combine the ingredients and then stir in the chocolate chunks.

Spoon this mixture into your prepared muffin cases - they'll each be about 1/2 full.

Put in the center of the oven and bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until they're risen and golden on top, and a skewer poked in the middle comes out clean.

Try to leave them to cool on a wire rack before eating them...

Lentil burgers (barbecue time is here!)

It's too warm at the moment. Like sitting on the surface of the sun kind of warm. Obviously that means it's time for lazy weekend barbecues.

These burgers love to be barbecued (and don't fall apart, bonus!) but they're just as happy to be grilled.

Ingredients:

(Makes 8 burgers)

1 clove of garlic
1 small onion
1.5 cups cooked brown lentils
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
0.5 cup wheat gluten
3 tbsp linseeds (omega-3 go!)
2 tbsp soy sauce (or substitute one of these for worcester sauce, but make sure it doesn't have anchovies!)
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp water
0.5 cup oats
0.5 cup breadcrumbs
0.5 tsp ground black pepper
0.5 tsp chilli flakes

Method:

Put the garlic in a blender and pulse until finely minced. Then add the onion and pulse until it's finely chopped.

Add the rest of the ingredients.

And then blend until well mixed. Easy, right?

Now, throw this mixture into a bowl and kneed it for a few minutes to make a firm dough. Divide this dough into eight equal portions and shape into burger shapes. You can use one of those fancy burger presses if you have one, but I don't, so I use my hands. Very artistic.

Now you simply need to cook them until browned. Just make sure to brush the surface with a little bit of oil first or they will want to stay there.

Enjoy!