I might be getting ahead of myself as the 2 main ingredients are only now being planted, and won't be ready to harvest until June time, but it gives you plenty of time to prep and try out using bought ingredients. Then when the time comes, you can wow your friends at dinner with home- grown, homemade treats that you have perfected.
They are, drum roll... Beetroot Chocolate Cake and Sweet Potato Brownies.
The recipes I've used are a mixture of ones I've seen on the internet and in my cook books. The sweet potato brownies are inspired by my new love; Deliciously Ella. Her diet is plant based and completely vegan, which doesn't suit me at all 'cos I love my meat, but the odd recipe of hers here and there goes down extremely well among my friends and I. So here's her recipe with a few tweaks of my own;
Sweet Potato Brownies
You will need
2 large sweet potatoes
25-30 prunes (this is my tweak from expensive medjool dates)
2/3 mug of ground almonds
1/2 mug of buckwheat flour
4 tbsp agave syrup (this is also a tweak from maple syrup)
3 tbsp cocoa powder
Start by peeling n chopping up the sweet potatoes.
Boil or steam them for about 20 minutes until they're super soft and getting mushy.
Put them aside to cool down for a few minutes.
Add all your dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well.
Next, add your sweet potatoes and prunes into a food processor and blend until a smooth mixture (you can obviously do this by hand too, will just take longer)
Add the sweet potato and prune mixture to your mixed dry ingredients and, voila, you have your brownie mixture. Add to a greased baking tin and pop into the oven at 180c for 20 minutes or until browned on top.
Make sure you leave to cool down for 10-15 minutes before taking out of tin and cutting.
It's literally one of the simplest recipes I've ever followed. It uses hardly any ingredients, and best of all, they're all super healthy and natural. Only problem is when your friends taste-test and expect the chunks of prunes to be melted chocolate chunks; quite disappointing! But don't let that put you off.
If it's just too healthy for you, try this next one. It has actual sugar and chocolate in...
This recipe is from River Cottage online. I can't resist anything that Hugh Fearnley -Whittingstall makes. He also has a dream vegetable garden that one day I will have re-created myself!
Beetroot Chocolate Cake
You will need:
250g beetroot (I used cooked, even though the recipe said raw. But I'm cheating using shop bought ingredients. I WILL use beetroots from my own garden for the next time)
200g dark chocolate (70% cocoa preferable)
150g caster sugar
120g ground almonds
1tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs (free range)
Start by melting the dark chocolate over a shimmering pan of water. Once this has all melted, remove from heat and leave to cool.
Next, take your beetroot and grate. I used my food processor again with the grater attachment (fancy I know)
With the eggs, separate the whites into a separate bowl, and add the yolks to the beetroot.
Add all your dry ingredients to the mix at this stage and mix well so there's no horrible lumps of sugar or baking powder. Now add the melted chocolate (if you haven't eaten the bowlful yet).
Finally, whisk the egg whites until they're soft peaks and fold into the mixture.
Bake in the oven at 180x for 50 minutes. I know- it's almost too long to wait.
Take out and cool before adding to a plate and consuming in one go.
I served these up for my two friends Lizzie and Nancy and they particularly liked the Beetroot Chocolate Cake, I was a very chuffed chef.
Let me know if you have any vegetable inspired desserts! Drop a comment below or email
xo
