Eat your veggies


This morning I had my favourite combination for breakfast: a cup of hot coffee, a banana, and a delicious little muffin. Not a regular muffin but a pumpkin-carrot one with light orange glaze. OK – the glaze part doesn’t really sound like healthy breakfast but we are eating our veggies here, so no complaints!

I love vegetables. Raw, steamed, sauteed or baked in any way – they are a healthy and tasty ingredient and make an appearance in almost every one of my meals. Not all vegetables taste delicious in sweet foods but some are great -- use your imagination and try out a few!
My muffins combine the sweetness of pumpkin and carrots with ground spices like cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg – not unlike pumpkin pie. I simply added these few things to flour, oil, eggs, raw sugar and voila – you have fresh muffins!  Of course, to add a little extra citrus sweetness, I made an orange icing.
spiced pumpkin-carrot muffins with orange glaze

makes 12 muffins
use organic where possible

muffins
1/4 cup oil (any non-fragrant oil)
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tbsp (30ml) milk
1/2 cup (200g) pumpkin – cooked and roughly chopped or pureed*
2 small carrots, grated
1/4 cup (30g) spelt flakes (use oat if you can’t find)
1 cup (130g) plain flour
pinch sea salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg and ginger
1 tsp baking powder

glaze
40g icing sugar
zest of 1/2 orange
juice from 1 quarter orange

Preheat oven to 175 degrees C.
In a large bowl, place oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla and milk, and mix well. Add carrots and pumpkin and mix further. Next, add all the dry ingredients – spelt flakes, flour, spices, sea salt and baking powder. Place batter into muffin cases or greased muffin tin and bake for 25-30 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean.  Take out and let cool.

For the glaze: in a small bowl mix all ingredients until forms a slightly thick pouring consistency. Pour over cooled muffins and serve.
*for the pumkin, I used leftover cooked pumpkin – I placed it into the food processor and pulsed a few times to give me a slightly pureed texture – some larger pieces are fine.


26 comments:

  1. Definitely a great way to get your vegetable intake for breakfast!

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  2. I just drooled over the photos.... I need to scroll back up and see the recipe. :) Beautiful!

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  3. It sounds like a perfect bake for breakfast :)

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  4. Delicious! These sound quite similar to some cake bars I made the other day, with pumpkin and an orange glaze. I love the way adding vegetables to cakes and muffins makes them lovely and moist. Yum!

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  5. ooh this would definitely make me want to eat my veggies!

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  6. Oh what sweet and pretty little muffins. I love adding carrots to baking as well. They always lend a light sweetness to things. And I love pumpkin anything this time of year! The glaze just puts it over the top for me! Beautiful photos!

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  7. I love adding vegetables to muffins, cakes and breads! Makes me feel like I am eating better!
    lovely muffins :)

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  8. absolutely hearty n delicious..
    first time here..love your space..
    very interesting posts..
    Am your happy follower now..:)
    do stop by mine sometime..
    Tasty Appetite

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  9. Sounds like a wonderful way to start the day and get a dose of vegetables while your at it!

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  10. Oh my--your pictures are fantastic! I wanted to pluck one of those muffins right off of the screen. I will come to visit more often...

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  11. delicious combination wonderfully done

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  12. Hi what a lovely blog you have here. Thanks for visiting my blog :)

    This sounds like a great way to start the day and get a few dosage of veggies in you. I'm always on the run and tend to skip breaky but a serve of this should definitely do the trick!

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  13. What fantastic little muffins! I'd eat these for breakfast anytime!

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  14. Beautiful muffins- am a not-so-secret veg lover too. These look like a perfect addition to a sunday brunch buffet...

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  15. yumm... I love pumpkin muffins and carrot muffins. Never had them together but I'd like to try! It seems like a match made in heaven :)

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  16. Pumkin is one of my fav veggie and when you mix it with carrot and orange it tastes amazing.
    Great work on those muffins... a perfect breakfast on the run !

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  17. Wow - these are amazing muffins and to be honest - I think the orange glaze is my favorite part! Your pictures are a feast for the eyes!

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  18. Sorry...forgot to add - following you on Google Follower!

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  19. This really looks and sounds delicious. I need to try them :) It's also a delight to click through your blog :)

    Love, Hippopanda

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  20. What a gorgeous flavour combination. I am going to have to try this ASAP. Love all your images they are exceptional, well done!

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  21. I love these muffins! This is certainly a great way not to miss one's daily vegetable dose. There's something about pumpkin and orange that explodes into something so home-y. It's a perfect combo! Great for breakfast on the run :)

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  22. Thanks everyone for the sweet comments! I hope you all had your dose of veggies today ; )

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  23. Easy to make and delicious. If you do not have a bag of cake decoration for a sturdy plastic bag, cut a bit off a corner, place the tip of the tool, and use it. I used pumpkin pie spice mix can be found in fish, spicy Carrot Muffins description.

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  24. What a great flavour combo for muffins! I have a favourite pumpkin cupcake recipe that would likely work wonderfully with orange and carrot. I suppose you could add the orange zest and juice to the batter (minus the milk in the muffin) instead of in the icing if you were feeling lazy :D

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  25. Hi Zo - thanks for the comment. Yes, I think those additions/changes would work perfectly. Good luck with your baking adventures!

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