Having started developing recipes for Foodini with muffins in very many forms (Otto ate a LOT of mini muffins when he was starting eating solids), I have a soft spot for the soft and fluffy sort-of-cakes that can carry SO many fruits, veggies, flours and spices!
We’ve developed a fair number of muffin recipes over the last few years, starting with the Cornana (courgette and banana) classic that kicked things off to Plum Duffins for Aquila magazine’s Charles Dickens December special and many variations in between…
However, we haven’t often featured a savoury muffin. We played with pear and cheese once but the pear was still adding sweetness… So, these savoury muffins are all the better for their pure veggie content and are a delicious lunchbox or picnic alternative to sandwiches!
This is quite a forgiving recipe so you can swap in and out various vegetables as you wish. Also change up spices if you like, and add or subtract salt to your taste…
As with most muffin recipes these are grate (see what we did there) to make with young chefs – why not get them to choose which veg they put in and get them practising their grating skills?
Two things that are really important:
- That you really wring out the liquid from the courgette and carrot after grating as this will dramatically change the moisture content of the end product.
- That you really grease the muffin tin well – these do stick to the tin so if you can use silicone liners or muffin cases then all the better! (On that note we really love the If You Care Baking Cups, they’re brill)
Ingredients
- 1 cup grated carrot (approx 1 small-medium carrot)
- 1 cup grated courgette (approx half of a large courgette)
- 1 small parsnip
- Handful of fresh cooking spinach, washed
- 2 eggs or flax eggs
- 120ml milk or plant milk (we like Oat)
- 60ml olive oil
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 0.5 – 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup grated cheese (we used cheddar)
- 1 cup / 120g spelt flour
- 0.5 cup / 55g gram (aka chickpea) flour
- 0.5 cup wholemeal flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 180C
- Grate all the veggies and finely chop the spinach
- Mix in a bowl with the eggs/flax egg, oil, milk, cheese, paprika, salt & garlic powder
- Mix the flours & baking powder into the wet mix and combine with around 8-10 mixes of the bowl (you don’t want to overmix as they loose their fluffiness)
- Scoop into a very well oiled or lined muffin tray to just under the top of each hole
- Bake for 20-25mins until a knife or skewer poked through the middle comes out clean
- Let cool completely before storing in an airtight container or freezing for up to 1 month. If you store them before then the moisture will make them go soggy and no-one likes a soggy muffin!