I've been doing my best to eat plant-based since Oct of last year (2017) and it's been going remarkably well. It has been a gradual thing for me - I was pescatarian (eating fish but no meat) for about 4 years prior to that but when I educated myself on a few things I realised it didn't sit well with me to be eating fish and dairy due to the cruelty involved and the fact that I love so many other foods that don't involve suffering, means I am lucky i can make the choice to eat this way. (I'm going to leave it at that as this is a blog of a recipe....this is a lovely, easy loaf to make and eat whatever your eating habits are)Firstly this is definitely more bread-like than cake-like - it is quite dense but can be lightened up by changing the flour used. I do not like anything that is 'scream in your face' sweet....in fact I prefer bread to cake but this does have a subtle background sweetness due to the banana and date syrup used. With the quantities used there is not an overwhelmingly banana flavour but again if you want that - you can easily tweak the recipe.
There is an ingredient called aquafaba - which is basically the whipped up water from a tin of chickpeas (i did experiment and tried with the water from some butter beans and it worked just as well) This is in lieu of eggs and appeals to me as I hate waste and like to use everything I can!!
Ingredients:
2 small ripe bananas
Quarter cup of melted coconut oil or other mild flavoured oil
Quarter cup of date syrup
Three Quarter cups of aquafaba
2 cups of flour - I used 1 cup of spelt and 1 of regular white flour, have used all spelt, does work fine, but not as light!
1 Teaspoon mixed spice
1 Teaspoon baking powder
1-2 tablepoons of soya yoghurt or plant milk (I love Alpro coconut yoghurt for this)
Equipment:
Loaf tin oiled
Electric hand blender (can use hand whisk)
Large bowl
Method:
1. Drain liquid from a tin of chickpeas.
2. Whizz up in a bowl either with a hand blender or whisk - it shouold whip up all bubbly pretty quickly.
3. Break up the bananas into the bowl and whizz some more.
4. Melt the coconut oil to liquid and add to the bowl.
5. Add the flour, baking powder and spice and fold in - combining everything throughly.
6. Start adding the milk or yoghurt slowly until the mixture loosens a bit. I mix it to almost dropping consistency but not quite - use your intuition!
7. Transfer mix to oiled loaf tin.
8 Bake at about 180degs (fan oven) for approx 30-35 minutes. It should rise really well and goes a little cracked on top but the crunchy top bits are the best!
9. Eat when a little warm either as is or with a little vegan butter or almond butter spread on top. Would be ace with vegan custard too.
10. ENJOY!!
