I had never used Quinoa in baking before so I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. I can safely say the quinoa makes the muffins so moist and delicious without drastically changing the texture or flavour – perfect!
What You Need:
Yield – 12 small muffins.
1 Cup cooked Quinoa
1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
3/4 Cup Light Brown Sugar – packed
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Cup Vegetable Oil – I use Smart Balance Omega oil
1/2 Cup Non-Fat plain Green Yogurt
2 Bananas – mashed
1 Cup diced Strawberries
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
What You Do:
Pre- heat oven to 400 F
Lightly grease a muffin or mini-muffin pan or use paper liners
Prepare Quinoa as per instructions on your package – allow to cool completely
In a medium bowl mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt – mix well.
Add in the Quinoa and mix to combine – it will look like giant crumbs of sand, that’s ok.
In another medium to large bowl, combine sugar and oil.
Add the yogurt, mashed banana and vanilla to the sugar mixture and blend well trying to smooth out as many lumps of banana as possible.
Add your sliced strawberries to the flour/quinoa mixture and mix well.
Add the flour/quinoa/strawberry mix to your yogurt mixture and fold gently to combine – do not over mix.
Drop teaspoon amounts into your muffin liners and fill until 3/4 full.
Place in your pre-heated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes. Mine were ready right at 25 minutes but check yours for a skewer to come out clean when inserted in the centre.
Allow them to cool firstly in the pan and then pop them out onto a wire rack (if you can wait to dig in!).
Pop them out and ENJOY!
These are great to grab for a breakfast on-the-go, for a morning or afternoon snack or for the kids – a tasty treat you can feel good about thanks to the nutritional boost from the quinoa.
We are definitely enjoying them in our house.
