Carrot Pulp Cake

I love my juicer. I have a Cuisenart Compact Juice Extractor and I use it fairly often, especially for carrot juice. But I am always concerned about the pulp that is left. I hate wasting it. I know people say that there is "nothing" left in the pulp of value but it is still food and I am loathe to waste it.

Today, I created about 7 cups of carrot pulp after making juice from "ugly" carrots at the market. I decided to try two ideas with the remaining pulp. One is still drying so I'll wait on sharing that with you but the other is carrot cake. I think it's yummy. Give it a try and let me know what else you do with juicing pulp please. I doubt I'll have any favourable responses from home if I try making cucumber pulp cake or something like that!

Carrot Pulp Cake

2 cups flour (I use Spelt all the time but regular is fine)
3/4 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon

3.5 cups (or so) carrot pulp from juicing
3/4 cup melted coconut oil

1/2 cup carrot juice (you could use orange too)
3/4 cup apple sauce

Raisins and Walnuts as desired

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x11 cake pan or muffin tins.

In a large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients with a large metal spoon. Mix in the carrot pulp and coconut oil. Make sure it is really well mixed.

Mix in the carrot juice and apple sauce. Again, make sure it is all really well mixed together. Add in the raisins or walnuts. The batter will feel really heavy, more like cookie batter than cake batter.

Spread in the pan. I used my hands to level it out. Bake for 45 minutes if you are making the cake. If you are making muffins, bake for 25 minutes then check that a knife in the middle comes out clean. Let cool. This cake is really orange. Maybe the orange juice would change the colour?













Now, if you want vegan icing, this is the best recipe ever.

1/4 cup tofutti cream cheese
1/4 cup vegan mayo
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1-2 tsp lemon juice as desired

Mix the icing sugar, cream cheese, mayo and vanilla together. Add 1 tsp lemon juice then taste. Add more lemon juice as desired. Spread on cooled cake.

I cut the cake in two and layered it. There was enough icing to do this.

Keep the cake refridgerated. Because it is so moist, it will quickly become "wet" and ferment.







- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Slow Cooker Brownies

Yes, these are indeed cooked in the slow cooker. We found them to be a little under-chocolatey but maybe adding a bit more cocoa will help next time. We'd certainly eat them again!

This is a double batch for a large crockpot. If you have a small crockpot for 2, make half the recipe.

I used chia seeds and water but you could also use ground flax seed. If you use chia seeds, there are little seeds in your brownies. Doesn't change the flavour, just the look.

Adapted from Vegan Slow Cooking for Two or Just You

In a medium bowl, mix:
1.5 cups flour (I used spelt)
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

In a large measuring jug, mix:
4 tbsp chia seeds and 1/2 cup warm water and let sit a couple minutes until it starts to get gluey

Add to the chia mixture:
1 cup non-dairy milk (I used coconut)
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp vanilla

Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix well. Add chocolate chips or nuts if you want.

Spray your crockpot then pour the batter in and spread it out to be even. Put a teatowel under the lid to collect the moisture as it cooks.

Bake 45-90 minutes on high depending on your crockpot. Mine took 90 minutes. The top should be firm. Let cool and enjoy!






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Chocolate Pudding

This comes as a request from a friend who is apparently turning into a muffin because she is making my "instant yummy muffin" recipe all the time. I love this pudding recipe because it's fast, easy and yummy. I've served it on top of frozen blueberries and raspberries as a dessert for guests and no-one has complained that it tastes like tofu. That's the beauty of silken tofu. I buy mine at Superstore or Save-on-Foods.

Firm or Soft - whatever you can find.

Chocolate Pudding (adapted from Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson)

1 cup semi-sweet vegan chocolate chips
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 12oz package of silken tofu
1 tsp vanilla extract
raspberries and blueberries

Melt the chocolate chips with the maple syrup in the top of a double boiler or in the microwave. Heat 30 seconds, stir, then heat again. Don't let it burn! Stir it and let it cool slightly.

Place the tofu and vanilla in a blender or food processor. Blend until it's smooth. Add the melted chocolate mixture and blend until it's well combined.

Put blueberries and raspberries in the bottom of individual glasses or in a serving bowl. Cover with the pudding and refrigerate for 2 hours until it's firm (or eat it when it's more liquidy if you can't wait!)

Fruit Grunt

Okay - so who came up with this title? Did the first woman who made this only get a grunt from her husband when he tried it after a long day out in the fields? Surely he could have been more appreciative and then it would be called a fruit wow or a fruit yum or even a fruit thanks dear. But no, a fruit grunt it is.

I use whatever fruit I have on hand or in the freezer. If it's frozen fruit, I use 1/4 cup water but if it's fresh fruit then I use a 1/2 cup water.

You can use regular flour for this recipe but this is also a good recipe to try other flours too. I used kamut flour today and have used spelt or oat flour as well. Depending on how fine the flour is, you'll need to add more "milk" to make an actual dough.

Fruit Grunt

4 cups fruit of your choice (peaches, berries, apples, apricots...), in cubes
1/4 - 1/2 cup water (see note above)
maple syrup

1+1/4 cup flour (also see note above!)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/3 cup to 1 cup non-dairy milk (I use unsweetened almond milk - you should check the note above too)
2 tbsp canola oil

In a medium saucepan with a tight fitting lid, heat the fruit and water drizzled with maple syrup (sweetened to your own taste) until it starts to simmer. Turn the heat down, cover and let the fruit simmer while you make the dough.

In a medium bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Make a well in the centre and pour in the milk and oil. Start with 1/3 cup milk and stir then add more milk to make a thick dough that holds together. Chunky is fine!

Remove the lid from the fruit and drop large spoonfuls of dough on top of the fruit. I usually get about 10 dollops of dough spread over the fruit. It doesn't matter if there are "un-doughed" areas. Put the lid on and leave it to simmer for 13 minutes. Don't take off the lid to look! After 13 minutes, the dough should be cooked. Test by piercing a dumpling with a skewer. If it comes out clean then the dumplings are ready.

Serve warm and the fruit mixture will be thicker but runny underneath. The following day the dumplings have absorbed most of the liquid but then it is a yummy treat cold or reheated for breakfast!