Quinoa Banana Muffins

I just wanted to share a recipe I adapted slightly from the new Forks Over Knives cookbook. I can’t believe how filling these muffins are!!

This recipe calls for spelt flour which you could probably substitute for any other type of flour but I encourage you to give spelt flour a try! I was able to find it at my local grocery store in the organic foods section. Spelt flour has a slight nutty flavor and contains more protein than wheat. It does contain gluten so it’s not suitable for a gluten-free diet but some people claim they can eat spelt even though they’re sensitive to wheat. One cup of cooked spelt contains about 250 calories and 11 grams of protein.

Another interesting thing about this recipe is the quinoa. I’ve cooked with quinoa before but I’ve never used it for baking. You can’t even tell there is quinoa in these muffins but I think that’s what gives them a little bit of a chewy texture. Although it’s possible I overmixed the batter too. When you mix all the ingredients together you won’t get a type of batter that you’re used to having with muffins, it’s more like a dough–kinda thick.

The original recipe called for more sugar aka “dry sweetener” but I cut that back a little bit. I also forgot to add the salt when I made these…so if you feel like leaving that out too they’ll still taste good! 🙂

Quinoa Banana Muffins

2 cups spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar (or your preferred dry sweetener)
1 cup mashed banana (from ~ 2 large ripe bananas, peeled)
1/4 cup almond milk
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup cooked quinoa

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and prepare a 12 cup muffin tin. If your quinoa isn’t already cooked you’ll want to get that going before you start mixing the other ingredients.
2. In a large mixing bowl sift together the spelt flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and sweetener. In another bowl mash the bananas and add the almond milk, applesauce, and vanilla. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry until just moistened but do not overmix. Fold in the quinoa.
3. Fill the muffin cups with an equal amount of batter and bake for ~ 20 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy!!