Sweet potato brownies – a gluten free, grain free recipe
It was a recipe someone had shared with me on Facebook knowing I love everything made with potatoes rather than grains. Even gluten-free grains can be an issue for me especially brown rice – I get tired, my muscles ache and I am stiff all over. It is actually worse than wheat for me! So I mainly eat root vegetables and do no grains except the occasional granola bar, granola and espresso chocolate chip cookie from Tabor Farms and poppy seed log called Makownik at Christmas time. But I digress.
You also know by now that I love to modify recipes to make them healthier. I am also big on the anti-inflammatory diet. This is the original recipe posted as Anti-Inflammatory Sweet Potato Brownies (which also lists some benefits and anti-inflammatory properties of sweet potatoes and vitamins so I won’t repeat them).
I did make them but added a few things like flax seed meal (fat and fiber t balance blood sugar better) and vanilla extract. Here is my revised version.
Ingredients
- 1 cup baked sweet potato, cubed or mashed
- 1/2 cup nut butter or flour – almond or cashew is my favorite
- 1/3 cup flax seed meal
- 1 tspn vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder or cocoa nib powder
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips (or if you run out, use 8-10 Dove chocolates
What to do
- Place all ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth. (note, if you want to see the chocolate chips, then mix them in at the end. Same with walnuts – you could add some chopped walnuts for added texture but fold them in)
- Spray a 8×8 pan (or 9 inch round pan like I used) with olive oil. Use a tissue to evenly spread along bottom and edges. Then use 1+ tspn of Bob’s Red Mill gluten free to cover the pan so the brownies don’t stick.
- Spoon out the batter and spread across the pan in as even a layer as you can.
- Bake at 325*F for at most 20 minutes. Let cool, slice and enjoy!
Additional options:
- Add 1 cooked beet with the sweet potato to make it still 1 cup
- Add 1/4 cup of raw chopped walnuts
- Add 1/2 cup fresh kale (or baby chard, spinach and kale mix)
I took these with me on my bike ride with a baked potato. Had some triathlete friends at the triathlon I was watching try them, a little apprehensively…..But they both said “wow, these are amazing! I need the recipe!” So I hope you enjoy them too!
I store mine in the refrigerator in a baggie. They last that way for almost a week. When I need a quick snack, these are a great alternative to other bars and fruit athletes commonly eat which can spike the blood sugar. Adding the flax seeds helps to slow the absorption of sugar and makes this brownie more metabolically efficient.
Let me know if you make them – the original way, or with the beets and greens. And if you make other alterations that work well, please share!
If you have a recipe you would like me to review and make into a healthier option, please contact me and I will do a Recipe Makevoer for $20.00.
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