Zucchini bread is a long-time family favorite. So, why not beet bread? Beets are like the forgotten vegetable. I’m ready to change that. That’s right. I’m talking about a beet revolution.
To be perfectly honest, I’ve always been a little bit hesitant to cook beets. I think it’s because I didn’t know what to do with them until I came up with the idea of creating blueberry beet bread.
Wet Ingredients1 extra-large organic beet (about the size of an apple) or 2 or 3 smaller organic beets
1 cup organic blueberries
1 ripe organic banana
1 egg and 2 egg whites
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup organic applesauce
Juice of 1 organic lemon
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Dry Ingredients
2 cups gluten-free flour
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
1/2 cup organic light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Wash the beets thoroughly with a vegetable brush and trim the ends off. The next step is to cook the beets. I learned from my mom that there are a number of ways to slow-cook beets from roasting to boiling. But as a busy mom-on-the-go, I prefer a shorter alternative; I cook beets in the microwave for about 8 minutes.Place the cooked and peeled beets into the blender with the blueberries and 1 banana. Purée the beets for 30 to 60 seconds, until smooth. The combination of the beets and blueberries makes for a healthy, yummy mixture. And the color is extraordinary! Kids love bright color, so this was a fun recipe to make side-by-side with my son.
Crack the eggs and place them in a large bowl and beat the eggs. Add the olive oil, applesauce, lemon juice and vanilla to the eggs and mix the ingredients together. Be sure not to get any lemon seeds into the mixture. Slowly mix the blueberry, beet and banana purée into the egg mixture and blend until smooth.
In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir. The texture of the batter needs to be pretty soft, in order to make moist bread.
Grease a 9x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for approximately 50 to 60 minutes. Oven times may vary, so in order to know if it’s done, stick a toothpick into the middle of the bread until it comes out clean. Once the bread has been baked, let it sit for 10 minutes to cool on a wire rack.At this point, my son said, “Mommy it’s pink bread.” My husband, son and I discovered that pink bread tastes good! This is a fun recipe to try. Please join me in my beet revolution!
What are your favorite beet recipes? And, what types of vegetables are you putting into your bread? Let me know in the comments below. The challenge is on!
