Do you like brownies? Then I recommend you try this beetroot variant, which tastes just as delicious as the original, but is incomparably less calorie-dense.
Most people are surprised when you tell them that these brownies contain beetroot, as you can’t taste it after baking. However, the addition of beetroot gives the brownies a lovely wet and gooey consistency without having to use large amounts of fat or chocolate as you would with traditional brownies.
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp crushed flexseed + 5 tbsp water
- 70g cocoa
- 70g sugar
- 230g flour
- 100g margarine (melted)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 100g dark chocolate chopped into pieces
- 500g cooked beetroot (approx. 2 pcs)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Procedure:
- If you have the opportunity, buy already pre-cooked beetroot. If not, boil the whole beetroot with the skin in water until tender. It is a good idea to add a little lemon juice to the water to preserve its nice colour.
- When the beetroot has cooled, peel it, cut it into cubes and put it in a tall container. Then use an immersion blender to puree the beetroot.
- Meanwhile, prepare the flax seeds. These will replace the eggs in the cake.
- Put these in a bowl, cover with water, mix well and leave to infuse for 5 minutes.
- Sift the flour, cocoa powder and caster sugar into a large bowl.
- Add the melted margarine, beetroot, baking powder, flaxseed and cinnamon. Mix.
- Finally, add the chocolate chunks and stir them into the batter.
- Line a smaller baking tin (mine is 25x32cm) with baking paper and pour the batter into the tin and line it up.
- Bake at 180C approx. 30 minutes, until the brownies start to smell fragrant. A simple test to see if they are done – stick a toothpick into the batter, when it comes out clean the batter is done. If there are still bits of batter sticking to it, leave in the oven for a short time.
- Once the brownies have cooled, decorate to taste. I used colored white (vegan) chocolate and finely chopped chunks of dehydrated beetroot.