We are so fortunate to belong to the Fordham CSA this year! Exclusively for students and employees of Fordham University, this farm share has been especially productive and generous with the amount of vegetables (and fruit) we receive. All the food is locally grown in upstate New York, and is distributed at Fordham’s Rose Hill campus each Thursday, for 22 weeks! Last week, because of the 4th of July holiday, we received a double share at once! Wow! So much food! More than we can just eat, so I’m coming up with creative things to do with so much food. Everything is overflowing: lettuces, cabbages, garlic, peppers, squashes, and beets! So many delicious, earthy beets! Pink, red, yellow, white and striped!
First thing I did with the beets was convince my husband to do the hard part – washing and peeling! We didn’t sort them by color, but rather, mixed all the types together. Next we boiled them for an hour, to get them as soft as possible. Next time I do this, I may try roasting instead, to retain more of the vitamins and color. I’m not sure how roasting will effect the flavor of the final product, however. I have so many more beets, I may just try it anyway! Once completely soft, my husband rinsed the beets in cool water and pureed them using a hand blender. Beet baby food!
Mixing all the different colors of beets resulted in a beautiful shade of intense pink.
The batter tastes so good! (The best part of vegan baking is that, without egg, it’s totally ok to enjoy raw!!)
Ingredients:
Dry Ingredients:
1/2 Cup garbanzo bean flour
1/2 Cup millet flour
1/4 Cup quinoa flour
1/2 Cup sorghum flour
1/2 Cup potato starch
1/4 Cup tapioca starch
1 Teaspoon xanthan gum
3/4 Cup powdered cocoa
2 Teaspoons baking powder
1 Teaspoon salt
Wet Ingredients:
2 Cups beet puree
1 Cup white sugar**
1 Cup coconut milk
1/2 Cup applesauce, unsweetened
1/3 Cup coconut oil, plus more for greasing
1 Teaspoon vanilla
Directions:
Ahead of time: peel and boil beets for about an hour, until fork easily pierces beets. Rinse in cool water, and drain thoroughly. Puree in food processor or with hand blender.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using coconut oil, grease a bundt cake pan.
Mix all wet ingredients together in the bowl of an electric mixer. ** This cake is not very sweet, and up to another half cup of sugar could be used to your taste.
In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients together. Slowly add the dry into the wet until well incorporated. Pour batter into bundt cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 60 minutes, until a wooden toothpick comes out clean.
Cool for about 20 minutes, then carefully turn cake over onto a plate.
Optional: Powdered sugar lightly sprinkled over the top would make a good addition to this cake. Enjoy with tea, coffee, or milk.
Experiments in Cooking for Allergies 