Eat Your Vegetables

Yesterday, I introduced my roommate to the Leroy Jenkins viral video.

So now you get to enjoy it again, too.

You're welcome.

This blog post is brought to you by the recent realization I had that avocado truffles are a thing:

Yep, those are made with avocados. You can find the recipe here at 80 Twenty Nutrition.

At first, my response was, "Well, that sounds healthy, but what?" My second response was, "Actually, avocado is used a lot as a butter substitute in vegan cooking, so to use it as a cream substitute in a truffle makes a lot of sense." My third thought was, "Yay! Now I can bring vegan truffles to my writing group!"

I'm not vegan; a member of my group is. I just like cooking, baking, and messing with recipes. Plus, (here it comes) I started training for the marathon today, so I'm hungry for recipes that taste good but give me the wellness I need to run this stinkin' long race.

But I haven't gotten to my fourth thought yet. It was this: "What other vegetable-based desserts (other than carrot cake and other obvious ones) are out there?"

So, here's a list of the weirdest veggie-based desserts I have found. I haven't tried them (yet), but I'm not here to comment on how tasty they are, just on how baffled I am that someone came up with the idea to try this in the first place.

Gotta start with Black Bean Brownies:

Okay, I already lied. I have made these. They start the list because black beans always reminded me of Mexican food, not chocolatey goodness. But the result was dense and tasty, if a little "veggie" in the aftertaste. High in fiber, too.

Speaking of Mexican food...

Jalapeno Chocolate Chip Cookies.

WHY DOES THIS EXIST???

And here's another vegan option:

Strawberry Cheesecake. With a cauliflower/cashew blend instead of cheese.

And tons and tons of things to do with beets, corn, and our good friend avocado. Not to mention zucchini.

But I had to take it further. Now, what vegetables are objectively labeled "the worst"? The ones no kid will eat? Broccoli, spinach, and Brussels sprouts, right? So, can I find dessert recipes using them?

Yep.

Broccoli Brownies.

Baked Lemon Spinach Doughnuts.

(Although, in fairness, spinach seems about as popular as zucchini in desserts, so there's a lot out there.)

And...I found nothing for Brussels sprouts. It seems there are limits to what you can combine with sugar.

For now. Who knows? Maybe my next experiment will be somehow putting Brussels sprouts in brownies. They're not that different from broccoli, right?

Maybe after I figure out how to put garlic in a cookie someone would actually want to eat. And find someone willing to test it.

Any takers?