A Protein Muffin To Serve With Soups And Stews
There are recipes that inspire and/or excite your child to the table, and then there are the recipes that, however inelegant, cram a lot of what you want your child to eat (i.e., protein, fiber) into the form they want to eat in (you know, like, cookies); this is the latter. It’s a muffin made of lentils, which will excite no one; it is, however, a muffin, and in miniature form will be exciting enough for your son or daughter to down a few and excise whatever guilt you may have from the highly processed foods they ate earlier in the day.
Think of this as you would cornbread, which it both looks and tastes like, and use it as such: as a side or companion to stews, curries, or soup; as a safe bet for calories and nutrition alongside the introduction of a new food or dish, or when serving something you are not sure your child will like. The flavor is mild, the texture pleasantly spongy; a sauce or condiment can be used to enhance or be mopped up. A perfectly functional food, you might say.
Ingredients
Instructions
Prep
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Soak the lentils in lukewarm water for 2 hours. Soak the dates in warm water for 10 minutes; remove skin.
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Once soaked, rinse and drain lentils. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the wells of your muffin tray.
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In a blender, add ingredients in the following order: milk, oil, dates, garlic and onion powders, one teaspoon of salt, a pinch of pepper, several shakes of basil, chickpea flour, a flurry of grated cheese, and the baking powder. Blend until smooth.
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Pour muffin batter into the wells of your muffin tray, filling each well up roughly 75% of the way (to leave room for muffins to rise).
Cook
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Heat for 11-12 minutes if making mini-muffins; 13-14 minutes if using a regular sized tray.
Serve
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If making mini-muffins, a toddler of 18 months or older can consume whole (or cut in half); for younger eaters, cut into quarters or smaller pieces. While the muffins are perfectly fine on their own, a little butter or cream cheese on top certainly will make them more appealing to your child.
Adapt
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The batter can be made into all sorts of forms: bread (will need to cook for more like 25-30 min), waffles, pancakes, etc. You can go sweeter by replacing the figs with a generous squeeze of honey; you could also go more savory by adding more seasonings, bits of tomatoes or olives, or even more cheese.
