Hola Friends!
I know, I know, it’s not Friday so you may be asking yourself “what in the heck is Pura doing on a Monday?” You guessed it, it’s #fruitsandveggiesmonday and I’ve come out to play. This is long over due so thanks to @plantstoplanks and @lenasveganliving for having me.
A couple of weeks ago I bought some local, strange looking produce from the store. For those of you who don’t know, I’m in Costa Rica where there are lots of local fruit and veggies that I haven’t worked with before, let alone tried. I decided to live on the edge and get a few things to experiment with.
I kept seeing this big round dark green pumpkin shaped looking vegetable and decided that it was the winner. I took her home pondering what I could do with her and taaadaaaaa… out came this creation…
Chocolate Chip Ayote Bread
It’s Ayote not chayote and yes it’s a squash. At first I figured I could make some yummy fries like I would out of a butternut (is it okay to shorten butternut squash?) but upon further discussion with a local I was quickly informed that that was a silly idea. Apparently this particular squash is used for a sweet cream dessert native to Nicaragua. My Ayote expert said the consistency was all wrong for fries so I had to think again about what to create.
Not long into this thinking process I came up with making a pumpkin Ayote Bread. Have I mentioned it’s not only vegan but also gluten free and refined sugar free. The chocolate chips are even sugar free, which is a tough feet to accomplish in Costa Rica where you’re lucky to find chili powder in a store. Anyway, it worked like a charm.
This all came about because a good friend of mine @cicisaja reminded me of all the veggies I still had to discover here and I proudly showed her this…
… at the time I had no idea what I was going to do with it. Thanks “C” for always exposing me to wonderfully different tropical Fruits and Veggies- you rock! Go ahead, google “Ayote recipes” and see what you find. They will all be a sweet soup or cream dessert recipe so I’m happy to add this little number to the repertoire.
Ingredients
1.75 Cups gluten free flour
1.25 Cups Ayote (puréed)
1/3 Cup almond milk (or coconut milk)
2 Tsp baking powder
1/2 Tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 Tsp pink salt
1/3 Cup coconut oil
2 Tsp vanilla extract
1/4 Cup agave
1/4 Cup pineapple juice
Sugar free chocolate chips to taste (the more the merrier 😉)
Set your oven to 350 F and unwrap that green pumpkin (I don’t know why they insist on wasting plastic by wrapping the produce here, maybe it helps to preserve the fruit. Wait, isn’t that what the thick and shiny skin is for? 🤔 I’ll have to investigate this further at a later time… ), and cut in half like you would a small pumpkin.
Scoop out all the seeds (like a pumpkin) and spray olive oil on a cookie sheet. Place the Ayote halves face down on the pan then drizzle a little olive oil over their back side.
Use tin foil to make a semi tent covering the Ayote pieces. Place in the oven for 35-45 minutes or until a fork can easily penetrate the skin.
Now you want to wait a bit until the squash cools before ravaging the skin off and steem burning your fingers while incessantly chanting obscenities making your husband question your sanity, or you can just go for it and see what happens 🤷🏼♀️.
Place the freshly peeled pieces into your food processor and process until smooth. Set aside…
In another bowl mix all of the dry ingredients then set aside. In yet another bowl, mix all of your wet ingredients including the Ayote purée. Go ahead and taste the mixture to see if it’s sweet enough for you and if not add a little more agave or pineapple juice. I wanted this bread to be less sweet and more mild so as to not feel guilty while scarfing it down for breakfast. It really didn’t matter though because it never even made it through the day 🤦🏼♀️.
Combine the two bowls, careful not to over mix and pour into a greased bread pan. Use a knife, spatula, or other device to smooth and even the batter then sprinkle with additional chocolate chips (sugar free guilt free) and place in the oven for 35-45 minutes.
Pull out and slice up a third to bring to the local that inspired the dish. I dusted the bread in powdered sugar only to make it look nice for our neighbors.
@dandays and I fully intended on eating this over the course of a few days but lost our discipline in the yumminess. There’s a reason both of us have gained 10 pounds in a couple months… don’t worry we are working it off now, it just takes a little longer to lose these days.
Told ya @plantstoplanks that I’d be over this week… I’m off now to finish laundry and record this weeks new recipe. My producer is looking at me like “hurry it up”. Haha
Thanks for reading and Pura Vida ✌️
yummy I like this and I hope @dandays liked it lol
I’m lucky in that he likes everything I put in front of him :)
lol like me, I eat most foods hehe
That’s good :)
Mouth watering, I just woke up from the recliner and could use a good midnight snack, wish You had saved me a piece.
When you guys come out I’ll make you your own batch :)
Oh well, me and my sweet tooth would definitely not be able to make this spicy squashy chocolaty bread stretch over a couple of days, looks really yummy @puravidaville plus it's gluten free!
We couldn’t either :) hence the 10 extra pounds. Haha. You know, I need to play with the gluten free flours here because I’m not so happy with the one I have now. The problem is that I never have much of a selection if I can even find it in the grocery store. It probably better just to stick to almond flour 🤷🏼♀️ Thanks for swinging by @lizelle :)
Gluten free flour is hard to come by here as well.
I read an article by an artisan baker who believes that sourdough bread prepared the old fashioned way could be the answer to gluten intolerance, quite an interesting read on that here: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/mar/23/sourdough-bread-gluten-intolerance-food-health-celiac-disease.
Many bakers also profess that it's the chemicals in today's flour that cause the discomfort of what everyone believes to be gluten intolerance and not the gluten itself, so that is food for thought if you have that problem!
But then maybe I shouldn't be telling you all these things, I mean you don't want to start eating bread now with the 10 extra pounds not so ;);)
Oh @lizelle, lizelle, lizelle, I eat bread everyday, potatoes too. It is torture for me to abstain from those things. Usually flat breads don’t seem to bother me as much and I just limit the amount of gluten I do consume. If sour dough bread is the answer than I have to believe that my assumption was correct, bread is God’s food 😉. I’ll check the article out in a minute. If only I can get some good ole San Francisco sour dough down here in Costa Rica then you would be answering all of my prayers. Haha.
You both gained ten pounds of love these months...
That’s a cute way of framing it. Too bad that cuteness doesn’t carry over to our bikinis. Haha… I kid, @dandays doesn’t wear a bikini 😉
Looks like a perfect guilty pleasure for once in a while
Good luck in the #fruitsandveggiesmonday
😋 Thanks @byebyehamburgers.
Hey @puravidaville, you always come up with something good. I can't keep up with your posting. I am finally settled back at home and I will have time to try some of your recipes and recipes from fff and favm. Skillet cookie coming up this week.
Skillet cookie is bomb!!!! Don’t even think about topping it with vegan ice cream or anything 🤤. I’m glad you like my recipes. They are fun to create but sometimes they force us to eat the same thing for an entire week. Haha… I guess it’s fine when you are willing to live off things like hummus or Ayote bread :)
And join in, you did! With a totally delicious treat, no less. When I say "treat" I mean something I would have absolutely no guilt about eating for breakfast (or snacks or whatever) either! I definitely don't think I've ever seen Ayote before, but sounds like it was the perfect sub for pumpkin. I think as long as you don't shorten butternut to "butt squash" you're doing alright. I suppose this will do well to tide me over until that next video drops. Thanks for coming out of Monday retirement to join in with us! 😍
Dang it… I should’ve thought of “butt squash”, where was my head on tat one? Haha. Thanks for the warm welcome @plantstoplanks. It’s nice to be back in the fruits and veggies Monday crew. I’m looking forward to more peeps joining in so I can read their entries. If I can’t have it myself I can live vicariously through you guys and all of your produce having arses :)
Well just leave it to me to bring out the elementary school humor. ;)
:)
that looks delicious. Good job! When you guys back to the central valley(GAM) ?
Hey, thanks @raserrano. We are up in Guanacaste right now with no plans to go back to the Central Valley. We much prefer it up here 🤷🏼♀️
How’s Dad life treating you? I bet she is growing so fast, they usually do. Haha
It going pretty well. IN that case i guess I'll have to visit you guys up there. Sure thing that's the reason I want to move up :P
Come on up anytime. We would love to have you over, as long as you don’t mind eating wherever you fit. Haha… we tend to live in smaller spaces :) The beach is always waiting for you 😉
That would be awesome!
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Wait, how did I miss this? Oh I know, I haven't had service....and it is slower than a snail right now, but I wanted to drop you a like and see what you are up to! This bread looks awesome pura. I haven't bought this squash before but chocolate chips, woo I'm going to have to mark this recipe and whip it up when I get home. Don't think I could bake it over the campfire, lol! Beautiful FAVM entry!
Thanks Mrs Bird! I’m glad you got a chance to check it out. Costa Rican “pumpkin bread”. Haha… sounds like you guys are having fun… s’mores are always better over fire anyways :). Yummmm… s’mores…
Thanks @tts !