Deliciously Ella Vegan Sweet Potato Brownies

Last month, I came across this recipe in the The Telegraph magazine, featured in an article was about British food write Ella Woodward of Deliciously Ella. This is a plant based, gluten free recipe for chocolate brownies with sweet potatoes, ground almond, wholemeal (or buckwheat) flour, dates, cocoa powder, and golden syrup.

Ella started her blog two years ago to share her recipes for a whole foods, plant-based diet. In order to overcame a rare illness, she had given up all meat, dairy, sugar, gluten, anything processed and all chemicals and additives…and it worked!

The article really resonated with me, as I suffer from constant stomach aches and I have often considered switching to a “healthier” diet (or at least cutting down the processed food). I have tried low FODMAP, gluten-free and dairy-free diets for short periods, but I failed to stick to them as they compromised my social life too much. So for now I am just trying to make small changes to my diet and be more conscious about what I eat. Working step by step towards a better lifestyle and a healthier body.

Of all the recipes presented in the article about Deliciously Ella, I particularly liked the one for Sweet Potato Brownies. I was curious to find out how they tasted and I kept thinking about them for days after reading the article. I finally made them and they were great! My husband was happy to eat them every day and for once he didn’t moan about “fatty food” (as he usually does with my cakes…).

Gluten free Sweet Potato Brownies

I used wholemeal flour, but if you want to make gluten free brownies then you can replace it with buckwheat flour as per the original recipe.

Ella also uses raw cocoa, which on its own is considered a superfood as it is high in antioxidants unlike cocoa powder where the roasting process destroys the antioxidants. However, using raw cacao in baked recipes reduces its antioxidant activity, so I decided to use organic cocoa powder instead (which is cheaper and easier to find). If you want to learn more about raw cacao vs cocoa, I recommend this post by Nourish my life.

Ingredients

Makes 12 brownies

• 300g roasted sweet potatoes (2 medium to large sweet potatoes)
• 110g ground almonds
• 60g wholemeal flour
• 14 dates, pitted
• 4 tbsp organic cocoa powder
• 3 tbsp golden syrup
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into chunks. Steam them for about 20-30 minutes, until they become soft. Let them cool down, then mash them in a food processor with the pitted dates.

In a large bowl, mix the wholemeal flour, ground almonds, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Add the sweet potato and date mash. Mix well with a spatula. Add the golden syrup and stir.

Pour the mixture into a rectangular baking pan, that you previously lined with parchment paper.

Bake for about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool for about 10 minutes. Cut the brownies into squares and place them on a wire rack to completely cool down. Store them in an airtight container.