Thursday, July 12, 2012

Beans, Berries, & Brownies

The black bean brownie craze made its way through the vegan blogosphere a few years back, and while I was always intrigued, I was never, like, "OMG, I gotta make those." I'm pretty adventurous when it comes to food, but beans and brownies? I just wasn't so sure.

But as I recently professed in my review of Eat & Run, I'm a newly converted Scott Jurek fangirl. When I saw his recipe for Chocolate Adzuki Bean Bars in Eat & Run, I became a believer:


I made a batch of these earlier this week to snack on before my morning workouts as a fun new thing to occasionally swap for my usual smoothie. Adzuki beans are often used as a sweet bean paste in Asian desserts, so I figured this wasn't too much of a stretch.

Now don't get me wrong: These bars are not dessert. They're more like health food — beans, banana, goji berries, barley flour, brown rice flour, cacao powder, and maple syrup. And that's perfect! I don't feel the slightest bit guilty having one of these bars before a run. They're just a tad sweet, and it's a natural healthy kind of sweet.

Hey, speaking of goji berries, I used some free review samples sent to me by SunFood.


They sent me a package of all sorts of raw snacks to try, and these were the first thing I opened. Love goji berries! I've never been too keen on all the superfood hype, but I just love the way these tart-sweet berries taste. These little guys have 18 amino acids, provide more than 20 trace minerals, and are a great source of antioxidants and dietary fiber.

6 comments:

xvavaveganx said...

This recipe sounds so good! I am so interested in reading that book, it sounds like it is packed with a ton of great information! The brownies sound really yummy. I just got some goji berries to try, I should really get on that ha!

foodfeud said...

The brownies look great; I haven't made bean brownies either but I'd like to try his version. I had a raw berry brownie today (dates, cacao, cashew butter, and dried goji and raspberries basically) that was fantastic.
It's funny, though, I'm not a huge fan of goji berries alone. They're good in other stuff but leave a weird taste in my mouth sometimes...

Mary said...

I still haven't tried goji berries but those brownies sure look good!

Ricki said...

The bars sound great--and I love gojis, too! And is that a new profile pic? Fabulous. And when's the book out--?!!!! :D

tender b. said...

And these were exactly what I was talking about! I am currently in the process of cooking my way through his book.

Unknown said...

I wonder why I could never succeed making brownies.
How did you do it? I'll try again for sure and this time I'll refer to your recipe as my guide :)
Thanks also for the tempting food photos. It looks like they were made by professional. Have you ever heard about food photography site called http://www.foodporn.net ?
Your pics should be on the Food Porn home page, that's for sure!