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James and I have a huge space in our backyard reserved for my garden. Man oh man, I was the gardening QUEEN back there, even though James would probably tell you I was more like the gardening tornado.
Spring fever would hit hard and I’d go wild buying up seeds, ordering weird things, just itching to get my hands in the soil. James would shake his head and point out my overzealousness.
Mr. Fuddy Duddy: “Did you seriously just plant 10 cucumber seedlings? You realize you’ll have about 50 to pick a day. For just the 2 of us.”
Me: “Hey, they’re all different varieties! We can see what we like best!”
I’d grow anything and everything. I even have a giant canning room in the basement for all the bazillions of things that I hoped would end up in Ball Jars. I really did have good intentions.
And then our RVing obsession took root. Nowadays, my garden looks like this.
I guess a good thing about my gardening years is all the recipe experimenting that occurred. Take carrots, for example. I’d have hundreds to deal with, and since there’s only so much love one can have for raw carrot sticks dipped in whatever, I had to get creative. When I first started spotting carrot soufflé recipes online, at first I was unexcited and passed them over. I despise cooked carrots.
Blech.
But then out of desperation, I finally tried making a carrot soufflé, and OH MY. Did my garden carrots seriously just transform into that mouthful of heaven?!?
And just like that! Carrot soufflé became a favorite dessert around here. I can’t believe I haven’t already shared this one with y’all! It pretty much tastes like a vanilla soufflé, and how can you go wrong with that? It’s one of those craveable recipes, where sometimes I’ve just GOT to make one or who knows what would happen.
And even better? My version is all healthed-up and guilt-free. Can I get a YEE HAW. And don’t you let that “H” word disappoint you, it’s still just as tasty as the bad-for-you ones. Give it a try, it might just change your life. Hey! It’s possible. You never know…
Healthy Carrot Soufflé Recipe
Ingredients:
- 4 1/2 cups (about 1 1/2 pounds) chopped carrots
- 3/4 cup applesauce
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 3 tablespoons whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Optional sweeteners (but not necessary!):
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup or agave
OR…
- 2-4 packets Stevia
Optional topping:
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil or steam the carrots until they’re very soft. Drain and rinse to get them a little cooler. Put in blender or food processor. Add the applesauce and blend until smooth. Add the butter, eggs, vanilla (and optional sweetener) and blend again. In separate small dish, mix the flour and baking powder. Add to the blender with everything else and mix it thoroughly. Pour batter into a greased 2 quart casserole dish. Bake for about an hour, until the top looks dry with some golden brown spots (and your house smells like cake). It’ll serve about 6, and is best served warm.
Easy peasy! If you try it, come back and let me know what you think!
I suspect this could be made with pumpkin puree also…
I’m sure it could! If you try it let me know!
Boy, that is a big garden! One way to use up a lot of produce quickly is to invest in a juice machine. We have a masticating type that uses a giant screw to crush and squeeze the juice. Supposedly it doesn’t heat up or burn the juice like the rapidly spinning basket models. You can grind up a bucket of carrots just to get enough for breakfast for two. The more fanatically “thrifty” types (aka my wife) will toss some of the fiber back in with the juice because they can’t stand to throw out the huge remaining pile. I just toss that onto the compost pile to make fertilizer for the garden.
I totally agree, Tom, I love my cold-press juicer and don’t know how gardeners live without one!Lots more nutrients when you make your own cold-pressed, for sure. And that leftover fiber makes GREAT muffins and breads. 🙂