Happy three years to Barre and Brunch! I have so enjoyed having this fun creative and educational outlet for the last three years! I had no idea how much this would impact my life when I spontaneously decided to start a food and fitness blog three years ago, and I have had so many great experiences that I never would have had without it. I have learned so much about nutrition, health, wellness, and fitness - including becoming a certified barre instructor and taking a Culinary Medicine course in medical school!
I have also met so many incredible people and made great connections to awesome local food and fitness spots. So here is a BIG thank you from me to everyone who has followed along and supported me! I sure hope I can continue this blog for years to come and continue learning and growing.
To celebrate, of course I had to make a special brunch treat! I have a LOT of spinach from when my parents moved me back wanting to stock me up on groceries, so I decided to use it to make something green. So I came up with the idea for matcha sunbutter banana donuts using spinach to intensify the green color from the matcha! Also, a sneaky fact that you may not know is that sunflower butter actually turns greenish when baked! This is why I added sunbutter to my donuts.
This was a really tasty flavor combination (I definitely enjoyed eating the extra batter) and a fun color too! I used the Trader Joe’s matcha packets, adding three to the batter, which comes out to 1 tbsp of matcha powder. These donuts are vegan, gluten-free (depending on the flour you use - I used oat flour but almond would likely work as well), and nut-free. If you don’t have oat flour but have oats, you can add slightly more than 2 cups of oats (I’d recommend about 2 ¼ cups) to the blender along with the wet ingredients, which will make a flour.
Another great flavor choice would be to use almond butter - I think almond and matcha are a great combination! This would be less green and obviously not nut-free, but would be tasty and you could also add a splash of almond extract. You could also make these as muffins. Here is the recipe:
Ingredients
Makes 12 small donuts
Wet:
½ cup milk of choice (I used oat milk)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
½ cup mashed ripe banana
1 cup spinach (rinsed and dried)
¼ cup honey or maple syrup (or any type of sugar you want)
5 tbsp sunflower seed butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
Dry:
2 cups oat flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp matcha powder
Steps
1. Preheat your oven to 375 F and lightly oil donut pan(s).
2. Mix the milk with the apple cider vinegar and set aside for a few minutes until it gets a bit curdled looking - this is a “buttermilk”.
3. Add the milk mixture to a blender and add the rest of the wet ingredients. Blend until smooth - the spinach should be all mixed in.
4. Pour out the blended mixture and stir in the dry ingredients. The mixture will be fairly thick and spoonable.
5. Spoon the batter into the donut pans, filling the circles almost to the top.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until a toothpick poked into the donuts comes out clean. The donuts will have risen.
7. Let cool completely, then enjoy with almond butter or sunflower seed butter and a sprinkle of matcha powder. If you want to make them more celebratory like I did, add a candle!
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