Vegan Whole Grain Pumpkin Walnut Bread

Cooked pumpkin pulp scraped from baked pumpkin halves.

ENER G egg replacer. 1 1/2 t in 2 T water = 1 egg.

Pumpkin walnut bread cooling on a rack.

More Pumpkin Recipes

Judging by the large number of hits on my August 30^th post, When to Harvest and How to Cure Pumpkins and Winter Squash, I know there are many gardeners out their with pumpkins waiting for healthy recipes. I’ve already posted two: Vegan Stuffed Sugar Pumpkin with Quinoa, Pecans, Cranberries and Apples and Creamy Vegan Pumpkin Soup with Curried Gravenstein Apples. Today I will add a pumpkin bread recipe, made with whole grain goodness, omega 3 rich walnuts and to save calories and cholesterol and for the benefit of those who avoid eggs, this is made with EnerG egg replacer. Each slice has over 2 grams of fiber, has zero cholesterol and 484 mg of omega 3 fatty acid.

ENER G Egg Replacer

Although I love to eat fresh organic, cage free, omega 3 eggs, I try not to eat too many. When I was tested for food allergies, the only things I was allergic to were egg whites and egg yolks. I could have guessed that since almost every time I eat poached eggs, I immediately get a headache, a little dizzy and sometimes nausea. My husband warns me of this, to no avail, every time I start to eat this breakfast treat. When I bake, it’s easy to avoid eggs because of this egg replacer product. I was certainly skeptical at first, knowing how nicely cakes and breads rise with real eggs, but so far, every time I’ve tried using it in baking recipes that call for eggs, this product has worked like a charm. I didn’t like it in lemon pie filling, however, since it doesn’t produce a nice yellow, lemony color.

To use it, you just mix 1½ teaspoons of egg replacer with 2 tablespoons of warm water thoroughly before adding it to the recipe. It’s made mostly from potato starch, tapioca flour and leavening. Each ENER G egg equivalent only has 15 calories and no cholesterol. To compare, one large egg has around 70 calories and 211 mg of cholesterol. Of course you can’t use this product to make scrambled or poached eggs. But it works perfectly in our Vegan Whole Grain Pumpkin Walnut Bread recipe. One note of caution; use the egg substitute immediately after mixing with water and put the bread in the oven to bake quickly. If the mixture sits around, it may not rise properly.

If you do want to use eggs, just replace the EnerG egg replacer and the 1/4 cup of water with 2 slightly beaten eggs.

***

Vegan Whole Grain Pumpkin Walnut Bread [makes 12 servings]

1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup cooked pumpkin pulp*

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup Sucanat or organic cane sugar

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup apple sauce

1 tablespoon ENER G egg replacer

1/4 cup warm water

1/2 cup English walnuts, chopped

1/4 cup seedless raisins

* To make pumpkin pulp from fresh pumpkin, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a roasting pan with aluminum foil. Cut pumpkin in half, remove seeds and strings and place hollow side down in the roasting pan. Bake for 1 hour or until soft. Cool a bit and scrape the pulp out with a large spoon. Reserve 1 cup for this recipe and freeze the rest in 1 cup servings.

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, nutmeg and cinnamon. In another bowl, mix together pumpkin pulp, vanilla, Sucanat, olive oil and apple sauce. Mix ENER G in warm water thoroughly and add to the pumpkin mixture (or add 2 slightly beaten eggs instead for a non-vegan version of this recipe). Add pumpkin mixture to large bowl with dry ingredients and beat with a hand mixer until smooth. Fold in walnuts and raisins. Pour into a well greased 8.5"x4.5" loaf pan and bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven and let sit in the pan for 15 minutes on a metal rack. Remove from pan and let loaf cool on the rack for another 15 minutes. Cut into slices and serve.

Per serving: 174.9 calories, 8.1 g fat, 1.0 g saturated fat, 0 g cholesterol, 3 g protein, 23.5 g carbohydrates, 2.3 g fiber, 484 mg omega 3 and 2409 mg omega 6 fatty acids.