Australian_Yoga_Journal_October_2017

58

october 2017

yogajournal.com.au

Sweet potato and

almond breakfast bread

MAKES 1 X 900 G. LOAF (SERVES 8) TIME: 1 HOUR

3 eggs

110 g. (1⁄3 cup) unprocessed honey

125 ml (1⁄2 cup) extra-virgin olive oil

200 g. (2 cups) almond meal

60 g. buckwheat flour

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. bicarbonate of soda

a pinch of unrefined salt

Juice of 1⁄2 small lemon

2 Tbsp. chia seeds

45 g (1⁄2 cup) walnuts, cut into small chunks

300 g. sweet potato, cooked and mashed

to a puree

Bananas don’t grow where we are, as it’s too

cold. So this is our version of banana bread,

using sweet potatoes instead. An easy

breakfast full of lots of good stuff —

sweet potatoes, almonds, chia, honey,

eggs, olive oil — and it’s refined sugar-free,

dairy free and gluten free — it’s free of all

the things! It’s an awesome combination of

flavours that just work together, and it will

get your day off to a good start — slice it,

toast it and cover with butter.

Preheat the oven to 160°C fan-forced. Place

the eggs, honey, olive oil, almond meal,

buckwheat flour, cinnamon, vanilla,

bicarbonate of soda, salt and lemon juice in

a high-powered blender. Stir with a spoon,

and then process on high until everything is

combined and the mixture becomes a thick

paste. Pour into a bowl and fold in the chia

seeds, walnuts and sweet potato until just

combined (don’t over mix). Set aside for 10

minutes.

Liberally oil a 20 cm x 10 cm bread tin.

Spoon the batter into the tin, tapping the

bottom on the bench to even out the mix.

Bake for 45–50 minutes, or until a skewer

inserted into the centre comes out clean. Place

on a cooling rack to cool completely, before

storing in the fridge in an airtight container,

or freezing. Toast slices for an easy breakfast.

Note. It is key that the sweet potato is

really well mashed!

Field notes

On growing sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are an incredibly ancient crop and are

super easy to grow. We used to get told that we couldn’t grow them in our temperate

climate, but we decided to ignore the naysayers one year, and have been growing

abundant, healthy crops of sweet potatoes ever since.

As with potatoes, sweet potatoes are most easily grown by sprouting a tuber from

last year’s harvest. It’s a very simple process; all it takes is a little patience. Towards the

end of winter we fill seedling trays with a single layer of sweet potatoes and just barely

cover them with soil. We keep them moist, but not wet, and over the following weeks

little green sprouts called ‘slips’ begin to grow. When the slips are about 10 cm tall, we

gently separate them from their seed tuber right at the base and pop them in a glass

of water. They sprout delicate white roots over the next few days and are then ready

to plant in the garden! The process can also be done without soil, by suspending

sweet potatoes in glasses of water. We have successfully used this technique, but we

find the soil technique easier, because you don’t have to keep changing the water.

The sweet potato greens will also creep on a trellis. Growing them in this way

concentrates all of the tubers in the one place, making it a great technique for the

home garden.