Friday, October 15, 2010

Pumpkin & Feta Muffins

I have to admit that I made these muffins more out of a duty to my body than my tastebuds, but my tastebuds are now shouting "Thank you!" as these muffins are divine!
The recipe comes from a cute little cook book called Martha Goes Green and was also featured on 101 CookbooksI tweaked the recipe a bit to suit myself.These will be great for work lunches and will most likely freeze pretty well too.... Yum!


18 foil muffin pans
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups cubed pumpkin (1 cm dice)
salt and pepper to taste
1 large handful of baby spinach, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped parsley or cilantro
3 tablespoons sunflower seeds kernels (I used a mix of these plus pepitas and pine nuts because that's what I had in the cupboard!)
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
100g cubed feta
2 teaspoons whole-grain mustard  (I substituted french mustard - once again because that's what I had and it worked really well)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup / 180 ml milk
2 cups SR flour 
1 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt


Preheat oven to 405F / 200C, with rack in the top third and arrange muffin pans in two 12-hole muffin pans and set aside.


Sprinkle the olive oil and some salt and pepper over the pumpkin. Toss well and turn onto a baking tray. Arrange in a single layer and bake for 15 - 25 minutes or until cooked through entirely. Set aside to cool.


Transfer two-thirds of the pumpkin to a large mixing bowl along with the spinach, parsley, sunflower seeds, parmesan, two-thirds of the feta, and all of the mustard. Gently fold together. In a separate bowl beat the eggs and milk together and add to the pumpkin mix. Sift the flour onto the pumpkin mix, top with the salt and freshly ground black pepper and fold together just until the batter comes together, being careful not to over mix.


Spoon the mixture into the prepared pans, filling each hole 3/4 full, top each muffin with a bit of the remaining pumpkin and feta.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the tops and sides of the muffins are golden, and the muffins have set up completely. Let cool for a couple minutes then turn out onto a cooling rack.
Serve with a big dob of cold butter!  Yum!

4 comments:

  1. These look marvellous! What a deliciously mouth watering site you have! I usually don't eat muffins much because there's too much floury bits but this looks chock full of the good bits! ;)

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  2. They really are gorgeous - not too doughy at all!

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  3. Okay, I was thinking it must me some exotic alternative flour...took a couple cups of coffee before I realized it was probably simply Self-Rising?
    thanks,
    Can't wait to try them :)

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