Vegan Wholewheat Nutty Banana Bread

Ah that story.

When you want to eat healthy, start eating stuff that's better for me, and you get whole grain everything, vegetables, nothing with processed sugar, good proteins, convince yourself not to pick up the giant pack of Twix bars behind the counter, and pick up a bunch of fruits, including bananas, which you read somewhere is a superfruit and eating it will solve all of life's problems including but not limited to waist expansion, despite the fact that you hate its mushy guts.

Then you end up eating everything, except those damned bananas. You're sorry, nothing can make you eat a banana. Its mushy, it's got the thread thingies and the butt of a banana is something even Satan apologizes for. Its very presence in a fruit salad lowers the TQ (taste quotient) of the whole bowl. So yes, by now you figure that I kind of don't really like bananas.

But you've bought 6, eaten 2, and 4 are left, steadily getting riper and stinking up the kitchen. You need to use those up, because yuck as they may be, you'll be damned if you let good money go into the bin. So you make a Vegan Wholewheat Nutty Banana Bread out of it, because strangely, your hatred for bananas doesn't extend to a piece of warm, pillowy wedge of banana bread. Funny.

Vegan Wholewheat Nutty Banana Bread

makes one 6-inch round cake

All measurements are American standard

Recipe from Veg Recipes of India

You need:

• 4 medium sized bananas, very ripe
• 11/2 cups, or 180 gms atta or wholewheat flour
• 1/2 cup of any odourless white oil (sunflower, rice bran, or even coconut oil. DO NOT use sesame oil)
• 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
• 1.5 tsp good fresh baking powder
• 0.5 tsp baking soda
• a splash of vanilla
• a pinch of cinnamon powder
• a handful of toasted and chopped walnuts preferably, or almonds. You can substitute with chocolate chips as well.
• a handful of pumpkin seeds or whole walnuts/almonds for topping (optional)

The How:

• Preheat your oven to 180 C. Grease a loaf pan or a round cake pan.
• Peel and chop the bananas, and mash it well with a potato masher, or blend it in a blender. Make sure there are absolutely NO lumps. Some stringy bit are fine.
• Add the sugar and mix it.
• Add in the oil and mix it so it gets incorporated.
• Add the vanilla essence into this mix.
• Sift the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda into it. Now fold it in gently so that the batter doesn't let out the air we've put into it so far. 
• Add the nuts, fold in gently again. The texture will right now be halfway between a dough and a batter.
• Now pour into the cake pan, and sprinkle the pumpkin seeds or nuts on top.

• Bake for at least 30 minutes. Oven differ so it might take more time. Test with a toothpick, and bake in 5 min additional bursts if necessary.
• Unmould and let cool. 

And that's it! Whenever you eat this, remember to warm it a bit, it tastes best then. Maybe put a smidge of butter or a scoop of ice cream? :D

Till the next time!