Well that’s a mouthful of a title. And it’s the title of a pretty amazing brownie. Fudgy on the inside with a crisp exterior and full of… vegetables. Yeah you read that last sentence correctly. It’s main ingredient is zucchini and it’s good.

This chocolate zucchini thing is a tried and tested combo I promise. I added the salted tahini caramel because caramel and chocolate is also a tried and tested combo. The tahini kind of makes the caramel taste like those chewy sesame bars (I love those things!). But you could easily skip that step and just make chocolate and zucchini brownie.

I think smaller zucchini’s work best in this as they are slightly sweeter in flavour than the bigger one’s but just use what you have because this recipe is a great way to use up excess zucchini that might be languishing in your garden (luck you I totally failed at gardening this season) or fridge.

Note: Grate the zucchini as finely as you can, use the finest side of your grater or a microplane.

I figure it also helps me sneak in some vegetables toward my 7 a day target. Speaking of I’ve been great with that about 5 days out of 7. After a big day at my beautiful friend’s wedding on Saturday all I felt like eating was all the carbs. Whoops.

So anyway. Brownie.

Ingredients

1 cup finely grated zucchini (this was 2 small ones for me)

4 Tbs melted butter

4 Tbs melted coconut oil

1 large egg

1/2 cup coconut sugar (or granulated sugar of choice)

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup spelt flour (or flour of choice)

1/3 cup cacao or unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

Tahini Caramel

1/4 cup coconut cream

2 Tbs tahini

1 Tbs +1 tsp Maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.

Combine zucchini, butter, oil, egg sugar and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Sift together flour, baking powder and cacao powder and then combine with wet ingredients. Gently folding in ingredients until well combined.

Pour into a lined baking baking dish and spread out the edges.

Tahini Caramel: Combine all ingredients in the smallest pan you have and stir slowly over a low heat. Do this until ingredients have completely combined, then simmer until mixture has deepened in colour. Stir continuously it will only take a few minutes. Add half the salt. Remove from heat.

Drizzle caramel over the top of the brownie mix, use a knife to swirl into the brownie mixture slightly (see image).

Place in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes or until the brownie bounces back at your touch. Allow to cool in the baking tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Sprinkle with remaining salt, flakes look best!

Once cool, cut into slices and eat! Keep in the fridge (you can give it a few minutes in a hot oven before eating a piece from the fridge to bring back that just baked feeling).

HH. x