Vegan Rosemary Avocado Quick Bread

I reserve Tuesday mornings for my vegan cooking class at Casa de Luz in San Diego.  It’s a time for experimenting with new recipes and connecting with other vegans in the community.  Liz Gary is a wonderful teacher who organizes the class and ensures we never run out of recipes.  Recently, a regular attendee, Gina Sample, led our group through a number of delicious dishes, one of which was Rosemary Avocado Quick Bread.  I liked it so much that I had to make my own loaf and share the recipe with you!

Gina has a website which focuses on plant based nutrition for athletes (this makes sense since she is a triathlete!).  Gina shares vegan recipes specifically geared towards athletes and maintains a blog.  She also offers services like vegan cooking classes and demos.  To learn more about Gina, check out her website at:

http://theveganlab.com/

The genius of this bread is its simplicity.   Notably absent are the usual warnings about over mixing dough or the dangers of not adding enough yeast.  In this recipe, you just mix the ingredients together, put the dough in a loaf pan, and bake.

This was also the first recipe I ever made using vegan buttermilk.  It turns out veganizing buttermilk is delightfully easy.  It is as simple as combining lemon juice or apple cider vinegar with almond milk.

Next, it was time to gather the dry ingredients in a bowl.

The recipe calls for mashed avocado (ie avocado that is free from lumps). I chose to put the avocado in my food processor and let it do the manual labor for me!  You could, of course, manually mash the avocado with a fork or potato masher.

There are two categories of vegan egg substitutes: (1) commercial products like Ener-G Egg Replacer or Bob’s Redmill Egg Replacer that are available for purchase or (2) home made egg substitutes.

The commercial products come in powder form and are made from things like potato starch and tapioca flour.  In this recipe I used Ener-G Egg Replacer.  1 egg = 1.5 teaspoons Ener-G + 2 tablespoons water.  I prepared this mixture in a separate bowl before combining it with the other ingredients.

Home made egg substitutes made with chia seeds or flax meal also work well in recipes.  1 egg = 1 tablespoon of chia seeds or flax meal + 3 tablespoons water.  It is important to prepare a home made egg substitute in a separate bowl and give it a few minutes to sit, so it can thicken.

It is then time to put all of the ingredients in a bowl…

And mix them together!

Once combined, the dough should be placed in a loaf pan lined with parchment paper.

After 40-45 minutes in the oven, you will have a lovely looking loaf of bread that has a slight green hue from the avocado.  Perhaps, this is also destined to be a St. Patrick’s Day recipe?

The pictures of this bread do not do it justice.  It is unbelievably moist, and the Rosemary gives it a rich savory taste.  This is a bread that can be eaten on its own without toppings or spreads.  It also makes a great accompaniment to soup.