Pumpkin Bread - Gluten & Fructose Free

I usually do our food shop for the week on Saturday, so come Friday all that’s left in the fridge is a mismatch of wilted veggies. I’m trying to get into the habit of not wasting food after reading some pretty shocking statistics on Foodwise:

• Each year Australians send 4 million tonnes of food to landfill. That’s $8 billion worth of fresh food, leftovers, packaged and long life products, drinks, frozen food and takeaways
• Up to 40% of the average Australian household bin is food. That means around $1,000 worth of food is thrown away every year per household – enough to feed the average household for over a month
• Australians discard up to 20% of the food they purchase. That equates to 1 out of every 5 bags of groceries
• An estimated 20-40% of fruit and vegetables are rejected before they reach shop shelves, mostly because they don’t match supermarkets and consumers high cosmetic standards
• When food rots without air in landfill, it gives off a greenhouse gas called methane, which is 25 times more carbon dioxide than that which comes out of your car exhaust.

Scary stuff. By no means am I a full hippy, I still wear a bra, shave my legs and get a takeaway long mach everyday, but I think it’s the little changes that we can all make along the way that end up making a big difference. Having grown up on a farm, The Pres has a huge appreciation for mother nature, and we are both making more of an effort to be more aware about doing our bit for the environment and where we can we reuse and recycle. Peace n love n shit.

Anywho, back to my wilted vegies – I spotted a lonesome butternut pumpkin, and after drawing a face on it, decided that I had all I needed to make gluten & fructose free pumpkin bread. As I have replaced wheat flour with a gluten free alternative, this bread is definitely not light and fluffy. It is dense, crumbly and filling, and goes down a treat with a cup of tea or as a breakfast on the go.

Recipe

1 butternut pumpkin
Remove skin and seeds, roughly chop. Cover with about 2 tsp coconut oil and bake at 180c for around 20mins or until caramelised.

1 ¼ cup almond meal (or rice, coconut or quinoa flour)
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
Combine the dry ingredients

4 eggs or 4 chia eggs (recipe here)
¼ cup rice malt syrup (or honey/agave, however recipe will no longer be fructose free)
1 tbsp melted coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla

Mix wet ingredients together and then add to dry ingredients until combined.
Add to this your roasted pumpkin and break down as you mix it in with the batter.
Pour into a lined loaf pan and top with seeds (sesame, chia, walnuts etc) and bake for 40 minutes at 180c.

Remove from oven and allow to cool in the loaf pan. Then just cut yourself a slice, put your feet up, and enjoy!