Zucchini Brownies

Before you wring your nose at these delicious, healthy brownies, just because they are made using a seemingly unsuitable ingredient -- Zucchini, look at the tempting pictures!

A heap of brownie-triangles...

(It has always been a challenge for me to photograph brownies, cos they are, well, just brown...)

See traces of green in the brown mass??? That is the zucchini skin... I find it simply too wasteful to peel the zucchini before shredding, since most of the vitamins are found directly under the skin.


As I already mentioned, these brownies are heavenly and healthy... the healthiest brownie recipe I have ever got.
The use of shredded zucchini in the recipe eliminates the need for eggs and cuts down on the amount of oil/fats needed. So, viola, eggless brownies for the cholesterol-watchers... (my usual brownie recipe calls for 6 large eggs)
I substituted half of the oil required with homemade apple sauce, which made the brownie even more sinless...
The addition of shredded flax seeds may have just tipped the scales to push these delectable gems into the category of health food... :)


For those of you who are itching to try this terrific new way to preparing vegetables, here is the original recipe on allrecipes.com. I didn't change a thing except for the addition of some shredded flax seeds, the substitution of half the oil amount with apple sauce, the use of almonds in place of walnuts, a little less sugar than called for, (i have to admit that I couldn't help adding in some dark chocolate chunks) and a little generosity in adding the cocoa powder (which incidentally contains lots of antioxidants, which helps in the prevention of cancer and coronary heart disease, as well as reducing the development of wrinkles and i just read today, that some german researchers reported that cocoa is more likely to reduce one's blood pressure than tea, due to the fact that the procyanids in cocoa are more active than the polyphenol in tea!).
[heh, i think i did change quite a few things... ;)]

I read about another way of devouring brownies, that is to put a slice of vanilla ice cream between 2 slices of brownies. Now that summer is slowly approaching, this will definitely be a great idea! Yum!