If you’re new around here, spoiler alert: I have a (major) sweet tooth. But because refined sugar has such severe health consequences, I’m always looking for ways to satisfy that sweet craving with something healthier.
My childhood friend, Christina Tidwell, is a Registered Nurse and founder of Live Well With Christina. She specializes in health and nutrition coaching and believes in the power of food as medicine, and that a real, whole-foods diet is the key to lasting health and happiness. So I was delighted when she passed along this recipe for healthy sweet potato brownies (can I get an amen?!). You would never know the base of this sweet treat is nutrient-rich sweet potato.
Here’s a note from Christina:
Sometimes when people think of eating “healthy,” they think it means being doomed to a life of boring boiled chicken, tasteless lettuce, and bland ingredients. But I’m here to tell you that’s just not true! And don’t you dare get tricked into believing it.
Eating “healthy” just means choosing real, whole food ingredients whenever possible. By “real, whole foods” I mean food in its most natural state. This means foods from nature, like fresh fruit and vegetables, nuts, beans, meats and fish, and not foods that are refined, heavily processed (broadly, any foods that have been overly changed or added to from their original state) or that contain added ingredients you can’t pronounce.
Once you start to look at healthy eating though this lens of abundance rather than restriction, a whole new delicious, beautiful world opens up to you!
One major thing I counsel clients on when embarking on a clean eating lifestyle is that almost everything can be modified to become a healthier version of itself with just a few, easy substitutions. It’s all about getting away from the boxed, packaged, processed foods and making your favorite dishes with real, whole, nutrient-dense ingredients.
Don’t worry, you don’t need to get all fancy here with intimidating ingredients. For example if you love mac and cheese, go for some quality pasta (see Lindsay’s recipe!!), real cheese, whole milk and grass-fed butter instead of choosing the powdered box version. It’s that easy!
When I came across these sweet potato brownies from Deliciously Ella, I had to give them a try because brownies are my all-time favorite dessert. They swap out the refined sugar and overly processed ingredients you might get from a box mix and include nutrient-dense sweet potatoes, dates, and raw cacao powder instead. You’re gunna love them!
Psst…if you love this, you can find Christina here:
Food La La Recipe: Sweet Potato Brownies
This recipe has been adapted from Deliciously Ella,
Ingredients:
Brownie:
- 4 cups sweet potato, peeled and chopped
- 12 medjool dates, pitted
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
- 1 cup + 1 TBS ground flax seed
- ¾ cup almond flour
- 1/3 cup raw cacao powder
Icing:
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons almond butter
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 2 table spoons cacao powder
- Sea salt
Brownie Steps:
- Preheat oven to 350 and line a small glass baking dish with parchment (I used a small glass rectangular Tupperware container).
- Arrange sweet potatoes on a parchment-lined baking sheet and roast for 35 minutes, or until soft (you should be able to easily prick them with a fork).*
- Put sweet potato and pitted dates in food processor and blend until combined.
- Put maple syrup, coconut oil, flax seed, almond flour, cacao powder in a bowl and mix until combined.
- Add date/sweet potato mixture and stir well.
- Put batter (mine was more of a dough consistency) in baking dish and press to spread out evenly.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes or until you can insert a fork and the tines come out clean.
Icing Steps:
- In a small saucepan melt all ingredients (except sea salt) together and stir well.
- Transfer icing to a separate bowl and chill in freezer for 15 minutes.
Assembly:
- Once brownies have cooled, top with icing, a generous sprinkling of sea salt, and place in refrigerator until icing has set.
- Remove and cut into squares.
Psst! A few recipe notes:
Note: In the original recipe, Ella steams the sweet potatoes. However, I chose to roast them. Both methods work, but with the recipe above I was able to see the flecks of orange sweet potato. I thought the color contrast was fun, but if you want a smoother consistency, try steaming your sweet potatoes for 20-30 minutes until soft then continue with step three.
