Veggies for Dessert

[Carrot Top]

This is how it all started:

Speaking of veggies at breakfast, of course there also could be veggies at dessert-time. Aren't there many veggies that do duty as a dessert, among them chick-peas in Indian cooking among other cultures?

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The definition of vegetable is a broad one - any part of any plant eaten as food could be included [perhaps it is a non-fruit part of a plant] - it is our convention that makes veges savoury things on the whole. Sticking within this convention, with pumpkin a 'vegetable' then pumpkin pie would be dessert vege.

How about the Asian sweet bean things?

Is that another thread? "Veges for Dessert?" Over to you Karen.

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Yeah, how 'bout those Asian sweet bean things. We need to hear about them.

For we do need to get healthy. And we need to eat veggies.

What desserts do you know of that are vegetable-based?

I'll start by posting a link to some photos of some Japanese desserts I came across recently. I don't know enough about them, but do know that many of them are based on vegetables rather than fruit. They are called wagashi.

[The Old Foodie]

That was quick Karen! I was just about to log out and go to work.

I have several recipes with potatoes - chocolate cake, coconut ice etc; and beetroot pudding was a WW II recipe to save sugar; there were lots of carrot recipes too - carrot jam for example.

This is going to be fun. I'll catch up with you all this evening (or in the morning, whichever applies to you)

Janet

[dockhl]

Alright, I'll play........

Although technically a fruit, how about:

MAGGIETHECAT'S Tomato Soup Cake ?

[Beebs]

Carrot Cake! With cream cheese frosting.... Yum!

Zucchini Bread (although more cake than bread, I think).

Something with rhubarb - pie or crumble

I think I want a slice of carrot cake now....

[sanrensho]

Anything with rhubarb...

[SuzySushi]

Pumpkin anything -- pie, flan, cake, cookies, etc. I've made Middle Eastern candied pumpkin, and also somewhere in my files is a recipe for Middle Eastern candied eggplant. (Haven't tried the latter.... that, I suspect, is taking vegetables a little too far.)

The Japanese and Koreans make a sweet soup from azuki beans, and I've had a Chinese sweet bean soup that was green (maybe from mung beans?). Sweetened azuki beans and lima beans are used as fillings in Japanese pastries; they have a consistency and taste similar to chestnut paste.

Sweet potato pie. In the Philippines, ube (pronounced "ooo-bay"), a purple sweet potato, is used to make jam, cake fillings, cakes, and ice cream. In Hawaii, taro is used in sweet baked goods; for a while, McDonald's here even offered "taro pies"... made like their apple pie turnovers, but filled with sweetened taro cubes.

In the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia, corn kernels and avocado cubes (yes, the latter is a fruit, but in the West we treat it as a vegetable) are added to halo-halo and other iced beverages. Tapioca iced tea, which hails from Taiwan... and our own tapioca pudding come from a root vegetable.

[sanrensho]

^^^Good call, there's also avocado mousse and cassava cake. And yomogi (mugwort) is used in Japanese rice cakes.

[SuzySushi]

I'm also thinking about Southeast Asian coconut milk-tapioca pudding, to which taro cubes, corn kernels, and tapioca (cassava starch) goodies are often added. I've also had Filipino corn maja blanca, a "white pudding" made from coconut milk with corn kernels added.

Another distinct Filipino dessert/snack is Hopia, small turnovers filled with ube jam, sweetened mung beans, or even sweet caramelized onions.

[tsquare]

There are chocolate cakes made with tomatoes (they color the frosting beautifully) and also ones made with beets. (As well as ones that use black beans.) All are very good.

Capitola CA is/was known for Avocado Pie - basically key lime pie with avocado. They sold it at street fairs, probably still do.

Carrot cake!!!

Yes, lots of sweet potato/winter squash treats - pies, cookies and bars. And zucchini (and banana) breads/cakes.

Does cornmeal count? Lots of lovely cakes.

[shellfishfiend]

I have a few regional cookbooks with recipes for cornmeal pie.

I have seen a low-fat brownie recipe that calls for black beans.

Edited May 29, 2007 by shellfishfiend (log)

[Beebs]

^^^Good call, there's also avocado mousse and cassava cake. And yomogi (mugwort) is used in Japanese rice cakes.

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There's also an episode of Good Eats where Alton Brown uses avocado to make a frosting for cake.

[Rebecca263]

Corn souffle with maple syrup drizzled atop it is a great unusual dessert. Everyone raves about this one.

[HeatherM]

I found this book while I was looking for a candymaking book by a different author. I'm not sure how I feel about this...

Candy-Making Revolutionized: Confectionery from Vegetables

[SuzySushi]

In the back of my mind, I recalled an announcement from a couple of years ago about someone in England trying to start a company making vegetable ice cream (to get kids to eat their veggies). Don't know if it's the same company, but a search brought up this:

Fresh Daisy's Little Discoveries -- ice cream in Pear & Parsnip and Orange & Carrot flavors. The ice cream claims it's made from 50% fruit and vegetables and 50% cream, but doesn't say what percentage of the "fruit and vegetables" is actually vegetables.

[feedyourvegetarian]

"Vegetables" in Vietnamese cuisine, often used in various forms of the sweet soupy tapioca dessert called che:

mung beans

adzuki beans

black eyed peas

corn

various squash

white fungus

seaweed

As the bubble tea craze has swept the Asian American communities, I've seen bubble teas in taro, mung bean and adzuki bean flavors in the Vietnamese shops near us.

[Pan]

Bean pie, as developed or at least popularized by the Nation of Islam, is traditionally made with navy beans, I believe.

It's possible to make all kinds of desserts with vegetable matter, but I'm not convinced that makes them healthier.

[beccaboo]

I once made a vegan, hypoallergenic chocolate pudding with avocado as its base, sweetened with agave nectar. I don't remember where the recipe was from, but it turned out really well--it was a lot better than those tofu chocolate puddings.

[FistFullaRoux]

Rice pudding.

Candied ginger (though more of a seasoning than a vegetable).

Are nuts considered vegetables? Peanuts should be, I think.

There have to be recipes containing chickpeas somewhere.

eta: I have had confections made from sweetened mashed potatoes and peanut butter. Came out kind of like the Cow Tales candies, but without the caramel.

And oats, for cookies and such.

Edited May 29, 2007 by FistFullaRoux (log)

[Pan]

Lots of Indian sweets are made with besan (chickpea) flour, and I daresay, they tend to be pretty oily and super-sugary and of doubtful healthiness, but I still can like a besan burfi.

[Pan]

I just realized that no-one has yet mentioned lotus seed paste as a dessert item, nor have such candied vegetables as sweetened preserved lotus root, lotus seed, carrots, or water chestnuts been mentioned.

[The Old Foodie]

I think the heady excitement of veges for breakfast and dessert has done something to my brain. About an hour ago I posted (or thought I posted, or posted but accidentally deleted, or something) a post specially dedicated to you - Carrot Top. I cant find it now, so I guess I stuffed up (it is pre-sherry time, but the sun is perilous close to the yard-arm now, so I can receive therapy)

Here it is again, more or less.

I was browsing Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery (1870's) which is extraordinarily comprehensive and great Victorian fun. I came across this, which is very topical:

Carrot Cheesecakes.

Boil a moderate-sized carrot until tender. Pound it fine in a mortar, and pass the pulp through a fine hair sieve. Mix with it an ounce of oiled butter, two dessertspoonfuls of washed currants, two tablespoonfuls of sugar, half a nutmeg grated, a tablespoonful of fresh curd, and a well-beaten egg. Line some patty-pans with good puff paste, half fill them with the mixture, and bake in a good oven for twenty minutes.

Also on the sweet side, there are Carrot Fritters, Carrot Pudding (baked or boiled) and Carrot, Sweet ( a sweetened and creamy puree to serve with "toasted sippets".

Janet

[marlena spieler]

carrot halva: sweetened, cooked shredded carrot with condensed milk, perfumed with cardomom and rose water. divine.

and what about alain passard's famous tomato dessert? has anyone out there tasted it? (i've not managed to eat at arpege when it was on the menu).

zucchini and raisin or dried cranberry teacake/loaf. yummy esp when sliced and toasted and of course, buttered.

[prasantrin]

There is a bakery near my apartment that sells cabbage cake. It's dry and not particularly tasty for something sold as a dessert! It looks like a cabbage, too, from what I remember of it.

I think they have other vegetable-based desserts, too, but I can't remember them off-hand (except for the carrot cake).

[Carrot Top]

Wow. What amazing responses! And so many, too.

"Vegetables" in Vietnamese cuisine, often used in various forms of the sweet soupy tapioca dessert called che:

mung beans

adzuki beans

black eyed peas

corn

various squash

white fungus

seaweed

As the bubble tea craze has swept the Asian American communities, I've seen bubble teas in taro, mung bean and adzuki bean flavors in the Vietnamese shops near us.

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Very nice first post, feedyourvegetarian.

Bean pie, as developed or at least popularized by the Nation of Islam, is traditionally made with navy beans, I believe.

It's possible to make all kinds of desserts with vegetable matter, but I'm not convinced that makes them healthier.

←

"Vegetable matter"? Hmmm.

Rice pudding.

Candied ginger (though more of a seasoning than a vegetable).

Are nuts considered vegetables? Peanuts should be, I think.

There have to be recipes containing chickpeas somewhere.

eta: I have had confections made from sweetened mashed potatoes and peanut butter. Came out kind of like the Cow Tales candies, but without the caramel.

And oats, for cookies and such.

←

I googled "nuts" yesterday. It was sort of strange writing "botany of nuts" in the search bar. The information I found told me that most nuts are fruits. But some are not. Some are exceptions. Some are drupes. Some are sort of unidentifiable unless you have three hours and a biology degree.

Same with people, I thought to myself.

I think the heady excitement of veges for breakfast and dessert has done something to my brain. About an hour ago I posted (or thought I posted, or posted but accidentally deleted, or something) a post specially dedicated to you - Carrot Top.  I cant find it now, so I guess I stuffed up (it is pre-sherry time, but the sun is perilous close to the yard-arm now, so I can receive therapy)

Here it is again, more or less.

I was browsing Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery (1870's) which is extraordinarily comprehensive and great Victorian fun. I came across this, which is very topical:

Carrot Cheesecakes.

Boil a moderate-sized carrot until tender. Pound it fine in a mortar, and pass the pulp through a fine hair sieve. Mix with it an ounce of oiled butter, two dessertspoonfuls of washed currants, two tablespoonfuls of sugar, half a nutmeg grated, a tablespoonful of fresh curd, and a well-beaten egg. Line some patty-pans with good puff paste, half fill them with the mixture, and bake in a good oven for twenty minutes.

Also on the sweet side, there are Carrot Fritters, Carrot Pudding (baked or boiled) and Carrot, Sweet ( a sweetened and creamy puree to serve with "toasted sippets".

Janet

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I'll have to respond to you as Bilbo Baggins did to the trolls!

"And please don't cook me, kind sirs! I am a good cook myself, and cook better than I cook, if you see what I mean. I'll cook beautifully for you, a perfectly beautiful breakfast for you, if only you won't have me for supper."

And let's not even consider having me for breakfast.

..................................................

But worse than your losing the post is how I read it very early this morning while still half awake. I thought it said (in the recipe for Carrot Cheesecakes):

Mix with it an ounce of oiled butter, two dessertspoonfuls of washed currants, two tablespoonfuls of sugar, half a nutmeg grated, a tablespoonful of fresh curd, and a well-beaten ego.

Phew.

Well, the only thing I'll add to the list today is peanut butter cookies and pies. Peanuts are legumes. Which are sort of like vegetables. I hope.

[miladyinsanity]

Sweet potato soup--it's really just boiled sweet potatoes in a very light sugar syrup that's flavored with ginger.

Bubur Chacha--a sweet coconut soup that comes with chunks of yam, sweet potatoes, potato and other stuff, depending on who makes it

Yu Ni--it's mashed yam with coconut milk, kinda pastey and very rich, but Oh So Good (used to be made with lard LOL)

There's that fabulous Thai dessert made from tapioca. It's yellow, sweet, a bit sticky and served with coconut milk.

Isn't rhubarb a vegetable?

Oh and a place near my school does a Carrot Juice and something else jelly. Sorry Karen, but I cannot abide by carrot juice, so I've not tried it yet.