Nom-Able

Until recently, if you asked me for a pumpkin muffin recipe, mine would be one handed down from a friend at my old job who got it from her friend who attends Weight Watchers meetings: mix one yellow cake mix with one can (15 oz) of pumpkin puree (not pie filling) and mix until blended. Bake according to package directions. Sometimes, to feel healthier, I’d add one or two tablespoons of my favorite ingredient, ground flax seeds, to the mix, but otherwise, it was pretty much the same. And the result was pretty much the same — uniform cake-like muffins of a neon orange color and smooth (except for the flax seeds) consistency.

Then, a funny thing happened on the way to the kitchen. One Sunday, I returned from taking David to work and found my parents (who we newlyweds were living with at the time) sitting up, waiting for me. As exchange for the free room and board, we did the grocery shopping and some light cleaning for them, and today, they wanted to talk to us about the list.

It turns out that when their radio alarm had gone off to wake them for church, a “doctor” had been on, talking about the health benefits of going vegan. For a diabetic with a heart condition, such as my father, veganism was the absolute answer to his weight gain and high cholesterol and blood sugar. Veganism would cure my mother’s thinning hair and weakening teeth. It was a miracle, to only be eclipsed by Jesus himself!

Having always been a meat and potatoes kind of Irish family, I was not only shocked but at a loss. What, exactly, would I  — or could they — cook? Other than salad and veggie burgers on vegan rolls (and let me tell you how hard it is to find a bread product commercially available that doesn’t include honey, whey, or some other animal product!) I couldn’t think of a thing for them to eat. So, I went to my local bookstore looking for a vegan cookbook for my pentioner parents.

The only vegan book in stock? Vegan with a Vengeance : Over 150 Delicious, Cheap, Animal-Free Recipes That Rock

The veganism thing lasted for five weeks, from the day after Easter until sometime in the summer, at which point the lure of Hebrew National hot dogs called them back to the meat-eaters. Not that they were particularly good vegans, mind you. Every now and then, my mom would sneak Morningstar Farms burgers instead of  the vegan Gardenburgers I’d bring home; my dad would get veggie burgers at Burger King. They’d both put honey in their tea and (when they learned they had to give up dairy) were buying Egg Beaters and Horizon organic cheese as “alternatives” — ignoring that both use egg and milk, respectively.

And all that time, there sat the little cookbook I found, waiting to be cracked open even once. For my parents, vegan meant prepackaged everything, leaving me (the grocery shopper) to read the labels and make sure what they were eating was vegan — an issue I quickly remedied by buying mostly Wegmans brand products, which are labeled on the front with a green V for vegan. One day, curious, I cracked open the book and the pages fell almost immediately to the Best Pumpkin Muffins.

Best? Oh really?

Yes, really.

The Best Pumpkin Muffins

Adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance : Over 150 Delicious, Cheap, Animal-Free Recipes That Rock by Isa Chandra Moskowitz

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground or freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 cup pureed pumpkin (Fresh or from a can; do not use pumpkin pie mix)
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons molasses

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a twelve-muffin tin.
2. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices. (Ed. Note: I added 2 tbsp of ground flax seed to the dry mix for extra nutrition.)
   
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, soy milk, oil, and molasses. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix.
4. Fill the muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick or knife inserted in the center comes out clean.