Nutrition
Calories: 217kcal | Carbohydrates: 33.8g | Protein: 11.2g | Fat: 4.4g | Fiber: 1.8g
Want that carrot cake flavor but still have protein goals? Check out this recipe! TVP and vegan Greek yogurt give each muffin 11 grams of protein!
Servings
Ingredients
- 2 cups TVP Textured Vegetable Protein (do not re-hydrate)
- 1 cup shredded carrots (pat dry with a paper towel)
- 8 oz crushed pineapple
- 1 cup vegan Greek yogurt I use Kite Hill, vanilla
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 tbsp unsweetened soy milk
- 1/2 cup crushed walnuts
- 2 tbsp ground flax
- 3 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 F
- Grate carrots and pat dry
- In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of flax seeds with 3 tablespoons of water and the crushed pineapple (including the juice). Let sit for at least 5 minutes (This makes pineapple-y flax “egg” goo)
- In a large bowl, mix together Greek yogurt, brown sugar, milk, vanilla, and flax “egg” goo
- In a separate bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients – flour, cinnamon, ginger, salt, baking soda, baking powder. Once well combined, stir in (dry) TVP very well.
- Add dry ingredients slowly to wet ingredients and combine.
- Add in shredded carrots and walnuts
- Evenly distribute the batter across all 12 (lined) muffin cup things on your muffin tray
- Bake for 15 – 17 minutes. Will come out a little gooey (if you cook too long it will dry out); let sit for about 15 – 30 minutes and they will set up.
Equipment
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Notes
Soy-free Option:
- Use Textured Pea Protein instead of TVP – you can buy this on Amazon – I like the brand Acre Made.
- Use a different non-dairy milk other than soy milk – this is mostly to add moisture so it doesn’t really matter which you use in this recipe.
- Use a soy-free non-dairy yogurt instead of the vegan Greek yogurt (unless you can find a Greek yogurt that is soy-free) – this will slightly alter the protein macros but is mostly used for moisture in this recipe so it won’t affect the texture/flavor!
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Have you tried using TVP, Textured Vegetable Protein, in baked goods before? Most people only use TVP in savory recipes, but trust me, it works incredibly well in sweets too! It’s a very easy way to add protein to baked goods without the weird taste or gritty texture that using protein powder can have. TVP that’s used in baked goods it ends up with a similar texture to baked oats!
These Protein Carrot Cake Muffins are the perfect little protein snack! I also really like meal prepping one or two dozen of these during the weekend, and then I have an easy high protein breakfast for the whole week! Not sure if I mentioned this, but these take about 20 minutes to make, from start to finish! These little beauties can also be frozen so that they keep longer, and then you can just pop them in the microwave for a few seconds. If carrot cake is not your vibe, I have lots of other flavors of high protein TVP muffins if you’re interested in trying them out!
Ingredients
- TVP – Textured Vegetable Protein – this is probably my favorite ingredient to use! It’s so versatile; you can use it in sweet or savory recipes, and the protein content is incredible! You can find TVP at most grocery stores, near the gluten-free flour options, and you can also buy it online. My go-to brand is Bob’s Red Mill, mostly because they just sell this brand where I shop. Most recipes you’ll find that use TVP, re-hydrate the TVP with water or broth. We use TVP dry in this recipe, and introduce moisture through vegan Greek yogurt and flax goo.
- Shredded Carrots – this is kind of a must-have for Protein Carrot Cake Muffins. You will need to grate these so that they’re very thinly shaved pieces. And we will be patting these dry so that the muffins aren’t gooey and gross.
- Crushed Pineapple – I use the canned kind, because it’s easier.
- Vegan Greek Yogurt – I usually get Kite Hill Vanilla Greek Yogurt; the macros are actually really good. If you don’t have Greek Yogurt, you could use regular vegan yogurt, though this may change your calories and macros slightly. The Greek Yogurt is what adds most of the moisture to the recipe and allows us to use dry TVP.
- Flour – I use all-purpose flour for this recipe, but you could probably sub this for gluten-free flour. I’m not an expert on gluten-free cooking, so I can’t provide advice on this, but if you happen to make these gluten-free, please share your insights in the comments so that others can benefit from your awesome creations!
- Brown Sugar – I know a lot of people don’t like using sugar, and prefer a healthier option. I haven’t tried making these with any sugar substitutions so I can’t offer any advice here, but if you come up with something that works well and cuts calories/sugar, I’d love to hear about it!
- Soy Milk – you could use any kind of non-dairy milk for this, if you don’t like Soy Milk. This also just adds a little bit of moisture to the muffin batter.
- Crushed Walnuts – I think walnuts work really well, flavor-wise, in these Carrot Cake Muffins, but if you have a different nut preference, feel free to sub it out. Or if you have a walnut allergy, you can also omit this ingredient; I think it adds a nice crunchy texture to the muffins, but it’s definitely not necessary.
- Ground Flax Seed – I usually use Ground Flax Seed for my vegan egg substitute. It’s a cheap ingredient and easy to use – just mix ground flax with water and let sit for five minutes – now you’ve got flax goo!
- Vanilla, Cinnamon, Ginger – these ingredients help us get that yummy carrot cake flavor!
- Baking Soda, Baking Powder – these things help give the muffins a fluffy texture!
- Salt – you can adjust to taste, but this is where I like it.
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.
- Grate the carrots with a vegetable grater, and pat them dry. You can use a kitchen towel or paper towels to do this. Try to get most of the extra moisture out; this helps keep the muffins from being soggy and wet.
- In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of ground flax with 3 tablespoons of water and the can of crushed pineapple (including the juice). Let this sit for at least five minutes. This will become pineapple-y flax “egg” goo.
- In a large bowl, mix together the Greek yogurt, brown sugar, soy milk, vanilla extract and the pineapple-y flax goo. These are our wet ingredients.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients – flour, cinnamon, ginger, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Once these are well-mixed, stir in the dry TVP. It’s important to mix the dry ingredients separately so that the ingredients that we use smaller quantities of, like the spices, are evenly mixed throughout the muffin batter.
- Add the dry ingredients slowly to the wet ingredients and combine well.
- Add in the (patted-dry) grated carrots and the walnut pieces. I like to chop the walnuts into pretty small pieces personally.
- Evenly distribute the muffin batter across all 12 (lined) muffin cup things on your muffin tray. You can also use silicone muffin cups so that you don’t have to deal with paper liners. I found some cute ones that are heart and flower shaped!
- Bake the muffins for about 15 – 17 minutes. These will come out slightly gooey. This is ok; if you cook them for too long, they will be really dry.
- Let them sit for 15 – 30 minutes and they will set up and get less gooey.
Silly Little Haiku
TVP Muffins
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Author
Protein Deficient Vegan
