Vegan Tahini Muffins

In Orthodox religion during the 48 days of Lent, which is the fasting period, no animal products are allowed to be eaten. Fasting doesn’t have to be boring or a torture, so I am always trying to create something out of the usual.

I was inspired to make these tahini muffins last fall, when Chef Jeena posted a recipe for Wholemeal Muffins. Those muffins looked so good that I wanted to recreate them immediately but unfortunately they had eggs and milk in them. I made Jeena’s recipe but instead of adding milk and eggs I added tahini and orange juice in the mixture. I filled them with a prune jam I had made and although they tasted great, I didn’t like their texture as they were kind of sticky and the muffins were flat. I never posted about these muffins because I wanted to perfect them first.

I discussed this with Jeena and she told me to replace the eggs with flaxseeds. Now that was new to me!! I had never used flaxseeds before nor did I know anything about them.

I made a thorough google search to learn about these seeds and I was amazed to see that they are high in Omega 3 fatty acids and rich in fiber. In antiquity they were used as medicine. You can read all about flaxseeds here.

I had forgotten all about these muffins and flaxseeds until this morning when I read Joumana’s Tahini Brownies, so as I had all the ingredients I needed at home, except the jam, I made them a few hours ago.

I don’t usually post my recipes immediately as I have lots of older recipes which are waiting patiently for me to post them, but I was so excited that I had to share these with you.

In Greece we can get plain tahini but there is also a tahini mixed with honey. If you can’t get the sweet tahini, just mix enough honey until it is sweet. I made some of the muffins with only tahini and in some I mixed some pecans and dried cranberries. I must say that both were perfect.