Recipe of the Season: Herbaceous Muffins

by Meenal Shrivastava

I’m new to gardening and aromatic herbs are my favourite things to grow. Nearly three decades away from India has not been distance enough for my palate conditioned by home-cooked foods flavoured with a rich variety of spices. What has become unpalatable is the thought of those spices traveling thousands of kilometres to my home in North Saanich in the era of the climate crisis.

While spices continue to play a crucial role in my cooking, and as home-remedies, I am increasingly supplementing them with aromatic herbs that I can grow in my garden in North Saanich.

Our mild weather allows us to easily grow seasonal herbs such as basil, Chives, cilantro, dill, fennel, lemon verbena, marjoram, mint, parsley, tarragon; as well as hardy perennials such as chamomile, lavender, oregano, rosemary, sage, savory, thyme, and even bayleaf. Additionally, there are a number of native plants that have been used by the Coast Salish people for millennia for cooking and medicine that are very easy to grow – camas, salal, yarrow, kinnikinnick, Oregon grape, salmonberry, and many more. So there is a lot of room to get creative.

At the beginning of June, I harvested a lot of herbs (and I mean a lot of herbs) from the garden.

Some of these herbs went into making savoury muffins that can also be made vegan and/or gluten free. So here is the very easy recipe with vegan and gluten free adaptations.

Ingredients

2 cup all purpose flour (or gluten free flour from the local Millstone Farm Shop)^[1]
1 egg (or replace with 2 tsp baking powder for vegan muffins)
1 cup unsweetened almond/cashew milk (for the vegan version only)
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (for the vegan version only)
½ cup olive oil
2 tbsp lemon/lime juice
1 teaspoon salt
1 tsp black pepper or paprika powder
¾ cup of finely chopped rosemary/ oregano/summer savory or any fresh herbs of your choice.
Optional: 2 tbsp crumbled/grated cheese (replace with tbsp nutritional yeast for the vegan version)
Optional: 2 tsp of lemon zest

^[1] You can add ½ cup corn/almond meal. But if you do, increase the baking powder by ½ tsp.

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375 °F (190 °C) and lightly grease the muffin pan.
In a large bowl, combine the flour and all the dry ingredients^[2].
If using an egg, combine with the olive oil and lemon juice. For the vegan version, whisk together the nut milk, oil, lemon juice, and apple cider vinegar.
Gently fold in the wet and dry ingredients along with the herbs. Careful not to over mix.
Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Drizzle with any flavourful oil or have them warm with butter.

^[2] Sift the baking powder into the flour and use a wire whisk to mix well. Lumps of baking powder taste awful.