Drawing from the principles of Chinese Medicine, this recipe for Banana Cranberry Quinoa Muffins is packed with health-boosting red foods, including red quinoa, walnuts, and cranberries. Learn how to make this nutritious, gluten-free, dairy-free, and refined sugar-free snack.

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Eating According to Chinese Medicine: Red Foods

A few weeks ago, I was fortunate to do a Qi Gong energy work session with Wei here at Arogya. Afterwards, we had a conversation about good energy-boosting foods. Wei mentioned that in Chinese medicine, most naturally red colored, plant-based foods are thought to nourish the blood and support optimum circulation and immunity.

Nutritional Benefits of Red Foods

Red foods include beets, kidney and adzuki beans, red quinoa, red fruits, carrots, red swiss chard and other red rooted greens (such as spinach and rhubarb), red rices, and more. Nutritionists have found that many red-colored fruits and vegetables are rich in anti-cytokine, antioxidants, and lycopene. These nutrients have shown potential to help prevent cancer, in particular lung cancer, prostate cancer, and gastrointestinal cancer.

In addition to adding more red food into my savory dishes, I decided to create these red-ingredient-inclusive muffins made of red quinoa, red walnuts, and cranberries. They are gluten-free, dairy-free, and refined sugar-free, too.

• Banana-Cranberry muffins made with red quinoa, red walnuts, almond meal, and oats.
• Naturally occurring red colored foods tend to be rich in anti-cytokine, antioxidants, and lycopene—all nutrients that can help prevent various forms cancer and have anti-aging properties. For the muffins, chop the cranberries and walnuts.
• Place the dry ingredients—almond meal, oats, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt—in a large bowl and then whisk together.
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry and then stir in the cooked quinoa, walnuts, and cranberries.
• Spoon the muffin batter into paper liners. The muffins are quite dense so it can be difficult to remove them from the pan without liners.
• Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into one of the muffins comes out clean.

Banana Cranberry Quinoa Muffins

Recipe Yield: Makes 8 medium-sized muffins (2 3/4″ wide x 1 1/2″ deep)

Ingredients:

Instructions:

Cook the Quinoa

The first step is to cook some red quinoa. If you’re like me and like to make extra for lunch or dinner, do so! For every 1 cup of uncooked quinoa, you’ll want 2 cups of water. If you just want to make quinoa for the recipe, use 1/8 cup of quinoa and 1/4 cup of water.

1. Rinse the quinoa with water. Then, add the quinoa to a pot of water and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook for about 15 minutes or until all the water is absorbed. Let cool.

Making the Muffins

1. Preheat oven to 375˚F and place eight 2 3/4″ x 1 1/2″ liners into a muffin tin.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add the almond meal, oats, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Whisk together.
3. Mash the bananas in a small bowl.
4. Melt the coconut oil in a small saucepan.
5. Crack the eggs into a medium-sized bowl and lightly beat. Whisk in the vanilla extract, melted coconut oil, maple syrup, and mashed banana.
6. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until well incorporated. Then, mix in the chopped walnuts, cranberries, and cooked quinoa.
7. Spoon batter into the muffin liners.
8. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into one of the muffins comes out clean.
9. Let cool on a drying rack. You can take the muffins out of the pan soon as they’re cool enough to touch. Enjoy!

Recipe & photos by Sophie Slater