Herbed Sweet Potato & Oat Savoury Muffins

By Lilian Dikmans

Recipe

These Herbed Sweet Potato and Oat Savoury Muffins are gluten-free, nut-free, dairy-free and made with oat flour. Perfect if you feel like baking but are trying to cut down on sugar.

The muffins start with some mashed sweet potato. The mashed sweet potato stops the muffins from drying out and also provides natural sweetness. Then I like to use a good quality extra virgin olive oil instead of butter for added health benefits. The flavour of the olive oil will shine through the muffins, so I like to use a robust, peppery one to enhance the savoury vibe.

For the herb component, I use fresh flat leaf parsley. But other fresh herbs like coriander or dill would also be nice. If you don’t have any herbs at home, you can just leave them out.

Herbed Sweet Potato and Oat Savoury Muffins
Fresh from the oven

Instead of using regular flour, these savoury muffins are made with oat flour. To make oat flour, all you have to do is process rolled oats in a food processor or blender until you get a powder.

I divide the muffin mixture between 6 muffins cases to make 6 large muffins. If you’d prefer to make smaller muffins that don’t rise up quite as high, you can divide the mixture into 8 muffin cases instead. The baking time should still be 35 minutes, but I would check on them after 30 minutes.

How to bake sweet potato in the oven

The easiest way to get mashed sweet potato is to bake your sweet potatoes, whole with skin on, in the oven. I just place them on a sheet of foil on the bottom rack of the oven. You can do this while you’re baking or roasting something else.

I also find it best to not poke the skin of the sweet potatoes with a fork, like some recipes suggest. If you keep the skins of sweet potato unbroken, the flesh of the sweet potato kind of steams inside the skin.

Mixture for Herbed Sweet Potato and Oat Savoury Muffins
Adding the chopped spring onions and fresh parsley

To get 1 cup of mashed sweet potato, I bake 1 large or 2 smaller (about 500g total) sweet potatoes in a 200°C fan-forced / 220°C / 425°F oven for 1 – 2 hours or until soft all the way through.

To check if they’re done, a knife inserted into the largest sweet potato should go through easily. Once the sweet potatoes are soft, allow them to cool slightly, then peel off the skins and mash the flesh with a fork.

Ingredients for Herbed Sweet Potato and Oat Muffins

Mashed sweet potato: You can use leftover mashed sweet potato, or bake some sweet potatoes in the oven as discussed above.

Rolled oats: I use old fashioned rolled oats, which you process into a powder before adding to the mixture. I imagine quick oats would also work if that’s all you have at home.

Extra virgin olive oil: I like to use a robust and peppery extra virgin olive oil, as it adds a beautiful, savoury flavour to the muffins. But any olive oil will work. If you don’t need the muffins to be dairy-free, you could use melted butter instead.

Spring onions: Sweet and subtle spring onions, also known as scallions, work so well with the sweet potato. If you follow a low FODMAP diet, you can leave out the white part of the spring onion and only use the green part.

Fresh parsley: To add the herbed component. Fresh coriander or dill would also be nice. If you don’t have any herbs, you can leave them out.

Free-range eggs: To bind the muffins. I haven’t tested the recipe with an egg substitute, but would be keen to hear if you do.

Baking powder: To help lighten the muffins. Make sure your baking powder is fresh (not past the best before date) as it usually doesn’t work as well past that point.

Sea salt: Essential for seasoning the muffins.

Ingredients for Herbed Sweet Potato and Oat Savoury Muffins
Rolled oats, free-range eggs, spring onions, parsley, extra virgin olive oil, mashed sweet potato, baking powder and sea salt

More savoury muffins

These gluten-free savoury Buckwheat Zucchini Muffins make a great grab and go breakfast or snack.

For a simple variation of this recipe, these gluten-free Savoury Sweet Potato Muffins are also made with oat flour and don’t require any herbs.

You can find all of my muffins on the Muffin Recipes page.

Herbed Sweet Potato & Oat Savoury Muffins Recipe

Serves
6 muffins

Prep time
10 mins

Cook time
35 mins

Ingredients

  • 1 cup (240g) mashed sweet potato (see notes below)
  • 2 medium free-range eggs
  • 1/2 cup (120ml/96g) extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 2 spring onions
  • 1/4 cup firmly packed fresh parsley leaves
  • 2 cups (180g) rolled oats
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder

Method

  • 1
    Preheat your oven to 160°C fan-forced / 180°C / 350°F and line a standard muffin tray with 6 muffin cases.
  • 2
    Place the mashed sweet potato, eggs, olive oil and salt in a large mixing bowl and beat with a spoon until well combined. Finely chop the spring onions and parsley and stir through the mixture.
  • 3
    Process the oats in a food processor or blender to get a powder. Add it to the sweet potato mixture along with the baking powder. Gently fold everything together until just combined.
  • 4
    Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases and bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes or until lightly browned. Allow to cool in the tray.
  • 5
    Store the cooled muffins in an airtight container in the fridge or freeze them. You can re-heat them in the oven or microwave before serving.

Notes

To get 1 cup of mashed sweet potato, place 1 large or 2 smaller (about 500g total) sweet potatoes on a tray lined with foil. Bake in a 200°C fan-forced /220°C / 425°F oven for 1 – 2 hours or until soft all the way through. To check if they’re done, a knife inserted into the largest sweet potato should go through easily. Allow to cool slightly, then peel off the skins and mash the flesh with a fork.

If you follow a low FODMAP diet, which helps some people find relief from digestive bloating, just use the green part of the spring onions.

If you have oat flour, you can use 2 cups of oat flour instead of whizzing 2 cups rolled oats into a powder.

Oats naturally don’t contain gluten, but they are often processed on the same equipment as wheat so they can have traces of gluten. If you’re strictly gluten-free, you can buy gluten-free oats.

Nutrition

Serving size: 1 muffin
Energy: 1437kJ (343Cal)
Protein: 7g
Total Fat: 22.3g
Saturated Fat: 3.5g
Total Carbohydrate: 32.1g
Sugars: 2.2g
Dietary Fibre: 5.2g
Sodium: 404mg
Potassium: 211mg

Nutrition information is an estimate only. It may vary depending on the brand of ingredients used.

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Lilian Dikmans

Lilian Dikmans is an Australian model, Muay Thai fighter and founder of Real Food Healthy Body

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