Chocolate Sourdough Zucchini Bread

Recipes like this Chocolate Sourdough Zucchini Bread can dispatch a bunch of either fresh or pre-grated frozen zucchini in short order! This whole grain, vegan loaf has a bit of tang from the starter discard (no waste!) and makes one large loaf - plus a few muffins!

Our fridge freezer's door broke about 2 months ago. While we are lucky enough to have a large, standing freezer, the shift of all the frozen goods to it meant that other things - like this past summer's stash of frozen, grated zucchini - had to go. Luckily, we love the squash and I could toss handfuls into cottage pie, soup and stew. However, I saved some just to make this delicious quickbread, because (like I'm sure many of you) I also have a sourdough starter that spends most of it's time just chilling out in the fridge and I hate throwing away perfectly good flavour!

The mixture of flavours in this bread is insanely good, almost like a red velvet cake with more chocolatey oomph. It is sweet, but not tooth-achingly so, and with all the liquid it stays tender and moist for days even though it is incredibly low in fat! I tossed in some Naked Rice protein powder just because I had it on hand and wanted to make this a little bit more breakfast friendly. If you make resolutions (I don't - I don't have the attention span for those :D ) this loaf is definitely one that supports any "cook more, eat more veggies, eat fermented foods, eat vegan, eat breakfast, eat more fibre... etc" ones! If not, then sit back and enjoy a slice with abandon - it's 2021 after all, why not?

Chocolate Sourdough Zucchini Bread

Adapted from Jenny Blogs

Makes one loaf

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup milk alternative (I used vanilla pea milk)

2 tbsp ground flaxseed

2 tbsp ground chia seed

1 tbsp psyllium fibre (optional)

1 tbsp vanilla

100g 100% moisture sourdough discard

1 1/2 cups / 250g grated zucchini, thawed if frozen and drained lightly (no need to squeeze dry)

1 cup spelt flour (or whole wheat flour)

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 scoops  Naked Rice protein powder (optional)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

pinch baking powder

1. Heat oven to 350°F and grease a loaf pan (you may need a few muffin tins as well).
2. In a large bowl, beat together sugar, milk, flaxseed, chia seed, psyllium, vanilla, and sourdough discard. 
3. Stir in zucchini and let stand 5 minutes. 
4. Stir in the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and baking powder until just combined. 
5. Pour into the pan no more than 3/4 of the way full (make muffins with the rest!) and bake for 40-45 minutes (muffins for 25-30 minutes) or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean.
6. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes before turning out onto a rack.