Vegtastic!

What’s a another thing to do with purple potatoes?

Make purple potato bread.

This lovely lavender dough, when baked, is perfect for pretty party sandwiches, thick-cut as French toast, or broken off in chunks to sop up stews and sauces.

Purple Potato Bread

From Group Recipes

makes one loaf

Ingredients

• 3/4cups water
• 1/4 cup soy milk
• 2 TBS butter
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 TBS sugar
• 2/3 cups cooked purple potato, mashed
• 3 + 2 TBS cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp fast rising yeast

Instructions

1. Grease 2 bread pans – 9 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches
2. Place water, milk & butter in a microwavable bowl and cook until butter melts; pour into a large bowl.
3. Add salt, sugar & mashed potato and beat until sugar dissolves.
4. Add approx 1 1/2 cups of flour and beat until combined. Sprinkle the yeast over the batter and beat until yeast is thoroughly combined.
5. Add remaining flour.
6. Knead dough on a floured surface, incorporating more flour if needed,  dough is no longer sticky — a few minutes.
7. Grease a large bowl and place dough in it; flip dough over and let rise until doubled in size,  40 – 45 minutes.
8. Place in a greased bread pan, cover with damp towel and let rise again until doubled in size, 45 – 45 minutes.
9. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 35 – 40 minutes or until tops of loaves are golden.
10. Remove dough from pan and cool on a wire rack.

It all started with a discussion of dung.

In September, the Woodland Park Zoo sells the scat– zoo doo–  that its animals produce throughout the year. This factoid, of course, was too bizarre not to share in the office chatroom.

Kelly mentioned that her neighbor used zoo doo in his garden. And that her parents might be able to use it in their garden. And that their garden had produced more vegetables than they could eat.

I said I knew someone who could take those vegetables off of her parents’ hands.

The next morning, a zucchini the size of my cat (the little guy, not the grumpy old woman) mysteriously appeared on my desk. How could I ever eat such a behemoth in its entirety?

With David departing for a family road trip, a ceramics class potluck, friends coming over to watch the Emmys and my always-hungry coworkers, zucchini bread seemed like an ideal solution.

But with a twist.

The coconut oil, coconut palm sugar and shredded coconut in my pantry transformed standard zucchini bread into a magical fusion between simple Americana and a tropical breeze. When the batter proved too dry, a small can of coconut milk pulled through to create a moist, not-too-sweet quick bread.

And yeah, Kelly, the zucchini yielded 6 loaves. There’s one on your desk.

Coconut Zucchini Bread
makes 2 loaves

• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 2 cups palm sugar (or one cup granulated sugar and one cup palm sugar)
• 1 (5.5) oz can coconut milk
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 2 mashed bananas
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup shopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup currants
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease 2 9″x5″ loaf pans.
2. Combine zucchini, sugar, coconut milk, applesauce, coconut oil, vanilla, and mashed bananas in a medium bowl.
3. Combine flours, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until just combined; stir in walnuts, currants and shredded coconut.
5. Pour into greased pans; bake for 50-55 minutes.