It’s the first day of fall today. And the autumn weather is starting to be felt, there is no doubt about that. Last night, the temperature was 5 °C, feeling like 1, and I just got a frost advisory for tonight. Brrr! But what can we do with these beautiful green tomatoes, which will surely not have time to turn red before the end of the season? My answer: a green tomato cake! (Or several cakes if, like me, you have lots of green tomatoes left…)
Of course, you could harvest them and hang them upside down or encourage them to ripen by putting them in a paper bag with a ripe apple or banana for ethylene, but I have not had much success with those techniques.
I found this green tomato cake recipe last year and I adapted it to turn it into a healthier vegan version. Goodbye oil and eggs! Welcome apples and flax seeds! And by turning on your oven, you’ll heat up your home at the same time, delaying the time to turn on the heat. Two birds with one stone! Let’s get baking!
Green Tomato Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup of applesauce (or ¼ cup of plant milk with 2 large diced apples in the blender to make 1 cup of blended apples)
- 3 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 ½ cups of brown sugar
- 3 flax eggs (3 tbsp flaxseed meal and 7 ½ tbsp water)
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 cup pecans
- 1 cup raisins
- 2 ½-3 cups finely diced green tomatoes
- ½ cup flaked coconut, divided
Steps
- Preheat oven to 350 °F.
- Grease a 9″ x 13″ baking pan.
- In a large mixing bowl (or a blender), combine sugar, applesauce, flax eggs and vanilla extract; mix until smooth.
- In a large bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Stir in the pecans, raisins, tomatoes and ¼ cup of the coconut flakes.
- Incorporate the wet ingredients.
- Pour into the prepared baking pan.
- Top with the remaining coconut flakes.
- Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Inspiration: The Spruce Eats – Green Tomato Cake with Nuts
Enjoy! And don’t forget to leave the oven door open at the end to let this beautiful heat spread through the house.
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