The brownie universe isn’t exactly full of surprises. The combination of sugar, butter, flour, chocolate, eggs, a few extraneous ingredients, plus a little oven time, inevitably leads to some form of brownie action. Of course, the resulting degree of deliciousness is all in the details — just talk to the adamant nut-adders, the chocolate chip enthusiasts, or the “fudgy” versus “cakey” people that can seemingly never agree. Yet, by and large, the language of brownies is pretty much the same: delicious chocolate squares that just about everyone loves. Including me.

But I have a secret. With the exception of chocolate (which can be profoundly beneficial in its unprocessed form), I don’t use any of the “conventional” ingredients in my homemade brownies. In fact, I don’t even bake them. (I know — what a rebel.) Instead, by using exclusively natural, whole foods, the inherently gorgeous flavor of each healthy ingredient does all the sweet singing — without needing the crutch of sugar or butter. Undercover health benefits like antioxidants, good omega fats, potassium, magnesium (and more) nutritionally rank this dessert as more of an energy bar than an “extra 20 minutes on the treadmill indulgence.” Best of all, five ingredients plus five minutes is all it takes to go from zero to brownie.

Oh, and as for their decadent texture? Simply put: go team “fudgy.” Here’s the printable recipe.

Barbecues are always a hot thing to do, but with the increasing amounts of celebration surrounding a vegetarian diet, the grill game’s a-changin’. Whether you’re a proud member of the plant-based parade or just have some veg-inclined people on the guest list, chances are your veggie burger skills will be tested at some point during the warm season.

The good news is the rules are few in the “science” of making veggie patties. Pick delicious ingredients, mash ‘em up, form into patties, and throw on the grill (or skillet). The best part? Veggie patties are profoundly forgiving when it comes to perfecting a recipe. Sneak a taste before cooking and if you’re not quite in love, just mash more goodness into the mixture to cover any mistakes. While we’re at it, here’s some pointers to help make your whole food-minded mission a success, and help you build a better veggie burger.

How to construct a winning veggie patty:

The base: Choose protein-rich or savory whole foods to provide the main “meat” of the burger. Different types of beans, seeds, nuts, tofu, and mushrooms work well. Grains and pseudograins like rice or quinoa may also be added, but if you’re eventually putting burger inside a bun, don’t turn your burger into a “second bun” by packing it too heavily with grains.

The chew: Sneak a few extra minced veggies into the mix and add extra textural interest, flavor, and sneaky nutrition. Onions, carrots, celery, corn, peas, and even sun-dried tomatoes can all add tasty complexity.

The seasoning: Any from-scratch burger wouldn’t dare be complete without some seasoning and spice. Try a combination of fresh herbs, like oregano, parsley, and thyme, and don’t be afraid of raiding the spice cabinet too for some grill-worthy spices like cumin or chili powder. A little sea salt is usually friendly too.

The binder: All your choices may taste great, but they won’t be doing anyone good if they’re sitting in broken pieces on the bottom of the grill. A binder is the all important ingredient that sticks all your choice yumminess together. Two favorites in this category: flax seeds and chia seeds (ground up is preferred). Also useful are algae and seaweed — like kelp or Irish moss — which are mineral-rich natural foods whose high concentration of mucilage takes the place of less desirable ingredients like corn starch.

Here’s one of my go-to burger recipes that seems to always meet with approval and cheers:

Chia Bean Burgers

These patties can also be pre-cooked, then gently warmed as needed.

INGREDIENTS:
15 oz cooked black beans (unsalted)
1¼ cup cooked brown rice
4 oz extra firm tofu, minced or crumbled fine
¼ cup Navitas Naturals Sprouted Chia Powder (or ground chia seeds)
¼ cup nutritional yeast
1½ tsp fresh oregano, minced (or ½ tsp dried)
1 tsp palm sugar
1 stalk celery, minced
1 carrot, minced
½ cup minced yellow onion
3 Tbsp organic soy sauce or Nama Shoyu

DIRECTIONS:
With a potato masher or the back of a fork, mash the black beans in a large bowl into a chunky puree. Mix in the remaining ingredients, one at a time. (Alternately, pulse ingredients together in a food processor). Form into 8-10 patties and refrigerate for about an hour.

Patties may be brushed with oil (coconut oil works well) and placed on a grill, or place into a well greased frying pan and cooked over low heat for several minutes on each side. Makes 8-10.

Variation: Soak 2 Tbsp dried wakame flakes for 20 minutes. Drain and mash into the mixture before cooking. Wakame adds an extra strong punch of trace minerals and a light savory flavor.

Oh, and my Portobello Burger Patty is another drool-worthy favorite – and can even be made using a dehydrator. Whoa!

And then, what do you know.  This company comes along and makes my wildest dreams come true by introducing a fantastic new product: organic date syrup.

Date. Syrup. (OMG).

I hadn’t heard of date syrup until recently, only now finding out that it’s been used (like so many fabulous foods) in other cultures for thousands of years. I do realize I just wrote a whole article on sweeteners, but this syrup is simply too good not to share. Its most exquisite quality is perhaps its luxuriously smooth texture – extra thick like caramel, with a softness that literally just melts away in your mouth. It’s very sweet, but not squintingly so (like agave syrup) if you taste it straight. More than I care to admit, my finger found its way into the jar . . . and to be honest the taste is so inherently delicious, I found it almost a waste to mix it into the flavor chorus of a recipe. Date syrup has all the elements of a gourmet treat just flying solo.

Because of this, I’ve taken to utilizing it in applications where it is not wasted as simply a sweetener, but where it can act like a true syrup and be appreciated in all its glory . . . drizzling it atop a warm oatmeal, a homemade banana soft serve, or just a touch on my little apple pear energy tartlets. It undoubtedly has an affinity for fruit, and quickly settles into the background flavors if you’re not careful.

One of my favorite experiments thus far turns out to be one of the easiest: Red Raspberry Popsicles – enhanced by date syrup that’s added just before freezing so it stays in tight little flavor pockets throughout the popsicle. Heaven brought to you by your freezer, and an ideal summertime treat. Here’s how to make them:

Red Raspberry Popsicles

Stevia (as used below) is fickle from brand to brand in terms of sweetness — making it nearly impossible to dictate measurements — yet remains a wonderful way to cut down on sugars. In this recipe, stevia extends the sweetness of the fruit sugars from date syrup and raspberries without adding a single extra calorie. If you’re not a fan of stevia, use another natural sweetener like palm sugar, or even additional date syrup.

INGREDIENTS
½ cup unsweetened almond milk
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 cup frozen raspberries
white stevia powder (or liquid), to taste
2 Tbsp date syrup

DIRECTIONS:
Get popsicle vessels ready – use either a plastic popsicle mold or kit, or small cups with sticks. Recipe makes about 10-12 oz of mixture – servings will vary depending on size of molds used.

In a medium bowl, stir together the almond milk and vanilla. Add the frozen raspberries, and use a fork to “mash” them into the liquid – the milk will begin to freeze into a slush around the raspberries, which is the objective. Mix until chunky, but not blended.

Add a tiny, tiny dash of stevia and mix well. Taste the mixture and add more stevia if needed, mixing after each addition. The overall taste should be quite sweet, as freezing will bring the sweetness flavor profile down a notch.

Drizzle the date syrup into the mixture. Stir once or twice ONLY – just enough to incorporate the syrup into the raspberry mix, but allowing large date syrup swirls to remain.

Carefully spoon the mixture into popsicle molds. Freeze for 3 hours or until mixture is completely frozen through. Thaw for a minute or two just before serving.

http://www.readymade.com/projects/article/mix_a_batch_of_kombucha

But is agave really that bad? Can it be compared to high fructose corn syrup? Should we go out of our way to avoid it? Let’s take a look.

What happened with agave?
It really wasn’t all that long ago that many people were just beginning to fall in love with agave – using it often in the place of cane sugar, corn syrup and honey for its intense and clean-tasting sweetness. Agave’s brief history in the North American marketplace has relied upon being marketed as a “raw healthy sweetener.” This sweet syrup extracted from the agave cactus proved especially valuable to the diabetic community, who embraced agave’s low glycemic index.  Then, suddenly, agave was everywhere – in recipes, in drinks, in packaged foods, in restaurants, and of course, in desserts. Between a solid stamp of approval from the health food community, and a new excuse to get simply get some sugary goodness on, the mantra of healthy sweet food became “no sugar . . . just agave.”

So when the story broke that agave was actually not healthy at all and was actually comparable to corn syrup, it’s no wonder there was a strong outrage. After all, agave was sold to us as a “healthy sweetener,” and we were paying a premium price tag to enjoy its benefits. Health advocate Dr. Mercola released this adamant and influential article,  which was posted and reposted in just about every health-oriented nook and cranny. Suddenly agave was the bad guy, leaving consumers feel betrayed . . . and confused.

Is agave really worse than high fructose corn syrup?
Most of us understand that high fructose corn syrup is something we should avoid entirely.  And it’s true that both syrups have very high levels of fructose (the type of sugar that is primarily found in fruit), making the comparison understandable. But high fructose corn syrup is really quite bad – it’s a (mostly) genetically modified, highly processed product that often contains mercury. In comparison, agave is much a less processed product (depending on the source), not to mention free of toxic mercury.  Plus, it’s also about twice as sweet as corn syrup – so even though ounce per ounce the fructose levels are the same, you can get away with using significantly less thereby reducing the total sugars.

Unfortunately, using half as much has not been in the game plan for most people. Initially influenced by that “healthy sweetener” tag, liberal use of agave became acceptable and even celebrated — we seemed to forget that at the end of the day, agave syrup is really just a highly concentrated liquid sugar. Clearly, agave was marked misleadingly as “healthy,” but at the same time many companies and individuals failed to use restraint when including it in foods. Sugars – fructose included – are not bad; we just don’t want an excess of them.

If there is one food philosophy that I connect with more than any other it is simply making better choices — which is where agave takes a seat in my kitchen. I find “better choice” agave exceptionally useful in some recipes because it is so efficiently sweet . . . but I avoid using it in large quantities, and try to get away with using as little as possible when formulating recipes. Often, I will use agave in conjunction with another healthier sweetener like stevia to help round out the sweetness, while allowing the other sweetener to do most of the legwork. For healthy culinary purposes, agave ranks amongst the lowest of the sweeteners. But that still doesn’t mean it’s bad — agave just has to be used more consciously then many of us have been accustomed to using it in the past.

Alternative useful sweeteners for a healthy kitchen:
There’s no need to be as obsessively dependent on agave as we’ve become, because let’s face it — there’s a treasure trove of other healthy sweeteners which each bring their own unique benefits to the table. Fresh or dried fruit is always a first option sweetener because it has nutrients and fiber that it brings along for the sweet ride. But fruit simply doesn’t “work” in every recipe, which is why we’re so lucky to have variety. Here’s a short list of some other sweeteners I find particularly useful in making healthy, natural recipes:

• Stevia
• Palm Sugar
• Date Syrup/Sugar
• Yacon Syrup/powder
• Maple Syrup/Sugar
• Jerusalem Artichoke Syrup

The Bottom Line
Agave is not what I would consider to be a “best choice” sweetener – that’s where fruit and stevia step in – but it is unquestionably still a “better choice” in comparison to refined cane sugar and high fructose corn syrup (which make up 99.9% of the sweetener choices that occur every day). As for the best choice in the pursuit of optimum health, perhaps simply maintaining a healthy perspective on the role of sugar in our diets is the most important and beneficial practice of all.

For further reading on why agave isn’t as bad as it seems, I highly recommend this detailed and well researched article: The “Agave Is Bad For You” Fallacy.