Mango Banana Bread

When my twin sister first started eating vegetarian, I had no problems with it, as our older sister had become a vegetarian long ago. But some of the meals she made disgusted me. I mean, lentils? The name alone was enough to turn me off, not to mention their puke green colour. And quinoa? I couldn't even pronounce it, let alone cook it. However, as I started learning more about healthy cooking and the benefits of protein-rich legumes and grains like lentils and quinoa, I finally decided to give them a try myself, and reluctantly admitted that as usual, my sister was right. They were not only healthy and filling, but versatile and delicious. I never would have imagined that something called lentil loaf would become one of my favourite meals, but it did.

Then she started branching out into even weirder foods. Bags of strangely named ingredients started overpopulating our cupboards, like chia seeds, chickpea flour, and flax seed. Whenever she tried to make me try her popcorn that she topped with nutritional yeast, I flat out refused. But, as you've probably guessed, I've since discovered that ground flax seed is a great source of fiber to add to smoothies, and nutritional yeast is not only healthy but adds a delicious cheesy flavour to vegetables and other foods.

Now, she's started using her weird ingredients for baking, and this is where I drew the line. Experimenting with meals is one thing, but baking is something that I've learned not to mess with. As much as I'd love to make all my baked goods fat-free and healthy, no matter what, they just never taste as good as the real thing.

So when I saw this recipe for a vegan mango banana bread, I was hesitant. But I had a bunch of ripe bananas on the counter that were starting to attract fruit flies, I absolutely love mango, and this recipe didn't contain any strange ingredients, so I decided to be brave and give it a try. And once again, I was wrong to doubt. This bread was everything I love about banana bread; it was moist and dense with a strong banana flavour, but kicks it up a notch with a hint of spice and surprise bites of sweet mango.


I didn't change any of the ingredients, so head on over to Joy the Baker's blog to get the recipe. And if you haven't looked around her site before, you should definitely spend some time there, she has tons of amazing recipes and is really funny too!

In addition to discovering a great healthy banana bread recipe, I've learned to be more willing to try new ingredients and recipes, as they might surprise you. And I've also learned that my sister is usually right, and I'm usually wrong.