These moist and tender vegan green tea muffins are infused with matcha powder and topped off with a sprinkling of crunchy pistachios!

It’s interesting that I had a hard time coming up with something green to make for Saint Patrick’s Day. I usually try to consume as much green food as possible, and as I scroll through the photos from past posts it certainly doesn’t look like I have any trouble in the green food department.

It was as I was strolling through the supermarket admiring an array of festive green baked goods that I realized the key to Saint Patty’s Day food: it’s all stuff that’s inappropriately green! Green spinach = not festive. Green cookies = perfect holiday feast. Got it.

These muffins are inappropriately green, sort of. I actually came up with the idea on that particular trip to the supermarket that I just mentioned. They had a box of blindingly green pistachio muffins on display. Yes, pistachios are green, but there was no way these muffins achieved that level of greeneness from nuts. They were glowing like kryptonite, presumably as a result of being loaded up with buckets of green food coloring. I went home on a mission to create a healthier, natural, yet inappropriately green pistachio muffin. I had to brainstorm a bit as to what I’d use for a natural colorant, when I saw the answer tucked away within my countertop tea stash: matcha. This was perfect. Not only was I not adding unhealthy chemicals to my muffins, but I was actually adding some healthy green tea antioxidants.

I couldn’t taste the matcha in these muffins at all. Not that the taste would be bad. I love the taste of green tea. For these muffins though I wanted the pistachio flavor to shine through, complimented by some lemonyness. I suggest using salted pistachios. The crunchy, salty flavor goes amazingly with the sweet, delicate flavor of the muffins. Know how chocolate covered pretzels sound weird but are actually amazing? It’s like that.

Print Pistachio Green Tea Muffins These moist and tender vegan green tea muffins are infused with matcha powder and topped off with a sprinkling of crunchy pistachios! Prep Time 10 minutes Cook Time 15 minutes Total Time 25 minutes Servings 12 Author Alissa Ingredients 2 tbsp. ground flaxseeds

3/4 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk of choice

1 1/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour could sub all purpose

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tbsp. matcha powder

1 tsp. lemon zest

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/8 tsp. salt

1/2 cup vegan margarine at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped pistachios Instructions Whisk milk and flax seeds together in a small bowl and allow to sit for at least ten minutes. You can get your other ingredients together in the meantime. Preheat oven to 425. Line 12 muffin cups with papers. Combine flour, baking powder, matcha, lemon zest, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in medium bowl. Set aside. Cream margarine, sugar and vanilla with mixer in medium bowl. Add milk/flax mixture, a little bit at a time, to avoid taking a shower in it. Next add dry ingredient mixture, 1/3 at a time, mixing well between additions and scraping bowl as needed. Spoon mixture into muffin cups and top with chopped pistachios. Place in oven and immediately lower temperature to 375. Bake 15 minutes.

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