1.4K Views 11 months ago

10 Delicious Ways to Incorporate Matcha Green Tea into Your Plant-Based Recipes!

All plant-based foods are “superfoods” in their own right, boasting a variety of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals that we need to be our healthiest selves. Some plant-based foods have been produced and prepared in a way that increases their vitamin and mineral content, along with their overall benefits. For instance, matcha green tea is from the same plant as regular green tea, except matcha tea comes from leaves that have never been exposed to heat. This is the reason why matcha is so bright in color, almost alarmingly neon green. It’s a raw food, if you will, and is made by carefully drying the green tea leaves and not allowing them to undergo processing or excessive heat like traditional fermented tea leaves. The result is not only a bright color, but 40 times more antioxidants than regular green tea, higher amounts of chlorophyll, and even less caffeine.

Matcha is especially calming, provides a nice, steady stream of energy, and can help promote a balanced spirit. It has a buttery, earthy, and almost subtly sweet taste to it (if you buy a good — ceremonial-grade — brand), so it makes a great ingredient to use in raw recipes and other fun food recipes such as these below.

Here are 10 ways to use matcha, ranging from the healthiest to some of the naughtiest recipes of all!

1. Matcha Raspberry Bliss Balls

Matcha is super easy to use in raw energy bite and truffle recipes. Like cacao powder, you just add it in and go about your business! Here it’s used as a coating for these lovely bliss balls; the raspberry adds a tart and brightening balance to the sweetness of the dates and to the earthy tones of the matcha. Talk about energy in a few bites!

2. Superfood Matcha Porridge

Sometimes we just need a little something extra in the morning to get us going. Hey, coffee’s great, but it’s not the only antioxidant-rich energy source we have at our disposal! Try stirring a little matcha in your oats like this porridge recipe; don’t worry too much if your oats are heated — you’ll still get plenty of antioxidants out of the matcha anyway. You can also turn this into overnight oatmeal by just mixing it all in a mason jar, putting it in the fridge, and eating in the morning. Don’t have pomegranate seeds? Just use another type of berry — it will still be delish!

3. Vegan Matcha Green Tea Cupcakes

While this recipe might not be one you want to make to get healthy, it certainly is a way to work matcha tea into your sweet recipes, and just to add a natural green color to cakes and cupcakes without artificial dyes. You could always use a whole grain flour and sugar replacement if you’d like to make it healthier, or just leave it as is — up to you!

4. Matcha Green Tea Chocolate Chip Brownies

Featuring some of the highest quality baking ingredients, these brownies put store-bought brownies to shame! Not only are these brownies rich and fudgey, but also have a natural, caramel-like sweetness thanks to the coconut sugar used. The matcha adds a well-rounded buttery, earthy tone to these brownies and also cuts some of the sweetness a bit too. Under-bake these if you like your brownies gooey … which really, isn’t that the best way to eat them?!

5. Cafe Style Matcha Latte

To enjoy matcha in one of the simplest ways, and one that’s closer to how it’s traditionally consumed, try this delicious latte. Not only is it creamy like dairy-based lattes (without the milk, of course), but it’s also energizing and balancing for those mid-afternoon slumps. If coffee’s not your thing, give this a try!

6. Passion Fruit Matcha Coconut Layered Cake

Maybe someone special in your life has a birthday coming up, or maybe, you just want to make something creative, sweet, delicious, and healthy at the same time. Whatever the case, this cake recipe has got your back! Coconut is an excellent baking ingredient because it can act as a flour replacer due to its fiber and fat content, and it provides a rich, buttery texture without the need for butter. If you don’t have passion fruit, just sub in a favorite berry of your choice, mashed and blended where the passion fruit is called for. And though you could make this cake without the matcha, well, why would you? It adds the perfect dose of bright, spring green color to just about anything!

7. Pistachio and Matcha Truffles

These little energy bites are packed with flavor and nutrition! Featuring chia seeds for fiber, protein, magnesium, calcium, and iron, along with pistachios that are a great source of prebiotic fibers and healthy fats, these bites are a great way to nourish your cells. The matcha green color accents the pistachios perfectly, and also adds a really lovely flavor to these when combined with the sweet dates in the recipe. Plus, they have just six total ingredients — how much easier does it get!?

8. Banana Ice Cream With Matcha, Blueberry, and Vanilla Layers

For all those raw food enthusiasts craving some ice cream, indulge in the classic banana ice cream, but add a little something extra this time. Combining blueberries, matcha, bananas, and real vanilla, this ice cream recipe rivals any dairy-based option out there!

9. Matcha Glazed Vanilla Bean Donuts With Matcha Cream Filling

And for all you donut lovers out there who could care less about the health benefits of matcha and just want a fun ingredient to use, this donut recipe is just about all you could ask for. Brew yourself a cup of coffee and call yourself a happy camper this Saturday morning with this recipe!

10. A Smoothie!

By all means, the easiest and healthiest way to use matcha is perhaps in a smoothie recipe. Give it a try in this beautiful green smoothie which allows for any superfoods you might have on hand to be used in the recipe. Sip your way to delicious and healthy in mere minutes!

Do you use matcha tea? If so, what’s your favorite recipe?

Learn How to Cook Plant-Based Meals at Home

Reducing your meat intake and eating more plant-based foods is known to help with chronic inflammation, heart health, mental well-being, fitness goals, nutritional needs, allergies, gut health, and more! Dairy consumption also has been linked to many health problems, including acne, hormonal imbalance, cancer, prostate cancer, and has many side effects.

For those of you interested in eating more plant-based, we highly recommend grabbing our favorite plant-based cookbooks and downloading the Food Monster App — with over 20,000 delicious recipes, it is the largest plant-based recipe resource to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals, and get healthy! And, while you are at it, we encourage you to also learn about the environmental and health benefits of a plant-based diet.

Here are some great resources to get you started:

For more Animal, Earth, Life, Vegan Food, Health, and Recipe content published daily, subscribe to the One Green Planet Newsletter! Lastly, being publicly funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high-quality content. Please consider supporting us by donating!