There is a curry leaf in these muffins!!!

Small plates or Tapas for dinner is becoming more and more popular in past few years. Or it may be just me, who started hearing about it in last couple of years. This year we friends decided to go Tapas route for our new years party. All of us were coming back from vacations  just before new year's eve so we decided the menu even before Christmas! We did not want to stick with the traditional Indian things but did not want to divert too much. Number of emails after here is what we decided - Batata Vadas, some vegan desserts, some bread and dips.
And on the day here is what we actually had for three families -
Batata vada, beer bread, Matar Usal, savory muffins, tofu lettuce-wraps, chocolate cake, and a fruit cake, figs-olive dip, pear-ginger chutney.

As usual we had so much food and we did not even touch matar usal that evening! I got an opportunity to make two different types of savory muffins which I wanted to try since I saw this recipe. I just added this and that to make mine as I did not have cornmeal at home and wanted mine to be vegan. Mine turned out to be good in first trial. But there was no 'oomph'! I got few suggestions and I tried two different versions for the new year's eve and they came out perfect! Here is recipe for one of my favorite -

Curry leaves, Red bell pepper Muffins!

1 cup Wheat Flour (I used Chapati Flour)
1/2 cup Oat Bran
1/4 cup chopped Sun dried Tomatoes (Dry variety)
1/4 cup chopped Roasted Red Bell Peppers
1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1 tsp Garam Masala
2 tbsp Finely Chopped Curry Leaves
1/2 tsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper
4 Oz Unsweetened Apple Sauce
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 cup Almond milk
1/4 cup Water (or use almond milk)
1.5 tsp Salt
1.5 tsp Baking Powder





Preparation -

Preheat oven at 350 degrees.

Line a mini muffin pan with muffin liners.

Mix flour, oat bran, garam masala, red pepper flakes, black pepper, baking powder, salt together. Mix it throughly in a big mixing bowl and set aside.

Add oil, almond milk, apple sauce and water together.

Fine dice roasted red bell peppers and sun dried tomatoes. Mix with the oil-milk mixture. Mix in chopped curry leaves.

Now mix wet ingredients with dry in three batches, mixing everything very well.

Distribute batter evenly into prepared muffin cups, filling each about 3/4th full. Mixture will be enough to make 16-18 mini muffins.

Bake for about 18-20 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy with dab of Earth Balance.

Tips -

• I used fresh curry leaves and Trader Joe's roasted bell peppers. 
• Another version used 1/4 cup chopped olives and jalapeños instead of bell pepper and sun dried tomatoes. Used Italian seasoning in place curry leaves. 
• One more version is 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes and fresh rosemary.
• If you do not want to use almond milk you can use plain water.