Vegan Parsnip and Date Cookies

Early this week, I had made some Parsnip and Date Cakes, I had grated way too much parsnip. Instead of scraping the excess parsnip into the vegetable compost bin, I decided to try my hand at experimenting and making some Parsnip Cookies.  I knew they would be fine, in the same vain as the Carrot Cookies, but I wasn't expecting the textual thing going on in my mouth.  They were truly lovely.

These are not the crisp and crunchy kind of cookie.  These cookies were delightfully chewy and I liked the way the flavour of the dates burst and then melted in mouth.  You really would not know there was parsnips in these cookies.  

Well as always, I had made way too many, and decided to offload some of them to my nephews and nieces.  The following day, I rang them to get there verdict and surprisingly the verdict was good.    

I'm sharing some of these Parsnip and Date cookies with Ricki at Diet, Dessert, Dogs for her Wellness Weekends November; and Credit Crunch Munch, a food blogging challenge set by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla at Fab Food 4 All.  This challenge encourages us to share our frugal food recipes. This November Credit Crunch Munch is being hosted by Dinner with Crayons.  

Chewy Parsnip and Date Cookies
Makes 24
Ingredients
1/3 cup of soya milk
1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds
1/2 cup sunflower oil
1/3 cup muscavado sugar
1 cup of golden caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups of plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup grated parsnips
1/2 cup dates, chopped
Method
Preheat oven to gas mark 4/180oc.  Grease two baking sheets or line with non-stick parchment paper.
In a large bowl, stir together the soya milk, flaxseeds, oil, the sugars and vanilla.  Sift in the flour, baking powder and cinnamon and salt.  Stir to moisten ingredients.  Finally foil in the grated parsnip and chopped dates  The dough will be sticky.
Drop large tablespoons of the dough onto the baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches of space between each, press gently down with damp fingers or fork.  Bake for 14 - 16 minutes or until the tops are golden.  Allow to cool, before transferring onto a wire rack.