Pumpkin Spice Latte (Vegan)
When Starbucks releases its PSL every year, people line up for it like crack addicts. I did a little digging on this beloved drink only to learn that it's made with condensed milk and a lot of sugar. It is nice to have a seasonal shift drink, but we sweeten our vegan PSL with yacon syrup, a low glycemic natural sweetener so you won’t be bouncing off the walls.
Servings: Four Lattes
INGREDIENTS
1 cup water
4 tablespoons pumpkin puree
2 sticks cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons yacon syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 shots of espresso
2 cups of non-dairy milk
PREPARATION
1 Place the water, pumpkin puree, cinnamon sticks, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves into a saucepan. Whisk together, and simmer for 30 minutes.
2 The syrup will reduce to about 1/4 cup. Add in the yacon syrup and vanilla extra and whisk.
3 Strain the syrup and store in the fridge for 1 week.
4 To make a Pumpkin Spice Latte, add 1 shot of espresso to a cup, 2 tablespoons of the PSL syrup, and 1/2 cup of your choice of steamed milk.
NOTES
We tried oat, almond, and soy, and they all tasted great, but oat milk was the clear winner.
There’s an alternate way to make the latte: heat the milk on low and simmer it (stirring frequently) for 10 minutes with all the ingredients except the vanilla extract and yacon syrup. Add the vanilla and yacon at the end.
To make this drink low glycemic, use almond milk.
The PSL syrup that Starbucks uses has condensed milk in it. So if you are ordering your PSL with oat or almond milk thinking you're avoiding casein, oops, you're not. Additionally, tall PSL with Oat Milk has 38 grams of sugar. In comparison, the original Krispy Kreme donut has 10 grams of sugar.
This PSL recipe is sweetened with yacon syrup. No, that's not a typo, and I wish my autocorrect would stop changing yacon syrup to bacon syrup. However, I would put yacon in the bacon-worthy category.
Yacon is a tuber, and it is low on the glycemic index, or in other words, it won't spike your blood sugar like a Krispy Kreme donut will. It looks and feels like light molasses but tastes like a cross between agave, molasses, and maple syrup. If you are trying to lighten your sugar load, this is an excellent substitute for heavily flavored baking foods such as dark chocolate or ginger cookies or drinks like the PSL or chai.
Yacon is a prebiotic fiber, what our good bacteria eats, and also has antioxidants and potassium.
It's also an abundant source of fructooligosaccharides (FOS), making it a no-go for people who suffer from IBS. Also, if you are on a Candida cleanse, I would steer clear.