Superstar Vegetable Side Dish - Breaded Squash and Zucchini Mash

Vegetable sides for the vegetarian often become main courses. This is the case for the next dish that started out as a side, but has edged out the grains that usually accompany it. This is an invention that I made one day wishing that my vegetables were as satisfying as pasta. I realize that this is not the the most healthy way to eat your veggies, but it is scrumptious and fun to make. I hope that you enjoy it!

Breaded Squash and Zucchini Mash

Ingredients:
3 T olive oil
1 large yellow squash cut into medallions
1 large zucchini cut into medallions
1 large clove of garlic sliced in half
1/2 C breadcrumbs

• Heat 1 T olive oil in a large skillet
• Rub one side of each medallion with garlic
• Add squash to the skillet and saute about 3 min
• Add zucchini to the skillet and saute until both squash and zucchini are soft. You might have to add an addition T of oil so that the vegetables do not burn.
• When the vegetables are breaking apart (they still retain their shape but are very soft) add 1/2 C breadcrumbs and the remaining oil and saute until browned just a bit
• You may have to add more oil or cook longer depending on your taste. I like to have the breadcrumbs brown but let the vegetables remain intact.
  

There you have it! I double this recipe sometimes and basically end up with a mountain of vegetables lightly coated with a light and crispy breading. MMMMMM!

Vegan Holiday Food - What to do without Turkey, Ham and Whipped Cream

What does a vegan do to make the winter a season of mouth watering tradition instead of a time of unsavory nostalgia for the by-gone meat days? I admit that my first Thanksgiving as a vegan was difficult, none of my family is vegetarian. How do you replace the staples of a meal that is mostly meat and dairy (turkey, ham, potatoes whipped w/ cream, creamed corn, gravy, buttery stuffing etc)? Well the potatoes were easy to deal with, but it took me three tries to replace the gaping hole where the meat should be. At first I simply made some of my favorite meals, risotto con zafferano or lasagna but even though I was excited to eat a heaping plate of comfort food, I felt that I was missing out on the dining experience. It makes a difference when you are not part of the passing and dishing, the pouring of gravy and the sprinkling of salt and pepper.

This year I decided to make a true Thanksgiving feast by making some of the most decadent recipes that I know while at the same time staying within the limits of the holiday's fare (meaning no lasagna or risotto!). The result: chickpea cutlets with jalapeno corn gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing sans meat drippings courtesy of my sister, skillet cornbread and pumpkin cheesecake. I only make the gravy and cutlets for the holidays so now I look forward to slathering my plate with the hearty kick of corn gravy, a flavor that has become synonymous with the holidays! I also had my food on the table to serve with the rest of the non-vegan choices, which made a difference, and it also encouraged others to try some meatless dishes.

These recipes are not my own, so I am not going to publish them, I will, however point you in the right direction to find out how to make them from some essential vegan cookbooks! I will be posting some of my own recipes soon, stay tuned.

Chickpea Cutlets and Jalapeno Corn Gravy

I made these from a recipe in the Veganomicom and it was fast and easy and created meaty, tender c utlets that made a perfect bed for any gravy. It utilizes some wheat gluten, but is much easier to deal with than making seitan.

The gravy is a bit involved, but it is so incredible that I recommend it. I know that most of you don't equate pepper hot with Thanksgiving, but this delight melds one of my childhood traditions of mixing the creamed corn with the mashed potatoes. It is a puree (I like to leave mine chunky ) of corn, jalapeno and onion. This is a thick and flavorful way to add a fancy touch to the holiday plate.
Veganomicon
The Post Punk Kitchen


Skillet Cornbread
This is another recipe taken from Veganomicon that creates an aesthetically pleasing way to bake cornbread and it yields large thick wedges packed with fresh corn -- sooo delicious!

Veganomicon



Creamy Mashed and Whipped Potatoes
This is my recipe, so it is included in its entirety.

Ingredients:
5 large potatoes peeled and chunked
1 C unsweetened soy or rice milk
1 tsp salt
1 T sugar
2 T vegan butter

• Cook the potato chunks until tender and let cool.
• Place the potatoes in a mixing bowl and mash down with masher until chunky.
• Pour in 1/2 C milk and salt and whip with hand mixer until completely smooth. Add more to preferred texture.
  
• Add the sugar and butter to your liking. I tend to add a bit at a time and whip, taste, adjust, repeat.
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Pumpkin Cheesecake
Taken from The Joy Vegan Baking, this soft and light recipe yields a great flavor that is like pumpkin pie and whipped cream all together in a compact cheesecake package. Make this with the pecan crust and it is all the more fantastic!

The Joy of Vegan Baking

My First Pasta e Fagioli

I am attempting to make Pasta e Fagioli, a bean and pasta soup that comes in as many variations as pronunciations, for the first time. I must admit that my book of family recipes does not hold a generation-tested, ingredient-perfected version of this hearty soup, but I do recall a potent bean minestra that my grandfather served on occasion to use as the inspiration for this old favorite.


Use whatever beans or pasta you have on hand. I am using heirloom calypso beans and macaroni, but you can get creative. I also decided not to use canned beans as soaked and cooked beans tend to have a smoother texture.

PASTA e FAGIOLI

Ingredients:
T olive oil
1 chopped red onion
1 chopped celery stalk
4 cloves chopped garlic
1 tsp Thyme, Oregano, Basil
30 oz (or 2 cans) beans
1.5 C tomato puree
1.5 C h2o (or bean broth)
3 C vegetable broth
1.5 C pasta (macaroni or whatever you prefer)
1 C C quartered cherry tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 C fresh parsley finely chopped
sprinkle of cheese (or nutritional yeast for the vegans)

• Saute' onion and celery 5 min or until soft. Add garlic and saute' an additional minute.
• Add some salt and Thyme, Oregano and Basil and stir 1 min.
  
• Add beans, tomato puree, water and vegetable broth and cook down for 10 minutes.
• Add the pasta and cook until al dente, be sure to add the cherry tomatoes a bit beforehand.
• For thicker broth add a tsp of cornstarch or arrowroot dissolved in 1 T cold h20.
  
• Sprinkle in parsley and salt and pepper to taste.

Serve this with some great crusty bread!


*tip: to soak your beans place them in a large bowl full of water and two bay leaves. Leave them overnight, rinse and cook. I use a pressure cooker and then use the leftover starchy water for the soup, which gives it a great creamy texture.

Warm-Me-Up Dumpling Stew

The mornings are biting just a bit as the fall chill begins to creep in the windows and although the sun is still lingering here and there, I have made the menu switch in my brain to fall comfort foods. Yes, this is the weather for a warm bowl of chunky stew topped with sticky dumplings. It has been a favorite of mine since childhood, but I have never made a vegan version since making the change. This is by no means a lighter stew because of the absence of meat, in fact I think that it is just as heavy and stays with you just as long as my mum's original recipe. So curl up on one of these first chilly days of fall with a deep serving of this and feel happy and warm!

I have taken the fam fav recipe and veganized it with tempeh, but this is just as good with straight up veggies just skip to #2.

WARM-ME-UP DUMPLING STEW

Ingredients:

Marinade:
1 pkg tempeh
1 T olive oil
1/4 C tamari (or soy sauce * tamari has a smoother flavor)
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 T nutritional yeast (you can omit this as well)
1 tsp onion flakes
1/4 tsp sage

Stew:
2.5 C h20
1.5 crushed vegetable bouillon cubes
1/2 large onion chopped
1 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp each rosemary, thyme, marjoram, basil, sage, tarragon
1 large turnip roughly chopped
1 large potato roughly chopped
1 T parsley
1 minced garlic clove
1 bay leaf
1 tsp tamari
2 carrots roughly chopped
2 celery stalks chopped
2 T cornstarch dissolved in cold h20
salt and pepper

Dumplings:
1 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C milk (soy, rice)
2 T oil

1. Tempeh

1. Cut tempeh into small cubes.
2. Marinate for at least an hour in marinade.
3. Heat oil in a large soup pot and brown the tempeh cubes.

2. Stew

1. Add 2 C h2o, crushed bouillon cubes, and onions to the browned tempeh cubes. Heat for 15 minutes.
2. Add oregano, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, basil, sage, tarragon and potato and turnip chunks. Cover and let simmer 15 minutes.
3. Add parsley, garlic, bay leaf, tamari, parsley, carrots and celery. Let simmer an additional 15 minutes.
4. Add the cornstarch with an additional 1/2 C h20. If the stew is too thick just add more water. Salt and pepper to taste. Let thicken to desired texture.

3. Dumplings

1. Mix dry ingredients together and slowly add wet ingredients stirring until just combined.
2. Drop 1 T sized dumplings into the stew along the outside first then in the middle. Cover and simmer on low 15-20 min.

After the stew cools just enough spoon out the dumplings and get yourself a heaping serving of warm comfort. Don't forget to top it with a few gooey dumplings!

This recipe was great, I initially added cayenne (bad idea) and parsley to the dumplings (another poor idea) but with the tweaking this is sure to satisfy on any cool evening.

Enjoy!

Vegan Treats and Tomato Canning Redux

September has definitely brought me far away from my kitchen, but I vow to come back for some fall favorites in the coming weeks. In the meantime I am posting some of the noteworthy culinary moments of past few weeks.

Earlier this month Nina, my cohort of the tomato arts, and I made it to the local farm to pick a bushel of ripe Roma tomatoes for canning. I cannot lie, it was not a perfect process, but we learned a lot and are well on our way to becoming masters of preserving! This time, instead of dealing with boiling, blanching, peeling, and squeezing, we were blessed with the amazing contraption below. This baby did it all! If you are a serious canner, or if you just have a copious crop of tomatoes this year, you MUST, I repeat MUST go out and by a food strainer/sauce maker.Then, and learn from our mistake, it is wise to cook your puree for at least 45minutes until it has almost halved in size. We did not do this and our finished cans are a bit too watery. But, despite that small oversight, this puree is great and merely needs a pinch of thyme or oregano to make a perfect simple sauce for anything. I am hooked, and before returning the strainer to its rightful owner I plan on trying my hand at pumpkin puree for pie and applesauce! I'll let you know how, and if those turn out!

In addition to discovering a new passion for preserving, I also turned 30! The milestone was celebrated with the most delicious cakes and cupcakes that I have ever been privileged to eat from Vegan Treats in Bethlehem, PA. Perfection!

The Ultimate Vegetarian Bolognese & Easy Bruschetta

The Plan: Go to a local farm to pick fresh tomatoes. Peel, seed and puree the tomatoes. Make an amazing sans-meat Bolognese.

The Reality: Local farm was CLOSED. Went to grocery store. Peeled, seeded, pureed the tomatoes. Added some additional tomatoes from the can (!) to make up for a major tomato puree underestimation. Made an amazing sans-meat Bolognese!

So, things didn't go according to the original plan. Do they ever? Nina and I started our day excited about the prospect of taking a tomato from the plant to the plate, but as we pulled up to the uncharacteristically unpopulated fields we realized, to our dismay that they were closed! OH NO! But, not to be thwarted, we swung over to the supermarket that stocks local produce and picked the ripest of the bunch. I must add here that I, not really thinking about how much of a tomato is actually water, incorrectly guessed the number of tomatoes that we would need to make 70 ounces of puree. Thus, later in the day, we had to scurry to our cupboards to supplement our homemade puree. We pushed on and in the end, despite our challenges, had two beautifully bubbling pots of a deliciously thick, potent, sauce that pleased our hungry husbands very much!

This recipe is in stages. First is the recipe for making a Quick and Sweet Tomato Bruschetta, a little snack that got us in the tomato mood. Then I add the process for making Homemade Tomato Puree that you can then use in sauce or even can for use later. Finally I give you an incredibly tasty Ultimate Vegetarian Bolognese Sauce recipe that is sure to please! Bear with this doozy of a post!

Before I begin, a hearty thanks goes out to Nina who let me massacre tomatoes in her immaculate kitchen.

Quick and Sweet Tomato Bruschetta

Ingredients:
1 & 1/2 C diced tomatoes (any kind will do we used plum and half of a beefsteak)
tsp salt
T loosely packed and cut basil
T extra virgin olive oil
three -four slices of thick bread
l clove garlic cut in half

1. Add oil, salt and basil to the tomatoes and let sit for 15-30 minutes. Do not refrigerate.
2. Cut bread bread slices in half or into fours and toast in oven (or toaster oven) until crisp.
3. Rub raw garlic clove over the toasted bread and splash a bit of olive oil on each piece.
4. Spoon a heap of tomatoes onto the toasted slices.
5. Eat!

Homemade Tomato Puree

Ingredients:
16 large ripe tomatoes (you could also use Roma, but would need a lot more)

1. Heat a large pot of water to a boil.
2. Fill a large bowl with ice cold water.
   
3. Place tomatoes into the boiling water for 3-4 minutes until the skin begins to tear.
4. Place immediately into the cold water and let cool.
5. Peel off the skin of each tomato.
6. When all tomatoes are skinned, cut out the cores and quarter.
7. Squeeze the seeds out of the quarter slices into a bowl (or garbage if you don't want to save them) This is the fun part, but it leaves your counter looking like a battleground!
8. Take the rest of the tomato that has been skinned and seeded and place into a large food processor. Process to preferred consistency. I tend to like the sauce a bit chunky.
9. Set aside for use in sauce or can for later use.

Ultimate Vegetarian Bolognese

Ok, so a Bolognese sauce typically has a lot of meat, but the best parts of the sauce are the vegetables and wine which pair beautifully with the strong tomato flavor. This version omits the meat and substitutes the non-vegan milk and butter, but basically remains the very same super sauce that layered our family lasagna.

Ingredients:
1/2 C finely chopped red onion
1/2 C finely chopped carrot
1/3 C finely chopped celery
1/4 C olive oil
3 T vegan butter
1 C dry red wine
1C unsweetened soymilk
1 tsp salt and pepper
1/8 tsp nutmeg
70 oz (two 35 oz cans or 16 large pureed tomatoes)
6 oz tomato paste
1 T fresh basil

1. Saute onion, carrot, celery in oil and butter until softened.
2. Add wine and let reduce to half.
3. Add milk, salt, pepper, nutmeg and warm through.
4. Add tomatoes, paste and basil and stir to blend well.
5. Bring to boil then reduce to simmer for 3 hours uncovered.
6. Before serving taste for salt.
   

There you have it my friends, the closest to homemade that I can get! I promise to document my trip to the farm when it is open and perhaps the second time around it will work out just right!

Dinner Party Notes

Last Thursday I decided to make a huge pot of Green Chile with apples, tomatillos, hot peppers (a few different varieties) and cilantro coupled with jalapeno fresh cornbread. Although I am not leaving the recipe (it was good - but too tart for my chili taste buds) I wanted to share some pics of the beautiful green bounty that decorated my table the entire week.

Isn't this just fantastic? Makes you want to eat GREEN everyday!


I've also included a pic of the finished product, which is not quite as exciting (although the entire dish did look better with fresh cut slices of avocado and a few pinches of chive and cilantro).




** My next post will include a trip to the local farm with my friend Nina to hand pick tomatoes for a stellar batch of spaghetti sauce. Stay tuned for our incredible adventures picking, blanching, peeling, and seeding!!!