This is omnivorous husband-approved comfort food, no question about it! But it won’t weigh you down and it is infused with lots of vitamins, not to mention flavor.
You can use any kind of pasta you choose, but I love the shallow “bowl-shape” of the orecchiette because it holds more of the creamy sauce.
Roast the squash in advance so that it’s ready to roll when you’re ready to roll out dinner.
1/4 to 1/2 cup nutritional yeast (depending on how cheesy and thick you want the sauce)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
About 4 teaspoons rough chopped walnuts or toasted walnuts
2 acorn squash, cut into approximately 1 x 2-inch chunks and roasted (I cut the squash in half, remove seeds and pulp, cut it into chunks, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt, and roast for 20 minutes at 450 degrees, stirring after 10 minutes. I find it easiest to peel the squash after it has cooled enough to handle, but you can peel it before roasting if you prefer.)
Bring a large pot of generously salted water to boil. Add pasta and cook just until al dente. Meanwhile, make sauce. In a large cast iron skillet over medium-high, heat olive oil to shimmering. Add kale and cook, stirring almost constantly, for approximately 3 minutes or until almost tender, but still bright green. Add garlic and saute for another minute, stirring constantly. Reduce heat if necessary to prevent garlic from scorching. Add soy creamer, nutritional yeast, sea salt, and freshly ground pepper, and stir to combine. Fold in roasted acorn squash and heat through, stirring frequently. When pasta is cooked, drain, and fold it into the sauce. Adjust seasoning if necessary and serve immediately garnished with a few chopped walnuts.
I love my Kale, Walnut, and Rosemary Pesto, but I’ve enjoyed so much of it recently, that I wanted to transform it just enough to be a fresh take without taking away from its beautiful balanced flavors. So I decided to combine it with some soy creamer and use it as a sauce to coat golden butternut squash and chewy-tender tubes of whole wheat penne pasta.
Roast the butternut squash in advance so it’s ready to go when you are ready to eat!
2 cups 1-inch pieces of roasted butternut squash (Halve squash lengthwise, remove seeds and pulp, cut into pieces, toss with a tiny bit of olive oil, and roast approximately 20 minutes in a 450 degree oven, stirring after 10 minutes. I find it easier to peel it when it is cool enough to handle, but you can peel it before roasting.)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Optional garnish: sprigs of fresh rosemary
In a large pot of boiling, generously salted water, cook pasta just until al dente, about 8 minutes. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together pesto and soy creamer. If you want the sauce to be a little looser, whisk in olive oil, a tablespoon at t time, until desired consistency is reached. When pasta is cooked, drain, return to pot, and place over medium heat. Immediately add sauce and toss together quickly. Then add butternut squash and toss gently again. Check for seasoning and adjust as necessary with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Remove the pot from the heat and serve the pasta immediately topped with sprigs of rosemary if desired.
This recipe is a crowd-pleaser regardless of the season! And I’m posting it now so you can make sure to have all ingredients on hand by the time the weekend arrives.
The first iteration of it, which I created for The Blooming Platter Cookbook, appears in the spring section of the Brunch chapter, for it was made to be topped with fresh berries. When I tested the recipe in the summer of 2010, I served it topped with blueberries to my good friend Maggie Test (yes, that’s really her last name). She proclaimed its texture to be perfect, like a bread pudding for breakfast (though there is no bread in the recipe, only healthy oatmeal).
So, for the weekend house party my husband hosted for my birthday last May, I made it as our Sunday “morning-after” brunch dish. It was a huge hit with everyone and lent itself perfectly to people rising at different times, as servings can be popped into the microwave for reheating.
At the end of last week, the weather finally turned cool here in coastal Virginia and the leaves are beginning to turn right along with it. So, I found myself craving a warm comfort-food type weekend breakfast, but nothing too heavy. Baked oatmeal came immediately to mind. But, with berries long out of season, I thought of pumpkin of which I can’t get enough this time of year. I crave it in everything.
I used the recipe I created for my cookbook, simply reducing the cup of soy milk to 1/2 cup, and adding 1/2 cup pumpkin puree plus 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice. Then, instead of studding the top with berries, I used nuts. Oh, and I topped the serving you see in the photo with some Vegan Pepita Caramel Sauce, but that’s just guilding the lily and, I have to admit, turns the dish into more of a dessert.
The only difficult aspects of this dish are 1) waiting 8 hours to bake it, and 2) not eating the entire recipe in one sitting!
Yield: 8 servings
6 ounces firm silken tofu
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup canola oil
3/4 cup natural sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
3 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
2 tablespoons natural sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup coarse-chopped pecans or walnuts
1. Lightly grease a 9-inch glass or ceramic pie pan and set aside. Combine the tofu, soy milk, canola oil, sugar, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt in a food processor. Process until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Transfer the mixture to a medium mixing bowl and stir in the oatmeal. Spoon this mixture into the prepared pan, gently smoothing the top. Sprinkle the surface with the remaining sugar and cinnamon, cover with foil, and refrigerate 8 hours or overnight.
2. When ready to bake, remove the dish from the refrigerator and preheat the oven to 350ºF. Sprinkle the top surface of the oatmeal with nuts, and bake for 25 minutes or until just firm. Serve hot. Cover the pan with foil if the nuts start browning too quickly.
Note: The oatmeal may be reheated by covering the baking dish with foil and placing it in a cold oven. Turn the oven temperature to 300ºF. and heat for about 20 minutes, or until warm. The oatmeal may alternatively be reheated in the microwave. Start with 30 seconds and add additional time as necessary.
All is right with the (culinary) world when I have a crock vegan cheese spread in our refrigerator!
I never found just the ceramic crock I was looking for–you know, those old-fashioned glossy dark brown ones like you’d find on restaurant tables back in the day?–so I gave up and purchased glass ones at a kitchen shop. As it turns out, I’ve decided they are more practical because I can see which type of cheese spread is inside, and that could be any one of a number, as I have many favorites. You can find them ere on this blog (just search cheese spread, “cheez” etc.) and in my Blooming Platter Cookbook. But, while the crocks may not have been exactly what I had hoped for, the cheese spreads are!
When I was developing recipes for the cookbook last year, I was wracking my brain for an ingredient that would make my cheeses cheesier with more of an “aged” or “fermented” taste. And suddenly it hit me: beer! I grabbed one out of our garage fridge where my husband keeps his protein drinks (ick!) and beer, and whipped up a batch. Now, I never make cheese spreads without it.
This version takes its rich golden-orange color and subtle smoky flavor from turmeric and smoked paprika . It is is perfect spread on a crisp and juicy apple slice or on a cracker and topped with a thin slice of fresh apple. I love our local Winesap apples for this, but use your favorite.
Though I think my spreads are best after they ripen in the refrigerator for a few hours, I like to remove them a half hour or so before serving, as I think the flavor opens up when the spread isn’t too cold.
Yield: approximately 2 cups
2 cups roasted and lightly salted cashew halves and pieces
1/2 cup vegan beer or non-alcoholic beer (you may add more to reach the consistency you desire)
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon light miso
1 small clove garlic, peeled
1 teaspoon Bragg’s Liquid Aminos or to taste
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder or to taste
1/8 teaspoon onion powder or to taste
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika or to taste (add enough to taste but not overwhelm)
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper
Accompaniments: Sturdy crisp crackers like Melba toast and apple slices lightly sprinkled with lemon juice to prevent oxidation
Place all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade and process until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. This will take several minutes. Scrape into an airtight container and ripen in the refrigerator for several hours if time allows. If not, you may serve it immediately and store any leftovers in the refrigerator. If the spread has been refrigerated, allow it to sit at room temperature for a half hour or so before serving.
My fresh take on beans-and-greens presents lentils and kale as a hardy, yet light, salad that is equally good served warm or at room temperature, and makes the perfect bed for a piece of grilled tofu drizzled with a delectable sauce. This dish is a powerhouse of vitamins and protein, simple enough for any day, but lovely enough for special occasions.
Here I serve it on its own with a shimmering slice of lemon and a sprig of fresh rosemary from our garden.
1 pound steamed lentils (I buy the Trader Joe’s brand which is actually 17.6 ounces)
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Optional: juice of 1/2 of a medium lemon
Finely chop kale in a food processor and set aside. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high until shimmering. Add onion and a pinch of salt, and saute lightly, stirring frequently, just for a couple of minutes. Add garlic and saute, stirring, for only about 30 seconds. Add kale and cook, stirring frequently, about 4 minutes or until kale is tender but still bright green. Add remaining ingredients and heat through. Adjust seasoning if necessary with salt and pepper and, if you want added brightness, stir in the lemon juice. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Still Life with Vegan Kale and Lentil Salad and Minnie
What does one do when Alisa Fleming, founder of GoDairyFree, asks if you have a recipe for Halloween to share with readers of her website? You get busy!
I have created quite a few recipes for pumpkin dishes, which are here on my blog and in my new cookbook. But I really didn’t have anything fun, different and delicious in traditional Halloween colors.
My first attempt was a bust. Those dry and flavorless bad boys–and I do mean bad–ended up out in the woods on our property! But after some brainstorming, it occurred to me that I could use super flavorful salsa for both flavor and moisture and that did the trick–yum!
Sound odd? Well, this recipe is a little out of the ordinary, but Alisa and I think the cupcakes are so good it’s “scary” (sorry, I couldn’t resist the corny Halloween reference.) She writes:
“I’m very excited for the recipe feature we have today from the talented cookbook author, Betsy DiJulio. Betsy’s creativity is second only to her ability to create appealing, healthy, comfort food recipes. She never fails to surprise with unique ideas, but they are always very doable and delicious. Today’s recipe is certainly no exception. It pairs simple everyday dinner ingredients with an unexpected format, cupcakes! Since they are savory, and made without any sugar, Betsy uses salsa to add extra moisture and flavor …”
Just follow this link for the simple recipe. And Happy Halloween!
So here it is! It is my pleasure to share this simple but special recipe inspired by a salad I enjoyed at a tiny bistro in Paris on my husband’s and my twentieth wedding anniversary trip two summers ago. That salad contained no Tempeh Bacon, nor does the recipe in the cookbook. But I love the addition, which I just created, so I’m thrilled to share it with you here.
Note that the recipe calls for starting with dried lentils, but I often just buy a 17.6 ounce package of Trader Joe’s steamed lentils, sold in their produce section, and use the whole package.
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
2 1/4 cups water
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 cups green lentils, picked over, rinsed, and drained
3 tablespoons olive oil (or 2 tablespoons olive oil + 1 tablespoon walnut oil)
1 tablespoon champagne vinegar or apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 large apple (any variety)
1/3 cup chopped red onion
1 tablespoon snipped chives
3 tablespoons lemon juice
Optional: Quick Vegan Tempeh Bacon (recipe follows)
1. In a 2-quart covered saucepan over medium-high heat, bring water and bay leaves to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer. Stir in lentils and gently simmer, partially covered, for 30 minutes. Check at 10 minute intervals, as lentils are easy to overcook; they should be firm enough to hold their shape when tossed with the other ingredients. Add more hot water if necessary to prevent sticking or scorching. (Skip these steps if using pre-steamed lentils.)
2. While the lentils cook, make the vinaigrette. In a large serving bowl, combine the oil, vinegar, mustard, and salt and pepper to taste. Whisk until well blended and slightly emulsified. Set aside.
3. Halve the apple lengthwise, scoop out the core with a melon baller or spoon, arrange each half cut side down on a work surface, and cut into 1/8-inch thick slices. Then stack several slices together on their sides and cut them into 1/8-inch matchsticks. Add to the bowl with the dressing as you cut them, and stir gently to coat in order to prevent discoloration. Stir in the onion and chives.
4. When the lentils are cooked, drain, rinse with cool water to stop the cooking, and drain well. Remove the bay leaf. (Obviously, skip this rinsing and draining step if using the pre-steamed lentils.) Stir the lentils into the dressing mixture. Season with salt and pepper, and add the lemon juice, 1 tablespoon at a time, to taste. Toss gently to combine. Taste and adjust the seasonings if needed. Cover and chill the salad several hours before serving to allow flavors to marry.
If including the Temp Bacon, add just before serving.
Quick Vegan Tempeh Bacon:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1-8 ounce package tempeh (I use Trader Joe’s brand), sliced cross-wise into about 20 slices 1/4-inch thick
1/4 cup soy sauce (I use a light variety)
2 tablespoons Liquid Smoke
2 tablespoons natural sugar
Sea salt
Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add tempeh slices to the pan and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of Liquid Smoke, 1 tablespoon of natural sugar, and a pinch of salt. Saute, without disturbing for 2-3 minutes or until caramelized, but not burned. Flip slices and repeat with remaining ingredients. Turn off heat. Flip slices one more time and allow them to sit for a minute or two just to absorb a little more of the flavors. Remove them from heat and serve immediately. (The pan drippings are really yummy. If I’m using, say, chopped onion in a recipe with compatible flavors, I like to add the onion to the skillet and stir them around to absorb some of the drippings which are too good to go to waste!)
Serving suggestion: If you would like to serve the salad over grilled apple slices as in the photograph, cut 1/4-inch thick apple slices and grill them in an oiled grill pan over medium-high heat for 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until tender, but not mushy, and nice grill marks appear.
Autumn is apple season whether you are bobbing for them, caramelizing them, making apple pie, or enjoying them with my Caraway- Havarti Cheese Spread.
I love local apples, as the character of even the skin hasn’t been genetically-engineered right out of them. And, fortunately for us, we can start finding them at our farm markets in summer and continue right on through the fall. This Caraway-Havarti Spread is delicious spread on crisp slices of raw apple or made into sandwiches, so I offer a couple of sandwich suggestions at the end of the recipe.
And tomorrow, I offer something even better: a “teaser” recipe from my new Blooming Platter Cookbook–a lentil-apple salad with a special dressing and a secret new addition–that will be perfection served with a little of this cheese spread on a slice of melba toast. And speaking of secret ingredients, my cheese recipes incorporate (vegan) beer for a little more of a fermented-aged taste.
Yield: approximately 2 cups
2 cups raw cashews
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 medium garlic clove
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon miso paste (I used red organic miso)
3 tablespoons unsweetened soymilk
6 tablespoons (vegan) beer
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
Accompaniments: Melba toast, crackers, and/or fresh apple slices
Place all ingredients except caraway seeds in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Process several minutes or until quite smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Add caraway seeds and pulse a few times to combine. Scrape into a crock or other airtight container and store in the refrigerator. Allow to warm slightly at room temperature before serving, as it will spread more easily. Delicious spread on apple wedges or in a sandwich made of toasted thinly-sliced rye bread, the cheese spread, and thinly sliced raw or grilled apple. Raw provides a lovely texture contrast–I love the “snap” of a crisp juicy apple–but grilled apple is a unique taste sensation. Just lightly salt the slices and grill them indoors in an oiled grill pan over medium high heat for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, but raw apple is lovely texture contrast. You can even make a grilled apple and cheese sandwich, in which case I use the thinly sliced raw apple.
This time of year, Stoney’s, the farm market I frequent, is a sea of pumpkins in a rainbow of fall colors, each one more appealing than the next. And their wondrous shapes, some of them fanciful and even comical, give each its own personality.
As far as cooking them goes, they are often too big for any knife I own to cut through them, and here in the burbs, wooded though they may be, we don’t own a hatchet. So, imagine my delight when I was told they had fresh raw pumpkin wedges–already seeded!–in their cooler. It as that pumpkin that inspired this dish, but use whatever edible pumpkin your local purveyor recommends.
And, as for the pesto, I am always looking for ways to infuse my diet with additional leafy greens. I’d never tried eating kale raw, but it is absolutely delicious when minced super-fine, as it is in this pesto.
Yield: 4 servings as a side dish
3 pounds of fresh, seeded and skinned pumpkin flesh cut into approximately 1 x 2-inch hunks
1 tablespoon olive oil (or a combination of olive oil and walnut oil)
Sea salt to taste
Vegan Kale, Walnut, and Rosemary Pesto (recipe follows)
Garnish: sprigs of fresh rosemary and/or walnuts, chopped or halved
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Pour oil into a large metal roasting pan, add pumpkin, sprinkle with salt, and toss to coat, making sure that the bottom of the pan is coated with oil. Roast pumpkin for 15-20 minutes, checking at 15, on one side, flip each piece and repeat. Use a spatula to loosen pumpkin from pan at about the 10-minute mark if necessary. Pumpkin should be lightly caramelized on two sides. Add a little bit more oil if pumpkin appears to be sticking, but avoid too much, as the pumpkin will steam instead of roasting. Serve pumpkin dolloped or drizzled with Vegan Kale, Walnut, and Rosemary Pesto, and garnish with fresh rosemary sprigs and/or walnuts.
Vegan Kale, Walnut, and Rosemary Pesto:
1 cup fairly firmly packed torn kale leaves, thick or tough stems removed
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 large garlic clove
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
Juice and zest of 1/2 of a medium lemon
1 to 2 teaspoons maple syrup
Sea salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 /2 cup or more olive oil (up to about 3/4 cup or so)
Place kale in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until very finely chopped. Add remaining ingredients, except olive oil, and pulse until kale is minced and walnuts are very finely chopped. With motor running, drizzle in olive oil until desired consistency is reached. Adjust seasoning, citrus and sweetness if necessary. The pesto is equally good whether dolloped or drizzled over pumpkin hunks. Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Thanks to Old Beach Farmers Market (OBFM) co-founders, volunteers, vendors and patrons for a wonderful morning yesterday at the fall “Harvest Market.” I’ve never before been a vendor anywhere, much less at a Farmer’s Market, but what a rewarding experience!
Every Saturday in the summer and on middle Saturdays from October to December (see remaining dates below), the parking lot of Croc’s Eco Bistro is transformed into a delightful Farmers Market (and a couple of blocks away is a new Art Market and Green Market). OBFM is the 5-year old brainchild of Croc’s co-owner (with her husband Kal), Laura Habr, and her mother, Ann Wright, a well-known and beloved freelance writer in our area, with lots of help from a community of “locavores.” Laura, who is a mover and shaker in the Virginia Green movement and all things eco-friendly and sustainable in the Hampton Roads area, is one of the genuinely warmest and most humble people you will ever meet and is the first to credit a “team” of people with both the Market’s and the restaurant’s success.
The weather was absolutely perfect and any anxiety I had as a first-timer quickly melted away with Laura’s enthusiastic greeting and her pleasant and efficient set-up of a table and chairs she let me borrow. Since I am not a regular, I travel light. But, no tent, no table, no chairs? No problem! Within minutes, thanks to Laura and my good friend Sharon Tanner, a real estate broker, beekeeper and former director of CAC/MOCA’s Boardwalk Art Show, I had a respectable, if modest, display of Blooming Platter Cookbooks.
It wasn’t until Friday that my super-busy week allowed me to turn my intentions to my participation in OBFM. So, after school in a mild panic, I swooped into the bank for some $1 bills, zipped out to Stoney’s Market for pretty pumpkins (green, orange, and tri-colored), headed back to Party City for a sage green tablecloth, and finally ducked into the fabric store for some tobacco-colored burlap. Before dashing out the door on Saturday morning, I printed a couple of signs, loaded everything, including a case of cookbooks, into the car, and headed out. I guess if I was more experienced, I wouldn’t have forgotten my business cards!
In between the pleasure and privilege of chatting with and selling/signing books for friends who came a marketing, as well as delightful people I met for the first time–all with engaging stories (like the couple who had lost 180 pounds between them)–I enjoyed people- and pet- watching. This was a practiced market crowd and the colorful reusable market bags alone were a feast for the eyes, never mind the goodies inside like, say, adorable pink-eyed peas Who knew?
Even the family whose car I gently backed into when leaving (blind spot!) were lovely and generous. That’s a story for a different day, but the only damage to speak of–and it was minor–was to my car and, as luck would have it, someone had backed into it about a week ago, so the quarter panel is going to be replaced this week anyway! Talk about feeding two birds with one cracker…it really was a charmed day.
The word appears to be out that, even if you have never met a vegetable you liked, you can come to the market for some seriously delicious noshing to be enjoyed while browsing or sitting in a little cafe that Laura set-up next to the Croc’s booth. I had the honor of being positioned between it and the Peylon’s Baja Grill booth, so I enjoyed chatting with both Laura and Kal and an adorable gal from Peylon’s, all of whom generously sent me home with some of their wares to sample.
Croc's Co-Owner, Kal Habr, with Hummus (photo credit: Patrick Evans-Hylton)
Croc’s brand of hummus is the best around. It’s balance of flavors it spot-on, which may have more than a little to do with Kal hailing originally from Lebanon. I loved chatting with him about Sunday dinners at his grandmother’s in the place of his birth.
And I’m a fan of Peylon’s because they offer, at their Norfolk location, vegan sour cream and cheese and make some delicious vegan “fish tacos.” So I was happy to be the recipient of some of their salsa and guacamole. If you haven’t tried their Pineapple-Habenero salsa, it has really beautiful color and flavor and a not-too-intense after-burn.
Thanks again, Laura, Ann, et al for the invitation to participate in OBFM and for the kind reception. You walk the green walk and talk the green talk in the most beautiful way.
OBFM Holiday Markets: Nov 19 and Dec 17, 20011, 9am -12pm, Croc’s Eco Bistro, 19th Street, VA Beach,VA
Yield: 4 servings
