Butternut Squash Mac n Cheeze
- Dinner, Side Dishes
-
12 Jan 2012
Post Punk Kitchen recently posted their top 100 foodie things of 2011. This recipe from Oh She Glows made the list: Butternut Squash Mac n’ Cheeze.
I’m no stranger to vegan cheeze substitutes. Most, well, don’t taste like cheese (except for my beloved Daiya!). I happened to have a butternut squash laying around, though, so I decided to give this one a go.
Butternut Squash Mac n Cheeze
This recipe made a nice, creamy sauce, and it was tasty – but it didn’t really taste like cheese. It was more like squash and garlic. Still, it made for a good side dish, and fit the bill for warm, winter-time comfort food. I’d probably like it better if it didn’t claim to resemble cheeze. I understand the need for a more whole-foods version of the ol’ mac and cheese recipe, though, so this works.
Note that the recipe makes a TON of sauce, so you will have extra sauce to put on veggies or other things throughout the week. You could almost fill a swimming pool with it.
Posted: January 12, 2012 at 9:10 am
{Tags: butternut squash, nutritional yeast, pasta}
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
Related Posts
Purple Cauliflower
- Fruits & Vegetables, Side Dishes
-
11 Dec 2011
Your eyes are not deceiving you. This isn’t some wacky Photoshop hack.
Purple Cauliflower
I was wandering through the last few days of the fall market at the Harrisonburg Farmers Market when I came across a booth with… purple cauliflower? I asked the farmer, “What is this purple cauliflower?” and he replied, “Well, it’s purple cauliflower!” I was expecting some sort of bizarre answer, after my encounters with alien cauliflower, but no. It was just purple cauliflower. According to Wikipedia:
Purple color in cauliflower is caused by the presence of the antioxidant group anthocyanins, which can also be found in red cabbage and red wine.[9] Varieties include ‘Graffiti’ and ‘Purple Cape’.
Excellent! But what would I do with it?
I decided to follow the same path as I did with the romanesco cauliflower; I boiled it.
Purple Cauliflower, boiling
Holy cow – that was fun!
Then, I mixed it with some Daiya mozzarella and unsweetened soymilk and turned it into cheesy purple cauliflower.
Cheesy Purple Cauliflower
And while this was cheesy right off the spoon, it was even more delicious when I started dunking hunks of crusty bread into it.
I will miss the awesome produce of the farmers market through the winter. The market does continue through the winter here, but finding local, seasonal produce becomes less and less likely. Just one more reason to look forward to spring!
Posted: December 11, 2011 at 8:01 pm
{Tags: cauliflower, daiya, purple cauliflower, soymilk}
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
Related Posts
Creamy Avocado Potato Salad
- Side Dishes
-
23 Nov 2011
I’ve never liked potato salad. I don’t know why; I love potatoes, and have always been a pretty big mayo fan. Potato salad always seemed gross to me, though. Maybe my judgement stemmed from a food poisoning incident in 1998, whereby my entire family (including my father, who was undergoing chemotherapy at the time) got sick after eating potato salad at a graduation party. (It was one of the largest food poisoning outbreaks in Illinois history, sickening over 1,800 people in the south and southwest suburbs of Chicago). At any rate, I’ve never been a potato salad fan.
What was I going to do, then, with the giant bag of local Virginia potatoes I’d just purchased at the farmers market?
I sat down with my stack of cookbooks to seek a solution to the problem of my overabundant potatoes and stumbled upon – what’s this? Potato salad made of guacamole?!
Yes, Isa is a genius. Enter: Creamy Avocado Potato Salad. This one is featured in her book, Vegan Brunch.
I didn’t have any plum tomatoes, so I used a couple tablespoons of oil-packed sundried tomatoes. I also skipped the optional cayenne. Otherwise, I followed the recipe, and it was delicious!
Creamy Avocado Potato Salad
Isa mentioned that it should be served immediately, due to the inevitable browning of the avocado, but really, mine wasn’t all that urgent. As leftovers the next day, it still looked pretty good, and the day after that, still not bad. It obviously looks the best when it’s fresh, but don’t let the warning deter you.
This is a very fresh-tasting twist on an old favorite. Loved it!
Posted: November 23, 2011 at 10:53 am
{Tags: avocado, potatoes, sundried tomato}
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
Related Posts
Cheezy Bacon Romanesco
- Dinner, Side Dishes, Vegan & Vegetarian, Veggie Burgers
-
22 Nov 2011
Today, I bring to you another example of just how messed up the US processed food industry is:
BacOs are vegan.
Yeah, BacOs, like, bacon bits – there’s no bacon in them.
(Note: vegan does not equal healthy. They’re made with genetically modified soy and a bunch of chemical crap… but they sure do remind me of my youth, and that tends to lead to some good tasting eats).
I picked up another alien (aka romanesco) cauliflower at the farmers market and was trying to figure out what to do with it. The onset of chilly fall weather has me clamoring for comfort food, so I decided to turn my Christmas Tree Veggie into cheezy bacon cauliflower.
I boiled the romanesco cauliflower for 5 minutes or so, then drained it and combined it with some Daiya cheddar, soymilk, and BacOs.
It was a glorious way to eat my veggies!
Veggie Burger and Cheezy Bacon Romanesco
Paired with a poor-man’s veggie burger (I was out of buns!)
So good.
Posted: November 22, 2011 at 10:43 am
{Tags: bacos, daiya, romanesco cauliflower}
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
Related Posts
Roasted and Grilled
- Side Dishes, Vegan MoFo
-
07 Oct 2011
Vegan MoFo Week 1, wrapping up! Here goes…
It’s recommended that we eat 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables daily (which would translate roughly to 3-5 servings of veggies and 2-4 servings of fruits daily). Suffice it to say, most people don’t eat that much produce in a day. Me – well, I almost always hit 5 per day (though sometimes with 3 fruits and 2 veggies), and often hit 6 or 7 servings a day. It takes a little work, though!
Where do I sneak in the veggies? My staple 2-servings come in the form of a giant bowl of greens every day, often with some extras in there – carrots, red peppers, cucumber, etc. Beyond that, I’ve got to make a little extra effort. The easiest way for me to sneak in more veggies is via side dishes.
Enter: roasting and grilling.
This past year, I’ve added 2 devices to my kitchen arsenal that have become invaluable in my attempts to get more veggies on my plate. They are the Griddler grill/panini press, and the KitchenAid countertop convection oven. Let’s face it – when you have to fire up the giant oven just to roast a few broccoli stalks, it just rarely seems worth it. My countertop toaster/convection oven preheats nearly instantly and makes it super-easy to bake and roast things without waiting for preheating or heating up the whole house.
Of course, you can always throw some veggies in the microwave and steam them, but personally, I find the flavors from grilling and roasting to be so much more delicious and satisfying.
These days, I’ll grill or roast just about any veggie. Butternut squash, broccoli, asparagus, green beans, kale – you name it, and I’ve probably tried to roast or grill it. My go-to’s are asparagus, broccoli, and green beans. I have fresh produce of one of those 3 in my fridge at all times, and will grab one or two of them to fill half of my plate at dinnertime every day.
Asparagus!
Asparagus works best on the grill. Break off the rough ends, spray with a little olive oil, sprinkle with your favorite seasoning (I either go bare with salt/pepper, or use some Perfect Pinch veggie seasoning), and grill on medium for 4 minutes or so – until the asparagus is bright green and just starting to get grill marks.
Asparagus on the Grill
My other new favorite is roasted green beans. Trim the ends, spray with some olive oil, and toss with your favorite seasonings (again, salt and pepper work well – but I often throw in some garlic powder too), and roast at 425F for 12-15 minutes. I eat ‘em like french fries!
Roasted Green Bean Fries
The rules for grilling/roasting most veggies are about the same, but if you like more hard-and-fast guidelines, google is your friend for temps and times. Most good all-purpose cookbooks have roasting guidelines in the front too (like Veganomicon). I usually just throw stuff in at 400-425F and check it after 10 minutes or so, adjusting till it looks good!
So, no more excuses for why you can’t get all of your veggie servings in each day. Eat a big ol’ salad every day, and fill half of your plate with veggies at dinner and, you’re there!
Posted: October 7, 2011 at 12:37 pm
{Tags: asparagus, green beans}
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
Related Posts
Oh Beautiful for Sweet Potatoes
- Side Dishes, Vegan MoFo
-
04 Oct 2011
.. for amber waves of grain…
OK, fine. I have no idea what spacious skies and sweet potatoes have in common, except that both make me happy.
The Vegan Month of Food marches on! I whipped (mashed?) up another side dish from my girl Isa – Ginger Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Apples. (Again with the apples? Yup. I got a great deal on a big ol’ bag of local Virginia red delicious preciouses!) You can find the recipe in the Appetite for Reduction cook book (preview available on Google Books – Ginger Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Apples).
Ginger Mashed Sweet Potatoes & Apples
This one is like having dessert for dinner – but it’s totally allowable! Sweet potatoes are literally one of the best foods you can eat. They’re a nutritional powerhouse – carotenoids, vitamin C, potassium, fiber – good stuff! It is not unusual to be able to get over 90% of your daily recommended vitamin A from a helping of sweet potatoes. They have great antioxidant properties, to boot. I could go on and on, but I’ll refrain. Just know that these tasty little tubers will rock your nutritional world.
If you’re looking for a subtly sweet, comfort-food-style side dish that won’t leave you starving for nutrients, turn to my friend, the sweet potato. Sing along, little spuds…
For purple mountain majesties….
Posted: October 4, 2011 at 12:35 pm
{Tags: apple, cinnamon, ginger, sweet potato}
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
Related Posts
Cherry Apple Almond Couscous
- Side Dishes, Vegan MoFo
-
03 Oct 2011
Cherry Apple Almond Couscous – aka, a party in my mouth. Awww yeah.
It’s the Vegan Month of Food (Vegan MoFo!) and Day 3 brings another fall-worthy dish. I’ll give you a break from the pumpkins, though, and just bombard you with apples.
This recipe comes from what has quickly become one of my favorite cook books, Vegan Yum Yum. This couscous was supposed to be stuffed into delicata squash, but I just made it on its own as a tasty side dish. I made it with a red delicious apple instead of the recommended Granny Smith. Sorry, Granny. No hard feelings!
Behold:
Cherry Apple Almond Couscous
Lucky for you, the recipe is viewable in the Google Books preview – Delicata Squash Stuffed with Cherry Apple Almond Couscous (page 55). Just follow steps 3, 4, 5, and 8. Skip the rest (unless you want to stuff the couscous into squash, which I’m sure would be yummy too!)
Enjoy!
Posted: October 3, 2011 at 7:02 pm
{Tags: almond, apple, cherry, couscous, Vegan Yum Yum}
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
Related Posts
