Today on my lunch break, I was at home – digging into my leftover nachos – when I noticed an acorn squash I’d purchased the week before staring back at me on the table. I remembered that I should use it soon, before it goes bad and I have to throw it out, (like so many squashes of my past). I’ve never purchased one before, let alone cooked one, so I was genuinely stumped. I felt like the two main veins of recipes I’ve seen for them in the past were stuffed or soup, so I went to my faithful friend Twitter and asked if anyone had any great suggestions on how a noob could successfully cook this particular gourd.

Fellow, (but non-vegan) Tacoma food blogger and avid tweeter, Adrienne, said:

“@veganmoxie Stuff it something like this,” and included a link to a stuffed squash recipe from a beautiful blog I’d never come across. And it just happened to be vegan. I looked it over and immediately responded, “that looks glorious!” When I got home, I peered around to make sure I had everything for the recipe.

I didn’t, so I made some changes. Like the name, for instance:

Roasted Stuffed Acorn Squash with White Beans, Walnuts and Cranberries

Adapted from The First Mess‘ Stuffed Acorn Squash with Pine Nuts, Sour Cherries and Sage recipe

Here are all the major changes I made to the original:

- Used cooked brown rice in lieu of wheat berries, (in the interest of saving time and not having to track down wheat berries)
- Used 1/4. onion instead of shallots
- Used dried versus fresh herbs, as I had them
- Swapped out the cherries for cranberries
- Used walnuts instead of pine nuts
- Added 1 c. rinsed, drained white beans

Laura suggested cutting the squash in half, seasoning with salt and pepper, and placing a smashed garlic clove underneath each half while roasting. I believe this step to be genius. The squash was incredibly flavorful as a result, and I threw the roasted cloves into the pan while making the stuffing. Never enough garlic.

Cranberries, some reserved squash and brown rice.

Stuffing!

The finish product.

This squash and stuffing combo really screamed ‘fall’ to me, from the first bite. The garlic and veggies added a savory nod, the cranberries mixed in a little sweetness while the walnuts added great texture and crunch. In my head I imagined this being made with barley instead of brown rice, and I think I’ll do that next time. Other than that the recipe did prove to be glorious, and I think my adaptations to the recipe came out as well in practice as they did in my head. Thanks for helping me get over my acorn squash fears, Adrienne and Laura!

What’s your favorite way to serve acorn squash?

categories: recipes - tags: dinner, fall, squash, Vegan MoFo 2011

(Editor’s note: this post has been edited to add one ingredient that I forgot about – lost the note card that I wrote all the ingredients on – and to acknowledge the other food blog that inspired the recipe. Make sure to add the last ingredient if you wrote the recipe down on Wednesday. Thanks!)

Look at me, asking if you guys are sick of pumpkin yet, then posting two pumpkin-related posts in a row! All I can say is: ’tis the season. Pumpkin is tasty and, as many of us are learning, also incredibly versatile. So I’m going to share another way in which pumpkin can do backflips and splits and astound in your kitchen: in smoothie form!

Monday afternoon I got home from work and was in a snack-y mood. I went through my usual snack choices and decided I’d make a smoothie, but thought I might switch it up from my normal green (and typically breakfast meal) smoothie. I knew I recalled seeing a few recipes for pumpkin smoothies popping up in the MoFo feed, so I did a quick search to see what came up. All of them looked great and very similar, but I knew I wanted mine to also include another element that usually rounds out at least one meal a day, and sometimes my snacks, too: peanut butter.

After learning the pumpkin can join forces with other strong meal elements after making the Pumpkin-Daal Soup, I believed that peanut butter could only enhance the smooth and sweet flavor or pumpkin by balancing it out with a salty, unrefined crunch. The rest, my friends, is sweet smoothie history.

Pumpkin Peanut Butter Smoothie

Yield: 1 serving

Adapted from For the Love of Food’s Pumpkin Spice Smoothie and The Simple Vegan‘s Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

Ingredients

3/4 c. almond milk
1/2 c. canned or fresh pumpkin
1/2 banana (frozen is particularly great here)
2 ice cubes
1 T. flax seed meal
2 T. oats
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. ginger
1 T. peanut butter (any kind will do, but I use crunchy salted – aka, crack)
1.5 tsp. agave nectar, maple syrup, or an equivalent amount of stevia

Directions

Add all ingredients to your blender and blend until it reaches desired consistency.

Serve immediately, and maybe go crunch through some leaves down your block, carve a pumpkin or watch “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” after enjoying it. I promise it’ll just feel right.

And one last shameless plug: my giveaway for a copy of My Sweet Vegan ends tomorrow, Thursday, Oct. 20 at 9 p.m. PST. In order to enter, comment on the original giveaway post letting me know what your favorite vegan baked good to give non-vegan friends is. For extra entries, follow me on Twitter (@veganmoxie) and tweet about the contest, or linkback to the post on your blog. I’ll pick a winner at random tomorrow night, so get your entries in soon!

categories: recipes - tags: breakfast, pumpkin, smoothie, Vegan MoFo 2011

On one of our first visits to Portland together, the boy and I visited the very vegan-friendly Vita Cafe, (in its original location!) in the Alberta District of Portland. Quaint, colorful and teeming with veg options on their menu, we were eager to check it out.

The old location, directly across from where Vita stands today. Photo credit: www.veganfabulous.com.

Try as I might, I can’t remember what I ordered on that first visit, but we both know that the bf ordered their Italian pasta dinner. From their menu, it contains:

kale, veggie sausage, garlic, chili flakes and crushed tomatoes, sautéed in lemon and olive oil topped with toasted bread crumbs

I definitely remember stealing a few bites and thinking that it was one of the best restaurant dishes I’d tried in some time, yet it was composed of simple, basic ingredients.

Months go by, and we both couldn’t get that pasta out of our heads. So we decided to make it ourselves at home. This recipe has since become our standard recipe whenever we’re in the mood for pasta. It doesn’t use a sauce, per se, but rather depends on the flavor of vegetables and juice from tomatoes, vinegar and spices to make a delicious dish perfect for any night of the week. We took a few creative liberties here, most notably switching out many whole garlic cloves for only a few minced, and adding a lot more vegetables to the mix. But on the whole, we stayed true to the PDX-based dish that inspired us.

D + R’s Veggie Sausage Pasta

(Inspired by Vita Cafe’s Italian Pasta)

Yields: 3-4 servings

Ingredients

Pasta:

3-4 servings whole wheat pasta, uncooked
Hefty pinch of salt

Veggie “sauce”:

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 a bell pepper
1/2-1 small zucchini
2 vegan Italian sausages (we use Tofurky, but feel free to sub your favorite)
Splashes of balsamic vinegar and red wine
Dashes of the following spices: parsley, oregano, basil, paprika, rosemary, red pepper flakes, fennel seed
1/2 c. diced tomatoes with juice
Few handfuls of chopped kale (can use spinach, chard or another preferred green)
Broccoli, fresh or frozen
Asparagus, fresh or frozen, chopped
Bread crumbs (we use Panko)
Optional: Kalamata olives, nooch or vegan cheese

Directions
Heat salted water for the pasta on high. While waiting on that, start on the veggie sauce.

Saute the garlic and onion in olive oil for 2-3 minutes, until it smells like onions that are cooking. Add in the bell pepper, zucchini, sausages, vinegar, wine and spices and cook on medium-low heat. Stir every once in a while and add extra liquid if needed, or things may get dry/stuck to your pan.

The water should be boiling after a bit, so add the pasta in. Cook as directed.

Lower heat to low on the sauce and add the greens, tomatoes, broccoli and asparagus. Cover and cook until greens have wilted and broccoli/asparagus are bright green.

Drain pasta, serve some in a bowl and scoop veggie sauce on top. Add bread crumbs and any additional ingredients your heart desires on top. Serve and enjoy with a glass of your favorite red wine and maybe a green salad.

Have you ever recreated a dish you loved at a restaurant? What were the results?

PS: Don’t forget to enter my giveaway for a copy of Hannah Kaminsky’s cookbook My Sweet Vegan! 

categories: recipes - tags: dinner, pasta, Portland, Vegan MoFo 2011

The Chickpea Cutlet recipe in Veganomicon is a big staple in our house. I’ve made it for friends and family, have convinced people to buy the book because of it and pretty much have it committed to memory by now. Simple, fast and always delicious, they’re a protein-filled part of dinner that we have at least a few times a month during weeknights. If you have yet to try the recipe, I’m giving you a virtual kick in the pants to get going on that.

We generally fix this meal with the exact same sides every time: roasted Brussels sprouts and baked sweet potatoes, (as pictured above). If it ain’t broke, right? Since we are in the midst of Vegan MoFo and I want to try to step out of my comfort zone (ever so slightly) with some of my standards, I thought I’d try to switch up our spuds and mash them into a bright orange glory. Problem was, I’d never mashed sweet potatoes before.

I did a little research and apparently the traditional method for creating regular mashed potatoes, (boiling then smashing) doesn’t work for sweet potatoes, as the boiling process drains the flavor. I read that it’s better to cook the potatoes down with seasonings then mash once soft to the touch. I couldn’t find a recipe for savory rather than sweet that I liked, so I created my own.

Since I’m creating and generously doling out recipes today, I’ll share my foolproof recipe for roasted Brussels, in case you haven’t had the pleasure. If you grew up hating Brussels sprouts like me and most children, this will change your mind, and is so easy you’ll wonder how you ever got on without ‘em.

Garlic Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

4 sweet potatoes, peeled, cut into chunks
1/2 c. almond milk
1 garlic clove, minced
Few pinches salt and pepper
1 T. Earth Balance (optional)

Directions

Add all ingredients to a medium saucepan, like so.

Cover and cook on low heat. Stir every few minutes then cover again.

Once the potatoes are soft (this took a little less than 20 minutes for me), shut off the heat, and proceed with smashing potatoes. Add the Earth Balance and mix well. Serve immediately.

Roasted Brussels sprouts

Yield: probably 4 servings, but we eat this in one night. Oops.

Ingredients

1 lb. bag of Brussels sprouts
1 T. olive oil
1/8 tsp. salt (I don’t add a ton of salt to things, so feel free to add more to yours if you like)
Red pepper flakes
Pepper
2 cloves minced garlic, (optional)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cut Brussels sprouts in half, and cut off stems.

Place on baking sheet, and add the olive oil, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and garlic if using. Mix together and ensure the sprouts are evenly coated.

Place sheet in oven and cook for 25 minutes, or until the sprouts are as cooked as you’d like them to be. Eat immediately!

Here’s a shot of the entire meal, new mashed sweets and all. We usually top our cutlets with a vegan BBQ sauce, but a mustard sauce or gravy make perfect additions as well. White wine rounds out my meal.

How do you like to cook your sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts? Do you find yourself needing to switch up the way you traditionally cook your sides, or are you all about routine when it comes to weeknight dinners?

categories: recipes - tags: brussels sprouts, chickpea cutlets, dinner, sweet potatoes, Vegan MoFo 2011, Veganomicon

I’m not sure what the weather’s like where you are, but today I woke up and read that it was going to be 80 degrees. Now, here in the Pacific Northwest that’s strange for the first day of fall, but as someone who loves summer, I’m soaking it up as much as I can.

This morning I did have a more fall-like breakfast (pumpkin oats – that recipe will come soon, too), but I almost always have a green smoothie for breakfast. I know, they’re the “thing” these days, but I’ve started to realize why. Nutrient-dense, tasty, customizable, easy to transport and refreshing, this drink is a meal that is perfect for warmer days, but also something that you can switch up to suit your tastes and the seasons as they both change.

Green smoothies aren't always green! One ingredient change in this recipe can turn the smoothies from a purplish brown to...

more of a proper green smoothie. The first included blueberries and for this second one I switched them out for raspberries. Smoothies are like snowflakes, guys!

I’ve made a few smoothies in my day, but for breakfast, I like one that has protein, fruit, greens and a little caffeine in the form of chocolate, so I came up with my own standard. I know that some of you may think greens in a drink sounds scary, but trust me, you won’t even taste them. It’s not just good for breakfast, but also serves as a good anytime meal or post-workout snack. In the morning I love to have it with sprouted grain toast with peanut butter and a cup of coffee, but it also keeps me satisfied and full on its own for hours. I’ve mentioned it on Twitter and have gotten a few requests for it, so here it is:

Green chocolate smoothie

Yield: 1 serving

Ingredients:

2 ice cubes
2 green leaves, chopped (You can feel free to use spinach, kale, lettuce, whatever. It doesn’t matter which kind, but certain ones will give a different texture. If using spinach, the amount is a handful. I’ve been loving Lacinato kale lately.)
1 scoop/serving of chocolate protein powder  (I use Sunwarrior raw vegan brown rice protein in chocolate flavor, but any will do. If you don’t have protein powder or a chocolate flavored one, substitute 1 Tbsp cocoa powder.)
1 Tbsp chia seeds or flaxseed meal
Half a banana
1/2 c. fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 c. almond milk
1/2 c. water
Few drops of stevia or agave, if not accustomed to the flavor of greens

Directions

Toss everything in a blender (I use a Vita-Mix but if you don’t have one, you may have to chop things up a bit more first) on high speed and serve in a glass.

Notes: This recipe doubles/quadruples perfectly. The smoothie comes out pretty smooth, but if you like a thicker smoothie, leave out the water, and use your tamper to make sure everything gets blended evenly.

What are your favorite smoothie recipes?

categories: health, recipes - tags: breakfast, green smoothie, snack

A few weeks back I was feeling stuck in a major food rut. We are generally pretty content rotating through the same few, tried and true meals throughout the week, but sometimes we feel the need to break out one of my many (many) vegan cookbooks to shake things up. And sometimes we end up making something that lands a spot in our recipe repertoire.

Enter Appetite For Reduction, vegan cookbook goddess Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s newest book, highlighting low-fat and healthy lunch and dinner recipes broken up by categories such as Full-On Salads, Totally Stuffed Sides, Comfort Chilis, Curries and Stews and more. While I’m not trying to eat strictly low-fat meals, I will pretty much buy any book this woman pens and was lucky enough to receive it this past Christmas. But if you are looking to watch your intake of fat, calories and more, this book will definitely help you do so all while still ensuring that you’re getting adequate nutrition as well as flavor in spades. We’ve made a few recipes so far, (Classic Black Bean and Veggie Chili, Hottie Black Eyed Peas and Greens, Curried Chickpeas and Greens, and many more) and all of them have been absolutely ace, which is what I’ve come to expect from any and all Isa recipes.

Recently we tried our hand at creating the book’s Chickpea Picatta and Caulipots recipes. I’d never had a picatta dish prior to going vegan, so I didn’t know that it means a caper-lemon-garlic sauce. I love all of those things, so I knew that this was going to be a match made in heaven. Caulipots is a word Moskowitz made up that means exactly what it sounds/reads like: half cauliflower, half potatoes, mashed together into tasty, slimmer oblivion. It’s genius, actually. No more, ugh, my tummy hurts because I ate too many mashed potatoes feeling. The cauliflower definitely lightens this side dish a great deal. The following is a photographic journey through our first time making this meal.

One of the first steps: sauté shallots, garlic and bread crumbs.

Third-ish step: add vegetable broth, white wine and spices. Look at it boil away!

Looking at this combination just makes me happy.

We made the caulipots concurrently with the picatta. Here's a sweet mashing action shot.

The picatta and caulipots are served over arugula, and it’d make the perfect romantic or special occasion meal when plated nicely, (or an everyday meal combined into a bowl).

Both recipes combine to form the finished, most delicious product, which we promptly scarfed before heading to a party.

Needless to say, this recipe delighted our tastebuds and is one that will be made regularly in this apartment. Here’s the picatta recipe if you’d like to try making it yourself, though I honestly suggesting going out and getting the book if you haven’t yet. Locally, King’s Books definitely has them in stock.

On the horizon: recap of Caffe Dei’s one year anniversary party, replete with photos of giant, homemade veggie burgers!

categories: book reviews, health, recipes, vegans - tags: Appetite For Reduction, chickpeas, cookbooks, cooking

As promised, here’s a post filled strictly with photos of food I’ve been eating and enjoying lately and another Mexican-style recipe that I’ve been touting on the Twitterverse. I won’t let so much time pass before posting the next recipe, I promise.

You like nachos? You like getting in tons of raw veggies and nuts and flavor in your meals, too? Look no further than Caffe Dei and their amazing raw nachos and optional raw nacho salad (same dish, without the raw "chips," add in lots of greens). Their depth of flavor, variety of ingredients and the sheer fact that each dish is completely, 100% raw will blow your mind. Trust me on this, you want to try these! Your body will thank you.

After I tried the raw nachos, owner Shuanna gave me a sample of their sweet homemade raw chocolate almond mylk. So creamy and rich, it's like a dessert in itself.