Butternut squash risotto

Today I decided to break out the autumn favorite of butternut squash risotto. The creaminess of the rice and the sweetness of the roasted butternut squash is the perfect backdrop for a spicy seitan hash on top. The roasted green onions bring a bit more savory onion flavor to the party and the look nice as hell too. I feel this dish really celebrates some of the delicious harvest available at my local farmers market this time of year and really warms you up on a nice cool evening. I would suggest a nice sweet Riesling to go with this dish as it compliments the sweetness of the squash, especially the pieces that were caramelized by the roasting, and really balances out the spice of the hash on top. If you don't have seitan I would recommend some white beans, actually that probably would have been a better choice.


Butternut Squash Risotto

5 cups vegetable stock
1 cup of brown short grain rice
1 sweet onion diced
5 cloves garlic minced
white wine
1 butternut squash, peeled and diced into good size chunks
olive oil
Salt
pepper

Roast the butternut at 450 degrees and turn over a few times until caramelized and tender, about 30 mins. Did i mention you should oil up the sheet pan and squash and season aggressively with salt and pepper. Meanwhile, saute your onion and garlic for about 5 minutes, then add the rice and cook for about 5 minutes until the grains are translucent. Deglaze with white wine. Then add stock to cover, cook until it evaporates, then add more stock and stir. repeat until rice is just about done. Once this is ready your butternut squash should be good to go. Take half of the squash and puree it or "squash" it up (see what i did there, haha). Add squash to rice mixture and cook for a few minutes to incorporate the squash in really well. AT this time your rice should still be a little oozy, if not add a bit more stock and loosen it up. Finish with a bit of vegan butter and add the roasted squash chunks that you didn't mash. Top with the spicy hash, recipe follows.

Spicy Seitan or White Bean hash

1 can white beans, or 1 pkg seitan
4 good potatoes, diced small
1 red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small eggplant, diced small
olive oil
salt
pepper
paprika
cayenne

Saute the onions and garlic in olive oil. Add the potatoes. Cook for a bit. Let it get crispy, dont mess around with it too much. Then add the eggplant and cook until it gets real tender and the potatoes crisp some more. Add beans or seitan and get them brown. Season with paprika and cayenne to taste. You may need to add a bit of water to this to get the potatoes to steam a bit too. I had too. If you dice them small enough they should cook through with only the heat of the pan.

ENJOY!

Tofu Stroganoff with Avocado Cream

So Vegan MOFO is keeping me motivated to post everyday and even get my schoolwork done. Veganism sure is great, huh?

Anyways here is the dish I made tonight. I had some really great arugula that my friend got from his CSA and i through that in to give a nice peppery bite to the creamy heartiness that is tofu stroganoff. I used kamut pasta and it was actually amazing. Not rubbery or mushy, but instead, perfectly al dente.


Tofu Stroganoff with avocado cream sauce

1 block tofu, pressed and dried, cut into good size pieces
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp tamari
1 tbsp liquid smoke
garlic, minced
ground black pepper

good handful off cremini mushrooms, chopped
1 red onion, sliced thin
4 cloves garlic crushed and minced
2 tsps dried thyme
1 bunch baby arugula
salt and pepper

1/4 cup pasta water
1 avocado
1/2 cup almond milk, unsweetened
2 tbsp nooch
5 scallions
salt
pepper

1 box of your favorite pasta cooked 1 min pre-al dente

Cook the tofu and brown on all sides. add garlic black pepper and then splash with tamari and smoke just before done cooking. Set aside. In the same pan add a bit more oil then the mushrooms. Brown them up for a few minutes then add the sliced onion then garlic and thyme salt and pepper. When the pasta is just about done add the arugula and wilt then add the pasta and the tofu back in. Toss with the avocado sauce, which is all the ingredients listed above pureed until smooth, and the pasta water to make a nice sauce. Cook for a minute when its all together just so that the pasta is done and absorbs all the sauce. You will really fuck up if you use soymilk, drink almond milk. Get into it!

Just kidding soymilk will be fine.

Chocolate Almond Agave cake

This was some amazing eats.

I made a basic chocolate cake batter with 2 smooshed bananas and sweetened it with agave nectar. Its pretty much this recipe except with some bananas for moisture. The real star is the frosting....Holy Shiitake! Its amazing and simple.


Chocolate Almond Frosting

1/2 cup almond butter
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup cocoa powder, good quality
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Mix everything together and get an amazing ganache like frosting that you will have trouble not eating with a spoon.

Empanada Pizza

This is a dish that I made for a bunch of my good friends. It was inspired by the idea of a potato pizza meshed with a Spanish empanada. The base is a crust of corn and wheat yeast dough that adds a killer crunch against the creamy potatoes. If I were to make this dish again I would cut the potatoes thicker and par-cook them to add more of a toothsome creamy bite to the potato layer.

Cornmeal Crust

2 cups corn meal, fine grind works well
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1.5 cups warm water
2 tsps yeast
2 tbsps agave nectar
1 tbsp salt or more

Mix all the ingredients together, the dough should be coarse and heavy, not too far off from a bread dough. Knead dough for like 5-10 minutes and let rise for an hour in a warm place. Punch down dough and let rise again for at least a half hour. Roll out into a pizza crust shape when your ready to make the dish.

The toppings

2 onions, sliced thin then cooked over medium heat and carmelized add a clove of minced garlic halfway through cooking. Season with salt and pepper and oregano
1 package soyrizo or upton's seitan chorizo

Roasted Red Pepper Cashew Cream

This is a take on romesco except more creamy.

1/2 cup cashews, raw
2 roasted red peppers
1 cup white beans
2 tbsp red wine vineger
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp oregano
1 clove garlic, more if you want
1/2 cup tomato sauce (or marinara sauce)
salt
pepper
fresh herbs if you got them

Blend everything together until you get a smooth texture. Adjust seasonings if you need. Put it on the crust. Then the seitan chorizo and caramelized onions.

Then of course, top with thinly sliced yukon gold potatoes ( i used a mandolin) drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt.

Bake the pizzas in a 450F oven for about 15 minutes until golden brown and the potatoes are cooked through.

Slice and enjoy.

First Day of vegan MOFO, IRon CHef

Here is my Iron Chef Battle Brassicaceae entry and first entry for the vegan MOFO. I decided to utilize the secret ingredient in numerous ways as you will see in the recipes. You may think that the seitan is the star of this dish but its not, believe me, the cabbage, horseradish, and mustard really steal the show on your palate. After you make this dish you will probably need a good nap because it is as hearty as can be. But I think that is a good thing, especially with the onset of colder weather.



For the seitan I actually just used some recipes as references and they are fairly simple to follow. If you go to www.everydaydish.tv you can find recipes for corned beef seitan and bbq seitan. I tweaked the recipes a bit by incorporating some of the secret ingredient, like mustard seeds in the corned beef and mustardy bits in the bbq sauce. I also roasted some sweet potatoes to compliment the bbq side of the plate, and some roasted fingerling potatoes to go with the corned beef and cabbage.

Smokey Maple Porter BBQ Sauce

About 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil or just enough to fry the onions and garlic
1 chopped white onion
4 cloves of chopped garlic
12 oz. of Sierra Nevada Porter
1 cup of maple syrup
12 oz. of tomato paste
1 tablespoon of liquid smoke
2 tablespoons Dijon Mustard
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons of black pepper

Cook the onions and garlic until caramelized over medium heat. Add a bit of water every several minutes to de-glaze the pan. Add the rest of the ingredients cook for about 15 minutes then let cool and puree.

Creamy Coleslaw with Pickled Red onions

This absolutely is amazing and simple. It is a great cold crunchy and creamy contrast to the spicy hot bbq seitan.

1/2 head green cabbage, shredded
4 Tbsp Vegenaise
1 Tbsp German Mustard
2 Tbsp Agave nectar
splash red wine vinegar
salt + pepper

1/2 red onion, very thinly sliced
2 tsp red wine vinegar
salt

Mix together all the slaw ingredients while you quickly pickle the red onions.

Braised Cabbage with Corned Beef Seitan

1 recipe corned beef seitan
1/2 head green cabbage, large dice
1 white onion, diced
1 clove garlic
2 tsps paprika
1 tbsp caraway seeds
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
veg broth

Cook the onions and garlic in a bit of oil and add all the spices. Toss in the cabbage and seitan and add a bit of vegetable broth. Cook for about 20 minutes. Add more veg broth and cook ten minutes more. Serve with roasted fingerling potatoes and horseradish cream.

Horseradish Cream

1/2 block silken tofu
2 tbsp canola oil
2 tsp prepared horseradish, or more
2 tsp Dijon mustard
salt and pepper

Puree everything and chill. Serve over the corned beef and cabbage for a right good kick in the mouth.