Peanut Pumpkin Stew with Caramelized Seitan

Have you ever tried to cook a jack-o-lantern? Or have you ever bought a big ole pumpkin with the intention of carving it for Halloween and then dropped the ball only to be stuck with a 15 useless pounds of vegetable? Make no mistake, there is no turning Jack into pie. I learned that the hard way last year when I had 2 enormous orange faceless heads taking up space in my 1 bedroom apartment. I did get a good batch of seeds from them, and at least I gave their flesh due diligence on the stove (sorry if this sounds like a slasher blog talking about heads and flesh). However, carving pumpkins taste like...well they don't taste like anything. Something that large has a hard time hanging onto it's sugars. Most of us have the opposite problem - the sugars go right to the thighs and never leave. Oh well.

So this weekend I was meandering through the food store who was having a special on pie pumpkins! I was ecstatic about not having to buy canned pumpkin and getting about 2 cans worth for half the price. I got home with my precious pumpkin and stared at it thinking, "now what?" While I love a good pumpkin pie or cookie, those are pretty standard and too simple to do my pumpkin justice. Warm, savory, adventurous - that's what I wanted for my pumpkin's fate. The last savory dish I cooked didn't turn out so well because the recipe I actually followed called for pumpkin puree in a sauce with a bagillion breadcrumbs and something went very wrong, so following a recipe was out of the question. I peeked through a few and some ideas stuck - for some reason my brain was fusing African peanut and African pumpkin stew together so that's what this became. I have no idea if the spices pertain to the appropriate geography, but they worked.

Next time I will most likely serve the caramelized seitan on top of the stew and garnish with cilantro. I didn't have any cilantro on hand but it would have been nice for some color. I'm crazy and made my own seitan and Worcestershire (vegan of course) but store bought version would be fine, though I highly recommend making your own Worcestershire sauce with any recipes sans anchovies for the best results. I served this with a skillet cornbread that I have yet to perfect, but it was damn good.


Peanut Pumpkin Stew

Makes 3-4 servings
Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients

1 jalapeno
1/2 T. canola oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 T. garlic, minced (4-5 cloves)
1 1/2 T. fresh ginger, minced
1/2 tsp. cumin, ground
1/4 tsp. garam masala
1/4 tsp. turmeric
1/2 small pumpkin, peeled and cubed
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced
1 can diced tomatoes
2 c. vegetable broth from bouillon
2 T. peanut butter
1 c. Caramelized Seitan (recipe below)
1/4 c. roasted peanuts
Salt and cayenne pepper to taste
Cilantro for garnish (optional)

Directions

Broil whole jalapeno on high and cook until skin is blackened and blistered, rotating periodically to make sure all sides are heated. Remove from heat and let cool. Split the pepper open, remove the seeds, and chop into small pieces (wear gloves or hold the jalapeno with a fork/tongs and spoon out the seeds without touching with your fingers). Set aside.

In a medium stock pot, heat the canola oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook until golden brown stirring frequently, about 10 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, and half of roasted jalapeno (reserve other half for another use or throw in and brace yourself). Stir until garlic and ginger become fragrant, about 30 seconds, and add the rest of the spices plus a pinch of salt. Cook another minute until spices are aromatic and throw in the pumpkin and bell pepper. Stir to coat with spices and cook until pumpkin starts to become tender, about 7-8 minutes. Add tomatoes with juices and increase heat to high. When mixture starts to boil, add vegetable broth. Bring stew to a boil and reduce heat to medium-low. Let stew simmer at a low boil for 20-30 minutes.

When pumpkin is very tender and breaks apart easily, stir to mash some of the pumpkin and thicken the stew. Add the peanut butter and stir to blend completely. Add Caramelized Seitan and peanuts (you can either add this into the stew or place on top when service). Season with salt and a little pinch of cayenne pepper if there's not enough heat for you. You can also soften the spice and bring out the peanut flavor with a small pinch of sugar. Garnish with cilantro if desired.


Caramelized Seitan
Makes about 1 cup
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

2-3 T. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 c. water
1-2 T. sherry or other sweet wine
1 c. homemade or store bough seitan, cubed
Cooking spray

Directions

Whisk all marinade ingredients together and marinate seitan for at least 30 minutes (while you prep the stew or while it's cooking). Drain the seitan reserving the marinade.

Heat a skillet or stove top wok over high heat. When hot coat with cooking spray and throw in the seitan. Reduce the heat only slightly, when the pan starts to dry and seitan browns, pour in 1/4 cup of the marinade. Let reduce until thick and sticky. Scrape the skillet to rotate the seitan and pour in more marinade. When seitan is brown on all sides pour in any remaining marinade and turn off the heat. Remove from heat when there is still a small amount of thick marinade coating the seitan.

Kale Chickpea Stew with Basil Polenta

I’m not sure what sparked my extreme craving for polenta last night, but I pretty much had to have it last night after thinking about it all day. I’ve had so much wheat over the past couple of weeks that I started to develop a sense of negligence and apathy towards other grains. Shame on me. Taking inventory of my grain selection, I had a pretty full stock of polenta, or coarsely ground cornmeal. Something about this fluffy Italian staple just hits me in the right spot when I need something comforting and filling that feels and tastes like a fatty, guilty carb-indulgence though in reality it is very healthy and low in calories. I am allowed to pamper in the occasional illusion of digestively splurging on some creamy, cheesy, off-limits edible luxury by the plateful. On days where I reminisce of eating those comfort foods of yesteryear, polenta is a fabulous outlet.

While I often experiment with polenta preparation – using it as a pie or pizza crust, chilling it and grilling it – I just wanted a classic scoop of golden goop. That doesn’t sound appetizing to you? Well it’s not as gloppy as, say, grits, but it does look similar. Though it’s cooked similarly to grits or oatmeal, its texture is sturdier than your standard gooey grain. As polenta cools, it becomes increasingly sticky until it finally firms up completely. I love that it is firm enough to be cut through easily with a fork but requires only a slight chew without feeling like denture food. It certainly won’t yank any crowns out either, so as Goldilocks would say, it’s juuuuust right. It serves as a perfect base for thick stew-like dishes or lighter stir fried vegetables. In this case I went with a “stewp” of sorts.

I tend to make a lot of dishes that are semi-saucy, not too stewy, but thicker than soupy…if that makes sense. In other words, they are meant to be served over some kind of grain. I typically start with the usually onion-garlic-spices combo, add some liquid, and simmer until the dish has reduced. It ends up being somewhere in between thick and thin but with a lot of flavor. For topping my polenta, I had just purchased a fresh bunch of kale. Some Italian recipes came to mind as kale is also an Italian staple often paired with white cannellini beans or potatoes in soups, crostini toppings or side dishes. I definitely wanted a kale dish here, but beans are a tough sell in my household save for the brawnier varieties like Edamame, fresh fava and garbanzo beans. I was already taking a little texture risk with the polenta this time around so I didn’t want to put too many beans in one pod. I looked up a few recipes for kale and chickpeas together, but decided to just wing it in the end. Classic fresh Italian herbs added bright flavor and an extra punch of both crushed red and black pepper took the whole thing up a huge notch. All I have to say is….holy polenta Batman, this rocked.

Kale and Chickpea Stew with Basil Polenta

Serves 2
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

For the Stew
2 tsp. Olive oil
¾ c. Onion, chopped
2 Garlic cloves, minced
1 T. Tomato paste
1 tsp fresh thyme or ½ tsp dried
½ tsp fresh rosemary, minced or ¼ tsp dried
1/8 tsp Crushed red pepper
½ tsp Salt
1 ½ c. Tomatoes, chopped
½ c. Water or broth
1 c. Chickpeas, cooked or canned
2-3 c. Kale, de-stemmed and chopped
¼ tsp Black pepper or more to taste

For the Polenta
1 c. Water
1 c. Broth, vegetable or mushroom
½ c. Polenta
½ T Basil, dried
½ tsp Garlic powder
½ tsp Onion powder
¼ tsp Salt
3 T Nutritional Yeast

Directions

For the Stew: In a large shallow sauce pan or deep skillet, sauté onions in olive oil over medium heat. Cook until onions start to caramelize and brown, about 7-8 minutes. Add garlic and cook an additional minute. Stir in tomato paste and cook another 30 seconds. Increase heat to medium high and add the next 6 ingredients. Bring to a boil and cook 2-3 minutes. Reduce heat to medium low, add remaining ingredients and simmer uncovered until liquid has reduced to a thin sauce and kale is tender, about 10 minutes.

For the Polenta: Combine water and broth in a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil. Whisk water/broth in a circular motion and slowly pour in polenta. Continue whisking to avoid clumps. Once polenta is boiling, reduce heat to low and simmer. Add basil, onion powder, garlic powder and salt. Cook until polenta is tender and slightly stick to the pan, about 7-8 minutes. Stir in nutritional yeast and season with additional salt if desired.

Vegan Osso Buco - Stufato Salvatore

A very special occasion arose this week giving me yet another opportunity to feed open minds with a lovin’ spoonful of gourmet vegan fare – meeting the roommate’s family. While I love to cook just about anyone in my home, this dinner was quite special in the sense that there was going to be another vegan attending. What a pleasure! My roommate’s sister had become recently engaged to a fellow vegan. The couple currently resides in Israel, but they’ve returned to the states to plan their upcoming August wedding. I was very impressed to learn that my roommate’s parents are as equally curious as they are enthusiastic about welcoming a meatless mouth into the family – they have an endearing willingness to further explore the vegan diet since it will be one that will have a larger presence in their lives. This also means of course that they will have to include vegan options on the wedding menu and a vegan cake. His mother had requested that I provide some suggestions regarding recipes or vegan references to help the process – but to jumpstart their faith in the possibility of a successful and delicious vegan event, we hosted a lovely and quite lavish dinner.

You may have noticed by now that I have a somewhat neurotic need to suit the meal as perfectly as I can to the vibe of a crowd before deciding what to cook for them. In this instance, there were several factors that helped narrow this down. First of all, knowing the happy couple lives in Haifa and most likely eats Middle Eastern cuisine on a daily basis ruled out a whole genre. Secondly, they are exploring ideas for vegan wedding dishes which helped me narrow down a type of main dish that might be appealing to a mass of omnivores – something rich but familiar, “meaty,” saucy, and more inspiring than an all-you-can-eat veggie trays with a block of bland protein (i.e. no tofu slabs). While I hesitate to resort to Italian because it seems too easy, I came across a vegan recipe for Osso Buco that inspired me to try a dish that is more complex than pasta and traditionally very much un-vegan. I had never made this in my meat-eating days, but it didn’t matter.

Osso Buco is a delicacy originating from Milan and means “bone with a hole,” as the dish features veal on the bone slowly braised in a wine based broth. I wasn’t eager to mimic the bone, but seitan seemed like a good substitute. While I liked the initial recipe, I was under whelmed by its ingredients. I felt I could jazz it up with fresh herbs, fresh tomatoes, and Gremolata like a real Italian would. So I looked for a traditional recipe and found that classic recipes call for fresh herbs in a bouquet garni, which is just a fancy term for putting a sack of herbs in a pot instead of letting them run wild. Well, I let my herbs have their freedom and threw them right in instead of rounding them up in cheesecloth and limiting their potency. I may have had to pick out their stems in the end, but it was worth it. The flavor was highly present. I also called upon my lovely woodsy mushrooms to add another level to the broth. Many Osso Buco recipes call for chicken broth and while vegetarian chicken broth seems like a good replacement, it often has many artifical flavors and/or MSG. So to give it a "beefy" edge, I rehydrated dried mushrooms before mixing up some vegetarian bouillon. I also added a few dried mushrooms to the stew as it simmered and picked them out in the end (some of my guests preferred no mushrooms which I had known in advance).

The vegan recipe I first found also employed the braising technique. I however didn’t see the logic behind letting fake, flavorless meat sit that long, absorbing soupy liquid, when it has the potential to take on its own rich, complex flavor. I found that marinating the seitan and browning it was a good way to seal in flavor. But to take it an extra step, I finished cooking it in the leftover marinade to make its own sauce. Adding it at the end to a very flavorful stew had much more depth than just making seitan taste like tomato soup. Osso Buco is typically served with saffron risotto, but I took a hint from the Vegetarian Times recipe and made an Asparagus Orzotto (a risotto made with orzo). The two made a lovely pair and were scarfed down to the last scrap by each any every one of us. This would definitely make the final cut for a catered event.

By the way, I didn't feel Osso Buco was necessarily an appropriate names with no bones or holes present anywhere in my meal. So I am affectionately calling this "savior soup." One less baby cow totorture.

Stufato Salvatore

Serves 6-8

Prep time: 45 minutes

Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients

Marinated Seitan
½ c. Sherry or sweet white wine
¼ c. Hoisin Sauce
2 T. Soy Sauce, reduced sodium
1 T. Rice Vinegar
1 T. Balsamic Vinegar
½ T. Hot or Dijon mustard
4-5 Drops liquid smoke

2 Packages prepared seitan or 2 c. homemade seitan, cubed
½ - ¾ c. All-purpose flour or cornstarch
¼ c. Canola oil, divided

Stew
¼ c. Olive oil
1 ½ c. Onion, chopped
1 c. Celery, chopped
1 c. Carrot, chopped
1 tsp. Sea salt
1 T. Garlic, minced
1 ½ c. Dry white wine
4 cups vegetable/mushroom stock*
2 c. Tomatoes, chopped
1 T. Tomato paste
4 Thyme sprigs
1 Rosemary sprig
¼ c. Parsley leaves
3 Bay leaves
5-6 Dried mushrooms (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Gremolata
½ c. Parsley
1 T. Garlic, chopped
1 T. Lemon zest, finely grated
½ tsp. salt

*Make stock ahead of time by pouring 2 cups boiling water over ½ - 1/3 cup dried mushrooms. Add 1 vegetarian bouillon cube and whisk until completely blended. Add another 2 cups hot water to the mix and let sit 5-10 minutes.

For the Seitan
Mix all marinade ingredients together in a medium bowl. Adjust marinade to taste – add sherry if too tart, add soy sauce if too bland, add more mustard for an extra kick, or add hoisin for a super sweet and salty combo punch. Add seitan to marinade and let sit 30 minutes while you prepare stew.

For the Stew
In a Dutch oven or large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Sauté onions, celery and carrots with salt until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and stir for 1 minute. Turn heat to medium high and add wine, keeping at a boil until reduced by about half or more. Meanwhile, mix the tomato paste with a ½ cup of stock and add mixture plus stock, tomatoes, herbs, and mushrooms (if using) to the pot. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat and simmer for about 45 minutes. Remove any stray stems and mushrooms (you'll have to fish for them).

Returning to Seitan
Place flour or cornstarch in a medium bowl and set out a separate plate for the seitan. Dredge seitan cubes and set on plate, reserving extra marinade for later. Heat half of canola oil in a nonstick skillet over high heat and add half of seitan cubes. Cook until browned on all sides, about 3-4 minutes. Repeat with remaining canola oil and the rest of the seitan. After the second batch has browned, add the first batch back into the pan along with all of the reserved marinade with the heat still on high. Let sauce reduce until thick and nicely glazed over seitan cubes, most of the sauce will have evaporated. Remove from heat and set aside.

For the Gremolata
In one pile, finely mince parsley, garlic lemon and salt together. The salt will draw out the juices from each ingredient and allow them to mesh together nicely. Set aside

To serve
Just before serving, place the cooked seitan in the stew. Stir and let sit 5 minutes. Sprinkle Gremolata on top and serve alongside orzo or saffron risotto.

Lentil and Root Vegetable Stew

Well I’ve started a detox. Not an official detox diet (yet) where you follow a strict regiment and prepare exact recipes as part of a plan crafted by an Ayurvedic counselor, but along the lines of “giving more stuff up.” How is this humanly possible? Crazy lady already chooses not to consume meat, dairy, butter and eggs. What else is there? And if you gave so much up, how could you be putting up a recipe?

Added to my list of “detrimental to your health”: Gluten, refined sugar, alcohol, chocolate, vinegar…oh my! Why are they so bad? I could go into a lengthy explanation, but as I am not a professional and at the risk of sounding preachy, I will resist. Our bodies don’t take well to these substances when they are consumed in the amounts we typically eat. I love bread, wine, and chocolate – who doesn’t? But my stomach and ever more prevalent state of lethargy urged me to recognize the roles of these substances in my overall health. Do I plan to do this together? I’m crazy but I’m not stupid. Please….like I could give up chocolate.

I have however fallen off the healthy bandwagon - eating alarming amounts of potato chips while waiting for a meal to start, dining out and ordering wraps or veggies burgers with highly processed ingredients, drinking lots of red wine, snacking on Trader Joe’s rice snacks or peanut butter filled pretzels when I’m nowhere near hungry, indulging in ice cream more often than an indulgence is typically defined. By most people’s standards, this doesn’t sound too bad. I’m not eating chicken wings with ranch for a late night snack after 6 pints of beer (which I have been known to do more than a few times. But what happens in Madison stays in Madison). Snacking on rice crackers and soy ice cream are fine, right? Yes, but feeling like crap is not.

I’ve also had some long standing issues with food that require attention. For instance, every family picnic, potluck, holiday or birthday party guarantees a 4 hour munch. I can only hold off eating too much hummus and pita at happy hour for so long until my mind changes gears. Then some alter ego invades my mind and tells me to quit being so limiting and the munching cascade ensues. I think this ego is the remains of my persona in college, desperate to revive that stage of eating anything and everything because of my absolute ignorance about nutrition and desire to socialize at events revolving around alcohol. I could late night snack with the pros; a 2 pound steak after 4 gin and tonics couldn’t stop this girl. This alter ego tells me to run it off tomorrow and just cut down on my calories the next day. Not a good way to eat when this happens at Christmas (x2), New Years, Weekly Happy Hour, 1 Year Old Birthday Party, and Picnic in the Park. It’s only February!

So my solution? Detox (or treatment for multiple personality disorder). Flush it out and start over. A detox can help you mentally and physically by ridding your body of toxins, particularly in the liver, and by giving your mind a chance to reach a new sort of clarity that we rarely experience on a daily basis. After reading a lot of literature about detox diets, a good rinse made its way on the menu. Commonly practiced and recommended by many (provided you don’t have some threatening disorder or aren’t pregnant), they are used to cleanse the organs, clear the mind and start anew when you’re feeling heavy and troubled. So how did I approach my detox?

I haven’t followed an official diet, but I plan to someday. After reading about a news anchor that detoxed for 28 days giving up everything listed above, I read the exclusion list and knew I could do it too. It has prevented me from succumbing to late night ice cream, munching on crackers, and pigging out because of some mental hang-up. So here I am 4 days into it and feeling much better. My stomach feels so much better, which makes me want to treat it more nicely. I am learning to enjoy social outings that don’t involve 2 glasses of wine (for me). My mind is carving out thought process that steers me away from overeating. So what did I eat?

I don’t have a juicer or a Vitamix, so I haven’t been living on smoothies and green machine juices recommended by many “flushes.” I also don’t have a dehydrator so I couldn’t go completely raw. This has left me with an abundance of fresh and dried fruit, raw or lightly steamed vegetables, some beans, whole grains (sprouted or cooked), nuts and tea. After the first day of eating only fruit and steamed vegetables with a few almonds and walnuts in there, I craved something for dinner that was warm and filling but light at the same time.

This soup was my answer and it was absolutely fabulous. It was both sweet and savory from the root vegetables and herbs, hearty enough from the lentils, and thick enough by pureeing some of the soup. It felt clean and satisfying with all the protein, fiber and complex carbs. Would have been nice with some flax crackers….but it’ll have to wait until I get that dehydrator.

Lentil and Root Vegetable Stew

Serves: 3-4
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes – 1 hour

Ingredients

½ T. Coconut Oil
½ Medium onion, chopped
1 Medium celery stalk, chopped
1 Large garlic clove, minced ~ 2 tsp
1 Bay leaf
½ T. Thyme, dried
1 tsp Marjoram, dried
½ tsp Rosemary, dried
1 tsp Salt
1 c. Sweet potato, cubed
¾ c. Turnips, cubed
¾ c. Parsnips, cubed
¾ c. Lentils (dry), rinsed
2 c. Vegetable broth (made with 1 cube of bouillon)
3-4 c. Water
Black pepper to taste
Fresh parsley, chopped (optional)

Directions

In a large crock pot, heat coconut oil over medium heat and add onion and celery. Sauté until transparent, ~ 7-8 minutes. Add garlic, herbs, and salt and cook another 30 seconds – 1 minute.

Add sweet potato, turnips, parsnips and lentils. Stir well to completely coat vegetables with seasoning. Add vegetable broth and water, and increase heat to medium high. When soup reaches a boil, turn to medium low, maintaining a vigorous simmer and cook until lentils are done, ~ 30-45 minutes.

When lentils are done and veggies are soft, turn heat off and season with pepper to taste. Transfer 1 cup of soup into a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Pour this back into the soup and puree an additional cup if you’d like a thicker soup. Garnish with fresh parsley if desired.