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.

Vegan Hachis Parmentier: BB Shepherds Pie

Classic French cuisine is mouth-watering, aromatic, and beautiful but not terribly vegan-friendly. Let’s have a brief glimpse at the typical French fare: croque-monsieur, coq-au-vin, soufflé, paté, bouillabaisse, crème brulée. Meat, cheese, butter, and cream in any form you could possibly concoct. Translating French to English might be a forte of mine, but the challenge of translating French recipes into meatless meals is much more fun and very much a vegan venture. And just in time for the holiday season, amidst my search for a vegan offering that will satisfy my need for challenge and impress my omnivore audience, my NPR addiction paid off - All Things Considered did a segment on cooking French with shortcuts featuring a dish called Hachis Parmentier (wha?).

This is essentially a Beef Burgundy or Boeuf Bourguignon Shepherds Pie, a classic meat and potato comfort food. I recently tried a similar dish with a biscuit topping, but it came out all biscuit. So I thought I’ve give tubers a shot. It was incredibly easy and I loved how well the potatoes browned in the oven. Bite by bite, I became more convinced that this will be a Thanksgiving or Christmas highlight. Why does it make perfect holiday fare? It’s salty, meaty, dark, rich, tender and it doesn’t scream vegan. That seems to be the equation that works with my family anyway. They don’t take to seitan roast or Tofurkey as well as something smothered in gravy and topped with starch.

A good trick to giving tempeh a meaty flavor is to simmer it in seasoning. I actually didn’t have vegan Worcestershire sauce, so I made my own and just put threw the tempeh in the sauce pot. If you choose to use seitan, this method doesn’t work the same way as it softens the seitan too a near mush – use the marinade method instead. The traditional recipes would have you remove the vegetables only using the stock and “meat,” I think that’s a travesty and insult to the savory chunks responsible for the flavor. Save the veggies! Don’t let them cook in vain. The classic also mixes Gruyere into the potatoes. I personally did not use vegan cheese, but Daiya might be a nice addition if you’re into it. This passed the omnivore test. I recommend enjoying with a bottle of red.

Vegan Hachis Parmentier

Makes 4-6 servings

Total cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

For the “Beef”
3-4 T. vegan Worcestershire sauce
1¼ c. water
1 pkg tempeh, cubed or 2 c. seitan, cubed
Cooking spray

For the Stew
2 T. olive oil
1 small onion, diced
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 small turnip, chopped
1 c. mushrooms, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, minced (1½ T)
1 bay leaf
1 tsps thyme, dried
2 T. tomato paste
2 c. vegetable broth (from bouillon)
½ - 1 c. water
2 tsp cornstarch
Salt and pepper

For the Potatoes
2 large russet potatoes, cubed
2 T. Earth Balance
¼ - ½ c. almond or soy milk or creamer
Pinch of salt
¼ c. parsley or chives
½ c. vegan cheese (optional)

Directions

Cooking suggestion: The tempeh or seitan can be prepared before or at the same time as the stew. Preheat the oven to 400ºF and cook potatoes while the stew simmers.

For the “beef”: If using tempeh, bring the Worcestershire sauce and water to a boil and add tempeh. Lower heat to medium and let sauce reduce by half, stirring tempeh occasionally to make sure all cubes are coated evenly about 8-10 minutes. When reduce, strain tempeh reserving sauce. Heat a skillet over high heat and coat with cooking spray. Brown the tempeh until cooked evenly on all sides. If using seitan, mix Worcestershire sauce with ¾ c. water and marinate seitan in a medium bowl for 20 minutes. Brown the tempeh until cooked evenly on all sides Set aside to add to stew.

For the stew: In a large sauce pan or wide, deep skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add onions, celery, carrots and turnips. Cook until vegetables soften, 8-10 minutes. Add mushrooms, garlic, bay leaf and thyme. Stir in tomato paste and cook 1 minute before adding vegetable broth and ½ cup of water. Bring stew to a boil and reduce heat. Let simmer for 15 minutes. Mix ¼ cup of water with cornstarch and whisk into stew. Add “beef” and ¼ cup of reserved Worcestershire. Season with salt and pepper to taste. When stew has thickened, remove from heat and transfer to casserole dish.

For the potatoes: Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add potatoes. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender. Strain the potatoes and mash with Earth Balance, “milk” of choice, and pinch of salt. Stir in parsley or chives and cheese if using. Spread potatoes over stew in a single, smooth layer.

Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Let cool 15 minutes before serving. Garnish with parsley if desired.

Rawsage & Cheezy Rice

Sorry if you’re getting sick of the raw kick, but I’m trying to get the biggest bang for my bucks spent on a ginormous food dehydrator AND I'm having fun! I have made several recipes (and actually somewhat followed them) from 2 different raw cookbooks that are good for starters, but now I’m ready for more improvisation. When I read an omnivore recipe, I know almost instantly how to make a vegan analog. Raw analogs are next but for me they require much more innovation. This kind of challenge is clearly my cup of tea.

So how did I come to even think of making raw cheesy rice? Last week I made an eggplant biryani with raw “rice” based on a recipe from a local vegan chef in Phoenix. First of all, I didn’t know you could eat eggplant raw - I actually thought it might be lethal. Secondly, I had a lurking fear of eating raw cruciferous vegetables (i.e. broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussel sprouts) because of the foreboding side effects caused by our stomachs trying to breakdown all of that fiber. Who knew that cauliflower was the super-secret stand-in for raw rice? Now you know. Not only is it incredibly delicious, but breaking it in a food processor helps with digestion. Combining it with soaked almonds or cashews gives it a certain silkiness you find in cooked rice.

Now for the secret to cheesiness. On my last trip to Sedona, I purchased some raw kale chips from Frontier Market made by a local raw food shop. They tasted like Cheez-its and had the same addictive quality. So of course I memorized the ingredient list and told myself that someday I’d buy a food dehydrator to reinvent these chips. I’m a little impressed with myself that months later I actually did. Though I remembered the ingredients, I also perused through recipes online to come up with my own version. If you don’t have cashew butter, just use ground cashews. The texture will be a little more granular, but still yum. I could scoop this onto raw bread or eat it plain it’s so good. Mixed into rice is like a good ole casserole.

And lastly…raw sausage? Gross! Well of course its vegan and involves no “casing” (what a fancy term for stomach lining…next time I have heartburn I’m going to refer to my enflamed “casing”). Walnuts and pecans are common ingredients for raw meat analogs and of course walnuts have the Omega 3 edge going for them which his why they star in this recipe. When ground us, their meaty texture can be seasoned any way you want. Have cumin or chili powder? You can make raw taco meat. So I basically thought of a typical stuffing recipe and used the spice combination I use when making cooked vegan sausages. This method was WAY less labor intensive than and tasted SO good (eating a cup of nuts is high in fat though which is why it’s so tasty). You can even top this all off with some raw mushroom gravy if you’re feeling adventurous.

Rawsage & Cheezy Rice

Makes: 4 servings

Prep time: 10 minutes

Dehydrating time: 1 hour

Ingredients

For the Rawsage
1 c. walnuts
8-10 sundried tomatoes, soaked if not soft already
½ c. onion, chopped
½ c. celery stalks, chopped
3 garlic cloves, smashed
3 T. applesauce
2 tsp. sage, dried
1 tsp. fennel seed
1 tsp. poultry seasoning (optional)
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. paprika
½ tsp. white pepper

For the Cheezy Rice
2 T. cashew butter
2 T. tahini
2 T. Lemon juice
1 T. Nama shoyu or tamari
¼ c. nutritional yeast
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
Pinch of cayenne pepper
½ c. water (or more)

3 c. cauliflower, chopped (or about 1 ½ heads)
¾ c. almonds, soaked 2 hours and skins peeled
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

For the rawsage: Combine all of the rawsage ingredients in a food processor and pulse until mixture is crumbly but can hold together in larger chunks. Add 1-2 T of water or additional applesauce if too dry (do not process into pate). Transfer to lined tray in food dehydrator or oven and heat at 110ºF for 1 hour or more until rawsage is warm and slightly dried. Prepare the rice while mixture dehydrates.

For the rice: In a small bowl, combine the first three ingredients and whisk vigorously with a fork until mixture becomes very creamy, about 2 minutes (the lemon juice will separate the cashew butter and tahini - as you whisk they will emulsify and become creamy). Add the nama shoyu, nutritional yeast and spices and mix so all are blended into a thick sauce. Thin using ¼ cup of water at a time until desired consistency is reached. Taste cheese sauce, add salt and pepper to taste and set aside.

In a food processor, pulse cauliflower and soaked almonds together until it reaches a rice texture, small and crumbly. Transfer to a medium bowl and stir in cheese sauce. Let sit at room temperature until rawsage is warm. Serve rawsage over rice and enjoy!

Raw Noodles with Misoshrooms, Rawcotta and Marinara

Detox 2: it’s time again for a hard reset. I dabbled with a detox last fall to try and cleanse my body and restart my energy. I followed the rules but ultimately felt like I was in a world of restriction. Don’t eat this, don’t eat that. This left me with very basic options. Of all people, I rave about the benefits of simple foods and think we unnecessarily try to mask the real flavor of food more often than not. However, my previous attempt at a detox felt too simple… um ok boring. Though I felt the need to reboot, I really didn’t want to be eating dreary dishes that only involve some chopping and a sprinkle of lemon juice. So I have turned to raw cuisine to rejuvenate my excitement around new foods and unfamiliar cooking techniques. A true venture.

Why detox? There are two very central elements to the person I have become: food and exercise. These are not the only components of my identity of course but they are huge and the core contributors to my health and when they fall off track, I’m in the shizzle. A combination of factors - starting a new job, traveling every weekend, living a busy life – impacted my sense of “comfort.” I turned to food to fulfill that sense of mental or spiritual satiety that was lost somewhere along the road. Not just any kind of food: snack food, candy, bread, wine, etc… (This is not an original story nor is this misdirected path uncommon.) My mind was telling my belly I had enough “room” to gorge on sweets, so my need for some sort of balance is what pulled my exercise out of whack. Exercise became a matter of offsetting indulgence rather than a boosting energy. I ran to run off the chocolate, I hiked to burn off a bread binge. Not a good cycle. So finally, after thinking about a detox, rather dreading it, it was time to reboot.

Rod Rotondi 's Raw Food for Real People is sort of an intro to raw cuisine. It gives the basics on sprouting, making raw cheeses and dehydrating. I’ll admit: this is a time consuming activity if you take soaking and dehydrating into consideration. But actual food prep is pretty quick. I have read a lot about raw foods, but this is the first that I have actually sucked it up, gone out and bought the basic necessities and plunged onward down the raw, raw road. No, I’m not “going raw” – but this is so much fun! I made almond cheese and stuffed cabbage leaves for lunch yesterday, yum! I’ve felt so energized after a few raw meals, now I don’t want to look at a piece of bread or peanut-butter filled pretzel (so I’m telling myself).

Here I combined and altered a few of Rod’s recipes – I couldn't strictly follow them of course. This is a very basic starter recipe that takes well to improvisation. Word of caution: if you don't plan ahead and soak the nuts, you're doomed! Just kidding, just boil some water and pour it over the nuts and let sit for 10-15 minutes. Of course the nuts will not be raw then because they are exposed to temperatures over 100 F, but the raw roodies don't know what happens in your kitchen. I have to admit though, once you start soaking nuts, there is no turning back. You’ll be wanting rawcotta for breakfast.

Raw Noodles with Misoshrooms, Rawcotta and Marinara
Makes: 2-3 servings
Prep time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

For the noodles
2 medium summer squash, yellow and/or green
1 butternut squash (optional)
Salt
Lemon juice

For the Misoshrooms
1 ½ cup brown mushrooms, chopped
1 ½ T. red or dark miso
1 ½ T. lemon juice
1 garlic clove
¼ - ½ c. pine nuts (soaked 2 hours and drained)

For the Rawcotta
½ lemon, peeled and quartered
1-2 garlic cloves
1 T. chopped fresh basil (optional)
1 T. olive oil
¼ c. cashews (soaked 2 hours and drained)
¼ c. pine nuts (soaked 2 hours and drained)
¼ c. water, more or less
½ tsp salt

For the Marinara
¼ c. onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic
3 T. chopped fresh parsley
2 tsp mixed dried herbs (thyme, basil, oregano)
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
¼ c. water, more or less
½ c. sundried tomatoes (soaked for 1 hour if not soft)
½ tsp salt

Directions

For the noodles: Cut the ends off and peel summer squash with a potato peeler or vegetable slicer. Place in a strainer and set aside. Cut the top end off the butternut squash and cut the squash at the base of the neck so that the straight part is separate from the bottom. Reserve the bottom for another use. Peel the squash and slice the neck with potato peeler or vegetable slicer in to thin strips. Place in strainer with summer squash. Sprinkle squash with salt and a generous squeeze of lemon juice. Let sit while you prepare the toppings.

For the misoshrooms: Combine all ingredients in food processor and pulse until the mixture is very well chopped and in very small pieces. Transfer to small bowl and stir to make sure completely blended. Store the shrooms in refrigerator while you prepare the other goodies.

For the rawcotta: Combine the first 4 ingredients in food processor and process until well chopped into tiny pieces. Add cashews, pine nuts and 2 tablespoons of water. Process until mixture is almost creamy, adding water as necessary to reach a slightly chunky texture. Stir in salt and refrigerate while you prepare the sauce.

For the marinara: Combine first 4 ingredients in food processor and process until well chopped into tiny pieces. Add fresh tomatoes with 2 tablespoons of water and puree until mixture is smooth. Add sun dried tomatoes and pulse until desired chunkiness is reached or puree until smooth if that’s your thing. Add water as necessary and season with salt to taste.

To assemble: Squeeze moisture and juices out of noodles or pat them dry. Pile on 2 or 3 plates. Top noodles with a layer of shrooms, a scoop of sauce and a dollops of rawcotta. Garnish with fresh herbs for a real kick.