Squash and Mushroom Pasta with Citrus

And.. I'm back!  I may have missed the entire MLA convention last weekend because I was too busy eating ice cream for breakfast, checking out dive bars with a hot girl, and going to the park, but I'm at least back to my old habits of cooking.  This is one of three dishes I made Thursday night.  I liked the idea of making a creamy sauce out of vegetables, and the addition of citrus seemed like an interesting twist.

My squash was too little, and part of it was rotten and had to be thrown out [ :(  ], so I threw in some carrots as well.  Because I was using fresh roasted vegetables instead of softer frozen ones, I pureed the sauce ingredients before transferring them to the pan.  I also used rotelle instead of farfalle, and way less of it than the original recipe called for.  Finally, I halved the amount of nutritional yeast.  If you ask me, a little bit goes a long way.

The combination of squash and mushroom with citrus was lovely and satisfying, but I felt that the sauce was a little too dry or mealy feeling.  Next time I will either add some ground cashews or more olive oil to the sauce to make it richer.  The sliced almonds are a really great touch; they add needed variety to the textures of the dish.

Squash and Mushroom Pasta with Citrus

(adapted from happy healthy life)

Ingredients

4+ cups cooked pasta (about 8 oz. dry)

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Squash Sauce:

2 c butternut squash (and/or carrot) cubes, roasted

1 tsp dried rosemary, crushed

1 tsp garlic powder

1 TB maple syrup

2 TB olive oil (or more)

dash of salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 TB nutritional yeast

juice of 1 orange

1 tsp orange zest

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Chickpea Mixture:

1 TB olive oil

1/2 small white onion, diced

1/8 tsp cinnamon

1+ c cremini mushrooms, sliced 

1 can chickpeas, drained

1 TB lemon juice

1 c sliced almonds (roasted, unsalted) 

Instructions

1. Cook pasta according to instructions.
2. After the squash/carrots are roasted and cooled, puree all the sauce ingredients in a blender, then transfer to a pan.
3. In a second skillet, heat olive oil, then saute onion until clear.  Add cinnamon, mushrooms, and chickpeas, and cook about 10 minutes.  Then add lemon juice and almonds and turn off heat.
4. When pasta is finished, heat squash sauce over low heat, then add pasta and toss well.  Then add mushroom mixture as well.  Serve hot.  Serves 4-6.

General Tso's Tofu

What an authentic inauthentic recipe!  It tastes just like the real thing... even if the "real thing" here is the chicken I remember getting from the Leann Chin buffet as a child.  You can read more about the murky, recent, and largely American history of the General Tso's Chicken on salon.com or wikipedia.

This recipe from chic vegan was like tofu candy: a delicious mixture of textures and tastes.  And--although this might surprise you about American Chinese food--it's not very healthy, at least by my standards.  The recipe uses lots of oil and quite a bit of sugar (though I was able to halve the sugar with no problem), and tons of cornstarch, which I realized increases the calorie content (as well as the deliciousness content) by a ton.  I believe we're talking like over 300 calories of cornstarch per serving.

But the delicate battered crispiness is not to be beaten!  The sauce is sweet but still flavorful (use a lot of pepper, though).  Besides halving the sugar, I also skimped a bit on cornstarch, used seasoned rice vinegar instead of white vinegar, and skipped the sherry originally called for.  This recipe worked really well.  It looks a bit complicated, but if you mise everything en place before starting, you'll see that it actually doesn't have that many steps.

Cornstarch-dredged tofu cubes starting to fry

Tofu added back to the sauce at the end

General Tso's Tofu
(adapted from Chic Vegan)

Instructions
1 (12-oz) block firm tofu, in 1″ cubes (I pressed it for a while before using)
1 egg equivalent (e.g., EnerG Egg Replacer), prepared
3 TB + 2 TB water, divided
scant 3/4 c + 1 TB cornstarch, divided
vegetable oil for frying + 3 TB vegetable oil, divided
3 green onions, chopped
1 TB minced ginger
1 TB minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
2/3 c vegetable stock

2 TB granulated sugar
2 TB soy sauce
1 TB seasoned rice vinegar
red pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Mix the egg replacer as specified on the box and add an additional 3 TB water.  Dip tofu in egg replacer mixture and coat completely.  Transfer to a second bowl.  Sprinkle 3/4 c cornstarch over tofu and coat completely.  Watch out that the cornstarch doesn’t clump up at the bottom of the bowl.
2. Heat oil in pan and fry tofu pieces until golden. Drain excess oil. Heat 3 TB vegetable oil in pan on medium heat.  Add green onions, ginger, and garlic; cook for about 2 minutes.  Be careful not to burn garlic.
3. Add vegetable stock, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, and red pepper.
4. Mix 2 TB water with 1 TB cornstarch and pour into mixture stirring well.  Add fried tofu and coat evenly.  Serve immediately with steamed broccoli over your choice of rice.  Serves about 3.

Turkish Bulgur Pomegranate Salad

It's tabouleh gone wild!!!

Only very tangentially related: If this fusion restaurant's website could talk...

What a perfect recipe: balanced, high in fiber, higher still in deliciousness, inventive while still staying within the culinary realm of one part of the world.  This recipe from taste space was really lovely.  I omitted tomatoes because I didn't have any, and it was a little unclear to me whether the recipe called for 1 c cooked or uncooked bulgur--I went for uncooked, which meant that a greater proportion of the recipe was bulgur (especially in relation to the chickpeas), but when I added everything it seemed about right, and that's not even counting the tomatoes, if you use them.  The dressing was pretty strong, especially the sweet-tartness of the pomegranate molasses, so if you want a less intensely sweet flavor, you might want to cut back there, but I will definitely be making this again!  It's also perfect for taking to work as it's (again) delicious and complete unto itself.

Turkish Bulgur Pomegranate Salad

(from Taste Space)

Ingredients

1 c (that is, 1 c before cooking?) coarse bulgur, prepared according to package directions

1 c cooked chickpeas (i.e., about 1/4-1/3 c dry?)

2 c cherry tomatoes, about 1 pint, halved

1/2 c almonds, slivered and toasted

1/2 c pomegranate seeds (about 1/2 of a large pomegranate)

1/3 c chopped mint

zest from 1 lemon

1/2 tsp salt, or more to taste

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2 TB (or less) pomegranate molasses

2 TB fresh lemon juice

2 TB olive oil

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Instructions

Combine everything through salt, toss well.  Combine remaining ingredients and add only just before serving.  Serves 4-5.

Soups, sandwiches

I guess I've been in a bit of a cooking slump since I got back from the holidays.  Part of it is the busyness of getting into a new quarter, and part of it is being out of the habit of cooking and blogging, since I didn't do too much of that while I was staying with family and friends.

I have some exciting things planned--several beet recipes and pomegranate recipes, plus a whole thing on powdered dry mustard--but I've also been eating a lot of simple food, and repeats of old recipes, like Celeste's mushroom leek soup and my spicy carrot ginger soup (pictured below with mustard greens fried with onion, garlic, cumin, tamari, and lemon).

And, I'm still riding the sandwich train.  Below: sprouted rye bread with (bottom to top) vegenaise, whole grain mustard, avocado, lemon juice, sprouts, and black pepper.  Yum.

Mushroom Bourguignon (sortof) with Spaetzle

I'm not going to repost these recipes, adapted from The Taste Space, because I kind of messed them up too much.  As it turns out, you probably need wine to make anything bourguignon.  The mushroom dish was still good, but the spaetzle were pretty bad--I think because I had the hubris to use all whole wheat flour.  I was left with the impression that I was cooking gluten boogers.  I think they might be good if they were fried after cooking to give them more texture.

Whole Wheat Spaetzle

I used ener-g egg replacer and whole wheat flour instead of eggs and AP flour.

Mushroom Bourguignon

Instead of wine/stock, I used a mix of stock, sugar, red wine vinegar, and tamarind paste.  I also omitted the pearl onions and used cremini instead of portobello mushrooms.

Garlicky Eggplant Pasta with Tofu and Kale, by way of Bulgaria

My first trip back to the grocery store in LA yielded exciting things.  I got this big jar of "Eggplant 'Caviar' Spread" from Bulgaria.  Now, I've had an eggplant spread or two in my day, and the ingredients here looked like nothing surprising:

 

Nothing but eggplant, carrots, comato concentrate, oil, onion, sugar, salt, and parsley.  Not even the tricky "spices" or "natural flavors."

But somehow these simple ingredients managed to taste freakily like spaghetti-o's, except in a healthy way.  How do they do this?  I'm totally mystified.  I'm sure it's not the eggplant.

Ohhh.  And I just googled the ingredients (ew) and am more mystified than ever.  The only shared ingredient is tomato concentrate.

Anyway, first I thought I'd make sandwiches out of this stuff.  I don't really eat a lot of sandwiches, but staying with John and Celeste last week got me thinking more about sandwiches.  I also decided that maybe Vegenaise (only ingredients: Canola Oil, Filtered Water, Apple Cider Vinegar, Brown Rice Syrup, Soy Protein, Sea Salt, Lemon Juice, and Mustard Flour) isn't really as creepy as I'd thought.  John and Celeste are devotees of Vegenaise.

So, Exhibit A: Really good sandwich on sprouted rye bread with vegenaise, avocado, sprouts, raw mustard greens, and eggplant spread.  I forgot to take a photo.

Exhibit B?  I thought I'd play up the spaghetti-o's factor by using it as a sauce rather than as a spread.  This was really good, as well as pretty easy and a balanced meal.  Did you know that whole wheat pasta has more protein and more fiber than brown rice?
  

Garlicky Eggplant Pasta with Tofu and Kale

Ingredients

2-3 servings whole wheat rotelle pasta (or similar)

1 bunch kale, destemmed and chopped

canola oil

4-5 cloves garlic, pressed

1 block tofu, pressed and cut into bite-sized pieces

tamari

juice of 1/2 lemon

1/3 jar eggplant spread (pasta sauce would work, too)

Instructions

1. Cook pasta according to directions in lots of water.  When 2-3 minutes remain on the pasta, throw in kale as well.  Finish cooking, then drain and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, heat oil over medium high heat in a large skillet.  Add garlic and cook a few minutes, then add tofu and fry, stirring not too frequently, until sides are golden and slightly crispy.  It's okay if pieces stick to the bottom.
3. Add a small splash of tamari, stir, then reduce heat to low.  Add pasta, kale, and lemon juice to skillet; mix well.  Then stir in eggplant spread a bit at a time, to desired sauciness.  Serve warm.  Serves about 3.

A New Year

I just got back from 10 days in Minneapolis and Chicago.  It was unusually snowy, it was unseasonably warm, it was wonderful.

Minnesota on 12/27

Logan Square, Chicago, after a freak warm spell/rainstorm on 12/31

One of the highlights of my trip (besides a ridiculously good NYE dinner at Ras Dashen Ethiopian restaurant) was that my friends Celeste and John, who I was staying with in Chicago, suggested that we host a New Years Day brunch at their place.  I am very doubtful that there is a better way to spend the first day of the best year yet than eating good food with dear friends.

Our brunch had a vaguely southern theme: biscuits, gravy, sausage, fried collards, potatoes, muffins.  It was ridiculously heavy on the carbs, but it seemed to go over well nonetheless.


We adapted the spelt biscuits from a recipe in Veganomicon for a cassoulet with biscuits.. unlike in the recipe, we just dropped them on a greased baking sheet and baked them at 425 for about 10-12 minutes.  They were very tender--apparently that's a characteristic of spelt flour, that it stays very wet and soft; I had to add quite a bit of extra flour to get a workable dough .

But these were great with Celeste's recipe for Mushroom Celery Gravy, originally from Vegan Yum Yum.  I have to say, I'm still partial to this mushroom gravy, which is a bit less starchy, but the celery was a nice addition, and the cooking method for this recipe made it easier to avoid getting clumpy gravy than in the earlier recipe.

Celeste's muffins (sadly, I have no photo) were a variation on the spelt blueberry muffins from the Babycakes cookbook (reason #1094760 that all these Chicago folks should come visit me in LA, btw).  She used cranberries and walnuts, and some wholemeal spelt flour, and sprinkled maple sugar over the top.  They were fantastic.

We also made roasted fingerling potatoes (with olive oil, rosemary, gomasio, garlic, and pepper) and fried collards (with garlic, onion, tamari, lemon, and sesame oil).

And, we made the Oats and Rice Sausage that I've blogged about before.

Here's my plate.  :)

Oh, and here's one of John's unbelievably complicated bloody marys.  Due to the worcestershire sauce, they weren't vegan, and I don't much like bloody marys (or drinking in the morning) anyway.  But word on the street was, these were pretty bomb, as far as bloody marys go.  It is a constant source of puzzlement to me why the only socially acceptable types of morning drank are the bloody mary and the mimosa (please, hold the tomato juice and the sugar and just give me a beer...).   But no matter.

Oh.  And speaking of hair of the dog, our brunch was graced by the most adorable three-legged dog in the universe!

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The last time I visited Chicago was two years ago, exactly six months after I'd moved away.  That was a rough visit, in part because it was impossible to ignore how quickly things had changed in Chicago without me, how much starting grad school had changed me, and also how impoverished some of my relationships had been even when I was living in Chicago.  This time, two more years later, I was struck instead by how many things are--and will be--the same: the weather, the lived experience of life in Chicago, and the friendships that really matter.  I am so thankful for these people and those places.

Sunrise over downtown, seen from the L station, en route to the airport