Thanksgiving Recap

So here's the complete Thanksgiving menu:

• Turkish Style Stuffed Eggplant with Walnut Sauce

• Chickpea and Green Bean Tagine

• Butternut Squash and Onion Galette (Taylor and Matthew, recipe taken from Smitten Kitchen then veganized)

• Pear-Cranberry Chutney (Taylor and Matthew, recipe from New York Times)

• Roasted Greens with Miso-Tahini Sauce

• Spiced Cider (from Trader Joe's)

• Seasonal Beers

• Sweet Potato Pie (Leigh-Michil, family recipe)

• Apple-Cranberry Pie

• Coffee

• Music: Seasonal colonial hits (seriously)
  

And here's the party (as it turns out, the Thanksgiving mood lighting wasn't so great for photographs):

Starring Vegan Planet

So Robin Robertson's Vegan Planet is definitely my favorite cookbook these days. The sheer volume of excellent recipes that are neither overly fussy nor obvious (like macro cookbooks for "steamed broccoli"), and the huge range in flavors and influences, are truly superb.

Vegan versions of traditional Thanksgiving fare usually tend towards tvp, tofu, and/or lackluster imitations of meat-based dishes. I went for these Middle Eastern dishes because--like in Thanksgiving food--there's a tendency to mix sweet and savory flavors. As an interesting side note, this Thanksgiving ended up being completely soy-free, except for the miso in the sauce for the greens. Now, I adore miso and tempeh, and I'd be lost without EarthBalance for baking, but it is interesting that we ended up with a feast that felt balanced without soy. The reason? Sooo many nuts. Almonds in the chickpea stew, walnuts all over the eggplant dish, tahini all over the place, and almonds in the ill-fated whipped topping. This made for a rather rich as well as balanced meal. Interestingly, this meal also ended up incorporating a lot of nightshade-family vegetables (tomato, peppers, eggplant), which I usually avoid since they are inflammatory and not incredibly nutritious. But it was a special occasion.


I'd made the Chickpea and Green Bean Tagine from Vegan Planet one time before, and I really liked its use of cinnamon, almonds, and lemon zest--a more interesting version of the ubiquitous Middle Eastern chickpea stew. However, I overdid it on the tomatoes this time, and I think the dish suffered because of it. The stew already calls for a considerable amount of dried fruit, and the overabundance of canned tomatoes made it a bit too syrupy and tomatoey.

The Turkish-Style Stuffed Eggplant with Walnut Sauce, on the other hand, was incredible. This walnut sauce, which contains onion, turmeric, ground walnuts, stock, tomato paste, brown sugar, pomegranate juice, lemon juice, and salt and pepper, was like nothing I'd ever tasted. Tangy (due to the juices), yet meaty (due to the walnuts especially). I swore it tasted like a really classy sloppy joe, but was outvoted by my guests--and after all, I probably haven't had a sloppy joe in six years. The eggplants are stuffed with a mixture of onion, eggplant, bell peppers, rice, more walnuts, and fresh mint and parsley. I think the amount of fresh herbs could easily be doubled.

One thing that was nice about the eggplant dish and the roasted green dish was that I was able to prepare them ahead of time, place them in baking dishes, and then pop them both in the oven for about 15 minutes right before eating. I did the pie first thing in the morning, so the only other dish to worry about was the tagine.

Chickpea and Green Bean Tagine
(from Vegan Planet)

Ingredients
1 1/2 c mixed dried fruit
1 TB olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/8 tsp allspice
*at least* 8 oz green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-in pieces
*less than* 14.5 oz diced tomatoes, undrained
1 1/2 c stock
1 tsp sugar
salt and pepper
1 1/2 c cooked or canned chickpeas
1/4 c slivered blanched almonds
2 TB minced fresh parsley
*at least* 1 tsp grated lemon zest

Instructions

1. Soak dried fruit in boiling water for 20 min. Drain and chop.
2. In large pot, saute onions in olive oil (5 min). Add garlic and spices. Add green beans, tomatoes and juice, stock, sugar, and salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat to low and simmer about 20 min.
3. Add fruit and chickpeas. Cook 5-10 min. Just before serving, stir in almonds, parsley, and lemon zest, and season to taste.

*


Turkish-Style Stuffed Eggplant with Walnut Sauce
(from Vegan Planet)

Ingredients
2 eggplants, halved lengthwise
3 TB olive oil, divided
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 c ground walnuts, divided
1 c stock
salt and pepper
2 TB tomato paste
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 pomegranate juice
2 TB fresh lemon juice
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 c cooked basmati rice
2-4 TB minced fresh mint leaves
2-4 TB minced fresh parsley

Instructions

1. Bake eggplant face down on an oiled baking sheet at 400* for about 15 min.
2. When eggplants are cool enough, scoop out insides, leaving 1/4-in shells intact. Coarsely chop the eggplant flesh and reserve.
Sauce:
3. Heat 1 TB olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add half of the onion, cook until softened. Add turmeric, half of the nuts, stock, and salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce to low heat and simmer about 15 minutes until sauce begins to thicken.
4. In a separate bowl, combine tomato paste, sugar, and juices, and blend well. Add to sauce and simmer on very low heat.
Filling:
5. Heat remaining olive oil in a large skillet. Saute remaining onion and bell pepper and cook until softened. Add eggplant and salt and pepper to taste and continue cooking about 5 minutes. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and combine with rice, remaining nuts, and herbs.
6. Place eggplant shells in an oiled baking dish and stuff the shells with the mixture. Bake about 15-20 minutes. Top with walnut sauce.

Note: Either my guests were conservative in their sauce consumption, or this recipe made far too much sauce for the eggplants. Not that this is a problem. I'm going to be putting this delicious sauce on everything for the next two weeks.

Roasted Greens with Miso-Tahini Sauce

Why roast greens? Roasting helps concentrate flavors and creates good textures. I had a somewhat random assortment of greens, however, and I knew that roasting all of them equally would result in some things underdone and other things overdone. So what would have been a simple recipe became a little tricky as I pre-steamed vegetables that would require more cooking. The cheesy or nutty flavor of the miso-tahini sauce pairs nicely with the slight bitterness of the greens.

Roasted Greens with Miso-Tahini Sauce

Possible Ingredients
Radish greens
Kale
Broccoli rabe
Brussels sprouts
*
Minced garlic
Olive oil
Sea salt
Black pepper
*
Toasted sesame seeds (optional--I forgot)

Instructions

Wash and trim vegetables. Steam vegetables to the point that they only require 10-15 minutes of roasting. This meant that for me I had to steam the broccoli rabe and the brussels sprouts for 5 minutes, remove the broccoli rabe and continue steaming the brussels sprouts for another 5 min (and it should have been 10). When all the vegetables have acheived about the same level of ready-to-be-roastedness, toss with a liberal amount of garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread out in a baking sheet or pan, and cover with foil. Bake at 400* for 10-15 minutes, removing the foil towards the end. Vegetables should be tender, and greens should be just beginning to get crispy. Transfer to a serving bowl, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and serve with miso-tahini sauce (recipe below).

Miso-Tahini Sauce

I struggle to imagine a food pairing more simply perfect than miso and tahini. It's creamy, it's nutty, it's salty, and it's cheesy. Misos vary enormously in flavor (darker ones, fermented longer, are saltier and have richer, wine-ier flavors). I ended up using equal parts of my favorite yellow miso and a low-sodium red miso, which was quite middle-of-the-road (and delicious).  Edit 9/20/10: We might also consider the sibling tahini-tamari sauce as well.

Sometimes I put mustard or garlic in this kind of a sauce, too.

Miso-Tahini Sauce

Ingredients
3 parts miso (experiment with different kinds)
3 parts tahini
2 parts warm water
1 part olive oil (optional)

Instructions: Blend well and serve at room temperature.

Apple Cranberry Pie with Tahini Crust

Apple Cranberry Pie with Tahini Crust and Almond Butter Cream

Thanksgiving was a blast. We broke out one of the extra leaves of my dining table and had seven people total! Guests brought wine and beer, a delectable sweet potato and onion galette, a pear-cranberry chutney, and a yummy sweet potato pie. I made a few other things. I'm going to start with the most important: pie. This recipe is adapted from a berry pie recipe from Arhia's family. The filling is fruit, plus a little bit of other stuff (she used arrowroot and flour) to firm it up, and sugar as needed. I turned this into a very tart apple pie which incorporated lemon, ginger, and cranberries (and the accordingly necessary sugar), as well as some apple pie type spices. The crust is all Arhia's: using tahini instead of butter, lard, or oil gives the crust an amazing nutty taste.


I decided at the last minute to make Robin Robertson's Almond Butter Cream. This would have paired nicely with the pie, but I put it in a container that had recently housed onions, and the results were slightly tragic. If anyone has any ideas about what to do with a cup of oniony almond date goop, let me know. I'm also wondering how I could have made the top of the pie look more attractive. I know I should have used a bit more fruit (I've already adjusted the recipe); I'm wondering if this is the main reason that the top looked a little anemic and wilted, or if I should have glazed the apples on top or something.

Apple Cranberry Pie with Tahini Crust
(adapted from a recipe by Arhia)

Tahini Crust
Ingredients (9-in pie)
3/4 c white flour
3/4 c wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 c tahini
water

Instructions

Mix together dry ingredients. Cut in tahini (I used a knife and then switched to a fork as it got more evenly mixed in--see image to the right). Mix in warm water, a small amount at a time, until a dry dough forms.

Place 1 large sheet of waxed paper on a flat surface, using a few drops of water underneath to hold it in place. Transfer dough to top of this waxed paper and cover with another sheet. Roll out the dough to desired thickness. Remove top sheet of waxed paper and transfer crust to oiled pie pan.

Remaining crust can be baked off in a frying pan and topped with jam for a delicious snack (see image to the left)!

Apple Cranberry Pie
Ingredients
about 6 apples, cored and sliced (I used Fuji)
1 1/2 c fresh or frozen (unsweetened) cranberries
1-2 TB fresh ginger, grated
2 TB fresh lemon juice
1/2 c turbinado sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
3 TB cornstarch
3 TB flour

Instructions

Fruit should more than fill the pie pan (see image to the right). If desired, retain some of the fruit for a decorative topping. In a saucepan, cook fruit and ginger with some water until it begins to soften. Add remaining ingredients and cook for a few minutes, until well mixed. Transfer to pie crust. Top with reserved fruit and brown sugar, if desired (see image to the left).

Bake pie at 425* for ten minutes, then at 350* for an additional 40-50 minutes, until filling is bubbling and crust begins to brown. Allow to stand and cool before serving.

Update, January 2010: I made this pie back home over the holidays and it turned out prettier. We used more fruit, and my mom made a prettier crust than I had:

Almond Butter Cream
(from Vegan Planet)

Ingredients
1 c boiling water
1 c raw almonds
1/2 c boiling water
4 dates, pitted

Instructions

Place almonds in a larger bowl and dates in a smaller bowl. Pour boiling water over each. After 1 minute, drain almonds and pat dry. Remove skins. When dates are soft and have cooled, blend blanched (skinless) almonds, dates, and date water in a blender, adding water as necessary. Cover and chill before serving.

Chocolate-Coconut Muffins (not cupcakes!)

(I promise that the next post will not be about muffins)

Like most people, I have had many "food epiphanies" abroad. I remember being shocked that people in Dakar made and kept yogurt outdoors in a plastic bowl with a piece of plywood over it, and that even in England people didn’t refrigerate open jars of jam or eggs (my English flatmates mused, “Well, maybe if the eggs were *really* not fresh the supermarket *might* need to refrigerate them…”).

I also learned a lot about cultural attitudes towards food by working in bakery-cafes in London and the US, one after the other. It blew my mind when a customer came into Gail's and said something like, "Oh, and let's have a cake...how about that muffin?" I thought, "How can muffins be cake?!" But this brings up an important issue. What is the relationship between the muffin and the cupcake these days, when a "muffin" can have more calories/fat/sugar than a piece of cake? Is frosting the only distinguishing factor?

I'd like to believe that there's still a difference, or that at least there's a spectrum between ur-muffin on one end and ur-cupcake on the other. Still, today's adaptation of Arhia's muffin recipe made me question this whole system. Chocolate was the culprit. I wanted to make a muffin that was deliciously chocolatey without being a chocolate cupcake. In the end, it felt like something was lacking. Not that it needed more oil; the applesauce creates a wonderful moist texture. More salt? More sugar? Is there a point at which chocolate doesn't taste like chocolate unless it is accompanied by enough sugar?

Chocolate-Coconut Muffins

Ingredients
1 1/2 c white flour
1 c wheat flour
1/2 c unsweetened coconut
1/2 c unsweetened cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
3/4 c brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
*
1/3 c corn oil
1 c applesauce
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
soymilk and/or water to desired consistency

Instructions

Oil muffin tin. Preheat oven to 375*. Mix dry. Add wet. Mix well. Fill muffin tins almost to the top. Bake 25 min. Makes about 14 muffins.

Molasses-Walnut-Cornmeal Muffins

"One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them."
-Algernon, The Importance of Being Earnest

This muffin business is getting a bit out of hand, perhaps. But really...what a fun way to make bread. And, more generally, what a delightful way to avoid doing work.

I love baking recipes which require sour milk or buttermilk. Adding vinegar to soymilk makes the texture creamier and gives it a nice tangy flavor. This muffin tastes quite strongly of molasses without being particularly sweet. The walnuts add a good contrast to the molasses, and in terms of texture, the cornmeal balances out the white flour (I didn't substitute wheat flour because I was worried about this muffin sticking together with cornmeal and without egg replacer).

Molasses-Walnut-Cornmeal Muffins

(adapted from Vegan Planet)

Ingredients
1 1/4 c soymilk
1 1/2 TB apple cider vinegar
2 c white flour
1 c cornmeal
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 c molasses
1 TB canola oil
1/2 c chopped walnuts

Instructions

1) Preheat oven to 350*. Oil muffin tin.
2) In a small bowl or pyrex, combine soymilk and vinegar and allow to curdle.
3) In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients. Then add soymilk mixture, molasses, and oil, and mix thoroughly. Stir in walnuts. Spoon into muffin tins and bake at 350* for 20-25 min. Makes 12 muffins.

More muffins

One thing that gets my goat is the tendency of many non-vegetarians to think of "vegan" (or vegetarian) as a category of weird, special food, when in fact they eat vegan things every day (like green beans). "You must need to shop at Whole Foods, huh?" "I have a special, vegan recipe for you." "Now that you mention that this cake is vegan, it does taste a little bit like tofu [when cake in question contains no soy products whatsoever]." Etc.

This muffin recipe from my friend Arhia is a great example of a "vegan" baked good that requires no strange leaveners or egg substitutes. It does call for soymilk, but you could use water, too.

I was a little wary of adding chocolate to a muffin that already had lots of flavor--apples, vanilla, cinnamon, and especially cardamom--might not the spices and the chocolate distract from one another? But the chocolate and cardamom balanced each other well. Do note, however: the cardamom flavor is quite pronounced. If you want a more "normal-" (or boring-) tasting muffin, you might omit it. The applesauce makes this muffin moist without using much oil, and the whole wheat flour gives it needed texture. Yum!

I changed the name of Arhia's recipe because cardamom and chocolate seem to be the main players in this muffin. I suggest using corn oil because of its buttery taste, but any vegetable oil would work fine. The original recipe called for sprinkling flax seeds over the tops before baking, and I simply didn't see this part as I was following the recipe. Finally, I didn't need the full 25 minutes' baking time that the recipe called for; they were done in less than 20 minutes.

Cardamom Chocolate Chip Muffins
(from Arhia Kohlmoos)

Ingredients
1 1/2 c white flour
1 c wheat flour
1 3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 c brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
*
1/3 c corn oil
1 c applesauce
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
soymilk (about 1/2 to 1 c)
*
1 c chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375*. Oil a muffin tin.
2. Combine dry ingredients and mix well. Add wet ingredients. Add enough soymilk to make a muffin batter that is wet but not runny. Stir in chocolate chips.
3. Fill muffin tins almost to the top. Bake for 15-25 minutes. Makes 1 dozen muffins.