Vegan Cream of Broccoli Soup

Wait, what?

Did I just say "vegan cream" like it was no big deal?  Ew!  EEEWWWWWWW!!

I think it's weird when people decide to go vegan, and then all they eat is super-processed meat and dairy substitutes.  That stuff is the devil!  Tapioca cheese?  Non-dairy creamer, which is basically just corn syrup?  Tofurky?  I just threw up in my mouth a little.  Don't even get me started on vegan bacon.  *shudder*

I mean, why mess with these abominable food substitutes when there are perfectly delicious all-natural unadulterated vegan things you could eat?

This lovely soup has nothing weird or processed in it, and also nothing that came from an animal.  I am totally on board.  Did you know about the magical creamy properties of raw cashews?  It is nothing short of a revelation.  Now, I'm not going to lie to you and say, "Oh my gosh!  It tastes exactly like cream!"  Because it obviously does not taste anything like cream.  But if you eat this soup, which tastes delicious in its own wonderfully nutty way, you'll feel better, and so will your skinny jeans.  Plus, I assume that in eight short days, you will be stuffing your face with many, many delicious things that contain real cream and real butter, so why don't we do ourselves a favor and make up for it now?

P.S. Just for the sake of full disclosure, that toast in the photo has real, non-vegan, from-a-cow cheddar cheese on it.  I am not a vegan.  Clearly.  I just think real plant-based food is fun.

Vegan Cream of Broccoli Soup

adapted from Joy the Baker

Trivia: the thing that makes Worcestershire sauce un-vegan is anchovies.

1 1/2 cups raw cashews
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 heads broccoli, washed and separated into florets
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground mustard seeds
black pepper to taste
juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon vegan Worcestershire sauce
4 cups water

Place raw cashews in a bowl with enough water to fully cover, and soak for one hour.  Drain.

Steam broccoli until tender and bright green.  Drain and set aside.

Place the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add onions and saute until translucent, about 5-6 minutes.  Add garlic and cook one minute more.  Add seasonings, and continue cooking for a few seconds.  Toss in the cooked broccoli, mix it all up, remove from the heat and set aside.

Place half of cashews, half of broccoli mixture, and 2 cups water into a blender, and blend until smooth.  Pour into a soup pot over low heat, and repeat with remaining ingredients.  Add lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce, and more water if desired.  Serve warm.

Yield: 4-6 servings.

Carrot-Cherry Breakfast Cookies

Good morning!  Happy Monday!  Oh, I know you're not happy it's Monday.  I'm not terribly happy about it either.  The better the weekend, the sadder it is when it ends.  So I brought you a present to make you feel better.  Cookies for breakfast, jam-packed with healthy vegan stuff!  We are starting this week off on the right foot!

What kind of weekend did you have?  Fun?  Responsible and productive?  Both?  I had the apartment to myself, and I had a whole mental list of things that I wanted to get accomplished, including:

• finally switch my closet from summer to winter
• purge said closet of things that either don't fit me or I hate and never wear
• clean all the things!
• take a yoga class
• buy some new winter clothes
• get the plants in from the porch so that they don't die in the frost

Here's what I actually did:

• drank wine while knitting and watching Cars 2
• danced around the house to Adele and Maroon 5 (I've got the moves like Jagger.  Yes I do.)
• cooked for 8 hours straight
• met friends for drinks at a new-to-me bar in my neighborhood
• brought treats with me everywhere I went

Sometimes you just have to scrap your sensible list and do what feels right.  I mean, obviously you'll get back to the list sometime.  And these cookies are great for that.  They are perfect try, try again cookies.  Yummy, soft, spicy, and so healthy.  Hope you love them as much as I do! 

Carrot-Cherry Breakfast Cookies
adapted from Joy the Baker

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup rye flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1/4 cup unsweetened flaked coconut
3 tablespoons millet, rinsed well
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 heaping cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup dried cherries, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

Position racks in the upper half of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with parchment.

Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.  Whisk together oil and maple syrup, carrots, cherries and ginger, and add to the dry ingredients, folding to combine.  Let mixture rest for 5 minutes. 

Spoon mixture by heaping tablespoonful onto pans and bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned.  Allow to cool on pans for about 5 minutes, and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. 

30 Day Photo Challenge: Gratitude

It's really starting to cool down in earnest in Chicago.  Yesterday, we had our first snow flurry, and this morning I had a peppermint mocha at Starbucks.  They're starting to put up Christmas lights all over the city, and department stores are in full holiday swing.  Did you hear that lots of stores are starting their Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving Day this year?  I think that's sad. But I don't know who's more to blame: retailers or consumers?  If there are people who are willing to go shopping all through the night, why stop them?  It does seem like a shame to make employees work on a holiday, but let's face it; that's what you sign up for when you work in retail or food service or entertainment.  You work when other people play.  It's life.

As the holiday shopping frenzy starts to heat up (ONLY 44 SHOPPING DAYS LEFT, PEOPLE!), I wanted to take the opportunity to focus on something else.  We all have the Thanksgiving tradition of going around the table naming something we're thankful for, right?  Well, Dani of Positively Present has taken it one step further, using the month of November as a reflection on gratitude, through the medium of a 30-day photo challenge.

 
Visit her page for all the details.  I'll be posting my pictures daily on Flickr and Twitter, or if you don't care and just want to know how it went when it's all over, check back here in about 30 days, and I'll post a little collage.  Let me know in the comments if you're participating too!

Update 2/17/2012: Finally done! My 30 photos are over here.

Day 1, Favorite Food: for today, it was a beef chili quinoa bowl from Protein Bar. Delish!

Anything-Goes Muffin Mix

Even though both my parents worked when I was growing up, we never lacked for delicious, healthy homemade food.  My mom was constantly on the look-out for ways to save money and time on meals.  She made frequent use of the Crock-Pot, the auto-timer on the oven, and in some cases, mixes.

Homemade mixes!  What an inspired idea.  Mix together all the dry ingredients in a basic muffin recipe, stick it in a container, write the recipe on the lid (GENIUS!), and voila!  Muffins at any time.  This is a great thing to have around as the holidays are approaching, when you have family and guests around more often!  What an effortless way to whip up breakfast for people on the day after Thanksgiving (that is, unless everyone's eating pie for breakfast)!

Mix in whatever you like to make them more special!  Here are a few suggestions:

• 1 teaspoon orange zest, 1 cup fresh cranberries, and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 teaspoon almond extract, 3/4 cup dried cherries, and 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest, and 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1 cup frozen fruit of your choice, straight from the freezer
• 1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut and 1/2 cup diced pineapple
• 1 cup diced apple, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3/4 cup grated carrots, 1/2 cup raisins, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, 1 tablespoon honey

What would YOU mix in?

Anything-Goes Muffin Mix

5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cold butter, chopped into pieces

Place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until combined.  Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.  Yield: about 4 dozen muffins

To make muffins:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Beat together 1 egg and 1 cup milk.  Add to 2 1/2 cups muffin mix and stir until barely combined (too much stirring = hockey pucks).  Fold in any mix-ins you like.  Spoon into paper-lined or greased muffin tin.  Bake 15-20 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.  Each batch yields 1 dozen muffins.

Brussels Sprout Salad

This past Sunday, my mom gave a concert in Suttons Bay.  We went up to attend, and my mom graciously invited me to sing with her on a couple of pieces.  What an absolute joy to be able to sing together.  You want to talk about voices blending?  Try being related!  It's like nothing else.  The program was all sacred, and there was a free-will offering collected to raise money for homeless teens living in the area, in order to provide them with turkeys for their Thanksgiving celebration.  The goal had been to raise $300, which would have covered that cost.  We ended up raising $575.  I was speechless.

On Saturday afternoon, we drove up to Brys Estate on Old Mission Peninsula for a wine tasting and food pairing event.  It was a beautiful day - sunny, cool and clear.  The views were unbeatable.

We got home, and I started putting everyone to work on dinner: Dad shelling pistachios ("Three quarters of a cup of shelled pistachios is more than you would think!"), hubby peeling potatoes, sister grating cheese.  It's amazing how fast dinner comes together when you have 5 pairs of hands!  (If you're doing mental math right now, my sister's boyfriend was also there helping.  Calm down.)

I first had this brussels sprout salad at my friend Joey's restaurant, Franks 'n' Dawgs.  I might never have ordered it if he hadn't just given me a taste one time.  I mean, you can't blame me.  Who in their right mind would order a salad of brussels sprouts when the menu boasts things like the "Tur-doggin" (Turkey & date sausage, crispy duck confit, herb garlic aioli, pickled onion relish & pickled carrots), "Krazy Kimchi" (Spicy beef sausage, braised short rib & turnips, kimchi, wild rice & basi), and "Peking Duck" (Duck & sesame sausage, pickled cucumber, hoisin aioli, scallion, crispy peking duck skin & puffed rice)?  Many of the sausages are house-made daily, and they're served on freshly baked, buttered, and toasted New England-style lobster rolls.  Certainly, the salad is NOT the thing to order here.

Or is it?

I am so glad I tried this, because it completely transformed the way that I see this humble vegetable!  Don't get me wrong, I've never been a hater.  My dad started me on steamed sprouts early on, and since then I have fallen in love with their roasted counterparts.  But raw was a new concept to me.  This salad is the perfect antidote to sad, wilty lettuce salads when the weather turns cooler.  Refreshing and satisfying, with a zing of lemon and a crunch of pistachios, this is the perfect salad to have alongside something not-so-light.  Like the fabulous sausages at Franks 'n' Dawgs, or fried chicken and mashed potatoes at home. 

 

Brussels Sprout Salad

1 bag brussels sprouts

3/4 cup pistachios, roughly chopped

1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano

zest and juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup of olive oil

pepper to taste

finely chopped fresh dill, to taste (about 3 tablespoons for me)

Chop the tough ends off of the sprouts, halve them, and slice them thinly.  (This was a revelation to me. It's like a tiny cabbage!)  Place sprouts in a large bowl.  Add remaining ingredients and toss.  Serve with something indulgent.  It's all about balance.

Roasted Buttercup Squash

The last day that they had the outdoor farmer's market near my office this year was a cold, drizzly, dreary day that made you just feel so sorry for the few farmers who had decided to man their stands until the bitter end.  Three days later, the market near my house (yup, I'm lucky enough to have a weekday one about 2 blocks from work, and a weekend one steps from my apartment) opened warm, sunny, and breezy - the kind of fall day you live for, that you can't help but savor.  I've been trying to branch out to different hard squashes (butternut and acorn rut, anyone?), and that day I found a Red Thai squash (the orange one above) and a Buttercup squash (the green).  Oh yeah!  And a magic brussels sprout wand.  Don't you love that they grow like that?  Look at this picture of a whole field of them!  It's like alien vegetables!

They look very similar to acorn squash, don't they?  Taste similar, too - more flavorful, I thought.  Into each little quarter went a bit of butter, maple syrup, a pinch of salt and a whisper of cayenne pepper.  For a second I was reminded of my brief, ill-advised foray into the world of the Master Cleanse and shivered.  Then I popped these babies into the oven, and in about 45 minutes, here's what came out:

Ahhhhh.  Comfort food.  Look at those little pools of love! 

A pan-seared pork chop, some brussels sprouts, and roasted squash.  Virtues: low-carb, more vegetables than non-vegetables, multiple colors.  Vices: butter.  But who's counting?

Roasted Cranberry-Apple Sauce

I love chilly weather.  I love sweaters and fuzzy slippers and, Lord help me, I love my Snuggie.

Photo from Snuggie Sightings.  Bet you didn't know that was a thing!

Apparently, I'm not the only one.

Other things I love about the advent of chilly weather: roasting and baking!  Squash, apples, and cranberries.  Warm spicy drinks.  The Starbucks holiday cup!  Although I do think it's just a bit early for department stores to be busting out the Christmas music and decorations.

Seriously, though - I love roasted food.  And in the summer it feels almost like a sin to fire up the oven for dinner.  When it's cold (and you're quickly realizing that your apartment does not have the insulation quality you might hope for), firing up the oven is comforting and practical and fills your house with happy smells!  Especially if you make this roasted applesauce, which was one of the best experiments I've tried in a while.

This recipe is so simple and delicious - sweet apples, tart cranberries, and a spicy punch of fresh grated ginger. I used a mixture of apples that I had leftover from the Bucktown Apple Pie Contest (which I just realized I never told you about!  Silly me!).  Make sure to select apples that are good for baking or sauce, like Cortland, Jonathan, Honeycrisp, Braeburn, and Northern Spy.  See this article from Midwest Living for a great primer on the relative virtues of different types of apples.  When you mix different types together, you get a more complex flavor in the finished product.

So pretty!

Roasted Cranberry-Apple Sauce

About 10 pounds fresh apples, peeled, cored, and roughly chopped (about 20 large apples)
1 bag fresh cranberries, picked over for soft or rotten-looking ones
juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
1/4 cup natural cane sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.  Spray a large roasting pan (or a couple of smaller pans, if you're like me) with nonstick cooking spray, and spread the apple and cranberry mixture out in an even layer.  Place pan into the oven, and roast for about 30-40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.  When the cranberries have burst, and the apples are completely soft and juicy, remove from the oven and mash with a potato masher.  Taste and add more maple syrup if you like.

Yield: 3 pints