I can’t lie. We found it a little harder to psych up for a third weekend of “all meals at home, make something you’ve never made before.” Weekend one was awesome, as was weekend two. Though are creative juices were waning, we did somehow manage to have all of our meals at home this weekend, making dishes we had never made before.
Saturday morning we were on our own. Dave was working out and I had appointments (a massage and facial, I know, poor me…) So I just made a quick tofu scramble with collards, onion and tomato with a toasted pita. Didn’t even think to take a photo.
Before leaving for my appointments I tossed a cup of dried chickpeas in the rice cooker and roasted a delicata squash. Both came out perfectly.
The chickpeas were for dinner Saturday night. The squash? I had no clue.
When I got home from bliss (err, I mean the spa) I decided to make a quick and easy soup with the roasted squash.
JL’s Easy Delicata Squash Soup
Serves 2
INGREDIENTS
- 1 small delicata squash
- 1 T coconut oil
- S+P
- Olive oil
- 1/2 small onion
- 2 c vegetable stock
- 1 c water
- Pinch of sage
METHOD
- Heat the oven to 350. Cut off both ends of the delicata squash and cut the squash in half, lengthwise. Drizzle the coconut oil over both halves and salt and pepper to taste. Place flesh side down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 30 minutes.
- In a saucepan, saute onion, sage and salt and pepper to taste in olive oil for about five minutes. Add vegetable stock and water and heat on medium-high. Scoop the squash out of the skin, in pieces and add to the saucepan. Bring to a boil, ,reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat and blend with an immersion blender.
Very pleased! Dave said it reminded him of French Onion soup and his wheels are turning as he thinks about our Christmas dinner menu. The coconut flavor was subtle and very nice.
I also took on dinner Saturday night. Reading so many great Vegan MoFo blog posts makes menu planning pretty easy, actually. I recently discovered The Global Vegan and made her Chickpea Curry in the Slow Cooker and brown rice (in the rice cooker!) for dinner.
Delicious! I did add three pinches of curry halfway through the cooking process when I realized the recipe didn’t call for curry. The flavor combination was perfect.
Sunday morning we were on our own again. I was craving a green smoothie for breakfast: kale, rice milk, frozen fruit (banana, strawberries and pineapple), golden flax seed, date syrup and vanilla protein powder. Perfect (nice and light before going out for a short, easy run.)
We tag-teamed lunch Sunday. Very simple “pizza” with a twist. I’m now reading Just The Food’s blog and had to try this vegan Pepperoni Topping for Pizza.
- Heat the oven to 450.
- Drizzle olive oil on both sides of a brown rice tortilla.
- Spread tomato sauce over the tortilla.
- Sprinkle Daiya mozzarella cheese, diced garlic, onion slices and Pepperoni Topping for Pizza over the tortilla.
- Add fresh basil leaves, maitake mushroom slices and a bit more Daiya mozzarella cheese.
- Bake for 10 minutes.
This was absolutely delicious! My taste buds were dancing! My omni husband made his pizza on a Boboli whole wheat crust and used real mozzarella cheese but everything else was the same. He said it tasted just like pepperoni. He liked it because it had the texture of sausage but the kick of pepperoni.
Dave was in charge of Sunday dinner.
db’s Grandma’s Szekely Goulash
Serves 2-3
In Dave’s own words…
So, this is an adaptation of my Hungarian grandmother’s Szekely goulash. I say adaptation because, like all of her really good recipes, this one was never written down. It’s pretty much what I remember from watching her. There are lots of recipes for “Hungarian Goulash” on the web – and there are plenty of Szekely goulash recipes as well. But those recipes don’t really look like, or taste like, my grandmother’s. Of course, she didn’t make vegan goulash (goulash was peasant food and, well, you can guess the rest……)
INGREDIENTS
- 1 container (8-10oz) of Seitan (cut into bite size, or slightly larger, pieces)
- 1 – 1 1/2 cups of veggie stock
- 1/2 a large onion, diced (large dice)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- One container (1-1/2 pints or so – about 25 oz) of sauerkraut. Squeezed, and drained (but don’t squeeze too much. Leave a little juice in there)
- Tofu sour cream – about 2 heaping tablespoons
- Salt
- Pepper
- Paprika
METHOD
- In a large pan (soup pan – a skillet won’t work here!) heat some olive oil on medium heat. Toss in your seitan and season with a little salt and pepper. Saute a bit, and add a little paprika.
- Toss in your onion and garlic. Stir and let onions cooks for about 3-4 minutes.
- Add the sauerkraut. Add a little more paprika (just another dash or two) and combine. Once it gets hot, add about a cup of the veggie broth. Let simmer on low for a while. Maybe 20-30 minutes. Add more stock if need be. You don’t want it soupy – it should still be “thick” but you don’t want things to burn! In reality, the longer this simmers, the better. You’ll need more stock for that, but it’s still yummy after cooking for only 30 minutes.
- After about 20-30 minutes, turn the heat up just a bit, and add the tofu sour cream. Heat / simmer for another 10 minutes. Add some more paprika (just another few dashes for a little color) and stir to combine. Plate and serve (after pictures, of course).
Truth be told (and this is from the omni of the house) as soon as the tofu sour cream hit the pan, the aroma was just like being in my grandmother’s kitchen (or her favorite Hungarian restaurant). The sour cream and paprika aroma is just ridonkulous.
Leftovers on day two will taste better. By the way, traditionally this is served with boiled potatoes but we had pizza for lunch….just sayin’.
And so ends another fabulous weekend of eating at home and trying out new vegan dishes. I heart Vegan MoFo!
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