Vegan Southern Feast: Sausage Okra Gumbo, Bacon Cornbread, Maple Bourbon Sweet Potatoes, Perfect Brussels Sprouts

August 14, 2015

Crazy Mother Hubbard: What To Do With The World’s Largest Squash, Part 1 – Kidney Bean & Squash Stew

December 5, 2013

That’s a huge mother…

…shut yo mouth!

Bigger than the pool

For Thanksgiving, my best friend gave me a squash she bought at the farmers market. I know you’re thinking, how nice is that! What a lovely friend! Squash can feed people! You know what else squash can do? KILL PEOPLE. You know what else? DEMOLISH TALL BUILDINGS.
Yeah, so my friend gave me the BIGGEST SQUASH IN THE ENTIRE WORLD (that wasn’t entered into some sick contest of genetically mutated growths at a county faire or anything), the enormous Blue Hubbard Squash. With a slightly blue-tinted skin, this squash weighed about 15 pounds and gave me the shivers. For days (weeks? I lost track of time. no it was just days) I stared at it, half hoping to get inspired as to its uses, and half hoping to somehow break it open with my mind. I sat there with my hands on it, hoping that through osmosis my desires would lead the monster to freak the eff out and shake shake shake senora and then crack open. Pretty much I couldn’t figure out how to open it, ok? My collection of 31 knives was no match for this.
And then. And then. And gentlemen and then. My mom and I did this:

THAT’S RIGHT! We put that crazy mother hubbard in a trash bag and dropped it off the deck. Happy Thanksgiving, here’s a trashbag full of smashed orange goop! (The trashbag part was genius, and necessary, though.) NB that right before Operation Dumbo Drop, my dad was yelling about how it would crack the cement and he’d have to redo the backyard because of it. That’s how scared we all were of this thing. We promised my dad that we wouldn’t drop it, but then we did. It’s what Thanksgiving is all about. Luckily, no property damage occurred, and guess what – it worked PERFECTLY.

Wafting through trash clouds

Look at how nicely the ground carved up my squash! It cracked beautifully into 7-8 easier-to-manage sections, and I got going. It took about an hour to skin and cube all of the squash, and it made a good 10 cups of uncooked cubes. That’s a lot, so we’re going to have 3 different posts about What I Did With The Hubbard Squash. First up: Kidney Bean & Hubbard Squash stew!

KIDNEY BEAN & BLUE HUBBARD SQUASH STEW

Ingredients:

1 large onion, diced
2T olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1t cumin
1t paprika
2t salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 large Serrano pepper, seeded and diced
3C cubed Blue Hubbard Squash
2C (1 can) red kidney beans
2C (1 can) cannellini beans
1C carrots, diced
28 oz. can of diced tomatoes, plus water
1T lemon juice
1/2 T soy sauce

Directions:

If you haven’t done so already, drop your Crazy Mother Hubbard squash off the side of a building. Cube it.
In a large stockpot, saute your onion in olive oil for 5 minutes. Add the garlic.
Add the spices and the Serrano pepper and stir for about 3 minutes (adding drops of oil, water, or broth if things start sticking).
Add the rest of the ingredients. Refill your tomato can with water and pour that in too.
Bring to a boil, cover, and lower to a medium simmer. Cook for about 30 minutes.
Add the lemon and soy sauce and taste for salt and seasonings.
Enjoy!

This isn’t even all of it

I don’t even try to take good soup pictures. Especially when it’s orange. There’s just no saving it.

This stew is very comforting and hearty, perfect for these increasingly cold evenings. Or days; it’s all dark outside, who can tell the difference. Anyway, all the squash pictured is what I had after making this soup, so more Blue Hubbard squash recipes will be coming! And thanks best friend!

Pumpkin Mousse Pie with Gingerbread Cookie Crust: Because Pilgrims

November 27, 2013

Hey so apparently it’s Thanksgiving tomorrow! Did you know, because I kind of forgot. Hence I’m giving you my required Thanksgiving recipes and posts this late in the game. You have been looking at blogs for weeks now, inundated with recipes for stuffing, seitan roasts, pumpkin this and that. Bu if, like me, you are deciding today what to make for tomorrow, then make this! It’s easy and delicious and has pumpkin; what more could you ask for? Also, I’m pretty sure the Pilgrims didn’t eat it, which I think is a main criterion for Thanksgiving food.
Last week’s (ok, it might have been longer than that; I’m verrbizz) cookie pie crust was pretty amazing, so I decided to do the same sort of thing but with pumpkin pie. The proper cookie base for Thanksgiving/pumpkin is, of course, gingerbread, so that’s what we’re making here. If you don’t like gingerbread (because I know some people don’t, bless their hearts), you can easily and deliciously sub this cinnamon cookie crust in for this. If you don’t like pumpkin, I’m very sorry.

PUMPKIN MOUSSE PIE
WITH GINGERBREAD COOKIE CRUST

For the gingerbread cookie crust:
Ingredients:

2/3C sugar
1/3C + 1T brown sugar
1/2C canola oil
1t vanilla
1/3C almond milk
3T molasses
1t cinnamon
1t ginger
1/2t nutmeg
1t baking powder
1/2t baking soda
1/2t salt
2C flour

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°.
In a large mixing bowl, mix your sugars, oil, molasses, milk, and vanilla for a few minutes, until it is thick and caramel-like.
Add the rest of your ingredients and mix well.
Press the mixture into a pie dish, and bake for 15-17 minutes.
Let cool (seriously, let it cool). It will puff up like whoa but we like that! And it’ll fall as it cools.

For the pumpkin mousse:
Ingredients:

1 can (15 oz.) pureed pumpkin
16 oz. silken tofu (I used one container of the water-packed variety)
1t cinnamon
1t vanilla extract
1T coconut oil
1/2C sugar
1/4C maple syrup, agave, or mixture of the two

Directions:

Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Taste for sweetener. (It makes more than will probably fit in your crust, so save the rest as a separate mousse. Or an ice cream base!)

Assembly:

Pour the pumpkin mixture into the cooled pie crust. It’ll be thin, so let it set in the fridge for several hours or until, well, until tomorrow!

Precooked coooookie crust (you know what I’m saying that like, right? Like a certain cereal).

It’s super puffy at first, like level with the sides…

…but then it falls a bit

Using my London tube map dishcloth in honor of their lack of Thanksgiving over there.

It’s starting to remind me of an egg yolk. Not my intention.

It’s pretty pretty, yes? (I meant the first pretty like ‘somewhat’, not like an idiot.)

Side boob

I can’t share a picture of a piece of the pie, because I can’t touch it until tomorrow. Oh well. The mixture was delicious! Because of the simple components of the mousse, authentic pumpkin flavor comes through, not just the fall spices of ‘pumpkin-flavored’ stuff. If you like that sort of thing, this is for you! I don’t think you can go wrong with this combination of pumpkin and gingerbread. Happy Thanksgiving! Eat lots of vegan food, and good luck with anti-vegan comments from relatives. Or really any comments.