Curried Butternut Squash Soup from La Dolce Vegan

VeganMoFo has ended and World Vegan Day is now here!  It was 67 years ago that the Vegan Society coined the term “vegan” and it was almost 4 years ago that I made the choice to permanently join the vegan community.  It’s been eye opening, gratifying and all sorts of fun. 

November is arguably my favorite month of the year.  Things seem to slow down, more time is spent with loved ones and food takes center stage.  This November I will enjoy Thanksgiving with my family, host my annual Friendsgiving dinner for some of my best gal pals, celebrate 6 years with my love and take a much needed mini vacation to Vegas.  Giddy up!

Let’s kick this most awesome month off with a delicious fall soup, shall we?  Curried Butternut Squash Soup to be precise.  The recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbooks, La Dolce Vegan.  This was a cookbook I borrowed from the library and found that I was marking so many recipes to try that I just had to own it.  I’ve made several of the soups and haven’t found a loser yet. 

I received a small butternut squash in my latest CSA box so I opted to turn it into a soup from this go-to cookbook.  Now that MoFo has ended, I’m not going to title posts with which I use mainly CSA ingredients “Cooking through my CSA”.  It seems a bit pointless since just about every meal I have is based around something from my CSA.  It’s a big box and it’s only lil ol me eating it.  I’ll still try to mention if I’m using something from the CSA and continue tagging the posts as “CSA” for those interested in CSA cooking. 

This was my first time cooking with butternut squash.  Expecting the squash to be difficult to work with (peeling and seed scooping, ehh) I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was.  All it takes is a peeler, a sharp knife and a spoon to get your squash prepped and cubed for the recipe.  

 The squash had the pleasant, familiar smell of pumpkin when I cut into it.

The soup before pureeing.  Ingredients include butternut squash (surprise!), potatoes, onions, broth, curry and garlic.  I also included some green onions I had on hand.  The recipe only directed to puree about half of the soup mixture but I chose to puree this pot completely smooth.  The one time I had butternut squash soup in a restaurant they served it this way so I wanted to mimic that.   

This soup was silky smooth, comforting and delicious.  A great autumn dish to fuel up on during the best month of the year. 

Latest CSA Loot and a Sandwich (VeganMoFo)

This batch of goods from my CSA was populated by lettuce!  I got two heads of romaine and one head of butter lettuce so I need to get lettuce chomping!  The dragon beans are definitely the stand-out of the loot.  Suzie’s Farm seems to be very proud of these guys.  They posted a recipe for an updated version of green bean casserole using dragon beans that I am looking forward to trying with these beauties (and hopefully posting about). 

Despite getting this CSA box on Sunday, I have yet to do much cooking with the produce.  I hope to dive in later this week.  For now I will leave you with a tofu sandwich I made, using the CSA lettuce and tomatoes as condiments.  This is my favorite kind of at-home sandwich.  The tofu is pressed and then marinated overnight in a mixture of BBQ sauce, soy sauce, olive oil, chili paste and liquid smoke.  I then baked it at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes, flipping it half way through the cooking time.  I loaded my baked tofu onto toasted wheat bread that I smothered with some of my homemade tartare sauce then I added a slice of vegan cheese, radish sprouts and the CSA stuff.  It really hit the spot.    

Happy Eating!

Cooking through my CSA: Eggplant (VeganMoFo)

 Eggplant Mushroom Wraps

Vegetables as a work of art?  I think so.

I was mesmerized by the bamboo-esque pattern of these Thai Eggplants.  Without a clear idea of how to use these beautiful eggplants, I used the fail safe method of marinating and roasting with the intention of putting them in a wrap.  I do this often with different combinations of ingredients for wraps and they make wonderful lunches.  It’s a great way to use up produce and protein you have left over from other cooking projects.  For this version I threw in some cremini mushrooms I’d been meaning to use, a half block of extra firm tofu I had leftover from another recipe and about a cup of chickpeas left over from my Big Salad earlier this week. 

I combined sliced eggplant and mushrooms with pressed, cubed tofu with one of my go-to marinades, let them hang for the 10-15 minutes it took for the oven to get up to 375 degrees and then roasted them on a foil lined baking sheet for about 20 minutes, flipping at the 10 minute mark. 

Before baking

This marinade consisted of soy sauce, liquid smoke, (vegan) Worcestershire, Asian chili paste and balsamic vinegar.  I failed to measure how much of each but I’d say I did about equal parts of everything except the soy sauce, which I used much more of.  At the halfway point of baking I took the tray out and flipped everything to make sure it all cooked evenly.  At this point I also added a healthy sprinkle of nutritional yeast.

After baking, sprinkled with nutritional yeast

Once the veg and tofu were roasted, I mixed in the cup of chickpeas I had.  A dose of the mixture went onto a wheat wrap with romaine lettuce (CSA), chopped tomato (CSA) and some lemon tahini dressing.  

My wrap, before wrapping

These made for a delectable and filling lunch

Wraps like this are great because they are so versatile.  You can do this with any combination of veggies, protein and dressing you have on hand.  I often do this with roasted peppers and onions, a schmear of hummus, spinach and chopped kalamata olives.  Roasted squash and onion could combine with seitan and a cheezy sauce in a wrap as well.  You’re only limited by your imagination!

Cooking through my CSA: Tomatoes & Hot Peppers (VeganMoFo)

Fresh, organic produce galore!

I have been lucky enough to get a batch of ripe, juicy tomatoes in every single one of my CSA boxes since I began participating a couple months ago.  In my box this go-around was a letter from Suzie’s Farm letting its shareholders know that we should be prepared for fall produce and relish this last batch of tomatoes before us. 

With this in mind and with a basket of assorted hot peppers in my box, I just had to make a spicy fresh tomato salsa.

Of course, you can enjoy homemade salsa year-round by using canned diced tomatoes and pickled jalapenos when you don’t have fresh tomatoes and peppers on hand.  I do this often and it’s quite tasty.  There’s just something so special to me about a summer (it still feels like summer here in SoCal) salsa that utilizes fresh in-season produce.  I used quite a few peppers in this because 1) I had an assortment with varying heat levels and 2) I like my salsa spicy!  Adjust the amount of peppers you use depending on what you have on hand and your personal tastes.  

 

Ingredients

2 lbs fresh tomatoes, diced OR 2 cans diced tomatoes
1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped

5-7 hot peppers or the equivalent in canned jalapenos, finely chopped
½ red onion, finely diced
Juice of 2 limes
1 garlic clove, minced
Salt to taste (I like garlic or seasoning salt best)

Procedure

1.  In a large bowl mix all ingredients together. 

2.  Taste to see if it needs anything more.  

 

3.  Devour with your favorite tortilla chips, in burritos, with beans, on quesadillas, etc.  

Cooking through my CSA: Cabbage (VeganMoFo)

More CSA food posts!  It just shows that one small, biweekly CSA share can easily provide enough veg for one to two people for two weeks.  The CSA I’m currently cooking from is one I picked up on September 25^th!  I eat veg from it every single day and still have produce left to use.  My next pick up will be this Sunday.  It’s always rather exciting. 

Other dishes I have made with my CSA vegetables that have not been featured on le blog are Spicy Thai Noodles (used bell peppers and cabbage in that one), Tortilla Soup (bell peppers and onion), salads galore (lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers and onion sprouts) and my favorite breakfast of late - toasted sourdough bread, spread with some mashed avocado, topped with sliced tomatoes and onion sprouts (tomato and onion sprouts from CSA). 

I got one HUGE head of cabbage in this box and although I have tossed some shredded cabbage into salads, the Spicy Thai Noodles I mention above and the fajitas I just made, I needed to make something that would really feature the cabbage while getting most of it off my hands, in the most delicious way possible.  With this expanse of cabbage, it only seemed fitting that I make my version of one of my favorite Whole Foods dishes - the Fumi Tofu Salad.  

The prepared foods bar at Whole Foods is a vegan dream and one of the first things I ever tried there was this Fumi Tofu Salad.  When I tasted a sample I just had to have a bowl of it.  This seemingly simple cold salad of tofu, cabbage and nuts has a great flavor profile that had me justifying spending $6 for a small container of it.  The last time I bought the salad from Whole Foods I held onto the ingredients label and vowed to try my hand at it so I wouldn’t have to continue shelling out buco bucks for the stuff.  I think I’ve done a fair job at it too.  Eat your heart out Whole Foods!

It is rather important that you use good quality tofu since it remains raw.  For this, I use tofu from the San Diego Soy Dairy and it’s labeled “firmest”.  The texture is so dense that I don’t need to press it.  If you’re using extra firm tofu, I’d recommend giving it a long, hearty press. 

Ingredients:

Salad

One pound extra, extra firm tofu (buy local if available) cut in small cubes

One small head green cabbage, chopped or shredded

¼ cup slivered almonds

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

1 bunch green onion, chopped

Marinade

2 ½ tablespoons olive oil

2 ½ tablespoons tamari soy sauce

2 tablespoons brown rice vinegar

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon natural sugar

Equipment:

Large, shallow container with a tight fitting lid (true Tupperware is best for this)

Procedure:

1.  Mix all the marinade ingredients together in your large dish

2.  Place the cubed tofu in the marinade and toss to coat (I put the lid on and shake the heck out of it!)

 

3.  To your container, add the remaining salad ingredients

4.  Toss to coat all ingredients and allow to sit for at least an hour before eating.  This should last about 4 days in the frigidaire.

5.  Voila!  Homemade Fumi Tofu Salad at a fraction of the cost of Whole Paycheck.

 

Cooking through my CSA: Peppers (VeganMoFo)

Who doesn’t love peppers?  They’re versatile, flavorful and gosh darn beautiful.  I mean LOOK at these babies.

The purple bell pepper in the upper right is my fave, but don't tell the others

Bell peppers may not be as exotic as some of the other CSA items I have been challenged by, but because I get peppers in just about every one of my biweekly CSA boxes it can be difficult figuring out ways to highlight them in my cooking.  The little green ones are Padron peppers.  I have gotten these a few times in the CSA and they have varying heat levels depending on how mature they are.  Each time I get them (this is the third time now) they get spicier.  The peppers pictured above were about the heat level of a jalapeno.  With these (and the ½ onion I had left after making my Tomatillo Enchiladas) I decided to make some ridiculously easy fajitas. 

I cheated here and used a store-bought fajita seasoning packet.  These packets are dirt cheap, especially when bought on sale.  When I cook using a packet like this, it reminds me of when my dad made chicken fajitas for our family at home (he uses the seasoning packets as well).  I love throw-back meals like this.  In the future I’d like to make my own fajita seasoning blend to mimic these flavors.  For a batch this size, I only use about 1/3 of one seasoning packet. 

These come together in a flash, so have your tortillas and fixins ready.  This is a viable option for a weeknight meal when you come home starving, plus it only uses one pan to boot!

Ingredients:

3 medium bell peppers (whatever colors you have on hand), sliced

2-3 Padron peppers, or moderately spicy peppers, chopped, optional

1 small or ½ a large onion, sliced

1 cup chicken style seitan (I used Gardein strips)

1 Tbsp fajita seasoning

1-2 Tbsp vegetable or canola oil

Splash or two of water

Flour or corn tortillas

Fajita fixins (sour cream, salsa, cheeze, tomatoes, lime juice and/or cilantro would all be divine)

I used homemade sour cream (recipe from THIS amazing cookbook), limes, sliced cabbage (CSA) and chopped tomatoes (CSA).

Equipment:

Large, heavy-bottom skillet

Procedure:

1.  Sauté sliced peppers and onions in oil on high heat until they start to brown and soften

2.  Add a splash of water to deglaze the pan and add your fajita seasoning, cook a few minutes

3.  Add your chik’n and cook for an additional 5 minutes or so.  If you like your fajitas a little saucy, add more water as needed.

4.  Layer the pepper, chik’n mixture onto a warm tortilla and top with your favorite fixins 

5.  Devour

 

Happy eating!