Squash Nuggets

We went to a potluck last night and I've been feeling in the autumn spirit as I think about what to make for Thanksgiving next week, so I wanted to bring some very seasonal, autumn-y dishes. I decided to make pumpkin spice cupcakes with cinnamon creamcheese frosting, and these little guys -- squash nuggets.

I was thinking about the super-delicious zucchini cakes I made this summer and wanted to make something in that family, where the vegetable is transformed into the centerpiece of the meal instead of a side. The nuggets have a nice chewy texture from the vital wheat gluten, more like a meat analog than like a pure vegetable. We ate ours dipped in mustard, but they were also good plain.

Really any spice blend would work with these little guys! Next time, I will probably try cinnamon, curry powder, coriander, and ginger. Another blend that would work great with the squash is rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano, and garlic. This recipe is definitely open to lots of different flavorings, so you can get creative with the spices!

Squash Nuggets

makes two dozen nuggets or six cutlets

• 1 1/2 c roasted squash, mashed (you can also use canned pumpkin)
• 1 c vital wheat gluten
• 1/2 c bread crumbs
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• 1/2 tsp sage
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp marjoram

Combine ingredients in a bowl and knead until strings start to appear. Form the dough into small balls about 1 inch in diameter, then flatten them out into nugget shape and place nuggets on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Brush the tops of the nuggets with olive oil, and bake at 350 for 20 minutes -- flipping the nuggets halfway through.

I roasted three small winter squashes left from our CSA -- one delicata, one acorn, and one butternut -- but really any kind of winter squash (including pumpkin!) would work. To roast the squashes, I cut them in half and placed them on a lightly greased baking sheet, then threw them in the oven at 400° for about 45 minutes. If you don't want to roast them yourself, canned pumpkin or squash puree would definitely work in place of the roasted squash. My three squashes yielded a cup and a half of mashed squash, but if you end up with more or less squash after roasting, this recipe could be scaled up or down accordingly.

Roasting the squash takes the longest amount of time; the rest of the recipe comes together very quickly and easily. Since you don't actually have to be there watching the squash while it roasts (in fact, I left P with the roasting squash while Zelda & I went to the store to pick up some ingredients for the cupcakes!), it is not a very time-consuming recipe. Definitely easy enough -- and tasty enough! -- to be worth making again!

Update: These nuggets have become a family favorite!  You can either make a whole bunch of nuggets or make them into larger cutlets.  I normally make some big cutlets for the grown-ups and nuggets for Zelda.

Rice Noodles with Broccoli in Peanut Sauce, version 2.0

It's true that I've posted a similar dish in the past, but there have been some advancements made between the last time and Monday night, when we had this for dinner.

The first advancement is that I made my own peanut sauce this time, instead of copping out and using an already prepared variety. I found Thai culinary stock at Wegman's -- which was fabulous! --though any kind of vegetable broth would certainly have worked in its place. To make the sauce, I began by heating up some of the broth and then mixing in a couple of tablespoons of natural peanut butter so that it dissolved completely. I also added sriracha, lime juice, and a little bit of tapioca flour to thicken the sauce a tad more. I actually meant to add coconut milk, but completely forgot about it; the additional creaminess would be welcome in the future, but the sauce still managed to be quite tasty without it. Even though there wasn't much actual peanut butter in the sauce, it still had a nice, full peanuty flavor.

The second advancement is about the noodles themselves. Previously, I always would drop the noodles in boiling water for two or three minutes before using them; on Monday, I learned about a different technique! Instead of boiling, you can soak the rice noodles in cold water for about twenty minutes and (after draining them) they're all ready to use.

The noodles and peanut sauce, stir-fried with delicious broccoli from the farmers' market, are pictured above. Unfortunately, today was the last day of the farmers' market, so the broccoli we picked up this morning will probably be the last we have for awhile! In the past week, I've learned that there is one local farm market that will be open through the end of December -- so we'll be able to get winter squash, apple cider, and canned tomatoes there, though I'm not sure if they have anything else. It would be a very long winter on just squash and tomatoes! I would love to continue eating only locally-grown produce during the winter, but I'm sure we would get very sick of squash and tomatoes. I am still looking into the potential for growing some spinach inside, but I'm not sure how well that would work. More to come on this later!

Garlicky Kale, White Beans, & Sausage

It's been awhile since I've posted anything, plus our CSA has been finished for several weeks now -- but I'm still here! Things have been crazy with school and the tiny one, but I'm going to try to get back into posting regularly.

We got a great haul at the farmers' market this week, but I am already beginning to worry about the weeks to come; next week is the final week of the season . . . where am I going to get produce then? Are there any farms around here that are open year round? Should I try to grow some indoor vegetables?

Those worries aside, let me tell you about tonight's dinner! I have to start with a confession. I decided what to make tonight because I've always thought the word 'garlicky' is one of the best words ever, and wanted an excuse to use it. That, and we got a gorgeous bunch of kale from the farmers' market this week!

Kale, white beans, and sausage is one of those meals I think of as very classic Italian, and I was all set to make my Italian friends proud (I'm looking at you, JerzeyGrrl!) by making the Italian sausages from Vegan Brunch and giving this meal the proper Italian treatment. But . . . well, I didn't have any tomato paste. Or fennel. Or oregano. Or, really, any of the appropriate seasonings to make some good Italian food. I know, I know.

So what did I have? My answer to everything: curry paste! Instead of tomato paste, I used curry paste; instead of Italian seasonings, I used Indian seasonings. I always have the goods to make Indian food, and so I turned this Italian classic into something new.

I used cannellini beans as the base for the sausages, since I was going to be using them for the rest of the meal anyway. The sausages turned out a little softer than usual, which I am going to attribute to the softness of the beans that I was using -- but they were super tasty! After steaming the sausages, I diced two of them up and sauteed them in a little olive oil before adding the kale.

The kale came with a whole boatload of garlic -- it was supposed to be garlicky, after all! -- and a bit more of the same Indian spices I'd used in the sausages. Once the kale started wilting appropriately, I added the white beans at the end. The white beans really just have to get warm, but they also need to get mixed up with the rest to make sure they get nicely coated with all those other delicious flavors.

Even though this wasn't exactly the meal I had in mind when I started out, it was a fantastic dinner! The sausages take time to cook, but it is an easy meal to throw together -- and you don't have to pay attention to the sausages while they're steaming, so you are free to go off and do something else! The Indian flavors really came through nicely in the sausages and the kale, putting a new spin on an old classic. Definitely a meal we'll be having again!

Zucchini Bread Contest

Our CSA holds an annual zucchini bread (well, summer squash baked good) contest -- but I've always been afraid to enter. People always have preconceived notions about vegan baked goods, and I didn't really feel like dealing with it. But! This year, I put on my big girl pants and entered. I submitted two things -- chocolate summer squash bread and lemon zucchini muffins. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures. (Sorry!) Well, the results are in . . . and those lemon zucchini muffins were apparently a hit!

Here's what I won! A container of fresh raspberries and blackberries, and a tote bag with the name of our CSA on it. The berries were super delicious. Hooray for lemon zucchini muffins!

Falafel and Cucumber-Tomato Salad

Last night, I made a cucumber-tomato salad and some falafel for dinner. We had a bunch of cucumbers and more tomatoes than you could shake a stick at -- so what better way to use some of those veggies up? And who doesn't love falafel?


For the cucumber-tomato salad, I used a bunch of CSA veggies: three small cucumbers (probably about two average sized cucumbers), one and a half giant tomatoes, and two small onions. The onions were chopped up and lightly cooked with some garlic before mixing with the other chopped veggies, for the same reasons as the last time I made a cucumber salad.

Since there was more of a middle eastern vibe to this meal, I wanted a hint of mint in the salad -- but I had no fresh mint. Instead, I made a small cup of mint tea and used that as the liquid when I cooked up the onions and garlic, letting it completely cook in. The veggies were tossed with a bit of lemon juice, a bit of lime juice, and a bit of olive oil -- then they just sat together in the refrigerator, letting their flavors mingle until it was ready to be served!

Falafel is another one of those quick and easy meals. I baked them this time, since we were bringing dinner over to the home of our friends who are moving out -- and their entire apartment is in boxes. Much easier to throw a tray in the oven than make a mess with the stove! Ahead of time, I mixed two cans of chick peas with few splashes of lemon juice and a variety of spices -- some cayenne pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, turmeric, and salt; this mixture was mashed all together with a fork, then I added a bit of chickpea flour to help bind the falafel balls together.

I made fourteen moderately-sized falafel balls in total, brushing them with a bit of olive oil on both sides before putting them in the oven. I had never baked falafel before, so I cooked them for the first 10 minutes on 350 before realizing the oven needed to be much hotter if I wanted the falafel to get crispy; the last 25 minutes were cooked at 400. Halfway through the baking time, I flipped the falafel over and made sure they still had a bit of oil brushed over them to keep from drying out.

They were delicious! The whole meal is easy to make -- and you can make it all ahead, heating up the falafel when you're ready to eat. The warm falafel coupled with the cold salad is a really great contrast, and the spices of the falafel are balanced nicely by the crisp coolness of the vegetables in the salad. Definitely a great meal for a summer night!

Vegan Omelette with Jalapenos, Potatoes, & Pepper Jack 'Cheese'

I am closing in on the perfect vegan omelette. I swear. I'm not quite there yet, but it is slow and steady progress from the last attempt at a vegan omelette. Last time, the outcome was a little too fluffy; this time, not quite fluffy enough. The taste is there -- the kala namak and chickpea flour combination are definitely where it's at! --, but the texture needs to be just right.

It's getting close though; so close I can almost taste it! I am definitely going to make another attempt this week, so hopefully I'll have an actual factual recipe to post soon instead of being a tease with only pictures.


Pretty though, isn't it? It's stuffed with home fried potatoes, a red jalepeno, a green jalepeno, and pepper jack style almond cheese. The home fries were cooked with garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, and a little sea salt; the cayenne pepper gave them a nice little kick! The red jalepeno was nice and sweet, with just a hint of spice to it; the green jalepeno lacked that sweetness but was a bit hotter than the red, giving a different layer of heat to the overall flavor. Finally, the almond cheese bound all of the filling together and gave the oozy cheesiness that I look for in an omelette. Totally delicious.


(Full disclosure: I probably wouldn't have posted another recipeless post about the vegan omelette, but I am compensating for the fact that I forgot to take a picture of a meal I wanted to post earlier this week! The missing meal was a lime basil pesto -- yummy pesto goodness with a hint of citrus! -- over rotini. If we get more basil at the CSA this week, I will try again! Pinky swear!)

Mexican Cucumber Salad

A couple of days ago, I made a big batch of black beans to use in various recipes; once the beans are cooked instead of dry, they need to get eaten -- so I was looking for a way to use the beans with some of the vegetables from this week's share. We had a nice cucumber, so I decided to make a cucumber salad with a Mexican-style twist.


Neither P nor I are fans of the bite that raw onions have, so I cooked the onions a bit with the beans to mellow their flavor a little. Other than that, this meal was basically of the chop'n'toss variety; chop up the ingredients and throw them all together in a bowl. Extremely easy, though it does take a little bit of time, since I wanted to let all the flavors mingle together in the refrigerator for awhile before serving.

It was the perfect meal for a hot night: cool and fresh, with a delightful tang from the lime juice. P ate his with a few warmed corn tortillas, but I ate mine just as is. It would surely be delicious with the addition of a diced avocado -- or a few dashes of hot sauce, if you're into that!

Mexican Cucumber Salad

• 2 cups black beans
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 cucumber, diced
• 2-3 small tomatoes, diced
• 1-2 hot peppers, minced
• 4 tbsp lime juice (or the juice of two limes)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp fresh cilantro
  
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• salt and pepper, to taste

Optionally, you can first cook up the onions with a bit of water to mellow their flavor; I cooked them with the beans, because the beans needed to cook a tad longer -- and then let the whole thing cool in the refrigerator while I chopped the rest of the vegetables.

In either case, combine lime juice through salt and pepper in a bowl and mix well; add the vegetables and beans to the mixture and stir to evenly distribute the liquid. Refrigerate about half an hour, to allow the juices to mingle. More juice should form as the salad sits, so be sure to mix the entire salad again before serving.