A Plant Based Thanksgiving

Grateful to have my son at home, my granddaughter close by, and no travel plans this Thanksgiving holiday, I settled in for a four day weekend at home.  I shopped last weekend for the cooking items I might need this weekend besides our fresh produce so that I could stay at home if I wanted or the weather demanded all weekend.

We haven't had a family Thanksgiving at home in a few years.  We used to travel all day to fetch our granddaughter for the weekend, but her family moved back to our area and I am loving it. Funny, I had to reassure my son that we only tried the Tofurky once about six years ago and won't repeat it again.  I enjoyed the flavor of the Tofurky and all the roasted vegetables, but the texture has much to be desired.  It is a good transition food for new plant based eaters on the holidays and many vegans who went to a friend's or relatives probably found it on the table, but it's really a processed food item and I do feel like I'm eating deli lunch meat.  It's the first thing people mention when I tell them we are having a plant based Thanksgiving dinner.

What did we have? Ooh, I tried a wonderful recipe by Mark Reinfeld, Link to recipe: Mediterranean Pistachio Crusted Tofu with Saffron Quinoa Pilaf  It recently won Vegan Recipe of the Year by Vegan.com.  I had already practiced a version of this in Mark's two day vegan cooking workshop and knew it would be tasty and easy.  The whole meal only takes a little over an hour from start to finish. The quinoa was easy and colorful and the Mediterranean vegetable salad brightened the whole plate. I thought I'd give it a try for our Thanksgiving meal.  I added some fresh cranberry sauce with some frozen strawberries added for extra sweetness. I doubled the recipe for some planned leftovers.  It was great for lunch today.  I was especially pleased when I saw my son, who is still a bit leery about our plant based lifestyle, go to the refrigerator and heat up a plate for a meal today.

Marinating Tofu Cutlets

Pistachio Crusted Tofu Cutlets on Fresh Baby Spinach

Mediterranean Vegetable Salad

Saffron Quinoa Pilaf

Apricot Almond Pie & Four Ingredient Pumpkin Pie

Four Ingredient Vegan Pumpkin Pie

Way behind on posting, I've been neglecting my blog.  I have been busy in the kitchen, as usual, but a lot of the meals I've been making have been repeats.  Although there are a few I want to share, many of the meals I've been making have become staples like the vegan mac & cheese or flax crackers.  It's been pretty handy having the recipes I like or create posted somewhere so I can look them up again.  So many meals in the past I've not been able to repeat very well because I didn't write down what I did.

I've had a great four day holiday weekend complete with some cookie baking with my son, cooking and crafts with my granddaughter, and some great meals at the dining room table.  Thanksgiving has been a week long celebration here beginning with a Vegan Compassionate Thanksgiving last weekend with the NW Veg folks in Portland, OR.  Three hundred and forty people gathered for a holiday vegan meal.  We met some new friends and shared some hugs with familiar friends.  There were so many wonderful dishes.  We walked around the tables looking at them and taking some photos as guests arrived.  I could tell there was no way I was going to taste everything I'd like to.  I am also really glad we got some photos of the ingredient cards as well as the food.  I can recreate some of the ones I like and some of the ones I didn't get to try.
I brought the pumpkin pies I've been making this fall and winter. I found a pretty easy pumpkin pie recipe. It contains only four ingredients that bakes up like the traditional pumpkin pie people are used to.  It's firm, but creamy when you slide it in your mouth with the cashew coconut creme.  They disappeared pretty quickly.  I took home two clean pie plates. I made it with a gluten free oat flour crust for Thanksgiving and my granddaughter loved it.

Four Ingredient Pumpkin Pie

vegan, makes one pie

1 1/4 cups raw soaked cashews
1 cup maple syrup
1 can organic pumpkin puree (16 ounces) (or use fresh puree)
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

optional: 1/2 tsp salt to taste (depends how much salt you soaked your cashews in)

ingredients notes: using high quality spice is helpful. Also, I prefer grade B maple syrup for its rich amber tones and caramelized flavor - but grade A works too.

One standard vegan pie crust - or make your own using my instructions in this post. Also reference my crust-making how-to video here.

To Make:

1. Soak about one cup of raw cashews in about 2 1/2 cups of water in a large bowl. Add about 1/2 - 1 tsp of salt to the bowl - mix to dissolve. The salt allows the water to absorb more efficiently into the cashews and also adds some salt for your recipe. Note: you may want to soak more cashews than needed and make two pies - or use in other recipes.

2. Soak this cashew bowl for two hours. You want well-soaked cashews so that your pie mix blends up perfectly creamy.

3. The day of your actual pie making allow at least 3 hours from the time you start to the time you wish to serve the pie. I like a cool time of at least 2 hours.

4. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

5. Drain the water from your cashews. They should be very soft to bite and a slight purplish dark hue. This is normal. Add 1 1/4 cups of cashews to your food processor - or even better, or high speed blender like a Vitamix or Blendtec.

6. Add pumpkin to blender. Next, add in the maple syrup and pumpkin pie spice. Blend on low -> high for about 3-5 minutes until the mixture is completely creamy. If your mixture is a bit thick for some reason - you can add in a few teaspoons of either water, maple syrup or even non-dairy milk. After blending, do a taste test and add a 1/2 teaspoon of salt if needed. I added in about 1/3 tsp extra salt. But taste before adding.

7. Pour your mix into a par-baked vegan pie shell (I toast my raw pie shell in the 400 degree oven for about 8 minutes). You can buy a frozen crust or make your own per instructions linked in recipe above.

8. Bake pie at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Then reduce to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 30-40 minutes - or until the edges look fluffy and a darker caramel orange tone. Use a toothpick in center if unsure. The tooth-picked filling should come out slightly wet - but very thick and dark. It is important to remember that your pie will firm up significantly upon cooling and chilling in the fridge.

9. Remove pie from oven. Cool on counter for at least 30 minutes. Then place in fridge until ready to serve. At least 2 hours cooling and/or chilling time is my preference. A warm pie will be tasty, but still a bit "wet" to slice.

10. I serve chilled with a swirl of my vegan coconut whip on top!!

Raw Buckwheat Pancakes

Friday night I put some pancakes in the dehydrator.  Yep, eight hour pancakes.  They were worth it.  Not much work involved in the batter and very few ingredients.  Waking up to the smell of apples and cinnamon was quite nice Saturday morning.  These whole grain pancakes were very filling, I only ate one, but my son enjoyed four.  They are a great source of protein and fiber.  A serving of two provides 4 g protein and 6 g fiber. Paired with some fresh fruit, it's a great way to start the day.  I took some of the strawberries I had frozen in June and warmed them with a little pure maple syrup for a nice warm fruit topping.

Raw Pancakes
     A recipe from Vegan Fusion
            The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw, pg 196

1 cup red apples, seeds removed, and chopped
8 dates, pitted, and soaked at least 30 minutes
1/4 cup date soak water
1/2 cup agave nectar (I used coconut nectar)
1 TB vanilla extract
1 tsp. lime zest
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 TB golden flax seeds, ground
Pinch sea salt
1 cup buckwheat groats, ground (I grind them in a little coffee grinder I have specifically for grinding food)
1/4 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened (optional)

1.  In a food processor fitted with an S blade, or a blender, place apples, dates, soak water, agave nectar, vanilla extract, lime zest, cinnamon, flax seeds, and salt.  Blend on high speed for 15 to 20 seconds or until a chunky batter forms.

2.  Transfer to a bowl, and combine with buckwheat and coconut until well incorporated.

3.  Scoop onto Teflex-lined deyhydrator sheets to desired sizes.  They'll flatten out a little, so make them about 1/2 inch thick to start.

4.  Dehydrate at 110ºF for 6- 8 hours.  Keep an eye on them, you don't want the outsides to be too dry.  Pushing down on them will tell you if the insides are still mushy, which is ideal.

Serve hot off the trays, topped with maple syrup or a flavored agave nectar, if you want.  Pancakes will keep in an air-tight container for 3 to 5 days.

One More Day to Vote ~ Help me win the Blendtec Blender

I wrote this blog post last month, Kitchen Tips for Raw Foods, for a blog competition.  The prize is a Blendtec Blender. It's sponsored by the Raw Food Divas and can be found at Tera Warner.  Who's Tera Waner?

From her own profile on the website:

"Tera Warner is the frisky founder of the world's largest online resource of raw food cleansing and detoxification programs for women. Through her programs and events she invites a community of over 100,000 women around the world to pick up their parsley sprigs, and march, dance, sing, jump or fly along path to vibrant living.

She's not got a string of acronyms after her name and fancy credentials, so don't bother looking for them. She's a monkey-lovin' mama doing her best to remind you that your self-worth is not measure by the size of your thighs or the width of your hips, but by the breadth of your dreams and the depth of your love."

"Tera spent most of her days in university studying monkeys, and now she's simply trying to teach the world to eat like one."

The blog was to introduce three kitchen tips aimed at helping someone new to raw foods organize their kitchen and simplify the transition to raw foods.  Before I jumped in to vegan and raw cooking, I used to take meat out to thaw for dinner, now I soak beans, nuts, and dried fruits in preparation for our meals.  Since so many of our meals depend on the dehydrator now, planning ahead is very important. There's a few things that took awhile to get the hang of.  I sure would have liked some hints when I got started.

I'm pretty exited about to making it to the top four finalists.  Now, it's left up to the readers to vote.  I sure would appreciate your vote.  There's only about 24 hours left, the voting ends on Oct. 30 at 11:59 p.m, Eastern time.  If you have a few minutes, please go to this website and cast your vote. Just follow the link below and follow the voting instructions. It's pretty simple and only takes a couple minutes after reading the blog posts. They're all awesome posts and there's some pretty great kitchen tips.  I'd love to win the Blendtec Blender so I can use it in my adventures teaching others to cook great raw and vegan food.  Thank you!

 Who Will Win the Blendtec Wildside? It's up to You.