Curried Squash Tomato Bisque

It's that time of year when my dad realizes that he planted waaaaay too much squash, and so he pawns it off on his more-than-willing children. Or maybe that's why he plants so much. Either way, I always get a ton of squash from my dad's garden around this time of year and I've found the perfect recipe for using a bunch of it. 

My mom made a vegan tomato squash soup a few years back for Christmas and it was delicious (yeah, my mom rocks). If I remember correctly, it was tomatoes and squash pureed together with some vegetable broth and then sauteed onions were added to it (or maybe the onions were blended in, I can't remember). She gave me the recipe and the first time I made it I taste-tested it and it wasn't as good as my mom's. Not a big surprise there. I let it sit for a while there on my stove and pondered my inadequacy. 

But instead of coming to terms with my failure in the kitchen, I decided to make the soup my own. I added a can of coconut milk to it and some curry powder, garam masala and cumin and BAM! It became something very different and very delicious. The recipe has been tweaked since then, of course. I took garam masala out of it because I ran out and didn't feel like buying more. I'm sure you could put a little in and it wouldn't hurt. And I found that it doesn't need veggie broth, though I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to have some in there if you wanted more leftovers. 

It eats like a meal. And it goes great with saltines or some good crusty bread. 

It's not every year I post an original recipe on this blog. So enjoy, dear readers:

Curried Squash Tomato Bisque

4 cups of butternut squash pulp (other kinds of squash work, too, but probably not every kind)
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 large onion chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds (or 1/2 tsp ground cumin)
28 oz can whole tomatoes with juice
15 oz can of of coconut milk
1 tsp. curry powder (start with 1, add more to taste)
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp fresh ground pepper
1/8 tsp garlic powder
2 bay leaves

Bake squash (cut in half the long way, place in 1/4 inch of water in a casserole dish, bake at 375 until easily pierced with fork) until tender. Scrape it all out.

Heat oil on med/high heat, add cumin seeds and let them sizzle and/or pop for 30 seconds or so. Add onion and sauté until browned.

Put Tomatoes (with juice) in processor. Blend.

Add squash and onions, process until smooth (the cumin seeds won't blend up and that's fine). If you have an immersion blender, you can blend everything in the pot, but I like to used a food processor and then an immersion blender later if needed. I think it's easier to get a smoother texture that way.

Put that all in a pot, add the coconut milk and heat it up. Add curry powder, salt, pepper and garlic powder (and ground cumin if you didn't use cumin seeds back when you fried the onions). Taste and add more of any of these spices as needed. Add bay leaves and simmer for as long as you want, stirring occasionally.

I'd post a photo, but it's just orange. Close your eyes and imagine the color orange. There you go. That's what the soup looks like. 

OK fine, I'll take a quick photo with my webcam. 

See. Orange. And now you know I have a Maytag stove. 

Reheats wonderfully. Enjoy!

VeganMoFo Day 4 - Apple Butter (Song and Recipe)

Oh, apple butter. 

Nothing says autumn quite like it. I usually make enough in the fall to at least get me to the first big snowfall. This year I made a double batch, 11 pounds' worth of apples, which should get me there even though I've given quite a bit of it away. 

I don't usually make conscious efforts when choosing the style my songs will be in (in fact, my song "writing" process is pretty much unconscious from start to finish), but I'd like to think that subconsciously I sang this song in a monotonous tone in order to signify winter's slowly yet steadily approaching march. 

It just gets colder and colder here and we all sit around waiting for the snow, wondering how we're going to deal with it when it gets here. And then all of a sudden, plop, down drops a few inches and it seems to only take one time leaving the house to get used to the new snow-covered reality. 

Anyway, apple butter: 

Here's the recipe my mom gave me a few years ago. My mom prefers to cut back on the spices so she can taste the apples more, but I really like that cinnamony clovey taste, so I put in the full amount. 

All Day Apple Butter

5 1/2 pounds apples, peeled and finely chopped (no bigger than one inch)
4 cups sugar (or a cup less, if you want)
2 to 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon (or less if you want)
1/4 tsp. ground cloves (or 1/8 tsp.)
1/4 tsp. salt

-Place chopped apples in crock pot.
-Combine sugar, cinnamon, cloves and salt; pour over apples and mix well. 

-Cover and cook on high for 1 hour.
-Reduce heat to low; cover and cook for 9-11 hours or until thickened and dark brown, stirring occasionally (stir more frequently as it thickens to prevent sticking)
-Uncover and cook on low 1 hour longer. If desired stir with a wire whisk until smooth.
-Spoon into freezer containers, leaving 1/2 inch head-space.
-Cover and refrigerate or freeze.

Yield: 4 pints.

This freezes and thaws really nicely, so don't worry about making too much. 

This year, I used an immersion blender. It really smoothed out everything, which actually was a bit of a drawback for me. I don't like my apple butter to be chunky, but I do like it to have a bit of texture. I think next year I'll stick with just letting the apples dissolve, helping them along with a whisk. 

Oh, and I use Haralson's because those are the apples that, until this year, my dad grew in his yard. He used to have five trees, I think. The last one had to be chopped down last fall (or was it this spring?), so this is the first year I've had to buy the apples I make apple butter with. The money doesn't bother me, I just liked the idea of using apples from the trees I grew up with. 


I suppose this is just a small reminder that I'm actually aging. Outliving the trees from my youth and all...

Vegan MoFo Day 15 - Scrambled Tofu

I don't feel like writing much. So here are a couple photos of my scrambled tofu.




Basic ingredient list:
Tofu - one block, squeezed
Some frozen diced potatoes
Diced peppers
Spinach
Fresh ground pepper
Turmeric
Nutritional yeast

Lazy directions:
Just fry it all up.

And just because I have nothing else to say right now, here's a link to a site.

There you go. Another day of Vegan MoFo in the bag.

Vegan MoFo Day 14 - Polenta and Stuff with Cornbread on Top

So here's something I made up a while back. I know the price of quinoa has shot up in recent months, so maybe it's not the most economical thing to make these days, but what the hell, it's VeganMoFo.

Also, you can totally make this without the quinoa and it's almost just as good (I've done it both ways).



Polenta and Stuff with Cornbread on Top

Ingredients:
1 log of polenta
1 package firm tofu, drained and squeezed (no need to press, but do so if you want)
2 cups cooked quinoa (I like the red kind better, but regular works too)
2-4 cloves garlic pressed or diced fine
15 oz. can of diced tomatoes, drained not rinsed
15 oz. can (or two) of chili beans
15 oz. can of corn
1/2 a block of your favorite vegan cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 cup of taco sauce
1/4 cup green enchilada sauce
1/4 cup vegan sour cream
1 tablespoon of cumin
1 tablespoon of chili powder
1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon of salt
whatever ingredients you need to make your favorite corn bread

NOTE: As long as you have the tofu, polenta, garlic, tomatoes, beans of some sort, cumin and chili powder, you're good. The rest is just gravy. Sweet, sweet gravy.

And by all means, throw in extra spice or leave some out. You may scoff at a mere tablespoon of nutritional yeast and want to put in a full cup. Well more power to you, I say. I'll probably do the same thing next time I make it.

Or you might want to throw in cyanne powder. Rock on.

Maybe some diced peppers?

You get the drift. Now on to the part where I tell you how to make it.

Preheat oven to 425 (or whatever the cornbread recipe you use says to bake the cornbread at).

Take the log of polenta (the kind you can find at your co-op) - slice it in really thin rounds and lay on bottom of lightly greased caserole dish - overlap the rounds so you can't see the bottom of the dish. 1/4 to 1/3 of the log may be left over. That's fine and actually preferable.

You may want to slice the polenta along the length instead. That's fine. Whatever floats your boat.

Now that the casserole dish has a layer of polenta lining the bottom put it in the oven while you get everything else ready (the oven may not be done preheating and that's fine).

Mash remaining polenta in a large bowl. Add tofu and mash. Trow everything else into the bowl including the spices and mix it all up.

Remove casserole dish from oven and spoon the tofu-tomato-bean-etc. mix over the polenta. Distribute it evenly, but leave some texture on the top (don't flatten it out completely, otherwise the cornbread that you're going to put on top won't grab it like it should).

Put it back in the oven while you get your cornbread batter ready. It should be in the oven for about 15 minutes, so if you can whip up cornbread batter in 5 minutes you may want to take a breather. Go check your email or something.

Mix together your cornbread batter. If you're using a recipe that makes an 8x8 dish of cornbread I'd suggest doubling it. I use the cornbread recipe from Vegan Family Favorites, in case you're wondering. I add a bit more soy milk to the mix so it spreads better.

Remove casserole dish from the oven yet again (I promise, the next time you do this you'll be done). Spread out the cornbread batter evenly on top of the tofu, beans, etc. and make sure it covers it fully. Sprinkle chili powder over the batter and maybe throw some freshly ground pepper on there too.

You may have some batter left over. Throw it in a dish and put it in the oven along with the casserole dish. You can never have too much cornbread.

So then just bake until the cornbread is done.

Cut it into squares and enjoy. Tastes great on a cold day.

Vegan MoFo Day 13: Smoothie

So here's the smoothie that I make for Anna almost every day, it seems. All measurements are approximate.

2 large bananas
Fistful of spinach if we have some
1/4 cup frozen blueberries
Handful of strawberries (about half the volume of bananas)
2 tbsp shelled hemp seed nuts
1 tbsp flax seed oil
1/2 cup of soy yogurt
Then some soy milk or almond milk or orange juice to get it to the desired consistency. I usually put the blender on "liquefy" and then go do something else for a minute.

Blend until it's all one color and there you go. This makes about three coffee cups full.

I added some blackstrap molasses to it the other day. It was good and even healthier. It bitters it up a little though. So I put agave nectar in there to counter the bitter.

Down-Home Upper-Midwest Vegan Potato Salad

OK, so here it is. Finally, the potato salad recipe.

Like I've said before, if you grew up eating omnivore potato salad and you want a (cholesterol free) blast from the past, make this. It has pot-luck written all over it.

Down-Home Upper-Midwest Vegan Potato Salad

* 5 lbs. red potatoes, chopped (about thumbnail-sized cubes ... if your thumbs are sort of big)
* 1 large yellow onion, finely chopped (I use a chopper)
* 4 stalks celery, chopped (I use the chopper on these too, but that's because I don't like big crunchy things in my potato salad)
* 2 1/2 cups soy mayonnaise (I used Vegenaise)
* 4 tablespoons plain yellow mustard
* 2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
* 1 block firm silken tofu, cut to rectangular pieces (to simulate chunks of eggs)
* 2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Directions:
-Boil chopped potatoes for 20 minutes or until soft, but not crumbly.
-Let potatoes cool to room temperature (or if you don't have time, at least let them cool to where they're not steaming anymore).
-Gently mix all ingredients except tofu (you don't want the potatoes to crumble or get mashed).
-Gently fold in tofu pieces.
-Let it all cool down in the fridge.
-Sprinkle paprika on top to taste before serving.

-

And there it is. I'm not one to brag, but every single person who has tasted this has commented that it's good.

In short, I'm awesome.

But to give partial credit where partial credit's due - my recipe was adapted from this one. I sort of doubled it (because it keeps really good in the fridge and you can never have too much potato salad) and made it a bit more Upper Midwest. (Spicy mustard? How many of your grandmas ever used spicy mustard in their potato salad?! I mean really.)

I considered taking a photo of the potato salad and posting it with the recipe, but it just looks like regular old potato salad. Who hasn't seen potato salad?

OK, now you can make it. Enjoy!

Oh, and for those of you who didn't grow up in the Upper Midwest of the United States of America, if you make this let me know what you think. I'm curious what an "outsider" would make of it.