Harissa Tofu

We first posted about Harissa tofu in our Harissa Tofu Harvest Plate. Since then, we realized it would be nice to have this as a stand alone recipe since we use it in a lot of different plates and bowls. Delicious on it’s own or serve as part of a meal this tofu makes us happy every time!

Serves: 2

Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

1 block tofu

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/2 tsp salt

3 tbsp harissa

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp agave (option to substitute coconut nectar, maple syrup, or other liquid sweeteners)

Pinch salt

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Cut your block of tofu in half so that you have two, one inch thick rectangles. Press tofu between two kitchen towels, placing a cast iron pan, or something heavy on them to remove some of the liquid. This process can be done with a tofu press. Cut the tofu into sticks about 3 inches by one inch by one inch. Put the cornstarch and 1/2 tsp salt in a shallow bowl. Toss the tofu, a couple of pieces at a time in the cornstarch mixture until coated on all sides. Heat 2 tbsp of neutral oil in a frying pan. Once hot, fry the tofu in batches on med-high making sure it gets golden brown on all sides. Feel free to add more oil if your pan gets dry. Be careful not to crowd the tofu as that will make it all stick together. We use tongs to turn each piece separately. Mix the harissa, agave, pinch of salt, and lemon juice in a small bowl. Once the tofu is crispy, add harissa sauce to the pan, stir to coat the tofu, and remove from heat. Enjoy!

Orange Tofu and Rice Stir Fry

It’s nearing the end of citrus season where we live, and we are soaking up every last citrus filled recipe. We enjoyed adapting this deeply American-ized take on the sweet and sour flavor pairing found in some traditional Chinese cooking.

Serves: 4-6

Time: 1.5 hours

Ingredients

high heat oil such as avocado oil

green onions, finely chopped as garnish (optional)

For the tofu

2 firm blocks tofu

1/2 cup cornstarch

1 tsp salt

For the veggies

3 bell peppers, thinly sliced

1 large onion, thinly sliced

1 head of broccoli, chopped into small florets

For the Sauce

2 tbsp. mirin

2 tbsp. rice vinegar

1/4 cup water

1 tbsp. toasted sesame oil

3 tbsp. coconut aminos

1 tsp salt

3 tbsp. agave

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp siracha

Juice and zest from 1 large navel orange (1/2 cup of orange juice and 1 tbsp. of zest)

1 inch ginger, peeled and diced

3 cloves garlic, peeled and diced

1 tbsp. cornstarch

For the rice

2 cups jasmine rice

4 cups of water

1 tsp salt

1 tsp bouillon cube or paste (vegan & gluten-free option)

1/4 tsp mirin

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Note: when we were creating this recipe, we only had one large fry pan. If you have two, you can fry the veggies and the tofu at the same time.

Cut your blocks of tofu in half so that you have four, one inch thick rectangles. Press the tofu between two kitchen towels, placing a cast iron pan, or something heavy on them to remove some of the liquid. This process can be done with a tofu press. Slice the tofu into cubes or thick sticks.

While the tofu is being pressed, slice the onions, peppers, and broccoli. Dice the ginger and the garlic and finely chop the green onion if using.

Heat up a pan with oil and stir fry the onions, peppers, and broccoli until golden brown (about 20 minutes). Remove these from the pan and set aside. Meanwhile, cook the rice. Put the rice, water, salt, bouillon paste, and mirin in a pot and bring to a boil. Stir well (making sure the bouillon is broken down fully) and lower to a simmer. Cook with lid on for about 15 minutes or until rice is done. One way to tell if the rice is done is by watching the steam coming out of the pot, once the steam stops, your rice is most likely cooked. After 15 minutes let sit off the heat for 5 minutes and then fluff with a fork.

Combine the cornstarch and a generous pinch of salt in a shallow bowl or on a small plate. Toss the tofu, a couple of pieces at a time in the cornstarch mixture until coated on all sides. Heat 2 tbsp of neutral oil in a frying pan. Once hot, fry the tofu in batches on med-high making sure it gets golden brown on all sides. Feel free to add more oil if your pan gets dry. Be careful not to crowd the tofu as that will make it all stick together. We use tongs to turn each piece separately.

Put the finished tofu and veggies in a large bowl.

To make the sauce combine mirin, rice vinegar, water, sesame oil, coconut aminos, salt, red pepper flakes, siracha, agave orange juice and zest all in a small bowl and whisk until fully incorporated. Once you’ve finished cooking all the veggies and tofu, put a small amount of oil in your pan. Add the ginger and garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add the bowl of sauce ingredients and cornstarch. Stir for 1 minute to thicken.

Pour the sauce over the large bowl of veggies and tofu and stir until everything is coated with sauce. Spoon the mixture over rice and garnish with green onions (optional). Enjoy!

Roasted hazelnut cheesecake

While perfecting this recipe we came to the conclusion that neither of us has had cheesecake with dairy. We cannot attest to how similar this confection is to said food, but it is smooth, creamy, a tad sweet, and is reminiscent of chocolate hazelnut butter. Right now the crust is slightly sweet with a less sweet filling and is perfect for our tastes, but if you enjoy a sweeter experience, feel free to increase the maple syrup in the filling. Or, if you use store bought chocolate hazelnut butter this will likely have sugar and can be another way to increase sweetness in the filling.

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Pans needed: 4” springform pan

Makes: One 4” cheesecake

Time: 30 minutes active time; 4 hrs total

Ingredients

For the crust:

⅓ c pecans

⅓ c dates

½ tsp salt

For the filling:

1 c soaked cashews

½ c almond milk plus additional for blending

⅓ c roasted hazelnut butter (optionally substitute for chocolate hazelnut butter)

2 tbsp melted cacao butter

2 tbsp raw cacao powder

2 tbsp maple syrup

½ tsp vanilla powder or extract

For the toppings (optional):

cacao nibs

hazelnuts

chocolate chips

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In a food processor, mix all the “for the crust” ingredients until they are sticky and able to form a crust. There will still be some small chunks, that is ideal. Be careful not to over-mix since if you mix too much you will end up with nut butter (which is delicious but will not form a crust). Press the crust mixture into the bottom of your springform pan and set in the refrigerator.

In a blender, blend all of the “for the filling” ingredients using the tamper as you blend. If needed, add additional almond milk one tablespoon at a time (we used 2 additional tablespoons) until the mixture is fully blended.  Blend until smooth and then pour onto the crust. Put this in the freezer for at least 3 hours.

Remove from freezer 1 hour before serving. If you plan to top with chocolate drizzles, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave or a double boiler. Optionally top with cacao nibs and chopped hazelnuts. Drizzle with melted chocolate chips and enjoy!

Note: When we are removing the cheesecake filling from the blender we inevitably cannot get everything out — there is always a thin film of chocolate hazelnut stuck to the sides and bottom. Before cleaning the blender, we like to blend these leftovers with almond milk for some chocolate milk for us to enjoy while we finish making the cake.

Polenta Crusted Garlicky Rosemary Potatoes

Some of our favorite things: potatoes, crispy food, salt and oil. This checks off all those boxes so you guessed it — it’s one of our favorites!

Time: 1 hr

Serves: 4

Ingredients

Olive Oil

Salt

2 lbs red potatoes (about 6 medium)

5 cloves garlic

2 sprigs rosemary

1/2 cup polenta (or cornmeal)

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Pre-heat the oven to 400 F. Bring a large pot of very salty water to a rolling boil (the water should taste as salty as the sea). Rinse the potatoes and cut out any bad spots. If they are large, cut them in eights. If they are smaller then cut them in quarters. If they are very small you can just cut them in half. The goal is to end up with approximately 1 inch chunks. Add the potatoes to the boiling water and cook until almost soft or soft but make sure to stop before they are falling apart (about 5 minutes). Strain and rinse with cold water. Taste one of these potatoes to see how salty it is — this will inform how much or little salt you add in the next step.

While the potatoes are par-boiling, peel the garlic and chop off any bad spots. Strip the rosemary and mince. In a bowl, combine the potatoes, rosemary, garlic, and polenta. Add some salt — note if the potatoes are already quite salty you can either skip this or add just a bit of salt, if the potatoes weren’t yet fully salted this is where you can add more salt. Toss this mixture making sure all the potatoes get coated. Oil a cookie sheet. Spread the potato mixture out on the cookie sheet and then drizzle olive oil over top.

Bake for 40 minutes, flipping the potatoes after 20 minutes.

Popcorn Tofu

We love this fried chicken style of tofu! It tastes best fresh, so we recommend you only make as much as you plan to eat. Extra tofu can sit in the marinade for a day or so if you want to fry in two batches or feel free to halve the recipe if you don’t want to eat everything at once.

One delicious way to serve it is with cholula, roasted broccoli, and rice; it’s nice to pour the remaining marinade over the broccoli and rice. Another great way to serve it is with roasted broccoli and pea-tatoes. Most recently, we ate it with a simple salad and a lot of cholula and that was delicious too!

Serves: 2

Time: 1 hr + marinating time

Ingredients

1 block of tofu

1/3 cup cornstarch

1 tbsp sweet paprika

generous sprinkle of salt

For the marinade:

1/3 cup of lime juice

1/3 cup tamari (gluten-free soy sauce)

1/4 cup water

generous 1 tbsp maple syrup

1/2 tsp salt

Cholula (for dipping)

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Cut your block of tofu in half so you have two, one inch thick rectangles. Press the tofu between two kitchen towels, placing a cast iron pan, or something heavy on them to remove some of the liquid. This process can alternatively be done with a tofu press. While in some of our recipes you can get away with not pressing the tofu, in this recipe we found pressing the tofu is essential for it to come out well.

After pressing the tofu, tear each rectangle in half along the width. This will now resemble a tofu cutlet. Next, tear each of these 4 pieces into 5 smaller pieces leaving you with a total of 20 bite sized pieces. We tear the tofu instead of cutting so that there are more edges to get floured and fried.

Mix all the ‘for the marinade’ ingredients in a shallow dish. Add the tofu to the marinade, making sure all the tofu gets submerged, for at least 30 minutes or overnight. Remove the tofu and pat dry (if the towel used to press the tofu is still handy you can use this to pat the tofu dry). Again, it is important to pat the tofu dry. If you skip this step it will probably come out weird.

Combine the cornstarch, salt, and paprika and stir. Toss the tofu, a couple of pieces at a time, in the cornstarch mixture until coated on all sides. Heat 2 tbsp of neutral oil in a frying pan. Once hot, fry the tofu in batches on med-high making sure it gets golden brown on all sides. If you are unable to get color on your tofu, turn up the heat a little at a time until it browns after a few minutes. Be careful not to crowd the tofu as that will make it all stick together. We use tongs to turn each piece separately. It can be a bit harder to tell when this tofu is done, since the paprika makes it look slightly golden brown. If you are unsure taste one and if the breading is crisp, they are ready. When the paprika burns it doesn’t taste great so do some tests to establish a baseline.

Serve with cholula and enjoy!

Kidney Bean Chili

It’s been raining here all week which made us really want some warm, cozy chili. We especially love this chili served over mashed potatoes but it also grows great with tortilla chips or some garlic bread.

Serves: 4

Time: 1.5 hours (30 minutes active time)

Ingredients

3 cups cooked beans* or two cans kidney beans

8 oz crimini mushrooms, sliced

2 bell peppers, chopped

black pepper

1 onion, (2 cups) chopped

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cayenne

2 cans diced tomatoes

2 cups veggie stock (gluten-free option, soy-free option)

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If you are cooking the beans from dry, cook the beans according to the instructions below.

While the beans are cooking, saute the mushrooms in olive oil until browned, about 15 minutes. Grind some fresh black pepper onto the mushrooms about halfway through cooking. Once the mushrooms are done, set them aside and saute the chopped peppers in olive oil about 10 minutes and set aside.

Once the beans are cooked, in a large pot, sweat the onions over medium low heat until they start to go translucent, about 7 minutes. Add the garlic, cook for an additional 2 minutes before adding the spices. Continue to cook, stirring, about 1 minute until fragrant.

Add the tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms, and stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 45 minutes, stirring frequently, until the liquid is thickened. Add the beans after 25 minutes of simmering. Add the sauteed peppers and serve hot with garlic bread, tortilla chips, or mashed potatoes.

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*Cooking kidney beans from dry:

In the Instant Pot:

To cook the kidney beans in an Instant Pot, add 1 1/3 cup of dried kidney beans to the pot.  Cover the beans with water (in the small Instant pot this is about 6 cups of water), season with 1 tbsp kosher salt, 1 tsp chili powder, and 1 tsp cumin.  Set the Instant Pot to pressure cook for 17 minutes letting depressurize naturally. Drain and rinse before adding to the dish.

On the stove:

If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can easily cook kidney beans from scratch with a little planning. First you will need to soak the kidney beans which can be done one of two ways. 1. you can soak them overnight making sure they have enough water and space to double in size or 2. you can put them in a pot and bring to boil, then turn off the water and let soak for one hour. Again, make sure you have enough water and space that they can double in size.

Once you have soaked your beans, rinse them and then put in a pot with salty water. These will be cooking for about 2 hours so you don’t want as much salt as you would use for pasta, but you do want to add enough that you can taste the salt. The best way to get good at this is to practice. Each time you salt the water, taste it and when the beans are done taste them to see if they are well salted. A well salted bean should taste flavorful but not salty. If it tastes like you are eating salt, you added too much. If the bean lacks flavor then you didn’t have enough salt. For this recipe, also add 1 tsp chili, and 1 tsp cumin to the kidney beans as they cook.

Cook the kidney beans until they are soft but not falling apart (this will take 1.5-2 hours).  We recommend checking the beans at about an hour and then every 20 minutes until they are soft but not disintegrating. Make sure your pot has enough water as I have definitely cooked all the water off before and burnt the beans! This may seem like a lot of work, however once you get the hang of it the work is almost all passive and the reward is high: kidney beans cooked from scratch taste much better and are much cheaper!

Gluten Free Broccoli Quiche

This gluten free, dairy free take on cheddar broccoli quiche is divine. The crust is from our cheese cracker recipe, and it pairs perfectly with the sweet onions and cheesy broccoli.

One of my favorite things about this quiche is how easy it is to switch out ingredients. Don’t have broccoli on hand? Add whatever roasted veggies you do have. Obsessed with pickles this week (why yes, yes I am)? Try adding some of the pickle juice into your cheese recipe for a fun variation on the cheddar flavor.

This meal goes great served with kombucha mimosas (we mix kombucha and orange juice together to create a low-alcohol mimosa). It also tastes amazing with freshly squeezed pomegranate juice.

Serves: 4-6

Time: 2 hrs (1 hr 15 active)

Ingredients

5 cups of bite sized broccoli florets (about 1.5 lbs or 2 small heads of broccoli)

Olive oil

1/2 onion

5 cloves garlic

3/4 cup cashew cheese

4 eggs

3/4 cup almond milk

1 1/2 tsp salt, divided

1/4 tsp pepper

pinch of red pepper flakes

For the pie crust:

1/2 cup almond flour

3 tbsp coconut flour

1/4 cup oats

3 tbsp cornmeal

1/4 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

1/2 tsp mustard powder

pinch of cayenne

3/4 tsp salt

3 tbsp of cold vegan butter, we like this one: Miyoko’s Vegan Butter

1 cup water

8-10 ice cubes

1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

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Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Put a cup of cold water, ice, and 1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar in a bowl together.

Put the oats and the cornmeal in a blender or food processor and blend until it becomes floury. Add all the dry ingredients including what you’ve just blended into a big bowl. Add the cold butter into the dry ingredients and cut the butter into the flour.

There are many ways to cut the butter into the flour. You can use knives, a pastry cutter, or your hand. We use our hands to quickly pinch the butter into the dry ingredients. You should have butter chunks about the size of a pea. Do not keep going until the butter feels sandy, this is too far. You need to do this step fairly quickly so that you don’t melt the butter with your hands.

Once you’ve cut the butter into the flour mixture, add the 3-5 tbsp of the water and vinegar mixture 1 tbsp at a time tossing with a fork in between each tablespoon. Eventually this will start to come together. When more than half of your mixture has come together you can start to smoosh with your hands to try and make a ball. Continue to add one tablespoon of water at a time until all the dough sticks together in a nice ball. You do need this to stay cool, however because this is gluten-free you don’t need to worry about ‘overworking’ the dough. You will have a decent amount of water left over, and that is okay.

Once this comes together, put your dough on a plate in the fridge and let rest for 20 minutes.

Cut broccoli into florets. Thinly slice the onions and finely mince the garlic. Spread the broccoli on cookie sheet and roast with olive oil and 1/2 tsp salt for 45 minutes or until starting to brown. Stir every 15 minutes.

Press the chilled pie crust into your pie pan as you would a graham cracker crust. Press it into the corners of the pan and up the sides until you have covered the inside of the pan with dough. Cook for 15 minutes so that the pie crust has been partially baked, and then remove.

Next, heat a frying pan with a bit of olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add the onions, and 1/2 tsp of salt, and cook stirring frequently until caramelized (this takes about 20 minutes). Mince the garlic and add to the onions. Cook for another 5 minutes.

Put eggs, milk, 1/2 tsp of salt and the pepper in a bowl and whisk until the yolks are fully broken up and you have one yellow color. Feel free to whisk for longer then you think necessary.

Add the roasted broccoli into the pie crust and spoon dollops of cashew cheese onto the broccoli and smooth around. Add caramelized onions and garlic. Next pour the egg mixture over all of it and the egg mixture should just cover the vegetables. Bake for about 45 minutes or until a knife goes in and comes out clean.

You can eat this fresh out of the oven, but we like it best if you let it cool for about 15 minutes. Slice and enjoy!

Last Chance Veggie Skillet

This last chance skillet is a great way to use up leftovers in your fridge in a delicious way that will leave you begging for more. The recipe is based on the leftovers we had in our fridge, so please use it as a template but add your own leftovers! The template is crumbly protein on the bottom (eg. beans, Beyond Beef crumbles, soybeans, crumbled tofu, etc.) followed by layered vegetables and then mashed potatoes on top. Below, we’ve listed exactly what we used, but feel free to swap out what you have on hand when you create this dish.

Serves: 10

Time: 1.5 hr (45 min active)

Ingredients

3 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced

1 head garlic, roasted

6 potatoes, peeled and cubed

3/4 cup cashew cheese

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

4 medium carrots, diced

1/4 of a red cabbage, sliced

1/2 large onion, diced

1/4 poblano pepper, minced

2 cups of cilantro-tomato black eyed peas (can sub Beyond Beef crumbles)

3/4 bag of frozen peas

1/2 bunch of mustard greens, stemmed and thinly sliced

1/2 bunch green onions, thinly sliced

8 tbsp olive oil, divided

salt

pepper

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Pre-heat oven to 375 F. Heat water up to a boil adding salt until the water is as salty as sea water. Add potatoes and boil until tender. Roast garlic and then mash into a paste. Caramelize the onions in one pan while frying the mushrooms in a second pan. Add salt to the onions and pepper to the mushrooms. Once the onions are almost done, add minced poblano. Next, cook the carrots and cabbage until tender. Salt and pepper these to taste.

Mash the potatoes with the roasted garlic garlic, 3 tbsp olive oil, cashew cheese, nutritional yeast, and salt and pepper to taste.

The cilantro-tomato black eye pea recipe comes from Vegetarian India. You can use any leftover beans or Beyond meat burgers broken into crumbles for this step. Heat up cilantro-tomato black eyed peas, or whatever protein you are using and flavor to taste. Next, fold in cooked mushrooms into the protein mixture.

Layer a large cast iron skillet with black eyed pea/mushroom mix, onions, then frozen peas, mustard greens, followed by carrots and cabbage. Finally top with mashed potatoes. Before putting this in the oven crosshatch the potatoes and then drizzle them with 1 tbsp olive oil and salt. This will allow the mashed potatoes to crisp as they cook.

Cook for 45 minutes or until the top of the potato is crispy. Serve with green onion garnish.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sometimes I think about how much I love being an adult. Cookies are one of the things that remind me how awesome it can be to be “grown up”. When I was super little, cookies were these magical delicacies that I would scheme over. I was always wondering, how do I get more of these? As an adult I can buy them or make them whenever I want! It’s magical and I love it! For adults and children alike, if you can eat gluten we bet you will love these.

Makes: 1 dozen

Time: 1 hour (15 min active)

Ingredients

1 tbsp flax meal + 2 tbsp water

1/2 cup vegan butter (we recommend Miyokos)

3 tbsp almond butter

1/2 cup coconut sugar

1 cup + 2 tbsp flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup chocolate chunks

flaky salt, optional

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Mix ground flax & water and set aside.

In a large bowl cream the butter, almond butter, and sugar together until smooth. Add the flax egg and stir until combined. Fold in the flour, baking soda, salt, and vanilla until barely combined, there will still be some patches of flouriness. Next fold in your chocolate chips until the flour just disappears. Put the dough in the fridge and pre-heat the oven to 375 F.

Line a cookie sheet with a silpat or parchment paper. Once the oven is pre-heated, remove the dough from the fridge and spoon even portions onto a cookie sheet leaving space in-between the cookies. This recipe should give you between 10-12 cookies. At this point, if you are using flaky salt, sprinkle it over the cookies. We think it tastes equally good with or without the flaky salt garnish. Bake 15-18 minutes rotating once in the middle. Remove from the oven and cool. Enjoy!

Fudgy Double Chocolate Gluten-Free Vegan Brownies

Camille and Anne used to go to church together. As children there were two things that we loved most about church: choir and coffee hour. Choir meant we got to sit in the choir loft, sing, and giggle together as we would dare each other to drop things on people below us. Coffee hour was a chance to take lots of delicious food and then hide in the trees hoping our parents wouldn’t find us and we could play together all day. Our favorite treats were lemon poppy seed cake and brownies. We would often take the brownies, ball them up in our hands and smoosh them until they turned into little fudgy morsels of joy and then eat them. This memory inspired Anne to create a gluten-free vegan version so that we could both enjoy them as adults. Camille thinks these taste like food made for angels.

Happy New Year, y’all!

Serves: 6-8

Time: 45 min (15 min active)

Ingredients

2 tbsp ground flax

1 cup almond milk

3/4 cup gluten-free oats

2/3 cup almond flour

2/3 cup raw cacao powder

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp vanilla powder or vanilla extract

1/4-1/2 tsp fine salt

1/2 cup neutral oil

2/3 cup coconut sugar

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup chocolate chips, we recommend Hu Gems

1/2 tsp flaky salt

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Pre-heat oven to 350 F and oil a 9 x 9 baking dish. Mix ground flax and almond milk in a small bowl and set aside.

In a blender or food processor, pulse oats until floury. Add the oat flour to a large mixing bowl with almond flour, raw cacao powder, baking powder, and fine salt. The reason the salt is a range is that different salts have different levels of saltiness. We recommend 1/2 tsp if you are using kosher salt and 1/4 tsp if you are using table salt. If you aren’t sure, start with less salt. Once the batter comes together you can taste and salt to taste. Stir to combine. If you are using vanilla powder, add it to the dry ingredients

In a smaller bowl, mix the oil, coconut sugar, vanilla (if using extract), apple cider vinegar, and the flax/almond mixture. Stir to incorporate.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and add wet mixture, stirring until fully mixed. You don’t have to worry about over mixing because there is no gluten. Fold in the chocolate chips and pour into oiled baking dish. Taste the batter and feel free to add more salt if it needs it. You will be adding flaky salt on top, so be careful not to over-salt. Top with flaky salt and bake for 30 minutes or until knife comes out clean.

Allow to fully cool (this is part of the cooking process). Slice and enjoy!

Ginger Lime Tofu

Serves: 4-6

Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

2 blocks firm tofu

1/2-1 cup cornstarch

salt

high heat oil for cooking tofu (e.g. avocado)

1 package rice noodles

1 tsp tamari

1/2 tsp sriracha

1 tsp sesame oil

1 bunch of chard or kale

For the sauce:

3 tbsp lime juice

1 tbsp agave

1 tbsp tamari

3 tbsp sesame oil

1 1/2 tbsp minced ginger

loosely packed 1/2 cup mint leaves

1/2 tsp salt

pinch cayenne

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Cut your blocks of tofu in half so that you have four, one inch thick rectangles. Press the tofu between two kitchen towels, placing a cast iron pan, or something heavy on them to remove some of the liquid. This process can be done with a tofu press.

While the tofu is being pressed, thinly slice the mint and chard into ribbons. Cook the rice pasta according to the instructions (remember to add enough salt to the pasta water that it tastes like the ocean). Once the pasta is cooked drain and rinse with cool water to keep it from getting gluey. Add the teaspoon of sesame oil, the sriracha and the teaspoon of tamari to the noodles and toss to coat.

Combine the cornstarch and a generous pinch of salt in a shallow bowl. Cut the pressed tofu into sticks about 3 inches by one inch by one inch. Toss the tofu a couple of pieces at a time in the cornstarch mixture until coated on all sides. Start with 1/2 cup cornstarch, if you run out mix up some more cornstarch and salt. If you forget to add salt to the cornstarch you can optionally sprinkle salt on the tofu while it is frying or right when it is removed from the heat and still glistening with oil. Heat 2 tbsp of high heat oil in a frying pan. Once hot, fry the tofu in batches on med-high making sure it gets golden brown on all sides. If you are unable to get color on your tofu, turn up the heat a little at a time until it browns after a few minutes. Be careful not to crowd the tofu as that will make it all stick together. We use tongs to turn each piece separately.

To make the sauce heat the 3 tbsp sesame oil in a small pan with ginger just until the ginger starts to become fragrant. Add the ginger and oil into a bowl with the rest of the ‘for the sauce’ ingredients except for the mint leaves. Once the tofu is cooked, put them back into the pan and pour the sauce into the pan and stir until it starts to bubble. Sprinkle mint leaves over this and fold them in, cook for a short time longer (less than 1 minute). Remove the tofu and place over the noodles. Next, wilt the chard with any remaining tofu sauce and add this to the noodle dish as well. Stir and enjoy!

Butternut Squash Chowder

This soup has the creamy chowder goodness and butternut squash yumminess that makes cool weather so exciting! It makes a great side and when we’re cooking it as a stand-alone dish we love to add cooked chickpeas to increase heartiness. This is another dish that goes great with garlic bread!

Photo credit: Tommy Uckert

Serves: 4-6

Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, sliced

1 tbsp + 1 tsp salt, divided

1/4 cup white wine

3 cloves garlic, minced

4 tbsp vegan butter (we like Miyoko’s)

1/3 cup all purpose flour (gluten free or regular)

1 medium butternut squash, chopped in 1/2inch pieces

7 cups of vegetable stock

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

2 tsp pepper

3 bay leaves

1 (4 inch) sprig rosemary

1 cup cashew cheese

1 tbsp fresh thyme, minced

1 tbsp fresh sage, minced

1 can chickpeas drained and rinsed (optional)

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Heat soup pot with olive oil. Add onions and 1 tsp of salt. Stir until brown (about 10 min). Add garlic and and stir for an additional 1 minute. Add nutmeg, stir for 30 seconds and then add white wine and cook until wine is gone. Add broth, butternut squash, 1 tbsp salt, pepper, bay leaves, rosemary (whole sprig).

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine butter and flour over a low heat until it darkens and smells a little toasty (this is how a roux is made). Add about a cup of broth from the soup to the roux, and stir until roux is dissolved fully in liquid, then add the liquid containing the roux to the soup. Bring the soup to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes or until butternut squash is tender. Add cashew cream, thyme, and sage. If using chickpeas, add them now.

Serve warm, and enjoy!

Black Bean Chili

Delicious warm chili for these cold nights. Happy solstice y’all!

We love eating this chili with garlic bread.

Serves: 4-6

Time: 1 hour 30 minutes (35 minutes active)

Ingredients

1 medium onion, chopped

5 cloves of garlic, minced

salt and pepper

1+ 1/4 tsp chili powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp taco mix

1/2 tsp garlic powder

2 medium zucchini, chopped

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

1 cup of corn, optional

2 cups drained and rinsed black beans*

3 cups vegetable broth (gluten-free option, soy-free option)

2 tbsp tomato paste

1/2 cup brown or wild rice

1-3 cups of water

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

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In a big soup pot over medium heat saute the onion and garlic in a little olive oil until the onions are soft and fragrant about 7 minutes.  Add the chili powder, taco mix, garlic powder, salt, pepper, tomato paste, and zucchini.  Stir well and continue to cook about 5 minutes.  Add the tomatoes and corn (optional) and cook another 3 minutes until the tomatoes start to release their juice. 

Add the rice and the broth. Reduce heat to an active simmer and cook about 40 minutes until the rice is almost tender.  Add 1 cup of water, beans, and apple cider vinegar and cook another 15 minutes, stirring regularly.  If it starts to stick on the bottom, add more water. Enjoy!

*Cooking black beans from dry:

In the Instant Pot:

To cook the black beans in an Instant Pot, add 1 cup of dried black beans to the pot.  Cover the beans with water (in the small Instant Pot this is about 6 cups of water), season with 1 tbsp kosher salt, 2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp garlic powder, and 1/4 tsp cayenne.  Set the Instant Pot to pressure cook for 19 minutes letting depressurize naturally.  Drain and rinse before adding to the dish.

On the stove:

If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can easily cook black beans from scratch with a little planning. First you will need to soak the beans which can be done one of two ways. 1. you can soak them overnight making sure they have enough water and space to double in size or 2. you can put them in a pot and bring to boil, then turn off the water and let soak for one hour. Again, make sure you have enough water and space that they can double in size.

Once you have soaked your beans, rinse them and then put in a pot with salty water. These will be cooking for about 2 hours so you don’t want as much salt as you would use for pasta, but you do want to add enough that you can taste the salt. The best way to get good at this is to practice. Each time you salt the water, taste it and when the beans are done taste them to see if they are well salted. A well salted bean should taste flavorful but not salty. If it tastes like you are eating salt, you added too much. If the bean lacks flavor then you didn’t have enough salt.

For this recipe, also add 2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp garlic powder, and 1/4 tsp cayenne to the black beans as they cook. Cook the beans until they are soft but not falling apart (this will take 1.5-2 hours).  We recommend checking the beans at about an hour and then every 20 minutes until they are soft but not disintegrating. Make sure your pot has enough water as I have definitely cooked all the water off before and burnt the beans! This may seem like a lot of work, however once you get the hang of it the work is almost all passive and the reward is high: black beans cooked from scratch taste much better and are much cheaper!

Vegan Cincinnati Style Inspired Chili

Anne’s husband grew up eating Cincinnati chili when he visited with his grandparents. Anne created this recipe with Beyond Beef so they can give him a nostalgic taste of childhood without cooking meat (because Anne doesn’t enjoy cooking meat). Like any recipe on our blog, this one is an interpretation. We add mushrooms and beans because we like the way the chili tastes with those additions. This recipe can be made without those ingredients if you do not enjoy them. A signature part of the Cincinnati chili from John’s childhood is that it was served with spaghetti and oyster crackers, and if gluten is not a problem for you, we invite you to try it with both. If not, the pasta can be replaced with a gluten-free pasta.

Serves: 4

Time: 1 hr (30 minute active time)

Ingredients

1 13.5oz can kidney beans, drained

1 13.5 oz can of water

8 oz cremini or baby bella mushrooms

1 small onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/2 tsp cumin

1/8 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp salt

1 box of spaghetti (gluten-free option)

oyster crackers (omit for gluten-free option)

For the sauce:

3 tbsp liquid from pickled banana peppers

1 13.5 oz can tomatoes

1/2 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp oregano

1 tsp cocoa powder

For the beef:

1/2 block Beyond Beef

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp cayenne

1/2 tsp taco mix

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Heat a large pot. Once hot, add 1/2 block of Beyond Beef (this has oil in it, so you don’t need to add oil). Stir to break beef into small crumbles. Continue cooking for about 10 minutes, stirring regularly. Add the “for the beef” seasonings and cook an additional 2 minutes or until the beef is golden brown and still has some moisture. While this is cooking, thinly slice your mushrooms and chop the onions and garlic.

Set the beef aside and add some oil to the pan. Once the oil heats up add the mushrooms and onions and cook these on a low heat stirring frequently. While these are cooking, put all of the “for the sauce” ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Once the mushrooms have released their liquid and the onions are slightly translucent add the garlic, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/8 tsp cloves, 1/2 tsp paprika and 1/2 tsp of salt to the pan. Cook for one more minute, being careful not to burn the spices. Add the sauce to the pan along with a can full of water (you can use this water to clean out your tomato can) and simmer this stirring frequently until it reduces by half, about half an hour.

Meanwhile boil a large pot of salty water. The water should taste about as salty as seawater so that the spaghetti soaks in the water and is perfectly salted when done. Don’t worry if these feels like a lot of salt; you will be draining the water. Once the water is boiling add a box of spaghetti and cook according to the package directions.

Once the sauce has reduced add the Beyond Beef crumbles and the drained beans. Cook another 15 minutes allowing flavors to meld. Serve over cooked spaghetti, optionally garnish with oyster crackers.

Enjoy!

Frozen Foods

Our intention with this blog is to share the food that we eat regularly. Posting our recipes online serve as a recipe box where we can easily find things we want to make again and we can share our creative selves with our family, friends, and friends we have not met yet. While this post isn’t a recipe of food from scratch, we do want to share some of our favorite frozen foods. In doing so, we want to normalize eating frozen food as well as give recommendations for allergy friendly frozen foods.

One of the stories that we soaked in from society is that there is ‘good’ food and ‘junk’ food. The terms ‘plant based’, ‘fresh’, and ‘natural’ are often used to mean ‘good’. At the same time, anything that has been ‘processed’, has sugar in it, or has been demonized in the diet de-jour is called ‘junk’ food. There is also a strong connection between foods that are labeled ‘junk’ and foods that are readily available and more accessible. Knowing this, what does it mean when we conflate a person’s value with the foods they eat?

It has been incredibly healing for us to learn that food is actually morally neutral. Although we tried for many years, it turned out we were never able to eat our way into being ‘good’. Reducing food to its nutritional ‘value’ and demonizing food that doesn’t meet the diet-culture rules of the moment strips it of all of the other ways that food can nourish us.

One of our dear friends and amazing community organizer Dan Lynn (DoBetterConsulting) talks about paying attention to what your body is wanting in this very concrete way: What textures would bring you pleasure? Do you want cold foods or hot foods? Do you want something sweet, salty, sour, savory? Having access to different foods that bring us pleasure and keeping them on hand has been so useful to us in learning how to trust and befriend our bodies. Today we will talk about 3 frozen foods that Anne likes to keep in their freezer.

First up are ‘potato puffs’ (a food definitely not commonly referred to as tater tots as this is a trademark of Ore-Ida). I especially enjoy Alexia brand potato products. These Alexia brand ‘Yukon Select Puffs’ contain “organic potatoes, organic vegetable oil (canola, sunflower, safflower), sea salt, organic cornflower, organic dehydrated potato, organic apple juice concentrate” (as of 10/2/2020). These are currently gluten-free, nut-free, soy-free, and vegan, however Alexia brand recommends checking the ingredients each time you purchase their product as the ingredient list indicates the current contents and they may change. Many brands make a ‘potato puff’ product similar to these, however if you think you will be serving these to folks with allergies we recommend checking the ingredients closely as many seasonings include wheat and dairy. Alexia brand’s particular preparation of potatoes reminds me of the frozen hash-browns my father would keep around when they were on sale. They were soft on the inside and crisp on the outside, and honestly, I love potatoes anyway they are prepared.

My recent favorite is tossing these ‘puffs’ in creole seasoning when they are fresh and hot out of the oven. Creole seasoning is available from many spice brands or there are a bunch of recipes to make it yourself on the internet. I like to make it myself because I can control the spice level and allergen exposure. I haven’t tried them tossed in our ranch powder yet, but I look forward to that adventure!

The next frozen food I love is these frozen samosas. You might notice a potato trend here, but what can I say? Potatoes are amazing. Samosas are a food that I have tried to make from scratch but mine didn’t turn out well and I didn’t enjoy the experience of frying them. When it comes to foods that are traditionally deep fried, I often feel this way. These samosas have a crisp pastry outside and a generous filling of spiced potatoes and peas. The chutney that comes with them tastes bright and herbaceous. I am a big fan of eating at Indian restaurants, and, for me, this is the next best thing. This brand of frozen samosas has the following ingredients (as of 10/2/2020): Potatoes, Wheat Flour, Water, Sunflower Oil, Green Peas, Vegetable Oil (contains one or more of the following: sesame oil, soya bean oil, palm oil), Spices, Salt, Green Chillies, Coriander Leaves CHUTNEY: Water, Mint Leaves, Sugar, Dates, Tamarind, Coriander Leaves, Green Chilies, Salt, Spices.

Feel Good Foods makes several varieties of potstickers which are all gluten free! I love the vegetable ones which are also vegan, the ingredients as of 10/2/2020 are: cabbage, water, rice flour, onions, tapioca starch, carrots, vermicelli (potato starch, mung bean starch, and water), canola oil, corn starch, scallion, sesame oil, mushrooms, salt, cane sugar, konjac flour, xantham gum, ginger, yeast extract, black pepper. The dipping sauce contains: tamari soy sauce (water, soybeans, salt, sugar), sugar, distilled vinegar, garlic puree, ginger puree, citric acid, and spice. When I cook these, I mostly follow the instructions on the box however tweak them a little bit: I like to steam the dumplings for just 10 minutes and then take the lid off for the last 2 minutes so they start to get a crust on them instead of being soft all the way through.

I like these potstickers because they have a variety of flavors and textures going on. The filling is umami and the dipping sauce has a salty sweet flavor. The wrappers, where steamed, have a delightful chewiness to them and on the bottoms they are crispy and delicious.

We want to acknowledge that the branding on this box contains food moralizing that makes us uncomfortable. Food is not good or bad, and you cannot become a good or bad person by eating certain types of food. If this doesn’t make sense to you, we’d love you to sit with the question “who profits from you believing that you need to eat certain foods in order to be good”?

GF Vegan Cheese Crackers

One thing that’s moving through us right now is the complexity of sweet memories of Thanksgiving (also known as ThanksTaking) paired with our more recent understanding of how this holiday is a day of mourning for many folks, particularly for those who are Native to this land. We want to acknowledge that ThanksTaking is a holiday where settler colonists celebrate the myth of our ‘good relationships’ with the people who they committed genocide against, tried to erase from existence, stole land from, and continue to occupy un-ceded territories of. At the same time, ThanksTaking has always been Camille’s second favorite holiday: a day where you cook food all day, play games with people you love, and rest.

This year, the COVID pandemic is reminding us how colonists intentionally spread smallpox to Native folks for the purpose of killing and stealing their lands. We are holding the fact that there are Native song holders and language holders who could be killed in this current pandemic which could end some languages and some songs. Despite that, many white settlers are planning to continue their holiday traditions as usual.

One thing we are loving is this podcast episode from All My Relations Podcast: ThanksTaking or ThanksGiving? However you are spending this Thursday, we hope you are taking sweet care of your animal bodies. We thought we would share these crackers today because they are delicious and they go perfectly with Camille’s sister’s favorite ThanksTaking appetizer or any creamy cheese dip.

Makes: 2 non-commercial sheet pans of crackers

Time: 1 1/2 hrs (30 minutes active time)

Ingredients

1 cup fine almond flour

1/3 cup coconut flour

1/2 cup oats

6 tbsp cornmeal

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1 tsp mustard powder

1/8 tsp cayenne

1 1/2 tsp salt

6 tbsp Miyoko’s Creamery butter, cold

1 cup water

8-10 ice cubes

1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

and salt for topping

extra gluten free flour for sprinkling on counter top (rice or all-purpose gluten-free baking flour)

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Put 8-10 ice cubes in a bowl with a cup of water and 1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar.

Put the oats and the cornmeal in a blender or food processor and blend until it becomes floury. Add all the dry ingredients including what you’ve just blended into a big bowl. Add the cold butter into the dry ingredients and cut the butter into the flour.

There are many ways to cut the butter into the flour. You can use knives, a pastry cutter, or your hand. We use our hands to quickly pinch the butter into the dry ingredients. You should have butter chunks about the size of a pea. Do not keep going until the butter feels sandy, this is too far. You need to do this step fairly quickly so that you don’t melt the butter with your hands.

Once you’ve cut the butter into the flour mixture, add the 6-8 tbsp of ice water 1 tbsp at a time tossing with a fork in between each tablespoon. Eventually this will start to come together. When more than half of your mixture has come together you can start to smoosh with your hands to try and make a ball. Continue to add one tablespoon of water at a time until all the dough sticks together in a nice ball. You do need this to stay cool, however because this is gluten-free you don’t need to worry about ‘overworking’ the dough. You will have a decent amount of ice water left over, and that is okay.

Once this comes together, put your dough on a plate in the fridge. Once it’s in the fridge, pre-heat the oven to 350 F. This means the dough will sit in the fridge for about 20 minutes or as long as it takes for your oven to pre-heat.

Once the oven is hot, cut the ball of dough in half. If you have 2 sheet pans and 2 silpats (or enough parchment paper) you can roll each half of the ball out and cook at the same time. Keep the half you aren’t rolling in the fridge while you roll the first half. If you only have 1 sheet pan/silpat you will have to cook in batches. It is also okay to leave the dough in the fridge covered overnight and cook the second batch the next day.

Sprinkle the silpat or parchment paper with rice or all-purpose gluten-free flour then place half the dough in the center of the floured silpat or parchment paper. Next sprinkle the dough and rolling pin with rice or all-purpose gluten-free flour and then roll out the dough onto the silpat. If you don’t have a rolling pin you can use a wine bottle. If it starts to stick to your rolling pin, you can add more flour to the dough or rolling pin. Rolling out crackers is a skill that takes practice, so be gentle with yourself. The goal is to roll out the dough evenly so that it cooks evenly. Aim for the thickness of a thin cracker like a cheez-it, about 1/8 inch thick. During this process the dough will naturally crack near the edges, push the cracked edges back in to seal the cracks. This makes a thick section in your dough, roll it out again. In this way you can control the shape and edges of the dough. If this is challenging, just know they taste great even if the shapes don’t come out in a ‘normative’ way.

Place the silpat or parchment paper with rolled out dough onto a baking sheet. Cut the dough by pressing down with a dull knife. Don’t pull the knife, rather press down multiple times to cut through the dough in a straight line. This is because you don’t want to cut the silpat and don’t want to pull the dough out of shape. Use a fork to puncture the dough. Sprinkle with salt. If you have a second silpat and sheet pan roll out the second batch of your crackers at this point. While you do this you will either want to be baking the first batch (be careful with timing as it can be tricky) or put the first batch in the fridge while you roll out the second and then bake both together.

Bake for 9 minutes and rotate the pan 180 degrees (and possibly switch shelves if your oven is hotter on top or bottom). Then cook 10 more minutes. They will be slightly darker in color but not significantly. If you give them a poke they will feel firm. Let them cool on the sheet pan for 15 minutes. They will get crispy as they cool down. Do not skip the cooling step this is part of the cooking process.

Apple Crumble

Anne was seven when they were first told that dairy and sugar were making them sick. This meant that many birthday parties were full of food they couldn’t eat and parents complaining that Anne was too difficult. In some cases they were even un-invited from the birthday party because the parents didn’t know how to provide food in a way that would be inclusive (or even allow Anne to bring their own food).

Camille’s mom was the first of Anne’s friend’s parents to cook food with Anne’s food needs in mind. If you have food allergies, you know the sheer joy of arriving to a party finding there is food you can eat because someone thought of you specifically. There is so much joy in a meal that was created with you in mind. It’s receiving love on so many levels.

Apple crumble was the first dessert that Camille’s mom made for us after Anne’s food allergies were identified and we still love it to this day. Cooking the recipe brings up warm loving feelings of home and the joy of not being a burden, but just being loved by family. Eating it is bliss, because, well, it’s a very good recipe.

Serves: 4-6

Time: 1 1/2 hrs, 45 min active

Ingredients

Filling

4 apples, peeled and sliced

3 T maple syrup

1 T cinnamon

2 T cornstarch

Topping

3/4 cup almond pulp (can use almond flour here)

3/4 steel cut oats (gluten-free option)

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp salt

2 T coconut sugar

1 T maple syrup

1/2 cup pecans or walnuts (optional candied nuts if you have them)

1/2 c vegan butter, cold

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Pre-heat the oven to 375 F.

Peel and slice the apples into thin wedges. Toss them in a bowl with all the filling ingredients until evenly coated. Put in the bottom of a casserole dish or a deep pie pan around the size of 8X8. Using the same bowl, put the almond pulp, oats, cardamom, cloves, salt, and coconut sugar together and mix until fully incorporated. Next you cut the butter into by using your hands to quickly pinch the butter with the other ingredients until you have evenish small chunks of butter throughout the crumble topping. These chunks should be about the size of a pea or slightly larger. Drizzle the maple syrup onto the mixture and add the pecans. Use a fork to quickly toss this together being careful not to overmix or melt the butter. Spread the topping out over the apple filling and bake for about 40 minutes. After 40 minutes the topping should have become more solid and less like individual bits of oats as well as being slightly browned and crispy at this point bring the crisp out. It is done cooking now so you can try to eat it hot, although we recommend cooling it slightly to avoid burning yourself. Enjoy!

Twice Baked Potatoes

Twice baked potatoes are one of Camille’s family recipes. It’s something her mom would always make for dinner parties, holidays, and when she just wanted the family to feel special. Adding a bit of sweet potato to the regular potatoes makes these morsels just the right amount of salty, sweet, fatty goodness!

A note on potatoes. Any kind of white potatoes can be used for this recipe, but Russet (or Idaho) potatoes are the easiest because they have more durable skin. Camille also likes waxy potatoes because of the tenderness of the potato skins. When using waxy potatoes, cook for a shorter period of time (about 45 minutes) and be gentle when scooping out the insides. Leave some extra potato on the skin to create a more stable cup.

We like to pair these potatoes with Mushroom Gravy and/or Cranberry Sauce, especially for the fall! Mushroom gravy is a great pairing not only because of the flavor combination, but also because together these recipes use a whole head of roasted garlic. If you opt to just make the potatoes, roast the garlic in a small cast iron pan at 350 F for about 20 minutes or until soft, flipping the cloves 10 minutes in.

This recipe is great for holidays when oven space is sparse because they can be prepared in advance and warmed up the day of. We highly recommend turning leftovers into a gourmet brunch experience by serving a fried egg over the open face of a twice baked potato. Garnish with chives and voila: glamour brunch!

Serves: 8 as a side

Time: 2 hours 15 minutes (active 30 minutes)

Ingredients:

3 lbs of russet potatoes (about 4)

1 orange sweet potato/yam

olive oil

4 garlic cloves, roasted and smashed (optional)

3/4 cup cashew cheese

2 T vegan butter (soy-free option, we like Miyokos)

salt

pepper

paprika (optional)

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Pre-heat the oven 375 F. Stab the potatoes with a fork and bake in the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes or until tender when poked with a fork. If you have time, baking the potatoes the night before makes this a quick side. You can roast the garlic at the same time. Once tender, remove from the oven and cool.

Slice the potatoes in half lengthwise and spoon the innards out into a large bowl. Mash with the other ingredients (except paprika) until you have a nice mashed potato consistency (we like lumps, but if you like smooth, go for that)! Spoon this mixture back into the empty potato shells. Sprinkle with paprika (optional) and bake for another 15 minutes. The second bake serves the purpose of re-warming the potatoes and achieving some crispiness on top.

Cranberry Sauce

Woof. Election day is here! As Matika Wilbur and Adrienne Keene say “Vote (if you want to & can)”. If you haven’t listened to this most recent All My Relations podcast episode, we highly recommend it.

We love cranberries and particularly this recipe because the bright acidity can balance out a plate of fall foods. The cheerfulness of this acidity is a great pick me up, and right now we’re both needing that. We wrote the recipe to be very sour because that’s how Anne likes it, however we recommend adding as much agave/sugar/maple syrup as you like until this is the perfect sweetness for you.

Serves: 4-6 as a topping

Time: 3 hours, 15min active

Ingredients

12oz cranberries

zest of half an orange

juice of half an orange

1 cup apple cider (or juice)

1 cinnamon stick

5 cardamom pods

8 cloves

1/8 tsp salt

sweetener to taste (sugar, agave, maple syrup, etc.)

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We recommend you tie the cardamom pods and cloves in a spice sachet before putting them into the pot. This makes it easier to pull out at the end. Alternatively, you can leave the spices in the final product, and be aware they will change the texture/experience.

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan over med high heat and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and simmer until thick. We recommend about 3 hours, but this is flexible depending on how thick you like your sauce. This can be removed from the heat at anytime and you can re-heat to continue thickening later if you need to take a break in the cooking process.

2-4 tbsp of agave creates a punchy tart cranberry sauce experience, add more agave until you get to your perfect level of sweetness!

Mushroom Gravy

Fall cozy food season has arrived here and we are loving this crowd favorite mushroom gravy. It is creamy, umami, and pairs well with mashed potato, roasted cauliflower, and cranberries.⁠

Makes: 20 oz

Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

8 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp salt

Most of a head of roasted garlic (you can save a couple of cloves to eat on bread or use the whole head)

1 1/4 cups hot vegetable broth (gluten-free option, soy-free option)

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup mashed potato or 1/2 of a medium waxy potato, roasted or boiled (if you can’t eat nightshades, parsnips work well as a replacement for the potato)

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Saute the mushrooms until browned, over medium heat, about 20 minutes, adding pepper after 15 minutes.

In a blender, combine all the ingredients including the cooked mushrooms. Blend until smooth. For a thicker gravy, add more potato. Season to taste.