Winter is the time for hard squash, and they are all fun to cook. Whether it's spaghetti squash, butternut squash, or acorn squash, there are lots of surprisingly delicious ways to prepare them.
It's the holiday season, and this vegan chef does not normally celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas. I cook for a living which means I'm knee deep in roasting turkeys and hams, sweet potatoes and lots and lots of veggies. Our Chef has a southwest themed part of the menu that looks very enticing.
On this blog there aren't many holiday vegan recipes, but there are lots of other vegan food bloggers providing you with much holiday vegan cooking cheer.
Have you ever faced the produce section in the grocery store and wondered about all that squash? The different varieties, how to cook them, what they even are? And what about that pumpkin you carved a few weeks ago for Halloween? Was that actually edible?
The cooking method remains the same. Bust them open-- carefully! -- with a very sharp knife. Clean out all the seeds, chunk them up and then roast or bake them in an oven. You can then transform the squash into soups, purees, pies, and other delicious dishes for meals.
My friends like that I cook vegan. They have lots of questions. It is one of the reasons I started this blog. There's a new buzz word I've heard "plant-based diet." The phrase has two very unappealing words to me. Plant, and diet.
I'll stick with vegan. I'm a Vegan Chef in an industry that cooks with meat, lots and lots of meat. The last few weeks as I've been working on the Tofu Bacon, I've taken heat.
I compost. I don't like throwing all that good food waste into the landfill. And even though I don't have a reason to compost, I have this fantasy of being able to grow the food that I prepare and eat on a regular basis. It's not practical with the job I have, but at least the thought is there. And composting is fun.
Sometimes I like to add a bit of heat to my dishes. If I'm making Sonoran Quinoa cakes, or Tofu Chili Tacos, I like to have this tomatillo sauce ready on the side. It's great with rice and beans, or mock chicken fajitas, and other delicious dishes you can think of.
The other day, I went into full on cooking for the week mode — making several dishes and some sauces all at the same time. Earlier this year, I had picked up a salad spinner at a local thrift store for like $2.50. The parsley and cilantro I had bought were a bit on the dirty side, so they got a nice bath in cold water, and then, I thought, wow, it’s going to take a bit to dry these, and I needed them quick. I was ready to process the Falafel mixture in the food processor. Then, I spied the salad spinner. Guess what got spun? First the Cilantro, and then the parsley. If I were using them together, I would have spun them together, but I needed cilantro for chutney.
Curry: A tale of cooks & conquerors by Lizzie Collingham is my current quest to further culinary knowledge. I’ve read a fourth of the book and learned more history then I was taught in high school about other countries. But I grew up in the West, in America, and here it is about cowboys and cows, not curries, vegetables, and Persian overlords.
This is not a recipe book, it is one person’s view of how curries evolved in India through the influence of other cultures. And it is an academic, not popular, view.
Marinades can make all the difference in the way food tastes. A good Vinaigrette adds the necessary acids to balance flavors of vegetables and fruits. Mastering salad dressings will help in making you seem like a rock star chef to your friends and family.
Finding the delicate balance between sweet and sour is the challenge in making a good vinaigrette. Too much acidity, and it overwhelms the food, not enough, and it will fall flat.
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