Experimentation: A Three Course Fully Squashy Meal

As the title suggests, I decided to cook up a huge meal consisting of some type of squash as the main ingredient for an appetizer, entree and dessert. The pictures are abhorrent, and again wine was involved, so please forgive me for taking photos of everything after half of it was already chewed up and digested. I really need to get better about that. We were all so merry and drinking wine that I completely forgot about taking photos for my blog post until after I'd already desecrated each entree. The reason for the jolliness was not just because the food was so amazing (even though it was). We were also celebrating Roy's sister Jennifer's birthday! I decided our family dinner night would be a great opportunity to cook a fully vegan dinner and to get feedback on the different recipes I was trying. And since Jennifer was born in the fall season, I thought it would be perfect to use fall seasonal produce.


The first step was to create a menu. I opted for a Thai Curry and Coconut Butternut Squash Soup, followed by Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti (or as you may now know it, my Lasagna Cake), and ending on a sweet note with Grain Free Pumpkin Bars with an icing you may remember from my By Accident Sugar Cookie Kale Chips Recipe. I'll explain...

For the butternut squash soup, I didn't follow the recipe entirely. The changes I made are as follows:

1. I didn't have kaffir lime leaves and had no idea where to buy them.
2. I used coconut oil instead of grapeseed oil.
3. I added a lot more than 1-2 tsp of the thai red curry paste because we all agreed the soup needed more kick
4. While I did roast the butternut squash, and sauteed the onion, ginger and garlic, once those items were done cooking, I threw all the ingredients into my Vitamix and blended for fifteen minutes at a pretty high variable (7-10). 

Blending the soup!

After 15 minutes of blending, the soup was piping hot, and I added what I felt was missing from the flavor; more thai curry paste, more salt, some fresh ginger, etc. I had everyone do a taste test until they all agreed the soup absolutely positively could not be better. I agreed. It was heaven. And the color is so gorgeous, like a setting golden sun. Ahh...

You may be able to see from the picture that I served the soup topped with roasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) and cilantro. I highly recommend the cilantro. I found so many recipes of butternut squash soup, and everyone uses something different. You'll find everything from popcorn to pomegranate
seeds to almond slivers. But trust me on this one, add the chopped up cilantro.

Thai Curry and Coconut Butternut Squash Soup topped with pepitas and cilantro

Here's my recipe, adapted from eclecticcook.com (who adapted it from disneyfamily.com).

Thai Curry and Coconut Butternut Squash Soup
Adapted from eclecticcook.com

1 large butternut squash, about 2 pounds
1 tbsp oil, I used  coconut oil
¼ cup onion, minced
1 TBS freshly grated ginger
2 cloves garlic
1-2 TBS Thai Red Curry paste (+ or - depending on your heat preference)
4 cups chicken broth
14 oz coconut milk (I used Silk brand Coconut Milk)
1 tsp salt (I used Himalayan Sea Salt)
2 TBS freshly squeezed lime juice
Cilantro, chopped (for garnish. Optional but highly recommended)
Pepitas (for garnish)

Preheat over to 400°F. Cut the squash in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Brush the cut sides of the squash with oil and place cut side down on a baking sheet or baking tin.  Roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until very tender. The squash should have a creamy texture. Once the squash has cooled enough to handle, scoop the flesh out of the peel using a spoon.
 

Sauté onion, garlic and ginger until lightly brown. 

Add scooped out butternut squash flesh into the blender, along with sauteed onion, garlic and ginger. Blend

Add in remaining ingredients (except for the pepitas and cilantro, as they are your garnish). Blend for fifteen minutes or so, checking on it every so often. Taste the soup, and add any additional spices as you see fit. 

Serve, top with pepitas and cilantro. Enjoy!

I won't go into details about the making of the spaghetti squash spaghetti, AKA my Lasagna Cake, because I've already covered it in my previous post. I will say, however, that everyone loved it. I witnessed family members going for seconds, so that's like, a big deal. Right? The spaghetti went really well with wine, so that's also a bonus. And a bigger bonus is, no one felt bloated or guilty. I didn't add the cheese this time, so it was even healthier than the original Lasagna Cake I made. I'll throw in a picture here, but the camera just wasn't doing it justice. I hope it still looks as delicious as it tasted!!!

Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti AKA Lasagna Cake

Moving onward to ... drumroll please... the dessert! Yes, it's the last item on the menu, and it's still vegan, it's still healthy, and it's made of squash! Cue the Grain Free Pumpkin Bars! Yay!!!

I only changed one item from the original recipe because I swapped the honey for agave syrup like I always do. Also, I didn't follow the suggested "icing" for the cake and instead opted to make my own. I even went the extra mile of making my own almond butter, instead of buying a can of it at the store. 

Making your own almond butter is super easy as long as you have the right tools (a powerful blender like the Vitamix) and you learn the tricks. I had to do some research and when I tried making almond butter the first time, I succeeded in five minutes.

All you need are almonds, but HEAT THEM UP FIRST! This is so important, and I'm sorry for shouting that out at you, but I wanted to make sure you were paying attention. When the almonds are heated up, they release the oils quicker and easier (which means you won't have to add additional oil/liquid to get that buttery consistency!) Do not throw a bunch of almonds in your Vitamix two seconds after taking them out of the fridge (if that's where you keep them.) You can roast them for ten minutes, or do what I did, which is to toss them in the dehydrator for 20-30 minutes at 130°F. Once they're warmed up, toss the almonds into your Vitamix, start at Variable 1 and blend. In a minute or two, you'll move it up to Variable 3, and use your tamper to move the almonds around or push the crumbles down toward the blades. This process shouldn't take longer than 10 minutes, but I had a half a cup of almond butter made in five minutes. 

Once I had the almond butter made, I mixed it in with the pumpkin puree, agave, eggs, spices, baking soda and vanilla extract, and then baked the mixture. While it was baking, I set off to create my icing. If you've ever looked at my blog post about the Sugar Cookie Kale Chips, you'll find my icing inspiration right there! It's all vegan, and yummy yummy. 

The Kale Queen's Sugar Cookie Glaze

1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 cup cashews, soaked
5 medjool dates, soaked
1 TBS chia seeds
1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp Himalayan pink sea salt.
1/2 TBS cinnamon

Blend all ingredients. Pour out on top of Grain Free Pumpkin Bars and serve.

The icing paired so well with the pumpkin bars. I'll probably use this icing recipe on muffins, pancakes, and any other healthy pastry I might make. It's sinfully sweet, minus the sin. Haha!

Oh yeah! I should take pictures of the pumpkin bars before it's all gobbled up!

So there you have it! A fully vegan, fully squashtastic meal that you don't have to feel guilty eating. I think it still surprises me that vegetables can be eaten as dessert and taste amazing. And yes, I categorize pumpkins (and tomatoes!) as vegetables, regardless of their scientific identity. It took me a long time before I considered healthy food anything other than cardboard bran. I hope that anyone who reads my blog realizes that it's possible to eat healthy AND yummy without sacrificing on either one. 

I hope you've enjoyed this menu, and again, I apologize for the photos. I will try to do better next time. Til then, maybe you can let me know your outcome with this menu! 

-Kale Queen

By Accident SUGAR COOKIE KALE CHIPS!

That's right. I said it. It started out as an accident. It was amazing. It needed a name. And so it was called "By Accident Sugar Cookie Kale Chips." I like it.

Let me take you to the very beginning.....

I got my dehydrator! And as I suspected, I fell in love, and went ape shit on Pinterest, scavenging for awesome dehydrator recipes. My first goal was to create those delicious "cheesy" kale chips you can buy at Whole Foods. They're super delicious and nutritious, and I have quite an addiction to them, but at $5.99 a bag, I needed to figure out how to make them myself. Five websites, two trips to the store, 12 hours and 115° later, I nailed it. I used this recipe because a reviewer promised it made identical cheesy kale chips to the Blessing's Alive & Radiant kind (my favorite!) I have to say, I wholeheartedly agree with said reviewer, but I had to add chia seeds (because they're missing from the recipe, but they're listed as an ingredient on the BA&R recipe.)

The "cheesy" kale chips. So good!!!

Roy wasn't the biggest fan of the cheesy kale chips though. He wasn't a big fan of the various cheesy varieties we bought at Whole Foods either, so I didn't take offense. I did, however, ponder if he would prefer sweeter kale chips. Afterall, he loves kale shakes, and those are sweet, so maybe he'd like sweet kale chips! Daniella, the rockstar you met in my last post, graciously gave me some of her recipes (which I will recreate and share with you later.) She also told me to make up my own and try out different ingredients.

I guess you could say I followed her advice, without intending to. You see, I wasn't quite ready to embark on that inventive voyage yet. I thought it would take months before I would feel comfortable throwing things in the dehydrator and coming out with masterpieces. But nay! It took two batches of follow-the-recipe kale chips, and then.....!!!

My valiant Vitamix

Ok I'm getting ahead of myself, so let me explain. I intended to make this recipe, Almond Crunch Kale Chips. I found it on Pinterest, and for some reason, assumed immediately that "almond" and "crunch" implied "sweet." (Maybe it's because usually any nut + crunch in cereal equals too-much-damn-sugar-in-a-bowl. Who knows. Anyway, that was my first mistake. My second mistake was skimming the recipe, reading the ingredient "almond flour" and thinking "oh, I have that in my pantry." Wrong again. I have coconut flour in my pantry. Not almond flour. That's not to say that I couldn't have made almond flour, but I haven't quite mastered my food processor, and the Vitamix isn't the best at making flour. So that recipe was scrapped (or rather, put on hold.)

Coconut Almond Kale Chips

I continued my search on Pinterest and found a recipe for Coconut Almond Kale Chips, and tried them. These actually came out really well. I had every ingredient except for dried cherries, but since I am not a fan of them anyway, I omitted the cherries altogether. Roy liked these chips a lot more than the cheesy kale chips I made earlier, yet he still wasn't quite sold. But just like with kale shakes, I knew I had to continue my quest for "the one." His "the one" kale shake is the Pistachio Ice Cream Kale Shake which I mentioned in one of my earliest posts. So I had to find his "the one" for kale chips too! Or, gosh darnit, I had to make it!

1/2 cup soaked cashews, ready to go!

Inspired by all the kale chip recipes I'd read through, and Daniella's suggestions for some kale chip flavors, I went to the lab, aka kitchen, and set out to invent the most amazing sweet kale chips in the universe! I grabbed five medjool dates, and soaked them in some water. I soaked five dates this time because I felt the chips weren't too sweet with the last batch, and I only used four dates in that recipe. I also soaked half a cup of cashews for a couple of hours. Once those were all nice and soaked up, I tossed them in the Vitamix with 1/2 a cup of almond milk and blended. I walked around the kitchen staring at the pantry, the fridge and the spice rack, and thought about the ingredients I put in Roy's favorite shake. Aha, vanilla extract. I added a teaspoon. I walked around some more. I grabbed the fancy shmancy himalayan pink sea salt we bought, and sprinkled some in. Blend blend. I kept walking (in circles.) Chia seeds! I scooped out a tablespoon of chia seeds and added them to the blender too. At this point, the Vitamix started sputtering some, so I added some of the water from the soaked dates. Just enough to allow the mixture to continue smoothly blending. I thought about how I mistook my coconut flour for almond flour, and brought out the bag. That led me to think about the Almond Crunch Kale Chips recipe again, so I opened the recipe link and and saw it called for 2 tsp coconut oil. I added 2 tsp coconut oil to the blender too. This was either going to be really BOSS or a big fat loss. *snicker*

Five little dates, soaked and ready to be pulverized!

Upon opening the Vitamix lid, the overwhelming sensation of heavenly cookie-like goodness filled my nostrils. I scooped the mixture out, abstained from eating the entire thing with a spoon, and spread it over 2 smallish bunches of kale that I'd previously washed, destemmed and chopped up. I massaged the kale and then added about 1/4 cup of the coconut flour. Then I grabbed a bag of sliced almonds, crushed them even more in my hands, and sprinkled a few handfuls of the so-called almond crunch into the kale. Finally, I felt like the batch was ready, so I cranked the dehydrator to 115° again, and set it for 12 hours. I layered out all the kale pieces onto the dehydrator trays, and sprinkled some cinnamon over a few of the chips on the last tray. Cinnamon can be overwhelming in flavor, so I wanted to try this recipe both with and without cinnamon.

After 11 hours, the chips were super crispy, and the taste was Uh-MAAAZ-ing. Roy agreed, with the eyes-rolling-in-the-back-of-his-head kind of approval. Ah, sweet sugar cookie success. I've made the recipe two or three times now, and I can't keep up with demand. Roy has already mentioned we need a second dehydrator. I'm just super thrilled that I found yet another way to get the guy to eat vegetables. Oh, and the cinnamon was a win.

Into the dehydrator they go!

So, to recapitulate, (fancy word for fancy chips)

By Accident Sugar Cookie Kale Chips

1 large or 2 small bunches of kale
1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 cup cashews, soaked
5 medjool dates, soaked
1 TBS chia seeds
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-3 handfuls sliced almonds
1/4 cup coconut flour
2 tsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp himalayan pink sea salt.
Cinnamon (as much or as little as you want)

Check up on them while they're dehydrating (and munch a few)

1. Wash kale. Remove stems. Rip up in bite size pieces.
2. In a blender, add almond milk, cashews, dates, chia seeds, vanilla extract, coconut oil, himalayan sea salt and cinnamon (if you want cinnamon). BLEND.
3. Add mixture to chopped kale and massage leaves.
4. Add coconut flour and sliced almonds to batch. Mix well.
5. Spread kale leaves in a single layer on dehydrator trays.
6. Set dehydrator at 115° for 12 hours.
7. Stare at watch woefully for 12 hours, checking on kale chips every so often to devour a piece and hope they're ready
8. Eat ALL the chips!

I'd love to hear back from you when you try this recipe. I know you'll love it!

Stay tuned. There's something cookin' for next time! (But not really!!!! Gotta love raw!)

-Kale Queen