Spaghetti Squash w/ Mushroom Marinara and Rosemary Bread

I’m not a big fan of spaghetti. It’s so plain. But I DO love winter squash! Spaghetti squash makes a really great alternative to regular wheat spaghetti if you’re tired of plain old noodles and sauce. It’s got a nice crunchy texture, but by itself it’s horribly plain. It makes a good vessel for a kick ass marinara!

I’ve also never been a big fan of marinara or tomato sauces in general. The store bought stuff just doesn’t do it for me. Then I started making my own… and wow. I love it now, and I want to put it on everything! It’s easy and so much tastier. You can leave the re-hydrated shiitakes out if you don’t have them, but you’ll be missing out on a lot! You can buy them pretty cheaply at an asian market. Dried shiitakes have so much more flavor than fresh!

I also made a bread from a recipe found on Vegweb.com to go with my meal. I’m not adventurous enough to start making my own bread recipes just yet. I don’t even know if I will now, since this bread is just so good!

First, I’ll start with roasting of the spaghetti squash.

serves 4

• 1 medium sized spaghetti squash
• olive oil for brushing
• salt and pepper
• water
  

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Cut the squash in half through the middle and scoop out the seeds. Brush the insides with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place cut sides down in a baking dish filled up to about an inch with water. Bake at 400 for 45 minutes to an hour.

Mushroom Marinara

serves 4

• 1 small onion, sliced thinly
  
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp. Earth Balance margarine
• 2 c. canned diced tomatoes
• 1/2 c. canned tomato sauce
• 1 1/2 c. sliced mushrooms (white or baby bella)
• 6 re-hydrated shiitake mushrooms
  
• 2 tbsp. white cooking wine
• 1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp. molasses
• 1 tbsp. agave nectar
• 1 tbsp. dried basil
• salt and pepper to taste

Melt the margarine in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and saute until tender. Add the mushrooms and saute until the mushrooms start releasing their moisture.

Deglaze the pan with the white wine. Add the cans of diced tomatoes and sauce. Add the molasses, agave, basil and stir well. Cover the pan, lower the heat, and allow to simmer for 30-45 minutes (not an exact time, but basically just let it cook for however much time you have- the longer the better).

This next part is optional. I depends on how you like your sauce- super chunky or somewhat smooth with some chunks in it. I prefer the latter. If you want, add half of the cooked marinara to a blender and pulse a few times to chop up the mushrooms a bit.

Oh, and the rosemary bread. Where do I start? It really was as the title suggested. AMAZING. Perfectly soft and doughy. Great flavor. I added a bit of basil, garlic powder and marjoram to it as well. I also brushed the top with some melted margarine. I highly recommend this recipe. It’s the best bread I’ve ever had!

And the finished product on my hideous plates. Not much to look at, but man it was good!

Figgin’ Nuts Wheat Free Muffins

I made these muffins for my aunt, who can’t have wheat and who donated the figs to me! She also gave me her old Vitamix, which I used to grind up the oats for the flour.

These muffins are very dense but not heavy or tough. They have a nice chew to them! If you don’t have (or don’t like) fresh ripe figs, try using a fresh peach or two.

makes 12 muffins

About 2 1/2 c. oats (ground into 1 1/2 c. flour)
1/2 c. sugar of your choice
3/4 c. soy milk
2 tbsp. ground flax
1/2 c. applesauce
20 small, very ripe figs
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cider vinegar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a standard sized cupcake sheet with paper cups and set aside.

Grind up your oats in a blender or food processor until they’re super fine. You may need more or fewer oats, so measure how much flour you end up with after grinding. You need 1 1/2 cups! Add your flour to a large mixing bowl.

Add the figs to the blender or food processor. Blend until they’re completely mushed, like applesauce. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together your ground flax seeds and soy milk. Set aside.

Add the rest of the dry ingredients to your oat flour. Give it a good stir around to make sure the ingredients are mixed pretty well.

Begin to pour your wet ingredients, including the blended figs, into the bowl with the dry. Stir it well, making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl to get the flour stuck to the bottom.

You can either spoon the batter in, or use a piping bag to pipe the batter into the cups, depending on the size of the walnut pieces. Whatever you’re most comfortable with is fine!

Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes or until done!

Harry Potter Empanadas

Black bean and butternut squash empanadas, from the Veganomicon! These were also for my friend’s Harry Potter themed birthday party.

I don’t always use my own recipes, but I promise to only post interesting or cute things that I make with other recipes.

Holy Crap That’s a Lot of Mushrooms Soup

I love mushrooms! And I love soup! This recipe came to me randomly while trying to figure out what to do with some leftover tofu in the fridge. This soup is very filling. Also, it makes a LOT. So you better be hungry. And you better like mushrooms!

24 oz (1.5 lbs) white button mushrooms
0.5 oz dried wild mushrooms
2 1/2 tbsp. Earth Balance margarine
2 onions, sliced thinly
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 c. vegetable stock
2 c. water
1/2 c. white cooking wine
3 tsp. dill weed
1/4 tsp. coriander
1 bay leaf
1/2 block of firm tofu

Soak dried mushrooms and press tofu for 30 minutes.

Slice button mushrooms thinly. Chop up your onions and garlic. Once the tofu is completely drained, cut it into cubes.

Pull your dried mushies out of the water they’ve been soaking in. Pour that water through a coffee filter and into a separate bowl to remove the dirt/sticks/etc.

Heat margarine a soup pot over medium heat. Add onions and garlic; cook them until the onions are translucent. Add the button mushooms; cook them until they’re releasing moisture and starting to shrink. Add the cooking wine and give it all a good stir.

Add the water, vegetable stock, tofu, re-hydrated mushies and the water they soaked in, the bay leaf, dill and coriander. Give it another good stir. Raise the heat to high.

Once the soup starts to boil, reduce the heat back to medium and allow it to simmer for 60 minutes.

Once the 60 minutes is up, remove the bay leaf. Reduce heat to low. Spoon out half of the soup and ALL of the tofu into a blender. Blend until completely smooth. Return the blended mixture to the pot. Give it one last stir and serve!

First Post! Almost Vegan Hedwig and Crookshanks Cupcakes.

A friend had a Harry Potter themed birthday, so I made her some cupcakes for it!

Basic white cake and basic buttercream frosting. The only thing keeping these cupcakes from being vegan is some of the candies used as decoration.