Three winter vegetables and how to love them

It’s snowing outside! But inside Mommy is making…

Mashed sweet potatoes with walnut praline
Spaghetti squash latkes with romesco
Butternut squash curry

The first big life hack is to leave all squashes whole and cook on a cookie sheet at 350 for 45 minutes to 1 hour. When you can push into the skin about a half inch remove and let cool before handling. You can also put whole, unpeeled squash in 350 degree gas oven. Cook 20 minutes. Turn off heat. Let sit in closed oven overnight. Peels perfectly every time!

Butternut Squash Curry Soup
1 large to 3 medium Butternut squash yielding about 4 cups of mashed squash (depending on size and thickness of soup)
4 cans Coconut milk
1 quart Vegetable stock
1 cup Apple juice
1 ½ tsp Nutmeg
2 TB Yellow Curry paste or more (start with 1 TB and keep adding till you have the heat you want)
1 ½ tsp Herbamare or sea salt
1 tsp White pepper
½ tsp cayenne
1 TB Agave nectar to start plus more to taste

optional add a couple whole apples to squash in oven to use for garnish!

Bake, peel seed and mash squash. Add to all other ingredients and simmer on stove. Keep checking curry, agave and nutmeg levels for adjusting. Yields about 4-5 quarts soup  vegan and gluten free

Spaghetti Squash Latkes with Romesco Sauce

1 spaghetti squash cooked, seeds removed (yield 2 cups)
1 small sweet potato cooked peeled and mashed
½ cup ground flax seed or flax meal
2 cups white quinoa cooked and allowed to air dry
3 TB potato flour
1 tsp Herbamare or sea salt flakes
½ tsp white pepper

Mash up all ingredients but only use 2/3rds of the cooked quinoa, save the rest. Put in refrigerator and allow to chill. Form into patties, roll in cooked quinoa and allow to adhere. Either bake on a cookie sheet at 350 for 20 minutes or sear with organic safflower oil and then put in 350 degree oven on non stick cookie sheet and let bake till crispy or about 15 minutes . Top with Romesco
Makes a lot of latkes!
Romesco sauce
1/2 cup blanched almonds, toasted on a dry skillet till browning
1 slice bread – toasted dry
4 large fresh garlic cloves
1/2 tablespoon dried hot red pepper flakes
1/2 cup coarsely chopped drained bottled roasted red peppers
½ cup roasted onion (caramelized till mid brown)
2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
1 teaspoon herbamare to taste
½ tsp White pepper to taste
1-2 Tsp of agave nectar

Toast almonds. Toast bread. Puree everything together in food processor. Vegan and Gluten free

Kevin and Jason’s Mashed Sweet potatoes with Walnut Praline
When sweet potatoes are cool remove skin. Some brown spots will remain but they are actually sugar caramelizing so leave them.
4-5 largish sweet potatoes cooked
4 TB coconut cream strained (take the liquid out of the coconut milk and reserve for future use, use only the solid fat)
4 TB Earth Balance vegan butter
1 tsp nutmeg
½ tsp cayenne
½ tsp Herbamare or sea salt flakes
1/3 cup organic agave

Mash everything together. Taste for flavor balance.

Walnut Praline
1 cup walnuts bits and pieces
1 TB earth balance
¼ tsp cayenne
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp sea salt flakes
2 TB organic light brown sugar

Sautee everything together in a saucepan until the walnuts are browning and spices are fragrant. Add the brown sugar and let it melt. Put praline on cookie sheet lined with wax paper and let cool. Serve on  top of sweet potatoes and warm up in oven if you like. Vegan and gluten free.

All the above recipes are vegan and gluten free. #foodislove #meatlessmealsmatter