American Thanksgiving 2014...

The Dinner Table

I hope everyone had a nice American Thanksgiving. Since my husband had to work Thursday, we had our Thanksgiving Dinner Wednesday night. It was peaceful and quiet - more so then other years - which is impressive considering I cooked a lot, par usual. The food was excellent, and I think we both agreed that overall this was one of the best celebratory meals I’ve made.

Green Beans with Beurre Blanc

There were lots of mouth-watering side dishes, like Green Beans with Beurre Blanc from Mark Reinfeld’s “The 30 Minute Vegan’s Taste of Europe.” These were simply steamed green beans drenched in a vegan white wine and butter sauce, from the chapter on French cuisine. If I had a complaint about the dish it would be that I would have liked more garlic, but otherwise these were very tasty.

Caramelized Brussels Sprouts with Pecans

I also made the Caramelized Brussels Sprouts with Pecans from Bianca Phillips book “Cookin’ Crunk.” This is a really simple recipe that involved first steaming the Brussels, and then pan-frying them. The ingredients list is short, but the flavor is out of this world. Once again my husband ate these Brussels Sprouts up like they were going out of style so you know they have to be good! I love the sweetness from the hint of sugar she throws into the recipe, and the slight kick from the red pepper flakes. Seriously, these were the first things to go, and I wish I had more. I’ll definitely be making them again, and again.

Whisky Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Then no Thanksgiving celebration can be complete without a mashed tater, and so I picked the Whisky Mashed Sweet Potatoes from the book “500 Vegan Recipes” by Joni Marie Newman and Celine Steen. These were absolutely fantastic mashed sweets! Really, neither my husband nor I could get over how delicious they were. Unlike other mashed sweet tater recipes I’ve made these had vegan sour cream, and vegan butter in them, in addition to brown sugar, maple syrup and of course whisky. The whisky flavor was nice, and subtle, not the least overpowering. The butter and sour cream made them so soft and creamy. I did cut the sugar content down a bit though, but otherwise this was a perfect dish.

Broccoli Casserole

Then I did something crazy, I made a Broccoli Casserole! It might sound crazy - since I know how popular this dish is in the United States, or at least in the Midwest - but I had never had nor heard of Broccoli Casserole before moving to Chicago. This however has always been one of my husband’s favorite holiday dishes, and his mother makes a great broccoli casserole each year for the holidays. Obviously when we went vegan we couldn’t have it anymore, which definitely made my husband a little sad, and for some reason it never occurred to me to make a vegan version. Lucky for me Bianca’s book “Cookin’ Crunk” contains a Broccoli Casserole recipe, and it looked quite simple enough and so I thought, ‘why not?’ I felt inspired, and I knew my husband would really appreciate it. Her casserole - unlike the traditional one - is made using fresh broccoli and frying it till soft with onions in oil. Then you add it to a bowl of cooked rice, add in some home-made vegan cream of mushroom soup - which I also made using her recipe. Then you add in the final component which is a homemade cheese sauce - also from her book. Then you bake it. It doesn’t taste exactly like the Campbell’s and Cheeze-Whiz version but it tastes pretty darn close. My only complaint is that due to the fact that the cheese cause contains Nutritional Yeast the casserole does have a slight nooch taste. I think I’d make this again without the cheese sauce or maybe using a milder tasting vegan cheese sub. Either way I’ll definitely make it again because it was a big hit.

Walnut Apple Stuffing

Of course no Thanksgiving Feast is complete without stuffing and because I couldn’t decide which stuffing I wanted to make I simply made two! Crazy I know. The first stuffing I chose to make was of a more traditional nature. It was the Walnut Apple Stuffing from Nava Atlas’s book “Vegan Holiday Kitchen” this was a super delicious, super moist stuffing. The apples were sweet, and tart, and I loved the idea of adding in apple juice rather then vegetable broth. The walnuts were not overpowering and even my husband enjoyed the stuffing despite the nuts.

Potato Sauerkraut Apple Stuffing

Our second stuffing was the Potato Sauerkraut Apple Stuffing from the same book. This Slavic style stuffing may sound strange to you, but trust me when I say it was delicious. A perfect mixture of potatoes, sauerkraut, apples, breadcrumbs, and Eastern European spices. Somehow it works, and my husband who si not normally a kraut fan, loved this one too.

Stone-Ground Mustard, Horseradish & Cornichons

Seitan Pot-Au-Feu

For our Pièce de résistance I made the Seitan Pot-Au-Feu from Robin Robertson’s book “Fresh From The Vegan Slow Cooker” This is a slow-cooked French-style stew that is probably traditionally made with beef, but in our case seitan is used. The stew also contains parsnips, carrots, potatoes, huge chunks of savoy cabbage, vegetable broth, red wine, and a bouquet garni of delicious spices. The seitan you form into little patties and place right on top of the vegetables where they steam to perfection while everything else is cooking away. The smell of this thing cooking is tremendous and mouth-watering and the flavor of the finished dish is wonderful. The seitan is magnificent, truly, I think slow-cooker seitan is probably some of the best seitan I’ve ever eaten, so succulent! And the vegetable choices made for a very nice compliment. You serve the Pot-Au-Feu somewhat communal style with bowls of Stone-Ground Mustard, Horseradish, and Cornichons, as well as bowls of the cooking liquid, which serves as a sort of Au Jus for dipping. I have to say that at first this struck me as a bit of an odd idea, but the seitan was particularly delectable when dipped in a bit of mustard and horseradish, so were the veggies.

Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie

Now, for dessert. We barley had room after all that and so we waited a good couple of hours before digging into this Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie from Nava Atlas’s book “Vegan Holiday Kitchen” I have actually been wanting to make this pie for a long time but never seem to get around to it. Overall I thought it was pretty good, but it’s not my favorite pumpkin pie, nor is it my favorite pumpkin cheesecake. I think it was under sweet, and under spiced but I do really love the idea of it. I would definitely make it again but perhaps with my own spice mixture rather then the ‘pumpkin pie spice’ she recommends. Since pumpkin is hit or miss with my husband - and since this pie contains walnuts - he inevitably was not a fan. Bummer for me, I hate when I make a dessert he isn’t thrilled about.

Vanilla Spice Cupcakes with Pumpkin Buttercream 

But, to make up for the pie I did make a batch of the Vanilla Spice Cupcakes with Pumpkin Buttercream from Bianca’s “Cookin’ Crunk” and these were delicious. Super easy to make, these came out super moist and flavorful. There is pumpkin puree in the frosting but the overall effect is somewhat understated and my husband wasn’t bothered with it. Somehow he shoved two of these delicious cakes into his mouth before we finally passed out in front of the television, and that as they say is that.

My ridiculously full plate!

I hope you all had an enjoyable holiday, I’ll be back tomorrow with a post about our epic Thanksgiving Brunch!

Celebrating Thanksgiving 2013...

The Holiday Table

I hope everyone had a wonderful and lovely Thanksgiving yesterday. Thanksgiving has always been my absolute favorite holiday, I look so forward to it each and every year. I love the big elaborate dinner, and the time spent with family and friends. This year it was a little different though, my husband and I chose to celebrate Thanksgiving quietly, just the two of us, because my family has suffered a poor turn of events this past week. Last Monday my Oma was hospitalized, and Sunday the 13th - the day before Thanksgiving - she passed away. It was an unexpected string of events that brought us to this point, and we’re all taking it rather hard. We’re all in a state of surreal sadness and shock I think. My Oma was a great lover of holidays - any excuse for an occasion or a party, something to dress up for and a reason to eat heartily. So because I had all the fixings for the Thanksgiving dinner I had planned to make I went ahead and made the dinner for just the two of us. I couldn’t handle company, but I know my Oma would not want us to give up all of our plans - especially if they included food! - just on her account. So my husband and I had a peaceful muted Thanksgiving. We ate, and drank beer - her favorite drink despite us not particularly liking it. - and we reminisced about good times and told fun stories. It felt appropriate. I only wish I didn’t live 2000 miles away from my family, because I would have liked to spend the day with my mother.

The Roast after being removed from the slow cooker and the foil
Not perfect, but not to shabby for a first try.

So, what did we all eat? You’re wondering. Well, we ate far more then we should have, and I cooked far more then was necessary for 2 people, but C’est la vie, and now I don’t have to cook the rest of the week. Now, the first thing any proper Thanksgiving Celebration needs is a good centerpiece, some main dish that the table can revolve around. Last year for American Thanksgiving I made a home-made Tofurkey. For Canadian Thanksgiving last year the centerpiece was a Butternut Squash Lasagna. This year I decided to go the home-made roast route again. I wanted something that felt traditional and so I went with the Stuffed and Rolled Seitan Roast from Carla Kelly’s book “Quick and Easy Vegan Slow Cooking” I have never made a seitan roast in the crock-pot before and I really liked the idea of it because that freed up my oven for other baking needs. Initially I thought making a seitan roast - particularly a stuffed one - was going to be hard. As it turns out, despite the initial work you have to put into it, it’s rather easy. I did have some trouble rolling my roast as it wanted to keep busting apart. Though I think this happened for 1 of 2 reasons. Either I had too much stuffing, or I rolled the dough out too thin in the first place. An easy fix for next time. The good thing is even if your roast threatens to bust and some stuffing pokes out, as long as you wrap the dough really tight in the foil and kind of mold it back together it really does fix itself in the steaming process. In my finished roast you could see a few pieces of apple or apricot poking through the surface of the roast but my roast had a huge crack down the center of it originally and by the time it was done steaming that crack had sealed itself completely.

The Roast after it had been put back into the slow-cooker and
basted for an additional 45 minutes.

Isn't it a beauty?

So not too hard, but how about the flavor? I think it was outstanding. Really, one of the best seitan roasts I’ve ever eaten. I think the slow-cooker method for seitan roast is my new favorite! The texture was also impeccable, it got really firm, but still remained moist and chewy. Loved it, and the flavor was spot on, it wasn’t too gluteny - thanks I’m sure to the addition of tofu in the dough.  I only made one change to this recipe, instead of using vegetable stock I used store-bought mushroom stock. I did this because I had a carton on hand that I haven’t used for anything and I wanted to use it. Though I also thought it would provide a nice depth of flavor for the roast. Mushrooms are earthy, and remind me of meat. They have that subtle slightly ‘off-putting’ flavor that is really hard to describe, and I think using the mushroom stock both in the roast itself and as the basting liquid really worked wonderfully. I highly, highly recommend trying this recipe out sometime!

Maple Pecan Sweet Potatoes

Now, once the roast was all settled on we needed some vegetable side dishes. All the traditional players came to mind originally and I had a strong debate about whether to go with regular mashed potatoes or mashed sweet potatoes. Since I couldn’t decide I let my husband pick and he chose sweet potatoes. So I made the Maple Pecan Sweet Potatoes from Nava Atlas’s book “Vegan Holiday Kitchen” I think that these potatoes are actually suppose to be roasted and glazed as chunks not a mash, but my brain was a little preoccupied and so I over-roasted them and they became a sort of mash. I didn’t actually use a masher but when I started scooping them from the casserole dish into a serving bowl they just sort of mashed themselves and well, that was perfectly alright with me. Maple and sweet potatoes go together perfectly, and I loved the crunchy addition of pecans. However I forgot to add the pecans while the potatoes were roasting, but I had plenty of leftover caramelized pecans from the salad I’d made and so I just topped my sweets with them and I think it was a brilliant idea.

Agave Mustard Glazed Brussels Sprouts 

Aren't they beautiful! and so delicious!

We also had Agave and Mustard Glazed Brussels Sprouts from “Vegan Holiday Kitchen”. Sprouts for me were never a traditional part of Thanksgiving. I mean sure they appeared on the table from time to time but I never ate them. It wasn’t until I went vegan that I started making them a part of my Thanksgiving dinner. Each year I try a new preparation method and I think this is one of my favorites. I mean, all the sprout recipes I make are good but these were just perfection. I love agave-mustard concoctions anyway, and I really liked that this recipe used yellow mustard instead of Dijon. Nice to switch it up from time to time.

Orange-Ginger Glazed Carrots 

We also had carrots because Thanksgiving isn’t Thanksgiving without a side of carrots. I made the Orange-Ginger Glazed Carrots from “Vegan for the Holidays” by Zel Allen and they were pretty good. I think I still prefer the traditional Earth Balance, salt, pepper, and parsley mixture but I liked the subtle sweetness of this dish, the thickness of the glaze and the kick from the ginger.

Mixed Baby Greens with Pears and Glazed Pecans

Of course you can’t have a well balanced meal without a salad and so I made the Mixed Baby Greens with Pears and Glazed Pecans Salad from “Vegan Holiday Kitchen” This was a really great salad. It’s super simple, greens, pears, pecans, lemon, olive oil, and carrots, but I added some leftover minced parsley, and some sliced red onion along with cracked black pepper and it was really a to-die-for salad. The perfect healthy dish to make you feel good about all the other not so healthy holiday treats.

Yorkshire Pudding

You also can’t have a holiday without some kind of bread and on my dad’s side of the family that means Yorkshire Pudding. I made these last Canadian Thanksgiving as well and they were such a hit I decided to make them again. Not a single holiday dinner has ever passed at my Grandma’s house without a Yorkshire pudding, and that was one thing I missed after going vegan. So when I discovered Mark Reinfeld’s recipe in “The 30 Minute Vegan’s Taste of Europe” I knew I would have to make it again and again. They come out a bit more dense then my grandma’s because he uses spelt flour instead of white, but they’re still delicious.

Chipotle Scallion Double Cornbread

And even though we already had bread covered I decided to go crazy and include one of the ‘three sisters’ by making a cornbread. Although don’t think for a second that this is just any old cornbread, it’s the Chipotle Scallion Double Cornbread recipe from Julie Hasson’s book “Vegan Diner.” Have y’all made this? If you haven’t you NEED to make this because oh my goddess it’s probably one of the best cornbread recipes I’ve ever made. I did make one crucial substitution though. Instead of simply using chipotle powder I used 2 small whole chipotles that I seeded and minced. I highly recommend this, it was so good. I also used 2 cups of corn rather then 1 and a half cups. The finished bread came out really moist which is how I likes my cornbread.

Cranberry Chutney 

There was also the obligatory Cranberry Sauce - which I nearly forgot which is why you don’t see it in the photo of the spread on the table. - Typically I make a more traditional cranberry sauce, or cranberry relish as some call it, but this year I wanted to branch out. I used Nava Atlas’s recipe for Cranberry Chutney in “Vegan Holiday Kitchen” which I quite liked. I used the suggested pineapple Juice, and enjoyed the use of dried apricots as well as fresh apple. Red Pepper Flakes are also used - just a pinch - to give the chutney some heat and I think the only thing I’d do differently next time is add a bit more sweetener. Again this might have been simply because my cranberries were overly tart, who knows.

Gravy

Lastly you can’t have a dinner with a roast and Yorkshire pudding without having gravy. This was a super simple gravy that I made by using the basting liquid from the roast, adding in flour, seasonings, and almond milk to taste, as suggested in the recipe footnote by Carla Kelly.

My overstuffed Plate. I couldn't eat both slices of roast so my
husband had to help out. I did sneak a few extra sprouts though

And now we come to dessert. Thanksgiving just isn’t Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie. It is my absolute must-have at any Thanksgiving celebration, and it is literally my favorite thing about the holiday. So this year I chose to make Robin Robertson’s Pecan Pumpkin Pie from “Party Vegan” I had not tried this recipe yet. I really loved the sweet crunchy pecans and the crust was wonderful but overall I’d have to say - much to my regret - that this was not my favorite pumpkin pie ever. It was good, but Colleen Patrick-Goudreau and Isa Chandra Moskowitz are still tied in my heart for best pumpkin pie!

Pecan Pumpkin Pie

Since my husband doesn’t like pumpkin pie I have to make more then one dessert. Which is naturally A-Okay with me, because I’ll take any excuse to bake, and I don’t mind going overboard. As luck would have it just over a week ago I bought Hannah Kaminsky’s book “Easy as Vegan Pie” and so I was eager to give it a spin. Pie incase I haven’t mentioned this before is my upmost favorite dessert ever. Some people are cake people, some people are cupcake people, some people are brownie people but I will honestly take a slice of pie over any other dessert out there any day of the week. I’m a pie girl, there is nothing better! Since her book is filled with so many amazing looking pies I had a really hard time choosing which one to make, and in the end I went with two - for an overall total of three pies!

Trio of Pie
Top - Apple Burgundy Betty.
Bottom Left - Pecan Pumpkin Pie. Right - Cran-Cherry Impossible Pie

I made the Cran-Cherry Impossible Pie which is a mixture of cranberries, cherries, and almonds. I liked this because there wasn’t a traditional pie-crust involved. You know I hate working with dough and the cool thing about this pie is that you make a batter, poor it on top of the fruit and during the baking process the berries float to the top and you get an all around crust. Pretty cleaver. I liked this pie, though personally I thought it could use a bit more sugar, maybe my cranberries were just extra tart? My husband wasn’t a fan of the almond taste so next time I would make this sans almonds and using vanilla extract instead.

Cran-Cherry Impossible Pie 

Finally - because it’s hard to have Thanksgiving without apple pie I decided to make the Apple Burgundy Betty Pie. Which is a brown betty mixed with a pie and kicked up to new heights with the addition of burgundy wine. I think out of all three desserts this was my favorite. The breadcrumb topping was a little strange at first but the overall flavor is just so good, especially when you top the pie with Vanilla Almond Milk Ice Cream, and Vegan Soy Whip. Yum!

Apple Burgundy Betty Pie 

So there you have it folks. Though we were very sad, there is nothing better for grief then food, and in my opinion cooking. Cooking and baking always takes my mind off my troubles and in the end I think we had a Thanksgiving celebration that was fitting for our mood, and I think it was one that my Oma would have really enjoyed.

The Apple Burgundy Betty

The Pecan Pumpkin Pie topped with Soy Whip
Vanilla Almond Milk Ice Cream topping the Apple pie behind.

The Obligatory Post-Holiday Leftover Tofurky Sandwich...

Before I get to the matter at hand I believe this post requires a bit of back story.

On Friday afternoon while doing a little grocery shopping, my husband and I walked past a frozen display case showcasing items that were on sale for the holiday’s. Among them were Tofurky’s 1 pound vegetarian roast, and a carton of their mushroom gravy. I have never before eaten a Tofurky roast, nor had I any interest in doing so. In fact I tend to steer clear of Tofurky products - with the exception of their marinated tempeh bacon which is delicious - because of negative reviews from people I know. However as we stood there staring into the display case I couldn’t help but feel a little curious about the roast. My husband - exuding much more enthusiasm then me - declared "Let’s try it!" and promptly plopped the thing into our cart. At first I was tempted to put it back, but then after a few moments consideration I decided it would make a quick and effortless meal one day this week. Since it is a holiday week which will see me busy with all manner of things but also working more then usual the convenience of this appealed to me. As much as I love to cook, there are just some days where even I want to say "Screw it!" so I grabbed a carton of mushroom gravy too. I figured as long as I was already going down that road why not get both feet wet, you know?

The Sandwich Open Faced

Yesterday after a long and tedious day that began at 4:15am I decided to prepare the roast. I was skeptical about it for sure, not only because of my negative associations with Tofurky but also because I generally do not like meat substitutes. Yet as I began reading the preparation instructions along with their listed suggestions I felt some excitement brewing. Originally I planned only to serve the roast with some mashed potatoes, but the package suggested I roast the Tofurky in a casserole surrounded by chopped carrots, onion, and potatoes. Not only did this sound delicious - I love roasted vegetables - but it was also convenient. I mean who doesn’t love a one pot meal? I took the suggestion to heart added the recommended vegetables along with some minced garlic and their ‘turkey baste’ which was a mixture of olive oil, soy sauce and sage. After later uncovering the roast to let it cook uncovered for the remaining fifteen minutes I also threw in a cup of frozen peas because for some reason I just can’t imagine eating gravy without peas. I love the combination of sweet peas and savory gravy so much I could literally just eat that as a meal!

As the Tofurky roasted the smell that emanated from my oven was surprisingly heavenly and very Thanksgiving like. It got my mouth watering and my creative juices flowing. How could I just roast a simple tofurky without any proper ‘traditional’ sides - I use the word traditional very loosely considering my last post on the matter. - Suddenly I felt in the mood for cranberry sauce, strange since never in my life have I ever liked or desired cranberry sauce. I never ate it growing up, and always adamantly avoided it when it appeared on the holiday table, but I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not cranberry sauce I dislike but canned cranberry sauce. There is indeed a massive difference, and as a child I’d simply never eaten homemade before. Cranberry sauce is easy enough to make from scratch and doesn’t require a recipe but considering my goal of late I decided to use Alicia Silverstone’s Cranberry Sauce recipe from "The Kind Diet" and it was delicious! To round out the meal - and because I’ve been desperately craving greens lately - I made Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Stewed and Sauteed Collards from "Appetite for Reduction." Which too were fantastic.

As for the Tofurky? Fantastic! I literally could not believe my tastebuds. The flavor was wonderful, and didn’t have that strange aftertaste I find most meat alternatives have. The texture was also chewy yet soft, very comparable to turkey or rather what I remember turkey to be like. Both my husband and I quite enjoyed it, and came to the mutual conclusion that it might be nice to indulge in a tofurky once a year or so from now on.

Now, to bring this post back to ir’s original intention. The Obligatory Post Holiday Leftover Turkey Sandwich. As I was enjoying my tofurky smothered in mushroom gravy with a generous dollop of cranberry sauce I started to have these memory flashbacks of my childhood.

Look at all that oozy delicious gravy!

I started to recall quite vividly that when I was growing up my Oma, post holiday - would always make for my uncles - and anyone else who wanted one - a special sandwich made up of holiday leftovers. I don’t think this is at all unique to my family but I don’t know many other people who do this. What my Oma would do was take slices of leftover turkey and place it on a piece of bread. Top it with a scoop of leftover stuffing, a dollop of leftover mashed potatoes. Pour onto it some gravy and then slather a second slice of bread with cranberry sauce and press that on top. This would happen after every holiday that featured a turkey dinner. - In Canada, at least for my family that meant Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. As unlike most Americans we never ate ham or beef roast during the holidays - Now as a child I found this utterly disgusting and I can say with total honesty that I never, ever ate one of these monstrous and grotesque sandwiches. Never had any desire to, the very idea of it made me want to be sick. That is until last night. I mean for whatever reason as I enjoyed my tofurky all I could think about was using the leftovers to make one of those post holiday sandwiches. I don’t know what suddenly prompted this idea, or what fueled my desire for it, but there it is. Isn’t it funny how veganism can change so many things in your life?

So this afternoon when lunchtime rolled around I very excitedly bounced into my kitchen eager to try for the first time ever a post holiday sandwich. I heated the tofurky, a few spoonfuls of mushroom gravy and a scoop of leftover vegetables. Left the cranberry sauce cold though I suppose you could heat that also and then grabbed the wheat bread to assemble. When I finally sat down to take a bite out of my creation it was as if all the goodness of Thanksgiving exploded into my mouth. This sandwich has all the things you love about Thanksgiving rolled up into one big, delicious, decadent treat. My only complaint is that there should have been more stuffing. I suggest if you’re a stuffing lover you make an extra dish of stuffing to serve alongside your tofurky roast, and be sure to leave some extra for your sandwich the following day!

The Obligatory Post-Holiday Leftover Tofurky Sandwich.

2 thin slices roast tofurky
2-3 generous spoonfuls of mushroom gravy
1 scoop of mashed assorted roast vegetables or mashed potatoes
1 generous spoonful of cranberry sauce
2 slices whole what bread
1-2 generous spoonfuls of stuffing of choice (optional if you have any leftover available)

- On a plate heat your tofurky, vegetables and stuffing in the microwave until warmed through but not piping hot. About 1 minute and 30 seconds.

- In separate dish heat your mushroom gravy, until warmed through. About 1 minute.

- Place sliced tofurky on 1 slice of wheat bread. Top with optional stuffing, roasted vegetables or mashed potatoes and then pour gravy over top. Slather the cranberry sauce over the second slice of bread and press on top of the sandwich.

- Slice sandwich in half to make it easier to eat. Caution sandwich will be messy but it’s oh so worth it! Serve with a side salad of mixed greens and enjoy!

PS: This is definitely comfort food not health food, but then what are the holidays about if not comfort? Thanksgiving only comes once a year right, allow yourself to indulge a bit!
PPS: Regrettably I neglected to take pictures of the full Tofurky meal from last night. This has a lot to do with the fact that we ate rather late, and both of us were too hungry to wait for my photo shoot to be over. Appologies for that as I now wish I’d taken photos of every dish to accompany this post, and so you could see what a roasted tofurky looks like - the picture on the box is a little less then appetizing in my opinion - as well as see Alicia’s cranberry sauce and Isa’s Stewed and Sauteed Collards. C’est la Vie! Next time I promise.

Vegan Mofo #1 - Colleen’s Apple, Cranberry and Sausage Stuffing...

Vegan Mofo #1 - Colleen’s Apple, Cranberry and Sausage Stuffing

The Book - "Color Me Vegan"
The Author - Colleen Patrick-Goudreau
The Recipe - Apple, Cranberry and Sausage Stuffing
Page # 30
Difficulty - Easy
Duration - Roughly 10-15 minutes prep time, 45-60 minutes bake time

Since we’ve taken a rather abrupt head-dive into fall here in the Midwest over the past couple of weeks, and the holidays are coming quick upon us I thought I’d start off Vegan Mofo with something seasonally appropriate. Stuffing! Or as it’s apparently called in many parts of America for reasons I’ve not yet figured out Dressing.

It seems like everyone and their mother has a stuffing recipe, sometimes they have more then one, and every single person I know LOVES it! Stuffing was usually the most anticipated, and most coveted dish at my house on Thanksgiving, and it always seemed to be the dish that holiday goers raved about long into the night. I however hated stuffing. Growing up I never liked it, wouldn’t even deem it worthy of eating. I think this had a lot to do with the fact that A) I was a picky eater. B) It always looked like mush, and C) Something about ground pork and grease cooked with onion and bread then stuffed into the cavity of a bird just didn’t appeal to me.

Throughout my life it was always said that my Mother made the best stuffing, though I never knew it. People raved about it, and rarely was there much left over at the end of our Thanksgiving festivities. As I got older I thought, all this raving must mean something and so when I was about 19 or 20 I finally decided to give stuffing a try. Much to my surprise it was really good, and I fell in love with this dish that I once hated with such passion. Except of course after that I would only eat my Mom’s stuffing, as every other stuffing seemed to pale in comparison. Her’s truly was the best. It was rich, flavorful, well seasoned, not to wet, not to dry and had a little bit of kick. A regular bread stuffing just couldn’t compare, neither could sausage stuffing which I could never wrap my head around, probably because I never liked Italian sausage, or really most sausage in general.

After I married my husband and moved to the Midwest I realized two things. 1) Celebrating American thanksgiving just wasn’t going to work for me. It’s one of those holiday’s that while I can recognize that it holds much meaning for others just doesn’t hold any for me. I knew that even though I know longer lived in Vancouver, I would still continue to observe the traditions of Canadian Thanksgiving. 2) That meant I needed to make my mom’s stuffing! My husband loved stuffing too, and I knew he’d never had anything as good as my mom’s so I wanted to really blow him away on our first Canadian Thanksgiving together. I called my mom explained that I absolutely needed her stuffing recipe and she graciously recited it over the phone. That’s the great thing about my mom, she doesn’t covet recipes, she’s not a jealous person if you want a recipe she’ll give it to you in a pinch. Probably because she knows she can probably make it better anyway... haha...

So I happily made the stuffing, my husband and my in-laws were all blown away, and all night long I received the most glorious compliments on the dinner I’d put together. I threw a perfect thanksgiving, I made the stuffing brilliantly just like my mom’s all thanks to her secret ingredient which is neither sausage nor ground beef, and her delicate spicing combination which includes a few herbs I often see left out of stuffing recipes. That is how Thanksgiving went for a few years until I went Vegan. This will be my first Canadian Thanksgiving as a Vegan, and I’m looking forward to it, but for much of the year I’d been wondering what I would do for stuffing. Even though we wouldn’t have a turkey obviously it seems a terrible crime not to still have the stuffing. Yet since I was such a long-lived stuffing hater I thought no vegan stuffing - a stuffing minus my mom’s secret ingredient which is of course meat based - could compare. I assumed I would simply revert back to hating stuffing.

Then I got my hands on a copy of Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s book "Color Me Vegan" in which she had a recipe very similar to my mom’s recipe - minus the meat of course - and I thought "Well maybe there’s hope after all?" What made me think it was going to be okay was the fact that she used apples and cranberries two things I already used in stuffing, as well as Field Roast Italians style Sausages. Now as I’ve said before I rarely eat soy or wheat based meats, but I’d had Field Roast before and knew they were the creme de la creme of meat substitutes. Flavor and texture-wise I knew they were delicious and satisfying not to mention hearty, and so I thought to myself. "This recipe might just work!"

And of course it did! As if Colleen would ever let me down! Her Apple Cranberry and Sausage stuffing is magic in a baking dish. When you cook it it smells like Thanksgiving! The aroma is so rich and thick it fills your whole house with warmth and holiday spirt. I remember when it was baking my husband and I were standing near to the stove, lips smacking, and a little bit of drool running out in eager anticipation for the stuffing. I can happily say we were not disappointed by the taste or the texture either. Honestly, even minus the meat, or rather minus my mom’s secret ingredient it tasted like stuffing. Not just any stuffing mind you, a divine stuffing! It was truly wonderful. It wasn’t too wet, nor to dry, and it packed a powerful flavor that was very similar and reminiscent of my mom’s stuffing.

We devoured almost the entire dish. How could we not with that sweet and heady aroma of herbs, bread and fruit all baked together in a ‘buttery’ broth. This is a stuffing dish I’m sure even omnivores can appreciate. The Italian sausage isn’t over-powering, meaning it doesn’t have that overly wheaty taste many meat subs do, probably because she only uses four links and there are so many other components. The only alteration I made to the dish is that I also included savory which I used to always put into my stuffing recipes. To me stuffing just isn’t stuffing without savory. I also used two granny smith apples instead of one and omitted the walnuts because my husband hates them. All in all it was a hit, and I know it’s going to be a great accompaniment to my Thanksgiving Dinner this year, as I’m sure it would be a welcome addition to any of your own holiday festivities. It’s the perfect addition to any fall or winter family gathering, and I just know you’ll have omni’s complimenting you.

I strongly urge you to go out and purchase a copy of "Color Me Vegan" not only for this recipe but for all the wonderful recipes Colleen has to offer, along with the wealth of helpful information she always packs into her books. Her books are always a tremendous resource, and have been invaluable to me as I’ve made my transformation to being vegan.

Also if I might make another suggestion? If you do make this stuffing I suggest serving it alongside Vegan Yum Yum’s "Candied Lime Sweet Potatoes" which is what I did and it was divine. More about those Sweet Potatoes later today!