Thanksgiving

When it comes to Thanksgiving, I’m still pretty much a traditionalist. It’s a meal where everyone has pretty strong opinions of what’s appropriate and what’s not. This was my first vegan Thanksgiving, and except for not having a turkey, our meal was pretty traditional. We had seitan and chickpea cutlets with smoked mushroom gravy, onion, sage and apple dressing, cranberries, mashed potatoes with roasted garlic cashew cream, and roasted Brussels sprouts with onion and apple. The seitan and chickpea flour cutlets were something I came up with previously. The mushroom gravy was also a repeat, but I made a double batch and I used smoked mushrooms, which gave an incredible, almost bacon like flavor. One of the keys was making a batch of roasted vegetable stock, which is richer, sweeter and more intense than plain vegetable broth. I used it in the gravy and the dressing. In retrospect I should have used some to it in the cutlets instead of water, but they cutlets still had plenty of flavor. Hope the rest of you had a great Thanksgiving as well.

Roasted Vegetable Stock
Makes about 2 quarts

3 large onions, peeled and quartered
4 large carrots, halved lengthwise
6 button mushrooms, cleaned
3 leeks, washed thoroughly and halved lengthwise
Handful of celery leaves
4 stalks of celery, chopped into 2-3 pieces each
6 dried shitakes mushrooms
Oil

Toss the onions, carts, leeks and white button mushrooms with the oil (or spray with spray oil). Roast at 450 degrees until browned, around 30 minutes. Add to a stock pot with the celery leaves and stalks and the shitakes mushrooms. Bring to a boil and simmer for 60 minutes.

Cranberry Sauce

12 oz. whole cranberries
½ cup of sugar
Zest from two oranges
Juice from two oranges
1 inch piece of ginger grated

Combine everything in a sauce pan and cook until the cranberries break down, about 15-20 minutes. Cool. Serve room temperature or slightly cooler, but not too cold.

Onion, apple and sage dressing

1 large onion, finely diced
2 large or 3 small apples, diced (go for a mix if possible)
4 teaspoons dried sage
2 teaspoon of dried thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon dry sherry
¼ apple cider
12 oz. dried bread
¼ cup olive oil
2-3 cups of roasted vegetable stock

Sauté the onion and apples in half of the olive oil until the onions are translucent. Add the sage, thyme, salt and pepper. Cook for a minute and then add the sherry and apple cider. Cool slightly. Put the dried bread in a bowl and add the remaining olive oil. Add enough stock to moisten everything and have it come together, but be careful not to add too much to where it becomes a large sodden mass.

Mashed potatoes with roasted garlic and cashew cream

½ cup of cashew pieces
½ cup of water
4 heads of roasted garlic
2 ½ lbs. of yellow potatoes
Almond milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix the cashews, water and garlic in a blender and blend until it’s creamy. Boil the potatoes until they’re tender. Mash them, add the cashew cream and as much almond milk as you need to make it smooth and creamy. Taste for salt and pepper.



Roasted Brussels sprouts, apples and onions

2 lbs. Brussels sprouts
2 apples, cubed
1 large onion cut into 3/8 inch wedges
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Cut the Brussels sprouts into halves. Toss the Brussels sprouts, onion, and apples with the olive oil. Add the salt and pepper. Roast on a sheet pan for 30 minutes until they’re lightly caramelized.

Seitan and chickpea flour cutlets with mushroom gravy and twice baked potatoes

Tonight it’s vegan comfort food. Seitan and chickpea cutlets with mushroom gravy, twice baked potatoes made with a roasted garlic and dill cashew cream and a side of spinach in balsamic vinaigrette. It’s total mom food, or maybe something out of a vegan diner circa 1963 (if such a thing actually existed). It’s what a vegan Betty Draper would have cooked between cigarettes and big belts of cocktails. Although, maybe the Betty Draper version would have a side of cashew creamed spinach instead (mmm, make mental note, must make cashew creamed spinach sometime). The cutlets were featured in their own post, so you need to look the recipe up there, but the twice baked potatoes and gravy are featured here.


I specify amontillado in the mushroom gravy. It at all possible, track it down. Amontillado is type of sherry, that’s more full bodied and nuttier than the paler fino sherry. It’s a perfect foil for mushrooms. Amontillado comes medium dry and completely dry. Either will work, although I prefer the drier version for cooking. Sherry is under appreciated – go track down a decent one and give it a try.

1 recipe of seitan and chickpea flour cutlets, sautéed in olive or spray oil until heated through and lightly browned

Mushroom Gravy
1 shallot, finely minced
4 oz. white mushrooms (about 6 large ones), finely minced (like for duxelles)
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 cup white flour
1/3 cup sherry (preferably amontillado, but dry fino will work as well)
½ teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon nooch (nutritional yeast)
1 teaspoon white miso
1 1/3 cups of vegetable stock

Sauté the shallots, mushrooms and garlic in the oil. Add the salt to pull the moisture out of the mushrooms and shallots. Cook for about 5-8 minutes until the mushrooms have given up their liquid and the pan is almost dry. Add the flour and cook for a minute or so stirring constantly. Add the sherry, dried thyme, nooch, miso and stock. Stir to combine. Turn to low heat and cook until it thickens and reserve, keeping warm on low heat. Add water to thin it if it sits a while and thickens up.

Twice baked potatoes with Roasted Garlic and Dill Cashew Cream

4 russet potatoes, baked, cut in half and cooled slightly

Roasted garlic and dill cashew cream
2/3 cup of cashew pieces
2/3 cup water
¼ cup roasted or white wine braised garlic
Juice from half a lemon
1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon dill
Salt and pepper to taste

Baked the potatoes and cool. If you’re in a rush, microwave them for 15-18 minutes and then finish them in a 450-500 degree oven (they’ll take about another 15-20 minutes). Microwaves are an invention of the devil, but they’re good for things like this.

Cut the potatoes in half and let them cool slightly. Make the cashew cream while they cool. Combine the cashew cream ingredients in a blender and blend until thick. Scoop the potato flesh out of the potatoes but be careful not to tear the skins. Put the flesh in a bowl and add the cashew cream. Mash thoroughly and taste for salt and pepper (adjust as you see fit). Stuff the potato shells with the mixture and place on a baking sheet. Put into a 400 degree oven and bake until lightly browned, about 20-25 minutes.

Blanched spinach with balsamic vinegar

1 bunch of spinach, washed, cleaned, blanched in boiling water for 30 seconds, cooled and fnely chopped
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoons of olive oil
¼ cup white wine
1 tablespoon of good quality balsamic vinegar

Cook the shallot and garlic in the oil in a small pan. Let it brown for a few minutes. Add the white wine and continue to cook until reduced by three quarters (trhe shallot should be soft). Add the spinach and heat through. Add the balsamic vinegar and cook 20 seconds. Serve immediately since the vinegar will discolor the spinach if it sits too long.

Weekend prep - Seitan and chickpea flour cutlets

Weekends are time for prep work for the coming week. This weekend it’s more white wine braised garlic (since I use tons of the stuff) and seitan cutlets. I like seitan but find it can be a little heavy at times, so I’ve been trying to figure out new ways to make it a little less dense and chewy. Today’s experiment involves adding some chickpea flour and steaming it in a bamboo steamer as opposed to simmering it in liquid. After steaming, they’ll be marinated in stock and white wine in the fridge until they get used in a day or two. (I’m thinking about sautéed seitan cutlets with some kind of pan sauce and twice baked potatoes where the stuffing is the potatoes mashed with braised garlic and some kind of cashew cream, but I haven’t gotten it all worked out in my head yet.)

Before steaming



After steaming but before marinating in the white wine and stock



Seitan and chickpea flour cutlets
Makes 6 cutlets

1 ½ cups of wheat gluten
½ cup of chickpea flour (besan)
¼ cup of nutritional yeast (nooch)
2 teaspoons of dried sage
1 teaspoon of dried tarragon
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
2 teaspoons of lemon pepper
¼ teaspoon celery seeds (optional)
¾ teaspoon dried mustard
2 tablespoons roasted garlic (mashed to a paste)
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
7/8 cup of water

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl or stand mixer. Add the roasted garlic, soy sauce and water. Knead for a few minutes until the dough comes together in a ball. Divide into six pieces and let it rest for about 5-10 minutes to relax a little. Flatten each piece of dough into a cutlet. Lightly spray the racks of a bamboo streamer with oil. Place the cutlets in the rack and steam over water at a moderate boil for about an hour.

While the cutlets steam, make the marinade.

White wine marinade
1 cup of white wine
1 shallot finely minced
2 cloves of garlic minced
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 sprigs of parsley
1 bay leaf
6 allspice berries
1 tablespoon of kosher salt
2 cups of vegetable stock

Add everything except the vegetable stock to a sauce pan. Bring to a boil and reduce by about a third. Add the vegetable stock, bring back to a boil, and then turn it off. Let it cool. Add the steamed, cooled cutlets to the marinade and refrigerate for a few hours or a few days.