The Smiling Onion

Vegetarian and Gluten-free Cooking

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Creamy Carrot Soup

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I first made a version of this carrot soup on a cold, blustery “spring” day just like today, when all I wanted to do was curl up under a blanket and eat something comforting. It came out so flavorful that I forgot about the weather altogether. In fact, I had to abandon my original plan of a carrot-cheddar chowder because the soup tasted awesome and I hadn’t even added the cheese yet.

Despite the absence of cheese, the “finishing cream,” as I’ve termed it, gives this soup a cheesy flavor. It’s rich and luscious, with the bright savory notes of dill, chives, and thyme complimenting the sweetness of the carrots perfectly. A couple spoonfuls of this could do wonders for a mac & cheese (I’ve got comfort food on the brain) or any type of grain-based casserole. That’s if you have any left over, of course. I served it with some smoky tempeh strips and sautéed swiss chard for a very satisfying lunch, and we ate the whole pot.

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Moroccan Quinoa with Preserved Lemon

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I designed this quinoa with Passover in mind, but it may very well become a staple in our household. Here are three reasons why:

1. It’s incredibly flavorful

Simmered with Moroccan spices like cumin, turmeric, allspice, and cinnamon, a drop of olive oil, and a hefty dose of preserved lemon (if you haven’t tried this, you are in for a treat!) this quinoa tastes even better than it smells.

2. It’s pleasing on the eyes

Forget your mountain vistas and city skylines…instead,  feast your eyes on lovely mounds of beautiful golden pearls, flecked with bits of bright red pepper, dark succulent raisins, vibrant green cilantro, and whimsically geometric walnuts. (Too much? Just practicing my storytelling for the seder…but seriously, my photos really don’t do this dish justice. One of these days, I’ll get an actual camera and stop taking photos on my phone!)

3. It’s easy to make and can be served hot or cold

Aside from measuring the spices, there’s not much you have to do here. Put the quinoa in a pot with the spices and lemon, set your timer, and walk away. In 18 minutes or so, you’ll have the most luscious, flavorful side dish all ready to go. You can eat it steaming hot right from the pot (even without any of the mix-ins) or, as in this recipe, spread it out to cool slightly before tossing it with the red pepper, walnuts, raisins, and cilantro. Once it’s cooled completely, store it in an airtight container in the fridge and serve cold.

So…ready, set, QUINOA!

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St. Paddy’s Day Cabbage with Caraway and Thyme

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The first word used to describe cabbage isn’t generally “decadent,” but when it’s caramelized in butter with leeks, caraway seeds, and thyme,  I’d say decadent is a pretty apt description. It’s maybe not quite as decadent as last year’s St. Paddy’s Day recipe, which fell in the realm of sweets and desserts (Irish whiskey banana bread!), but – as a side dish, it’s pretty damn delicious. And Irish to boot!

Green cabbage is traditional for St. Paddy’s Day, and butter, caraway, and thyme are often used in Irish cuisine. I don’t know if it’s traditional or not, but I happen to like this with a little pinch of ground mustard thrown in for a slight kick. (I actually thought about serving this with a mustard cream but decided the cabbage was so good on its own I didn’t want to overwhelm it with a sauce.)

Serve this cabbage alongside whatever your St. Paddy’s day meal pièce de résistance happens to be. Or, if you are looking to create a vegetarian pièce de résistance, try using this cabbage as a stuffing for baked potatoes and serve them with the mustard cream I almost made (combine mustard, sour cream, and minced fresh parsley). Options abound! (Oh, and you might as well make the aforementioned whiskey banana bread for dessert!)

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Red Velvet Pancakes (Baked!)

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Red velvet cake is often an appalling maroon color that can really only be achieved with copious amounts of red food coloring – not that appetizing. However, this iteration of red velvet apparently only surfaced during the Great Depression, when an extract company created a food coloring-heavy recipe in an attempt to boost sales. Before that, it was a much more natural color, with the “velvet” term referring to the smooth texture. In fact, the key characteristics of red velvet are buttermilk, cocoa, and vinegar – not red dye.

Be that as it may, there is something luscious about the color red, especially when Valentine’s Day is coming up. So I decided to give these pancakes a slightly redder tint with sustainably-harvested red palm oil, a buttery-tasting oil with a lovely hue that is high in Vitamins A and E. This also has the added benefit of making them dairy-free!

Finally, just in case you wanted to make these for a Valentine’s Day breakfast, I wanted to give you a recipe that didn’t leave you slaving over the stove frying pancakes on a weekday morning. Thus, the batter for these pancakes is actually made the night before and is simply poured out onto a sheet tray and baked the next morning. You can then use your favorite cookie cutters to make pretty little dainty pancakes, that – slathered with a “red velvet butter” and fresh strawberries – make for an elegant breakfast.

And yet, despite their elegance, there’s a heartiness about these too. They are made with whole grains like teff and sorghum that will give you an excellent morning boost.

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Vegan Winter Bowl with Creamy Garlic Sauce

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One thing that really irritates me about places that specialize in vegan fare – especially the fancier places – is a seeming lack of attention to basic culinary principles like flavor and creativity. Often, the fact that the dish is “vegan” or “healthy” or contains a trendy ingredient (kale, quinoa, etc.) seems to be its sole reason for appearing on the menu and being served (at a ridiculous price point) to customers. I don’t know – maybe I’m just not visiting the right places. But I’m always left confused as to why these lackluster dishes are being served to paying customers, and saddened that the potential to put out something exceptional was missed.

Because, don’t get me wrong: there is absolutely nothing wrong with the concept of a vegan bowl, and there’s a reason why it’s trending: the potential for an exceptional creation is very much there. More than any other dish, a bowl provides the opportunity to put together components that are delicious on their own and use these parts to create a veritable symphony of flavors, textures, and colors. Plus, you get to add a sauce!

Take this vegan winter bowl, for example. We’ve got a flavorful, sweet & salty sesame cabbage, some deep & meaty oyster mushrooms, and a splash of bright quick-pickled daikon all tossed together with quinoa and a creamy garlic sauce that will leave you scraping the blender to get every last drop! So why are so many places missing the boat? I’m not sure. But when it comes to bowls, I prefer to make them myself and I recommend that you do too!

Bonus: You can make any or all of the components ahead of time and make your bowl when you are ready to enjoy, or you can even assemble the bowls within tupperware containers for ready-made, transportable lunches. 

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Shakshuka

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There was a time in my life when I ate shakshuka on an almost daily basis. The Shuka Truck (now sadly closed) used to park very close to my office and was one of my frequent lunch spots. But before I wax poetic about shakshuka, let me just make sure everyone knows what it is: a delicious, middle-eastern/North-African dish composed of eggs cooked in a spicy tomato sauce.

Because shakshuka is eaten in so many parts of the world, there are many different varieties. This also means that – like tomato sauce in general – it is highly customizable. The tomato element can be spicy, smoky, tangy, spiked with warming Middle-eastern spices like cumin/paprika, or laced with fresh herbs like parsley and basil. Single servings of shakshuka are also a great way to use up leftover tomato sauce – just sauté some chives in olive oil, add your sauce, spice it up if you wish, and then crack some eggs into it!

The version below is simple and delicious – the tomato sauce base falls on the tangy end of the spectrum and uses Italian spices. In addition to making a great base for my shakshuka, this is the sauce I use for spaghetti dinners and pizza nights. While I call for fire-roasted tomatoes, there is no smokiness – the fire-roasting simply helps give this sauce plenty of zest while keeping it free of onion and garlic. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

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Sample Thanksgiving Menu + Stuffed Kabocha Recipe

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Thanksgiving in my family usually involves a lot of arguing. It’s not the arguing you’d expect. Questions like Who’s going to host? When’s it going to be? and Who’s coming? are not major issues. What can fuel heated debates, however, are questions like What’s on the menu? Who’s cooking? and When can I put my dish in the oven – yours has been in there forever!

This year, I (somewhat miraculously) managed to get complete menu control, in exchange for cooking and hosting. Since my brother is vegan and I’m still on a mostly Low FODMAP diet, holidays can be tricky, and we generally end up with a menu where everyone has multiple options, but nobody can eat everything. This year, however, I decided to create a menu that is entirely on both of our diets, and still screams Thanksgiving. I hope it gives you some ideas!

Thanksgiving Menu 2017 (Vegan & Low FODMAP)

Assortment of dips with crackers and crudite
Buckwheat crackers
Blue corn tortilla chips
Veggie spears

Roasted red pepper dip
Garlic oil, red pepper flakes, coriander, cumin

Walnut dip (similar to this one)
Walnut, hemp, hot paprika, thyme

Oyster mushroom dip
Mushroom, zucchini, carrot, chive, basil

Main Meal
Stuffed kabocha squash (recipe below)
Quinoa, walnuts, herbes de provence

Mashed potatoes with oyster mushroom gravy
Yukon golds, garlic oil, fresh thyme

Balsamic-roasted green beans
Dijon, balsamic, toasted pumpkin seeds

Brussels sprouts
Hot paprika, fresh dill

Coriander-pepper tofu
Chives, coriander, black pepper, tamari 

Veggie cakes
Millet, cabbage, lentil, middle eastern spices

Roasted carrots
Citrus, garlic oil, red pepper flakes

Herbed focaccia

Cranberry Sauce

Dessert
Chocolate pudding 

Pumpkin Pie
Pecan-coconut crust

Salty Oat Cookies (vegan version)

Berry Crisp
Crispy quinoa flakes, berries

And now, for the stuffed kabocha recipe, read on!

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Creamy Cilantro Dressing

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I was fairly shocked to see cilantro at the greenmarket last week – I mean, it’s almost November, for cripes sake! Yet buy a bunch I did, with zero regrets. I love having fresh herbs in the house because they always give dinner a lift – you’re only a quick blend away from a lovely dressing, dripping sauce, or drizzling sauce that will always take your meal to the next level.

This creamy dressing is one of those easy meal lifters. It, like most of my sauce recipes, is also quite versatile. You can use it to dress a salad or grain bowl, drizzled over a protein, or all over your quesadillas. In other words (for you Dr. Seuss fans) whether you eat this in a house, with a mouse, in a box, or with a fox …  you’ll definitely enjoy it.

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Easy Chocolate-Teff Pudding (Vegan & Low-Fodmap)

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Chocolate pudding has to be one of the all-time best comfort foods. Especially the type that comes in the little individual cups at the grocery store. While I never ate the really commercial kind, I have been known to buy the Zen brand  (made with almond milk) on occasion, and it sure does hit the spot. It’s not where I go when I want something super rich or decadent, but rather a nice, comforting reminder of childhood.

I’ve also made my own dairy-free pudding on occasion, since it’s not too difficult to make and I get to eat a lot more than what comes in the tiny little cup. However, the recipe I usually use calls for egg yolks to thicken the custard, and I wanted a completely vegan version. I also wanted something that was super quick and easy to make, which means I shouldn’t have to separate any eggs or labor over the stove while it thickens.

Enter teff flour, a high-protein gluten-free flour that should definitely be a pantry staple. (For more teff flour recipes, check out my maple-teff muffins, savory waffles, or pumped-up jam bites).  How did I come up with using teff flour in chocolate pudding? Well, I recently added sorghum flour porridge to my breakfast rotation, which is made by whisking a sorghum flour paste into boiling water until thick. Out of sorghum one morning, I discovered it’s just as good – if not better – made with teff. In fact, since teff has a chocolatey-flavor anyway, I ended up throwing in some cocoa powder and cinnamon to spice things up and the flavor was surprisingly close to chocolate pudding. And it thickened so quickly.

My curiosity was piqued. While this teff-chocolate breakfast pudding was more teffy than chocolatey – and far too grainy to be a sub for my imitation Zen brand pudding – perhaps one could use teff flour to thicken an actual chocolate pudding. In case you haven’t guessed already, one definitely can! And there are some definite advantages:

Advantages of using teff flour in chocolate pudding:

  • More protein, which is always good when you’re eating sugar
  • Thickens in minutes
  • No starch
  • Nutty flavor that pairs well with chocolate
  • You can let the pudding simmer/boil without worrying about ruination (NOT true if you use eggs to thicken)

Advantages of this recipe:

  • All of the above, plus:
  • Vegan, gluten-free, and Low-FODMAP (it’s difficult to find desserts that are all of these things)

Oh, and don’t worry about the coconut milk: there is absolutely no detectable coconut flavor to this pudding.

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Roasted Kabocha Squash with Walnut Sauce

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Since the weather isn’t doing its part to get us into the fall spirit, I decided to do mine. Despite the unseasonable warmth, winter squash is starting to pop up at the Greenmarket, and I’ve been eating my weight in kabocha (aka Japanese pumpkin). Kabocha has a wonderfully starchy texture and sweet, buttery-nutty flavor that lends itself to all manner of dishes, and it happens to contain zero FODMAPs! That means that, unlike with other winter squashes, those of us on the Low FODMAP diet don’t have to measure out portions.

This recipe is a fabulous way to start transitioning into autumn, embracing the sweet abundance that is coming our way. I wish I had posted it in time for Rosh Hashanah, when it is traditional to eat sweet foods for a sweet new year. (I’m a couple days late on that, but hey, it’s still the beginning of the new year!) Anyway, whatever your diet or religion, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this lovely side dish/small plate. If you’re not a fan of kabocha (or its price tag), this fabulous vegan walnut sauce would be great on all manner of roasted veggies – especially the sweeter ones like carrot, sweet potato, and other winter squashes.

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