The Smiling Onion

Vegetarian and Gluten-free Cooking

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Thanksgiving Shepherd’s Pie (Vegan)

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Thanksgiving is approaching faster than you can say “pilgrim.” Okay, maybe not quite that fast, but it’s definitely sneaking up on us quickly! And that means it’s time to start thinking about your Thanksgiving feast!

Being vegetarian growing up, people ALWAYS asked me what I did for Thanksgiving. It was apparently incomprehensible that it was possible to have a turkey-less celebration. The questions kept coming – “Do you make an exception for Thanksgiving?” “Um, no…” “Do you get a vegetarian turkey?” “Um, no…” “Oh, is your vegetarian turkey made out of tofu?” “Um, we don’t have a vegetarian turkey…” “Wait, really? Wait, what does vegetarian turkey taste like, anyway?” At which point, I’d normally give up, sigh, and tell them that it tasted just like regular turkey minus the dead bird.

What I failed to communicate to those pesky questioners is that in our household (and in many meat-eating households I’ve been to), Thanksgiving is not about the turkey. It’s all about the sides. If you can call them sides — big, beautiful, hearty, casseroles; luscious, richly-prepared mashes; vegetables upon vegetables upon vegetables. And pie, of course. Lots of pie. And maybe some chocolate pudding too.

While I’m not vegan (and you’ll know that quite well if you made my buttery cookies from last week), I wanted to post a vegan Thanksgiving recipe because I’m sure that vegans get the endless questioning ten times worse. “Mashed potatoes without butter? Really? No cheese at all? I don’t get it – what do you eat?” Sigh.

Anyway, speaking of mashed potatoes, I’ve decided to go classic here. This is a Thanksgiving twist on vegetarian shepherd’s pie – the “meat” layer is composed of a savory mushroom/lentil mixture, with some pumpkin and sage thrown in for good measure. A bit of chopped carrot adds some crunch. Finally, it’s topped with a yukon gold mash and baked to perfection.

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Spicy Harissa-Chickpea Burgers

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Harissa is one of my kitchen staples, since I love its intensity of flavor and incredible vibrancy.  Add in some crunchy dill-infused carrots and some nutty chickpeas, and you’ve got yourself a winning combination. This is a burger that packs some heat – in a delightfully zesty way. It’s delicious with the optional yogurt dressing featured here, but an aioli made with vegan mayo would work just fine too. Or you can just eat these babies straight out of the oven – no accoutrements necessary, provided you like it hot!

These burgers are a wee bit similar (in method, not flavor) to my Indian Chickpea Cakes, since I’m a huge fan of using millet in my burgers and cakes. This awesome grain is moist, nutty, and really gives you something nice and meaty to sink your teeth into. Plus it’s totally under-appreciated and really good for you! If you’ve never enjoyed millet before, this is a great introduction to it – its flavor and texture in this recipe is similar to rice, and it doesn’t taste at all like “health food.”

Finally, I should mention that if you keep reading, you’ll actually find not one, but three recipes included in this post! Woohoo! Exciting! (Consider it my Halloween present to everyone :p)

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Pumpkin “Mac and Cheese” (Dairy-Free!)

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This pumpkin mac and cheese is everything I look for in a mac and cheese – it’s super creamy, uber-savory, and deeply buttery. It also happens to look great in a ramekin. But there’s no cheese. Or butter.

If you’re skeptical, I don’t blame you. I’ve had my share of dairy-free mac and cheese  and I’m not really a fan. Imitation cheese is just never as good as the real thing. But here’s the beauty of this recipe – there’s absolutely no imitation cheese involved. None whatsoever. There isn’t even any miso or nutritional yeast or any of the other ingredients often used to make something taste “cheesy.” But somehow, this dish manages to mimic the feeling and textures of eating mac and cheese in a way that is surprisingly close to the real thing.

A caveat: When it comes to mac and cheese, people have strong opinions about “the real thing.” Please don’t make this expecting it to taste exactly like your favorite version of the classic – it definitely won’t. Unless, of course, your favorite version happens to be one that will give you delicious pumpkin-scented mouthful after creamy mouthful, with just a hint of sage and some caramelized onions thrown in for good measure.

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Rustic Lentil Stew with Balsamic and Olives

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Maybe I’m just lazy, but I think the bears have it right: when fall rolls around, my first inclination is to start gathering as much energy as I can and preserve the hell out of it. This means that lately I’ve been craving nourishing, warming, simple meals. Meals that quickly restore lost energy and don’t make you use that newfound energy to clean dreaded piles of dishes and appliances. (Seriously – I can’t tell you how many times I’ve adjusted my dinner plans just because I didn’t feel like dirtying the blender.)  So one-pot meals are my friend, right now. Especially when those meals are super rich in iron, protein, and fiber, and make me feel like I’m wrapped in a nice, fuzzy, blanket. (Okay, I may have eaten this while wrapped in an actual blanket…)

But seriously, this stew is comfort food at its best. A simple, protein-packed, one-pot wonder. It’s delicious by itself, and even better accompanied by a nice crusty hunk of gluten-free French bread.  Better yet, it’s super cheap to make and uses simple ingredients that you probably already have on hand. Instead of requiring vegetable broth (for me, the one ingredient I never seem to have in my pantry/fridge when I want to make stews) this dish creates its own umami-laden broth by marrying the sharp saltiness of the olives with the subtle sweetness of the balsamic.

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Millet-Apple Hot Cereal

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What’s your perfect breakfast food? For me, it’s hot cereal. If I eat a big fat omelette with homefries first thing in the morning, I generally feel sluggish and uncomfortably full within ten minutes. If I eat a granola bar, I’ll be ravenous within ten minutes. But if I eat a nice, warm bowl of porridge (not too hot or too cold!), in the words of Goldilocks, I feel “just right.”

That’s because porridges and hot cereals are generally considered easy to digest, which is just what your body needs early in the morning. Since your digestion is weaker in the morning than at midday,  its a better idea to awaken your digestive system gradually (with a nice, warming bowl of hot cereal) than to have your breakfast omelette bop it over the head with a baseball bat (IT’S MORNING! GET UP!!!!) In addition to being kind to your digestive system, hot cereal also happens to be a delicious and satisfying way to start the day – especially if it has creamy coconut milk, cardamom, and apples like this one.

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Indian Cauliflower Steaks with Spiced Chickpeas and Spinach

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When I think of vegetables that are naturally beautiful, cauliflower definitely isn’t the first one to come to mind.  It’s oddly shaped, lumpy, blandly colored (although colorful cauliflower does exist, but not in most grocery stores), and just downright unglamorous. I mean, if asked to choose a vegetable based on beauty alone, most of us would go for the bright red, perfectly round and lusciously smooth-skinned cherry tomato, or the beautifully-tiny purple and white striped fairy tale eggplant, or possibly one of endless gorgeous varieties of microgreens. Certainly not lumpy old cauliflower.  Yet cut a cauliflower in the right way, and suddenly you have something that definitely starts to compete – maybe even outright beat – those perky, perfectly shaped, and vibrantly colored veggies in the beauty department.

The cauliflower steak, ladies and gentlemen, is the pinnacle of unexpected elegance – it’s the point in your favorite (or least favorite) teen movie when the nerdy girl lets her hair down at the homecoming dance or house party or wherever else the super original plot sets the pivotal scene, and Freddie Prinze, Jr (or whoever is playing the Freddie Prinze, Jr role) suddenly realizes what he’s been failing to see.  I mean, who would have thought cauliflower could be so elegant? And so visually striking?

And that’s where the She’s All That comparisons can end (phew!) Because while – if memory serves correctly – Freddie Prinze, Jr’s character had to work quite hard to win Laney’s heart, cauliflower steaks are super easy to prepare. They are also incredibly versatile, really fun to eat, and naturally gluten-free (grain-free too!) 

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Mung Bean and Apple Salad

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At the greenmarket this morning, I started noticing “First Crop of 2015” signs on some of the apples. If that’s not a sign of fall on the horizon, I don’t know what is.

Much as I’m still holding fast to summer (and I’m certainly not about to stop posting summer recipes just yet!), I’ve begun mentally preparing myself for fall. And there are some nice things to think about: colorful trees, crisp air, squash, pumpkins … in fact, if it didn’t signal the impending doom of winter, fall would probably be my favorite season. But I’m not quite ready to let go of summer just yet.

So I would call this a transitional salad.  It’s the perfect light bite for a hot summer day, but there is also something about it that forecasts the coming of fall. Maybe it’s the nuttiness and heartiness of the mung beans, conspiring with the crisp tartness of the apple. Or maybe it’s the pinch of nutmeg in the cumin-spiked lemony dressing. Perhaps it’s something else entirely. While I can’t pinpoint exactly why this salad seems to straddle the line between summer and fall, I can tell you that you should make it. And then eat it. And then make it again.

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Open-Faced Breadless Eggplant Sandwiches
(Vegan Option)

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There is something incredibly satisfying about breadless sandwiches, and I think it has to do with breaking rules.

I mean, to most people, bread is one of the defining characteristics of a sandwich. When you think of a sandwich, you most likely envision two slices of bread, or if you went to alternative schools all of your life and consider yourself a unique thinker, possibly a roll or a bun. Maybe you sidestep the bread characteristic, but if you do, you’re probably thinking of an oreo or some other construction where something in the middle is sandwiched between two symmetrical edible surfaces. This sandwich, however, breaks both fundamental sandwich rules – it’s both open-faced and breadless. And yet it has the look, feel, and taste of a classic sandwich.

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Leche de Tamarindo

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I don’t know about you, but when late August hits, I start to get a little sad. Summer is quickly waning, and if you’re me, you still haven’t made time to do all of the summery stuff you’d planned! In the New York City area, that means taking advantage of the free outdoor concerts, movies, boat rides, etc. It means braving a long public transit ride to get to something that vaguely resembles a beach. And to many it means getting out of the metro area all together – planning that one, glorious, summer vacation.

This post is a tribute to the vacations I planned, but didn’t take.

In fact, this summer was stacking up to be incredible. One of our friends was getting married in India, another was getting married in Mexico. India and Mexico in one summer? Hell yeah! Unfortunately, the timing of the two weddings was identical. Add  in a new apartment for both of us and a new job for one of us, and we quickly realized a big vacation just wasn’t in the cards this summer. I’m hoping we’ll brave that long public transit ride and get to one of the super crowded beaches New Yorkers flock to before the summer ends. But for now, I’ve decided to channel the tropics whenever I can. And what better way to start than with a fruit that happens to be pretty ubiquitous in both India and Mexico?

Tamarind is a pod-shaped fruit with a tangy flavor that is grown in most tropical areas of the world. If you’ve ever had tamarind chutney (the brown, sweet chutney often served in Indian restaurants), you are already somewhat familiar with its unique taste. Tamarind is thought to have many health benefits, including anti-inflammatory compounds, antioxidants, iron and B vitamins, and dietary fiber to improve your digestive system!

Leche de Tamarindo translates to — quite literally — tamarind milk. Sounds better in Spanish, right? Be that as it may, it tastes amazing whatever language you may happen to speak and wherever you may happen to be spending your summer.

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Baked Eggs with Lambsquarters and Harissa

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If asparagus and swiss chard had a baby in an untouched woodsy forest somewhere, the result would be lambsquarters. At least, that’s the fairy tale version. The real version is pretty cool too: this wild plant, which can be found growing in most parts of the world, is in fact related to spinach and beets. While modern gardeners may curse it (lambsquarters can take over a garden like nothing else!), it happens to be exceptionally delicious. In fact, according to Penn State Extension — a division of the College of Agricultural Sciences — people have probably been eating lambsquarters since prehistoric times!

Besides tasting like the woodsy baby of asparagus and swiss chard, this so-called weed also has a ton of nutritional moxie: experts agree that it outperforms spinach with regards to iron and protein. Forager Steve Brill, colloquially-known as “Wildman,” describes lambsquarters as “one of the best sources of beta-carotene, calcium, potassium, and iron in the world; also a great source of trace minerals, B-complex vitamins, vitamin C, and fiber.” And check out what the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association has to say about lambsquarters here. (By the way, if you happen to live in the New York area and haven’t been on one of Steve’s foraging walks, you should definitely check them out! They are awesome!)

Believe it or not, I first came across lambsquarters — not traipsing around looking for wild plants — but at the Union Square Greenmarket. Lani’s farm  was sampling them one day. I quickly fell in love with their unique, rich, woodsy flavor and now I buy them whenever I can. They are absolutely delicious sautéed with olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper and so quick and easy to prepare!

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