Vegan mushroom chestnut pate and vegan squash ravioli

A Christmas without stress, worries and impending school deadlines is the greatest gift a girl could ask for. I remember the past few Christmases, lying in bed at my Gramma's house, worrying about the experiments that were not working, the papers that were not getting published and the thesis that needed to be written. Words cannot describe how liberating it feels to no longer have those worries hanging over my head.

Unfortunately I picked up a small cold yesterday and am currently feeling tired, achy and stuffy. I am now in Regina, we drove in from Winnipeg last night where I spent Christmas with my mom, sisters and grandparents.  The air here is extremely dry compared to Vancouver. My skin is itchy and my throat feels like it is coated in a thin layer of dust. The rainy weather in Vancouver is good for something I guess.

For Christmas, my mom asked me to make some vegan food for my vegan sister and for myself. My gramma had already made vegan cabbage rolls (an accidental convenience), veggies, potatoes and vegan sweet and sour meatballs (these ones she does every year just for Allee). 

We always sit around in my grandparents' living room for a few hours before the big dinner to chat and catch up on life. Grampa snacks on liver pate and crackers, gramma makes a crab dip that everyone goes gaga over and we also have cheese and Uncle Joe's snack mix and whatever vegan concoctions my mom supplies for Allee. 

For this snacking part of Christmas day I made a vegan chestnut-mushroom pate. I have to admit I have never made or eaten roasted chestnuts before so I had no idea what to expect. I looked up a handful of recipes to figure out how to roast chestnuts and they all gave the same set of simple instructions. The final pate tasted pretty good but honestly mushroom pate does not look extremely appetizing; it tastes better than it looks.

Roasted chestnut and mushroom pate

Winter seasonal: mushrooms and chestnuts

Ingredients

3 - 4 raw, whole chestnuts

1 cup chopped shallots
2 cloves garlic, minced

4 cups chopped mushrooms (brown cremini and portobello mix)

1/4 cup prepared white beans

Fresh thyme leaves plucked off of the stems

3 sun-dried tomatoes finely chopped

Sea salt to taste

Balsamic vinegar

Extra virgin olive oil (I used rosemary infused)

Directions

1 - Start by roasting the chestnuts. Preheat the oven to 400F. Cut a cross into the shell of the chestnut at the tip to allow steam to escape. Make sure to use a sharp knife and cut right through the shell.
2 - Roast the chestnuts on a baking sheet for about 30 minutes. 
3 - Allow the chestnuts to cool and then peel the shell and thin brown paper layer. 
4 - Chop the chestnuts.
5 - Meanwhile, saute shallots and garlic in a tbsp of oil on medium heat (dont burn or brown) for about 3 minutes. Stir in the mushrooms and thyme and a few generous pinches of sea salt.  Saute until cooked through and most of the liquid has evaporated, about 10 minutes.
6 - Near the end of the cooking of the mushrooms, add chopped sun-dried tomatoes and stir in a couple tsp of balsamic vinegar. 
7 - Cook a couple of more minutes then take off of heat
8 - Process mushrooms with white beans and chestnuts in a food processor. I used a rosemary infused olive oil to moisten the pate and make the mixture easier to process.
9 - Allow pate to set for a day or overnight in fridge.
10 - Serve pate on crackers or toasted bread cut into shapes with cookie cutters and garnish with fresh thyme, parsley or basil.

For our dinner main course I made a vegan ravioli. I stuffed the ravioli with a mix of roasted squash, leeks and shallots which I pureed and then mixed with a vegan ricotta. The vegan ricotta mixed really nicely into the pureed squash, giving the filling some girth.

The pasta dough was made using just semolina flour, all purpose flour and water (following this recipe). The eggless pasta dough, once cooked is slightly more delicate than pasta containing eggs. It is important, to increase the density of the pasta, that you work the dough (knead) for several minutes and that you continually fold and roll the dough with the pasta maker. Lastly, eggless pasta dough should be left to dry out slightly before cooking so that the pasta does not fall apart when cooked. 

I served the ravioli with some shredded Daiya mozarella cheese and a vegan pesto from whole foods made with basil and sunflower seeds. I had considered making a pesto cream sauce using some coconut milk or coconut cream and flavoring it with white wine. I have no idea how it would have turned out but might attempt it in the near future. 

For leftovers, I ate the ravioli with a homemade tomato sauce (made with canned instead of whole tomatoes) and again topped it with Daiya mozzarella.

Vegan squash and leek stuffed pasta
Winter seasonal: Butternut squash and leek
This recipe makes a lot of pasta. I only used half of the recipe but you can make the whole thing and freeze the raviolis you do not use. If you are not vegan you can mix the squash and leek with regular ricotta or parmesan cheese.

Ingredients

Egg-less pasta dough (see recipe link)

1/2 large butternut squash

1 leek

Vegan ricotta (use half of this recipe)

Maple syrup or honey or sugar

Fresh nutmeg
Sea salt to taste
Sauce of your choice i.e. pesto or tomato sauce

Directions

1 - Roast butternut squash in oven preheated to 350F. Cut in half (the long way), remove seeds, rub the open surface with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and place open side down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Roast about 1 hour.
2 - After about 30 minutes, roast the leek and shallots. First, trim the dark green leaves from the leek and the end of the root. Cut the leek in half the long way and rinse any dirt. Cut shallots into quarters. Lightly coat the leeks and shallots with olive oil and place in a covered baking dish. Cook in oven until soft, about 30 minutes.
3 - In the meantime make vegan ricotta following recipe link provided above.
4 - To make the filling, scoop out the flesh of the squash into a bowl, mix with chopped leek and shallots and blend all together in a processor until almost smooth. Season with salt, maple syrup and nutmeg, taste and adjust to personal preference. Mix desired amount of ricotta into the squash mix.
5 - Set aside mix while you roll out the pasta dough. Start by rolling the dough on the thickest setting (I work with 1/8 of the dough recipe at a time). At the three thickest settings, once you have ran the dough through the machine once, fold the dough into thirds and repeat rolling at the same setting at least three times. Move through the settings once at a time. Once you get to the thinner settings, fold just once or twice. Continue rolling until you reach the second thinnest setting of the pasta machine
6 - Cut sheets into squares. I make large squares, about 5 inches square. Generally this is the width of the pasta sheets that come out of the pasta machine. If you prefer you can make smaller raviolis, it is up to you.
7 - Add about a tablespoon of squash mix to the squares and fold into a triangle. Dip your fingertips in water and moisten the edge of the pasta to help the two halves of the ravioli stick together. You can trim the edges of the resulting triangles using a sharp knife to make them look prettier.
8 - Make all of the raviolis and let them dry out about 30 - 60 minutes. If you are not eating right away, cover with saran wrap and keep in fridge. Alternatively you can freeze the raviolis.
9 - When ready to eat, heat a large pot of salted water with 1 - 2 tbsp olive oil to boil. 
10 -Add a few raviolis to the pot at a time and allow to boil 2 or 3 minutes if fresh or 5 - 6 minutes if frozen.
11 - Serve ravioli immediately with pesto or tomato sauce.

Roasted mini-shiitake naan pizza

Eating seasonally and locally can be a challenge, especially in the late fall and winter when the number of fruits and vegetables to choose from drops from the plethora of options available in the summer. It is a challenge I love and it also helps to narrow down the choices for "what to make for dinner". I know that for the rest of the winter I will be making dishes with squash, potatoes, beets, carrots, asian greens, broccoli and apples. I keep my eye on the Vancouver farmers market website eatlocal.org if I need a reminder of what my choices are.

My current favorite: shiitake mushrooms. On Saturday at the farmers market I scored the cutest little, baby shiitake which were only $4 for a pint. I mentioned in an earlier post that Mike and I stopped in Seattle on our way home from the Oregon Coast. We went to a pizza restaurant called Serious Pie. I had the roasted cremini and truffle cheese pizza. I usually do not put mushrooms on my pizzas because they are kind of boring raw. I didn't realize how much yummier it is to roast them first and then put them on a pizza. These little shiitakes I found at the market seemed like a perfect roasted mushroom pizza candidate.

On this occasion I did not feel like going through the lengthy pizza dough making process that I usually go through. Also, I am trying to stay healthy for the holidays and pizza is not the best choice for that goal. I decided to try little naan bread pizzas with whole wheat pastry flour to increase the nutritional value and to decrease the sheer bread volume that comes with pizza dough making. 

Naan bread is much faster to make because you do not need to let the bread rise. It just has to rest for 30 minutes which gives you time to prepare your ingredients. Also, it is a lot easier and faster to roll out, and because it is so thin it cooks really fast. My mini-naan pizzas turned out incredible, I think this will become my new go-to for pizza making. In this naan-bread recipe I used yogurt but in the past I have substituted almond milk (for a vegan alternative) and the naan still turns out great.

Roasted mini-shiitake mushroom naan pizza

Autumn seasonal: shiitake mushrooms and thyme

These are mini-pizzas, not deep dish pizzas, so go light on the toppings. I used a variety of cheeses to garnish my pizzas because I had many odds and ends in my fridge but you can choose just one. I also roasted squash, tomatoes, shallots and leeks and mixed and matched the ingredients to make other pizza variations (since I had 5 crusts). The details for preparing those toppings are below but my favorite was the simple roasted mushroom pizza described in detail here.

Ingredients

1/2 cup organic whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup organic all purpose flour

1 cup plain yogurt

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp yeast

1 pint mini-shiitake mushrooms (ore regular shiitakes, sliced)

Extra virgin olive oil (herb-infused if you have it)

2 garlic cloves minced

1 - 2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves

Sea salt
Gruyere/gouda/comte cheese

Fresh bocconcini

Parmesan

Finely chopped sage leaves 

Directions

1 - Start by making naan bread dough. Mix together flour through yeast in a bread machine or in a bowl using your hands, but start with only half of the yogurt. 

2 - Keep adding yogurt until dough comes together into a sticky ball. Depending on the yogurt you use you may have to increase or decrease the amount of yogurt or flour.

3 - Let the dough rest, covered, while you roast the mushrooms.

4 - Preheat oven to 400 C with rack in middle of oven. I always have a baking stone in my oven but this is not necessary.

5 - Mix mushrooms with a tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, minced/mashed garlic, thyme leaves and sea salt.

6 - Roast mushrooms, turning once or twice for about 15 - 25 minutes

7 - If desired you can also roast other pizza toppings like tomatoes and shallots, squash, leeks (see below for some details).

8 - Grate cheeses, chop sage and get ready any other toppings you may want to use i.e. olives, sun-dried tomatoes.

9 - When mushrooms are done cooking, remove from oven. Raise oven rack and pizza stone to the top of the oven and increase temperature to 500F or higher if you can.

10 - Split naan dough into 5 small rounds. Cover and work with one at a time. 

11 - Using a generous amount of all purpose flour, roll out naan to be quite thin.

12 - Transfer naan to a floured baking sheet and top pizza: spread a thin layer of rosemary- or other herb infused extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle gruyere cheese, layer shiitake mushrooms, sprinkle on thyme, add dabs of bocconcini and finish with a little bit more gruyere and grated parmesan

13 - Bake pizza about 3 - 5 minutes; until edges are brown and cheese is bubbling.

Naan pizza ideas
To make my naan pizzas I made the 4 toppings described below and mixed and matched them with the roasted shiitakes described above to make the combinations below.

--> Leek, shiitake mushrooms and roasted tomato sauce pizza
--> Shiitake mushrooms, goat cheese, sage pizza
--> Leek, squash, sage and roasted tomato sauce pizza

Mix and match toppings

Roasted tomatoes, fresh thyme and shallots, blended

Roasted winter squash (i.e. red kuri, acorn, butternut, buttercup)

Sauteed leeks

Goat cheese

Directions

1 - A simple tomato topping for pizza can be made by roasting tomatoes with shallots. Chop 4 or 5 tomatoes (roma or on the vine ripened) into 4 pieces each, toss with 4 or 5 shallots cut into 4 wedges. Toss tomatoes and shallots with extra virgin olive oil, fresh chopped thyme or rosemary and sea salt. Roast at 300 F for about an hour. Remove from oven and let cool. If there is a lot of juice in the pan you can drain the tomatoes before blending roughly in a food processor.  
2 - To roast squash, preheat to 400F.  Cut squash into cubes. Toss with extra virgin olive oil, sugar or honey and cinnamon in a roasting pan. Roast about 30 minutes on a pizza stone in the middle of the oven.
3 - Leeks are another delicious pizza topping. Trim the green leaves and the end of the stem off of a large leek. Slice vertically along the middle of the leek and rinse the two halves well with water to remove trapped dirt. Cut leek roughly into pieces. In a pan on the stove, heat oil over medium low heat, add leeks and cook until soft.

Miso soup with tofu, broccoli, bok choy and mushrooms

This recipe I describe below is inspired by a recipe I used to make regularly when I was eating a lot of shrimp. Even after I stopped eating meat, I continued to eat shrimp, justifying that it is really more of an insect than an animal. When I first moved to Vancouver I was astounded at how cheap a bag of shrimp was at the grocery store. It was at least half, if not a quarter, of the price I could buy shrimp for back in Saskatchewan. Thus, shrimp was an ingredient I used in many of my recipes.

The book Slow Food Nation focuses a lot on the industries that allow food to be cheap and how cheap food has a startling effect on the environment, farmers and labourers. One story in this book details the state of prawn farming in India. The industry was initially instated with the intent of promoting rapid development, jobs and profits. These farms unfortunately take up huge stretches of coastline, large amounts of fresh water and also use sea water. The result has been a ravaging of coastal lands, depletion of drinking water reserves and pollution of the water and soils. Instead of helping the local economy, these farms have destroyed the previous, bio-diverse, cultural farming practices, ruined the local fishing industry and contributed to widespread unemployment. 

It turns out the shrimp I was buying does in fact come from India. So I have stopped buying that shrimp. In Vancouver, in the spring, the local spot prawn population flourishes and for about 6 weeks, spot prawns can be purchased directly off the pier, just down the seawall 15 minutes from my house. For now on I will save any must-try shrimp recipes for that time of year.

In the recipe below, I used crispy tofu, bok choy, broccoli and a variety of mushrooms instead of shrimp. The recipe I used in the past is flavored with clam juice and the shrimp also added an important depth to the broth. My biggest annoyance with vegetable based, asian soups is that they are often very bland. Meat adds a richness to soup stocks that vegetarians have to supplement using other ingredients. Here, I used ginger, garlic and shallots as a base for my broth and added white miso paste to add to the richness of the broth. A touch of honey and using enough salt (but not too much) is important for making all of the other flavours stand out.

Miso soup with tofu, broccoli, bok choy and mushrooms

Autumn/winter seasonal: mushrooms, broccoli and bok choy

Ingredients

Sesame oil

1/2 block tofu cubed
2 small shallots, chopped

1-2 tbsp roughly grated ginger

1 large garlic clove, minced

2 cups chopped mushrooms (portabello, brown cremini and shiitake mix)

1- 2 cup small broccoli florets and stem cut into small cubes

Pearl baby bok choy

2 cups vegetable broth + 2 cups water

Dash chili flakes

1 rounded tbsp white miso paste

1 tsp honey (agave or maple syrup for vegans)

Sea salt to taste
Instant noodles or rice noodles
Cilantro, chopped

Directions

1 - Heat 1 tbsp sesame oil in a non-stick frying pan (I use my well-seasoned iron skillet) and heat to medium temperature.

2 - Add cubed tofu, sprinkle with sea salt and fry, turning occasionally until brown.

3 - Meanwhile, in a separate heavy bottom pot (I used a clay pot), heat 1 tbsp sesame oil over medium heat. 

4 - Stir in shallots, ginger and garlic and fry about 5 minutes.

5 - Add mushrooms and broccoli and fry a couple more minutes.

6 - Add broth, water, chili flakes, miso paste, honey and a tsp of sea salt. Bring broth to a near boil and add bok choy. 
7 - Taste broth and add more salt, if needed, to bring out the flavours of the soup.

8 - Add in the dry noodles (best to have noodles that will cook in a few minutes) and bring to a low boil.

9 - Cook until noodles are soft, a few minutes.

10 - Spoon soup into bowl and top with crispy tofu and chopped cilantro

Roasted mushroom bruschetta

Mike and I have always taken full advantage of living here in Vancouver, BC. This city is perfectly situated between countless beautiful cities, towns, mountains, lakes, bays and islands. In the past 6 years we have ventured out in all directions to hike, camp, kayak, bike, snowboard, swim, surf and explore. We are always looking for new places to go and because there are so many choices we rarely visit the same place twice. Some of my favorites are the Sunshine Coast, Salt Spring Island and Manning Park. 

When we first moved to Vancouver, in the summer, we would pack up little picnics almost on a daily basis, bike down to the beach and snack under the setting sun. On the weekends we went on numerous little hikes in the local mountains. This year however I had to sacrifice my time to finish my thesis and to defend it so I did not get to go anywhere. No hikes, no camping, no exploring. It was a sad summer. 

Now I am free. Free as a bird. We drove down to the Oregon Coast this past weekend and stayed in a cutsie little town called Seaside. We hiked the capes everyday, explored the low tides in the early morning and late at night, wandered the nooks and crannies in Cape Kiwanda, Hug Point, Cape Falcon, Cannon Beach, Manzanita and Cape Lookout.

The last night we stayed in a cabin in Cape Lookout National Park. The cabin was almost directly on the beach and in the dark of the night Mike dragged me out to look for sand dollars at low tide. It was so dark you could see every star in the sky but you could not see your feet or the crashing waves. It was beautiful and terrifying all at the same time. I could not shake the image of a sneaker wave carrying us off into the ocean never to be seen again so as patiently as I could, I pushed Mike inland. 

The next morning, before driving home, we hiked Cape Lookout which has pathways running along the edge of the cliff to bring you to the tip of the cape. Literally one foot separates you from a huge cliff drop at many points along the hike. In the picture below on the left you can see the cliff from afar (Cape Lookout) that we hiked along. Mike is seen on the right as we were hiking on that very cliff. It was another beautiful but terrifying experience.

For dinner last night I made a couple of bruschettas to serve with a cave aged gruyere cheese, a french comte cheese, a nice baguette and lightly salted mix of balsamic and rosemary-infused extra virgin olive oil. I got the idea for the roasted mushroom bruschetta from a restaurant we went to in Seattle on our drive home from our vacation. At the restaurant I had a roasted mushroom pizza with truffle cheese which was delicious. I have never roasted mushrooms before so I wanted to try it out. The only problem I had with my roasted mushroom bruschetta was getting the mixture to stay on my bread. 

Next time I will blend the roasted mushrooms in a food processor to make a finer and hopefully stickier bruschetta. The taste was excellent nonetheless. I also made a simple tomato, bocconcini and shallot bruschetta drizzled with some extra virgin olive oil and baslamic vinegar which you can see in the pictures.

Roasted mushroom bruschetta

Autumn seasonal: mushrooms and thyme

Ingredients

2 cups thickly sliced shiitake and brown cremini mushrooms

fresh thyme sprigs

1 garlic clove crushed

extra virgin olive oil

sea salt

2 tbsp fresh goat cheese, crumbled

fresh baguette

Directions

1 - Preheat oven to 400F

2 - Slice mushrooms (about 4 slices/mushroom) and place in a shallow roasting pan. Toss with crushed/minced garlic, oil and about a tablespoon of fresh thyme leaves and a pinch of sea salt.

3 - Bake about 20 - 30 minutes, flipping mushrooms once or twice

4 - Remove from oven and cool

5 - Chop the roasted mushrooms finely or blend in a food processor for a more fine bruschetta

6 - Mix finely chopped mushrooms with 2 tbsp crumbled soft goat cheese and serve with fresh baguette (toasted if desired)

Simple white bean and yam stew

My office at school is overflowing with goodies left over from our lab Christmas party/potluck held on Wednesday. Bread, cheese, spinach dip, chips, cheetos and cakes are directly behind me and I can only ignore them for so long. All the more reason to keep trying make healthy suppers. 

I bought a can of white organic beans with the intention of making a white bean and sage dip for the aforementioned potluck but never did end up using them. I found a healthy and hearty white bean stew on Martha Stewart's website that I adapted for the recipe below. I used sage to flavour the dish because I have an abundance on hand but rosemary is what Martha used. I'm sure thyme or oregano would also be suitable. Make sure to use enough salt to bring out the flavours of this dish but do not go over board. I like to add pinches of salt incrementally and taste every few minutes.

Simple white bean and yam stew
Autumn seasonal: sage, carrots and yams 

Ingredients

1 can organic white beans

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/2 onion finely chopped

1/2 cup finely chopped carrot

1 cup chopped sweet potato

1 can diced, organic tomatoes

A pinch of red pepper flakes 

1 tsp honey

Splash fresh lemon juice
1 bay leaf 

10 whole fresh sage leaves
1 cup water
Finely chopped fresh basil

Sea salt

Directions

1 - Saute garlic, onion and carrot for 5 minutes in a tsp of oil over medium heat (until soft but not brown), then add yam and saute an additional 5 minutes.

2 - Pulse the tomatoes briefly in a food processor (with juice).

3 - Stir the tomatoes, sage leaves, honey, white beans, red pepper flakes, 1 cup of water and sea salt to taste, into the pan and bring to a light boil.
4 - Simmer about 20 minutes or until carrots and sweet potato are soft.

5 - Remove bay leaf and sage leaves and serve beans with finely chopped fresh basil and fresh grated parmesan.

Pasta with squished squash sauce

It is that time of year again; wherever you go holiday food is waiting for you. Declining is not an option because the food made this time of year comes in the form of gifts, gratitude and love. How can you turn that down? After 6 months of spending 90% of my time sitting on my butt, reading, writing, studying or sleeping my clothes are slowly getting tighter. I will need a new wardrobe in January if I do not start eating just a little bit better. 

For this reason I am going to focus the next few weeks on trying to make recipes that are less fancy and more healthy. Two simple rules I always follow for making things more figure friendly is to increase the volume of vegetables (potatoes do not count) and to decrease the volume of fats (oil, butter, cream and cheese). 

I'm starting my healthy dinner streak with a ravioli dish. Maybe not the best choice - especially a white, cheese stuffed ravioli - but I made a sauce that is purely healthy vegetables and garnished it with just a touch of fresh parmesan. To increase the health factor I would substitute a whole wheat bow-tie or corkscrew pasta for the ravioli. The fresh little mini raviolis I used here are from Whole foods. 

Pasta with squished squash sauce

Winter seasonal: winter squash, spinach and sage

Ingredients

1 medium sized winter squash, peeled and cut into rough chunks

1 cup fresh spinach, cut roughly in half

1/2 pint baby tomatoes, cut in half

Finely chopped sage

Rosemary infused olive oil

Sea salt

Freshly grated parmesan, to garnish
Ravioli or other pasta

Direction

1 - Preheat oven to 400F.

2 - Cook pasta according to directions in salted water.

3 - Roast squash, in a covered roasting pan, for about 20 or 30 minutes (or until tender).

4 - Remove squash from oven, uncover and let cool slightly.

5 - Meanwhile in a pan, melt 1 tbsp of butter over medium heat, stir in sage, spinach and baby tomatoes.

6 - Squish squash in a bowl with a fork, using a tsp or two of olive oil (herb-infused if you have it) and sea salt to taste. Stir in some water if you want the squash to be thinned out, more sauce-y like. Depending on your taste you can mash half of the squash and leave half chunky.

7 - Stir the Squished squash into the pan with the spinach which should be wilted and the tomatoes should be slightly soft.

8 - Combine the pasta with the squash mixture and serve topped with freshly grated parmesan. 

Two ways to serve roasted potatoes

It is such a strange feeling, after working towards the same goal for the past 6 years, to now be moving in a new direction. By strange I also mean exciting. I have my first interview in a gajillion years tomorrow for a part-time/temporary, microbiology, college instructor position. However, I now also have a new and extremely exciting job offer that I have not told you about yet but I learned more about today. 

The position is to become a clinical research associate and I was offered an opportunity to explore my passions in this environment. I will write grants and research proposals, direct other research technicians and I will even have a chance to learn about clinical drug and vaccine trials which has always been my dream. So, as it stands, I am not sure where to go from here with the teaching position. I may be able to do both but I am not sure I want to. I will have to see what happens at the interview tomorrow.

Enough about me, more about my food. I'm a little out of practice so I could have made today's recipe a little more elegantly but it all turned out okay in the end. I bought these adorable purple potatoes at Whole Foods yesterday, they were locally grown in the Fraser Valley and they were really yummy. I roasted them with left over eggplant and squash I had in the fridge. I think a sweet potato would have been a nice addition. 

I recently used up my small bottle of basil-infused olive oil that I bought in the summer (used in many past posts). I really loved that oil and decided now to try a rosemary infused olive oil. The bottles are small and cost me $15 but it is really nice to have a high quality, flavored oil to garnish roasted veggies and salads. A regular olive oil will do fine though if you don't want to follow my lead. 

My original intention with roasting these veggies was to make a light, roasted potato salad. I was not sure what eggplant would taste like in this mix so I split my veggies in half. Half I turned into a potato salad and the other half I topped with crumbled goat cheese. Both were equally yummy. Maybe depending on what you are serving them with you can choose one option or the other.

Roasted potatoes - 2 ways

Autumn seasonal: potatoes, winter squash, carrots, eggplant, herbs

Roasted potato ingredients

1 regular potato chopped

2 purple potatoes chopped

1 1/2 cup cubed acorn squash

1 1/2 cup cubed eggplant (optional)

1/2 large carrot chopped

Fresh sage and thyme leaves finely chopped

Rosemary infused olive oil (or rosemary plus olive oil)

1 garlic clove crushed in a garlic press or finely grated
Sea salt to taste

Directions

1 - Preheat oven to 400F

2 - Cut up all of the vegetables into cubes. Everything should be roughly the same size (1/2" - 1" cubed) except the carrots should be about 1/4 of the size of the other vegetables (I prefer it this way, you may not).

3 - In a roasting pan, toss the potatoes with a generous amount of olive oil (herb-infused if you have it i.e. rosemary or sage), crushed garlic, fresh herbs and sea salt.

4 - Roast potatoes covered for about 15 - 20 minutes.

5 - Stir in the squash and eggplant with more oil and spread out all of the vegetables evenly on a baking sheet (this is so they become brown and hopefully somewhat crispy).

6 - Cook for about 10 minutes, toss/flip once and then cook another 10 minutes until golden brown and the potatoes are tender.

7 - Serve using one or both of the methods below.

Option 1: Roasted potatoes with goat cheese

Serve hot roasted veggies sprinkled with fresh thyme and crumbled soft goat cheese.

  
Option 2: Roasted potato salad

Ingredients 
Juice of 1 lemon

2 tbsp mayonnaise

2 tsp grainy dijon mustard

Sea salt, ground

Directions

1 - Whisk together lemon juice, mayonnaise and mustard with sea salt to taste.

2 - Allow roasted veggies to cool and toss with a desired amount of dressing.

Mushroom, leek and sun-dried tomato orzo

I'm back! I did not go anywhere physically, just mentally. I'm happy to say the past week has been an amazing week in the life of Andrea. On Tuesday, I finally heard back regarding the teaching position I applied for at BCIT and I have an interview on Wednesday. Thursday was my birthday and I went out for an amazing dinner with Mike to Nook. The following day was my PhD defense at which I was somehow miraculously, surprisingly not nervous. My defense went really, really well. Dare I say amazingly well. So well in fact that one of my external examiners has offered me an employment opportunity. I do not want to jinx anything so that is all I will say for now, but it is something I am extremely excited about.

After my defense I was spoiled by my loved ones. My supervisor took me and my lab members out for drinks (prosecco, winter ale and tequila - yikes) and snacks, I had fancy champagne with friends afterwards, was taken out for a lovely dinner at Campangolo, received flowers (you can see them in the pictures here) and even had a delicious chocolate cake made for me.

Now that the major deadlines in this phase of my life are wrapping up I should have more time to spend here - relaxing, cooking and eating - three of my favorite things to do. Tonight, I made my first real meal in over a week. Last Saturday (over a week now) I did somehow manage to get to the farmers market but the things I purchased have been collecting dust in my fridge. Today I used the shiitake mushrooms and leek that I bought at the market in this very simple and quick orzo dish with sun-dried tomatoes.

Mushroom, leek and sun-dried tomato orzo

Winter/autumn seasonal: mushrooms and leeks
 

Ingredients

~ 1 cup vegetable stock + 3 cups water

1 cup dried orzo

2 tbsp vegetable or canola oil

2 cups sliced mushrooms (shiitake and brown cremini mushrooms)

1 leek chopped

1/2 onion chopped

1 clove garlic minced

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Sea salt 

1/4 cup diced, oil-packed, sun-dried tomatoes

Goat cheese and grated parmesan to garnish

Directions

1 - Cook orzo according to package directions in boiling stock and water. Drain well.

2 - Meanwhile, heat oil in large pan to medium-high heat, add chopped mushrooms, leeks and onion.

3 - Saute until starting to brown, stir in garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, salt (to taste) and balsamic and continue to cook until onion and leek are soft.

4 - Stir in half of the vegetables with the orzo. Spoon onto a plate and top with more sauteed vegetables plus goat cheese and parmesan.