Irish Boxty, vegan-style

When I was a kid, one of the things I most remember about my North Carolina grandmother was her breakfasts. They weren’t exactly healthy and they were most certainly not vegan, but they were rich and delicious. One thing I recall her and my mom making when we’d visit was potato pancakes, usually made with leftover mashed potatoes and eggs (to bind), and for the last several years I have wished I could find a similar no-egg recipe. When I was looking for Irish recipes for St. Patrick’s Day, I kept seeing recipes for Boxty, which is such a common food in Ireland that it even has rhymes and sayings created in honor of it:

Boxty on the griddle, Boxty in the pan, If you don’t eat Boxty, you’ll never get a man.

When I finally took a look, I was pretty excited. Despite the minor differences from what I experienced growing up, this was pretty much the recipe I had been longing for for years, and when learning more about Boxty, I discovered that it doesn’t always have eggs. It’s a bit of work and takes a little time, but it’s so worth it to make every few weeks or months for breakfast – savory, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

My biggest recommendation is that you make mashed potatoes the night before to save time, and a minor suggestion from a personal flavor perspective would be to grate in an onion along with the grated potatoes.

Irish Boxty
Recipe based upon a Boxty recipe on the BBC

• 7-8 small to medium-sized potatoes, cooked, mashed and cold
• 7-8 small to medium-sized potatoes, peeled, grated
• 1 1/2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
• 1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
• 1-2 tablespoons melted vegan butter
• Salt and black pepper, to taste
• 3/4 cup vegan milk
• Olive oil
• Maple syrup, to serve

First, if you do not already have mashed potatoes available, peel, cube and boil about 7-8 small to medium-sized potatoes until they are tender.

Preparing mashed potatoes for Boxty

Drain and rinse the potatoes under cold water, then cool them down quickly by putting the bowl or container of boiled potatoes on top of some ice and water in another container. This will help to bring the temperature of the cooked potatoes down. Mash the potatoes well, but don’t worry if you still have lumps. To save time, mash the potatoes and refrigerate the night before using in this recipe.

Mashing potatoes for Boxty

Peel and grate your other 7-8 small to medium-sized potatoes, then rinse well.

Grating potatoes

Wrap the grated potato in a clean kitchen towel and/or paper towel and wring well to get rid of any excess liquid.

Removing excess liquid from grated potatoes

Transfer the mashed potato and grated potato to a mixing bowl, then mix until well combined. Add the flour and baking powder to the potato mixture and mix again until well combined. Stir in the melted vegan butter and season, to taste, with about one to two teaspoons salt and a few dashes of black pepper.

Mixing together the potatoes and dry ingredients

Add the vegan milk, a little at a time, to the potato mixture, beating after each addition until the milk has been fully incorporated into the mixture. When all of the vegan milk has been incorporated into the potato mixture, it should resemble a thick, heavy batter. If the mixture is too sticky, add more vegan milk as necessary.

Adding the vegan milk

Meanwhile, heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium to high heat. Add spoonfuls of Boxty batter into the oil, leaving enough space around each spoonful for the mixture to spread. Fry them on medium to high heat for about five minutes on each side, or until the patties are golden-brown and the grated potato is cooked through.

Frying it up!

Remove the Boxty patties from the pan and set aside to drain on paper towels and keep warm. Repeat the process with the remaining Boxty mixture. You may need to continue adding oil each time you add a fresh new batch of batter.

Draining on paper towels

Serve with maple syrup, if desired, and some vegan breakfast meat (I had some yummy Yves breakfast patties). If you refrigerate these for later, you can get them crispy again by sticking them in your toaster oven for about five to 10 minutes or you can warm them up on the stove over medium to medium-high heat for about the same amount of time.

Fried Boxty goodness!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Do you have a favorite Irish recipe?

Pasta with vegan cheese sauce

I’ve been using the same vegan cheese recipe for at least four or five years now. It’s very quick and easy to make, and I love using it in burritos and with tortilla chips. But I’ve never really enjoyed it with pasta – it’s much too thick and the flavor seems just an odd pairing with pasta. I’m always curious about finding a new creamy vegan cheese sauce to use with pasta, so when I saw Amber’s comment (hi Amber!) the other day about one of her favorite recipes on my Teese Cheese Review I knew I had to experiment.

One of the things that caught my attention first was the fact that it contains potatoes and carrots. All of the other ingredients I’ve seen in vegan cheese recipes, but never anything like vegetables. Of course, I realized right away that this could be a fantastic recipe for those of you who follow a gluten-free diet. My other recipe that I’ve relied on for years uses white flour to thicken it, but in this recipe potatoes help to thicken this up a little bit, but only just enough to be a creamy sauce.

Vegan Cheese Sauce
This is based on the VegYum Mac & Cheeze recipe posted on VeganYumYum

• 1 package vegan and/or gluten-free pasta
• 1 cup potatoes, peeled and finely chopped
• 1/4 cup carrots, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup raw cashews
• 1 tablespoon miso (can omit if gluten-free, or use a clearly labeled gluten-free miso)
• 1 tablespoon tahini
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice or 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 1/3 cup vegan butter (and gluten-free if necessary)
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Black pepper to taste

Prepare your pasta according to package directions.

Chop your potatoes and carrots and cover them with 1 cup water (or a little more if needed), bring to a boil, then cover and turn down to low heat and allow to simmer for about 15 or 20 minutes, or until they are tender.

Cooking potatoes and carrots

Meanwhile, in a blender, proceed to add your remaining ingredients: cashews, miso, tahini, lemon juice, mustard, vegan butter, nutritional yeast, salt and black pepper.

Putting ingredients for vegan cheese sauce in blender

Once the potatoes and carrots are done cooking, add both the vegetables and their water to the blender.

Adding the cooked potatoes and carrots

Cover and blend until very smooth, about five minutes. You want to be sure that it’s not grainy, so you may want to check about halfway through or after the five minutes is up to see how smooth it is.

Vegan cheese sauce

It should be warm enough to go ahead and serve with your pasta, but if not, you can heat it up on the stove for a few minutes while constantly stirring. Then serve!

Pasta with vegan cheese sauce

This turned out pretty well, although it was a little bit of an unusual flavor and seemed to be a little salty. I may experiment in the future and reduce the amount of tahini and salt, or increase the potatoes a little bit. I also think it might be a little more balanced if peas or another vegetable were mixed into the sauce.

What is your favorite vegan cheese sauce – or have you found one yet?

Learn more about Vegan MoFo.

Yum - garlic

It would seem that we are now officially in autumn, even though we never really had that real New York summer that we’ve come to expect from year to year. It’s as if we’ve had a late spring or early fall from April or May until now, with only a sprinkling of a few days of summer here and there. But now we’re getting real days of fall, with light jackets, scarves and sweaters.

I’ve discovered in the last couple of years that I love this time of year, and not just because of the turning leaves and change of wardrobe. I’m finding that one of the biggest reasons is because it allows me to get back into the kitchen in full force. I can turn on the oven or stove without having to worry about it heating up the house and competing with the air conditioner, and of course that always means a return to warm and hearty soups.

This is a twist on your typical potato soup and can be made in a variety of ways including a creamy variation (with soy milk or another preferred milk alternative), and isn’t based upon one particular recipe but is inspired by several.

Roasted Garlic Potato Soup

• 4 heads of garlic
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• Pinch of salt for each head of garlic
• 6 to 8 medium sized potatoes, peeled and cubed (I used Idaho potatoes, but you could also use red or white potatoes, or another preferred variety)
• 8 cups water or vegetable broth
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 large onion, chopped
• Black pepper, if desired
• 1 teaspoon fresh parsley, chopped, if desired

Preheat your oven or toaster oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Take a head of garlic and turn it on its side and slice off just the tops of the garlic, so that each clove is exposed and is still attached to the head.

Preparing garlic to roast

Put the head of garlic on a piece of foil and wrap the foil up around the garlic so that when you add the olive oil it does not escape. Drizzle about a tablespoon of olive oil on top of each head of garlic, then sprinkle a pinch of salt on each head. Cover all four heads of garlic with one sheet of aluminum foil (some people do not completely cover the garlic, but I find that this makes it so the oil does not splatter your oven). Place in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes.

Wrapping garlic in foil, then drizzling a little of olive oil on each

Once the garlic is done roasting, let it sit for a few minutes to allow it to cool.

Roasted garlic

You can then remove the garlic and place it in a small bowl or plate by squeezing it or taking a fork and pulling each clove out one by one. I wound up peeling the sides of each garlic and was able to scoop them out more easily that way, but it was still a messy process. Set the garlic aside.

As your garlic is roasting, prepare your potatoes and onions. I like to cube my potatoes straight into a large empty pot, then rinse them off. Add the water and salt, and bring to a boil (I added a vegan vegetable broth powder).

Cubed potatoes

Let the potatoes boil until they are tender, and then add in the garlic.

Take a potato masher and mash the potatoes and garlic directly in the pot, while still leaving a few larger pieces of potato intact.

Stirring and mashing the garlic and potatoes

Then add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for about ten minutes more.

Finishing up the soup

Serve with a dash of garlic and/or a teaspoon of fresh chopped parsley.

Roasted garlic potato soup

Alternate versions

• To make this a little bit creamy, omit one or two cups of water, and after you have mashed the potatoes and garlic, stir in one or two cups of vegan milk. You’ll need to stir more frequently to ensure the vegan milk does not burn.
• To make this a smoother consistency, blend about four to six cups in your blender until smooth, then return to your pan and stir it with the portion that you did not blend.
• Want this to be heartier? Add in other vegetables like carrots, celery or tomatoes. You could also roast one or two more heads of garlic to give it a stronger garlic flavor.

This is a really nice soup. The garlic is not overwhelming, but the taste is still definitely there. This goes very well with a slice of bread spread with vegan butter, like Earth Balance or Soy Garden.

How do you prefer your potato soup? Or do you like other soups more?

As I have said before, I love potatoes and can hardly resist them when either thought about or put in front of me. What’s really nice about potatoes is that they are incredibly versatile, so there are countless ways to prepare them. Lately I have been seeing armadillo potatoes on my web surfing journeys, and I finally decided I needed to try these myself.

Aside from finding the best shape and size of potato for these, you have to choose what you want to stuff them with. I’ve seen a myriad of stuffing from pesto to bread crumbs, but since I also have a love of garlic I decided to keep it simple and stick to something I knew for sure I’d like.

Armadillo Potatoes with Garlic

• 4 medium-sized potatoes (I used Idaho potatoes), scrubbed and bad parts cut away
• 3 – 4 cloves garlic (or more or less depending on your taste)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Cover a pizza or cookie sheet with foil and set aside.

Clean your potatoes and cut away any bad parts.

Take a potato and slice partway through the top of it, but not all the way.

Do this every 1/4 inch or so depending on the size of your potatoes, as well as how much stuffing you will have.

Unfortunately, I noticed that one of my potatoes had a bad spot right in the middle, but I decided to salvage it. I tore away the slices that were bad and just sliced around the middle, so only a small part of the potato was lost.

After each potato has been sliced, rinse them off and then wrap halfway in foil. This ensures that the stuffing will continue to flavor the potato even if it drips out.

Take your cloves of garlic and give thanks that they exist. Many many yummy thanks…

While I love garlic, I don’t really like the green shoot in the middle (it’s a bit bitter), so after taking the garlic skins off I cut off the very bottom and then cut it down the middle so I can take out the green part.

Crush the garlic into a small bowl, or chop it finely and put it into a small bowl.

Add the olive oil and salt and mix. With a spoon insert a little bit of the stuffing in between each slice of potato. Note that you may have to increase the garlic and/or the olive oil to ensure that you have enough for all of the potatoes.

After you have stuffed all the potatoes, place them in the oven and bake for half an hour. At this point check them by poking with a knife to make sure they are done. If you’re like me and consistently wind up with underdone potatoes you should probably leave them in for an additional 10 or 15 minutes and check again.

Once they are done, bring them out of the oven and let them cool a few minutes before serving.

I felt these were really good, but I think that they could have used more garlic and olive oil. I was really generous with the first potato, so I probably should have paced myself. What can I say, though? That first potato had the most flavor.

These did take a while to prepare. Ideally this would be a lot faster, but because this was my first time I wasn’t completely organized. I also think that these potatoes would have been easier to deal with if I had sliced them completely in half, then slice those halves with the 1/4 inch slices (maybe even baking faster or more thoroughly?). As it was, since potatoes are generally not flat, half the time I was trying to keep them still while I sliced.

Still, though, I may try these again and experiment with the stuffing. Any ideas?

One of my absolute favorite vegetables to eat is potatoes. I love them fried, mashed, and baked. I love it when they are a little crunchy and salty, and I admit I love them when there’s enough for at least two or three servings for me. The thing about potatoes, though, is that they are filled to overflowing with calories. I have to be careful because otherwise my hips will reveal my fondness for them, so lately I’ve been trying to eat them in moderation.

Recently, however, I decided to resurrect a recipe I haven’t made for a while: scalloped potatoes. Being vegan, you’d think that a creamy recipe like this would not really be, well, creamy or good, but this recipe is both very creamy and very tasty.

Scalloped Potatoes

• 3 tablespoons vegan butter or margarine
• 1 onion, chopped
• 8 ounces fresh button mushrooms, sliced
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper or other spicy seasoning
• 2 1/2 cups soy milk or other vegan milk
• 6 potatoes, peeled (or not) and thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon vegan butter or margarine

Heat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a two-quart or 8″x11″ baking dish.

Next work on your sauce. If the potatoes are the body of the dish, then these are its soul.

Melt three tablespoons vegan butter in a medium to large saucepan over medium heat. Cook the onion and mushrooms in the butter for a few minutes, until tender but still slightly firm (if that makes sense). Stir in the flour, salt and pepper or spices, and continue to stir until the mixture is smooth. This will happen very fast, so be sure to watch it closely so it does not burn to the bottom of the pan.

Take the pan off the heat and stir in the vegan milk, then put it back on the heat again. Bring it to a boil, all the while stirring. After it has come to a boil, continue to stir and boil for one minute then turn the stove off.

Put your sliced potatoes into the greased baking dish.

Then pour the onion and mushroom sauce over the potatoes.

You may have to take a spatula and spread the mixture out a little bit, but once it is ready to go into the oven it looks like this.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil, then bake for 30 minutes. Take the foil off, then bake for one hour more. Let it cool for a few minutes after you take it out of the oven.

The thing that makes this dish really over the top for me is the mushrooms. They add a complementary, yet contrasting flavor and texture that can’t be beat and is reminiscent of when your mom or grandma made casseroles with a can of Campbell’s Mushroom Soup.

If you don’t like mushrooms, I’d suggest try adding wheat gluten or marinated tofu, or you could try something completely different like spinach or broccoli.

How do you like your scalloped potatoes? I’m always on the lookout for a good variation, so I’m open to new ideas!

This post is a few weeks after the fact, but it was really so nice to be home for the Fourth of July. I started a new job a few months ago, so I am still at the beginning of accruing vacation and sick days. When I left my last job I was very sorry to see all the days I earned go (although I did get my vacation days in the form of a nice check). So now, I have to be careful how many days of anything I take, and when there is a holiday that the company gives, I find myself appreciating it so much more.

Anyway, we didn’t do anything lavish or go see fireworks, although if you look out the window in the right direction you’ll see some fireworks through some trees off in the distance (yes – we have trees in NYC!). But I did make the usual big meal, which translates to – too big of a meal for two people, but a lovely amount of leftovers for a couple or three days. We had corn on the cob (a requirement of the holiday if you ask me), homemade bread, chocolate pie, and potato salad.

I have a strong belief that summer holidays (or picnics or any meal having to do with summer) require a nice helping of potato salad. And above all else, the one ingredient that makes this dish taste pretty much perfect is paprika. The other ingredients make it great, but in my mind paprika is what helps make potato salad complete.

Potato Salad

• 2 lbs. new potatoes, cubed (I used red, but you can use the white if you like)
• 3-4 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2-3 Tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 3-5 tablespoons Vegenaise, or another vegan mayonnaise

Boil the potatoes until they are tender, although still firm enough that they will not fall apart.

After they have boiled rinse and drain them under cold water to stop the cooking, then put them into a large bowl.

Add your chopped celery.

Then add your chopped onion.

Then add your freshly chopped dill.

Add the rest of your ingredients (spices and vegan mayonnaise).

Now stir. And you MUST taste test to determine what’s missing, or what needs to be balanced out.

I LOVED this potato salad. It was creamy, it was crunchy, it was spicy, it was fresh, and it was a medley of perfection and over-the-top calories.

I have to make a confession, though. I typically use fresh flat-leaf parsley instead of fresh dill, but I somehow forgot this when I was in the grocery store. I had dill on the brain and it found its way into this salad. What a happy mistake, because it was just as good as, but I won’t say better than, parsley. I’d most certainly be willing to do a taste test between the two to see which is better, but if my memory serves me correct, either is pretty much a good idea for this recipe (not sure about both at the same time, though).

And another thing – this doesn’t taste vegan (i.e. soy or other types of fakeness) to me, so go make this right now while you’re still on the fence about veganism or serving vegan dishes to your carnivorous friends.

**Redesign Update**
I’m still working on the redesign, but hopefully we’ll be there in the next week or two, but don’t hold me to it. I’m excited, though, and I think we’ll be there soon.

The dinner is delicious, but I pick at my food because at court there is always someone watching you, and I don’t want to seem greedy. Our table faces the front of the hall, so it is natural that I look up to see the king at his dinner. In his rich clothes and great collar of gold you might mistake him for one of the old pictures over an altar; I mean, a picture of God. He is so grand and so broad and so weighted with gold and jewels, he sparkles like an old treasure mountain. There is a cloth of gold spread over his great chair, with embroidered curtains hanging down on either side, and every dish is served to him by a servant on his knees. Even the server who offers him a golden bowl to dip his fingers and wipe his hands does so on bended knee. There is another server altogether to hand him the linen cloth. They bow their heads as well when they kneel to him, as if he were of such unearthly importance that they cannot meet his eyes.

-The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory

Reading a novel by Philippa Gregory is like eating chocolate. It’s so smooth, rich, and delicious that I find myself disappointed every time I finish one of her books. My only consolation is that I still have yet to read all of them – and hopefully she’ll never stop writing.

Historical novels need to be written well for me, and hers meet my expectations. This one centers around Henry VIII and three ladies in his court – you know, the one who had multiple wives and killed nearly every one of them. You can almost taste the fear of the women who surrounded him, and wonder how any of them wound up surviving.

I love potatoes. If I had to choose my favorite vegetable potatoes would probably have to be it. I have a lot of close seconds and thirds, but this root vegetable is so versatile and can take on so many flavors that I can’t imagine what else could top it. I mean, you can fry, boil, bake, roast, etc., etc. – what’s not to love?

One dish that I rarely make, just because it requires a little more effort than I am willing to give, is twice baked potatoes. They are worth the trouble if I do decide to make them. It’s like eating both mashed potatoes and baked potatoes at the same time…well, that’s probably because that’s pretty much what they are.

Twice Baked Potatoes

• 6 medium to large potatoes
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp. mustard powder
• 2 cups water
• 3 Tbsp. butter
• 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. dried dill

Bake your potatoes whole in the oven for about an hour at 425 degrees Fahrenheit. At about 10 or 15 minutes until you take the potatoes out of the oven start preparing your other ingredients.

Now what you are going to do is create a cheese-like sauce. It doesn’t taste exactly like cheese, but it has a nice smoky, rich flavor which is a wonderful substitute. For someone who admittedly misses real cheese occasionally this is a good stand in for when I want something cheese-esque.

In a small pot put your nutritional yeast (this is what imparts the “cheesy” flavor), flour, salt, garlic powder, mustard powder, and water. Mix the ingredients together thoroughly, then add your butter. Now turn on the stove to medium heat. Stir the mixture at a pretty continuous amount. When you start to notice it thickening you can either stop now (it should still be fairly runny), but for the purposes of this recipe let it go for another 10-15 seconds while still stirring. Immediately turn off the stove, and if you’re really good take the pot away from the heat.

Sauté your onions and garlic in vegetable oil (or olive oil) for about five minutes. Don’t do too much longer if you still want a little crunch and stronger flavor when the twice baked potatoes are done.

Take the potatoes out of the oven and let them cool for a few minutes.

Cut each potato lengthwise, then scoop the meat out into a medium sized mixing bowl. Place all the potato shells back on the baking tray.

Mash the potato meat with a potato masher, then add 1-2 cups of the cheese sauce (use the rest in burritos or as a dip), the powdered dill, and the sautéed onions and garlic. Mix it all together well, taste a small amount, and adjust seasonings if necessary.

Now take a scoop of potato mixture and put it into one of the potato shells. Continue to do this until you have all of the shells filled and when you no longer have mixture left.

Put the potatoes back into the oven and cook for another 20 minutes or until the top is turning a little brown.

I know – it’s an event, and they’re gone so fast it almost (almost!) seems like it wasn’t worth it. But really, when you’re biting into them you (or rather I) keep hoping that there’s more than there really are.

Twice baked potatoes are so flexible. I found recipes that used mushrooms – that would have been great. I think you could do peppers (hot or sweet), chives, or broccoli. The spices could also be really flexible – paprika maybe, black pepper, rosemary, savory, etc. A good way to figure out what would work well is to think of what you like to eat with your potatoes. Those same spices and ingredients can jump into this recipe as well. So go experiment!

For the last few weeks I have been really looking forward to this weekend, because it’s a long weekend (Happy President’s Day!). I joked around with one of my co-workers on Friday that I’d probably be sick since I sometimes manage to get sick when I am able to wind down from the stresses of work. I think that I cursed myself, because I started my day at 5:45 on Saturday morning (when I was supposed to be fully in the middle of sleeping, thank you very much) with the most miserable and disgusting bout of stomach flu I’ve had in a while. I’ll spare you the gory details, but let’s just say it wasn’t pretty.

And to be honest I have not been this sick in years. Husband and I kept trying to figure out how on earth I managed to get it. Did he somehow give it to me? Was it from the salad bar at work? Did I get it from that girl that I shook hands with on Friday? Alas, no matter where I got it my weekend plans were busted, and I spent the majority of it eating applesauce and these:

I did start feeling much better on Sunday, and towards the end of the day I started craving vegetable soup. I decided that if all else failed I would make vegetable soup for my return to normalcy (or thereabouts) on President’s Day.

Basic Vegetable Soup

• 2 lbs. potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 2-3 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2-3 parsnips, peeled and chopped
• 3-4 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 1lb. can of chopped or crushed tomatoes
• salt and seasonings to taste

While you are preparing your vegetables to cook, bring a large pot of water to boil (between 1 and 2 quarts). When your potatoes have been peeled and chopped put them into the pot of water (it doesn’t matter if it is boiling yet or not).

As your other vegetables are ready add them to the water. The water should be barely covering your vegetables.

Add the can of chopped or crushed tomatoes directly to the pot, and stir. Tip: You may want to pour the tomatoes into another container first to ensure that they are good. Sometimes the can they came from may be damaged internally (check for “rust” or bad smell), so it’s better to dirty another dish than to wind up sick (again!).

Depending on how firm you like some of your vegetables to be when your soup is done you may want to hold some of them towards the end so they don’t cook as long (the onions, for example).

Let the soup boil for a few minutes and then serve.

A quick word about the salt and seasonings – I usually do not add very much salt or seasonings to this soup. Some of these vegetables already carry a lot of natural sodium, so it just isn’t necessary. Additionally, if you use canned tomatoes from the store then it will often have sufficient salt and seasonings.

Another thing to consider is that this type of soup can really be made with any vegetables you have on hand and still turn out a winner. It might have done really well with some beans or some kale or spinach.

This soup was really good. I used a can of tomatoes that had some spice added to it which added a nice kick. It was a good soup to eat after basically fasting for the last couple of days. It’s a great and hearty soup to eat any time, though, and not just when you’re recovering.

Weekend before last we went to the year-round farmers market in Union Square. Since we are now in the winter months farmers are mainly selling root vegetables. There are other goods to be had – fresh meats and eggs, wines, cheeses, and assorted odds and ends. My mission was to obtain some fingerling potatoes, which I have never had before, and prepare them for our Christmas meal. It was a success – although I had a hard time figuring out which varieties to buy. I settled on three, but I’ll admit that I forgot which ones they were.

I wasn’t entirely sure how I would prepare the potatoes. I didn’t think that I had a sufficient amount for mashed potatoes and turnips, so I decided to figure out something else.

I finally decided on roasting them. Normally when I roast potatoes I have to leave them in the oven for much longer than the recipe usually advises. It was no different this time. Many of the recipes I found said to leave them in the oven for 45 minutes or until tender, but they were in a similar firm condition to all other types of potatoes I have roasted in the past.

Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

• 3 lbs. fingerling potatoes, chopped into good sized pieces
• 4-5 large cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. oil
• salt and other desired spices to taste (suggested spices – thyme, oregano, rosemary)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. In a large bowl mix together all of your ingredients, then pour them into a large baking dish. Place the dish in the oven for one hour, going back once or twice to stir. After one hour, check the potatoes to see if they are done. If they aren’t done (which is usually my plight), leave them in the oven and continue checking them every 20-30 minutes until they are at the desired tenderness.

I typically roast my potatoes with other ingredients like onions and mushrooms, but this time around I felt like these potatoes could do with just garlic and a few spices. This simplified version was delicious and satisfying. The taste of these fingerlings was probably a little nuttier and more delicate than your standard store-bought potatoes.

Now that I’ve had fingerling potatoes I am interested in possibly going back and experimenting with other ways of making them – perhaps potato salad or a potato soup. I’m sold no matter what, and nothing is more delicious to me than eating a locally grown veggie.

Our community supported agriculture (CSA) season ended just this last week, and we received both turnips and rutabagas for the first (and last) time. Since rutabagas are similar to turnips I also used them this time around. I think turnips tend to have a little bit more of a kick, though, so normally I would use only turnips. The mashed potatoes still turned out lovely and I really have no complaints.

This is a recipe that has become less of a recipe, so the following is more of an approximation of what I did.

Mashed Potatoes with Turnips/Rutabagas

• 5 – 7 large potatoes of your choosing, peeled and quartered
• 2 – 3 turnips and/or rutabagas, peeled and quartered
• 1/2 large onion, peeled and chopped
• 5 large cloves of garlic, peeled
• Salt
• 3 Tbsp. butter
• 3 – 5 Tbsp. mayonnaise or Vegenaise
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 – 1 tsp. cayenne pepper

Place the potatoes and turnips/rutabagas into a large pot and cover with water. After they have been boiling for a few minutes (5 – 10 minutes) add the onion and garlic cloves. Boil until the turnips are tender (note that you may want to start boiling the turnips first and then add the potatoes later as the turnips will take longer to soften).

Drain the potatoes, turnips, onions, and garlic cloves and pour into a large bowl (or back into the pan). Add salt (this will be to taste), butter, mayonnaise, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper. Either mash the ingredients together with a potato masher (more lumps) or get out a hand mixer and mix until it is at the consistency you prefer. Taste it to see if it has a good flavor and adjust the seasonings until it is how you want it.

Vegan Gravy
Taken from AllRecipes.com and originally called Vegetarian Gravy

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (I did not use 1/2 cup – more like 1/4 cup)
• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 4 tsp. nutritional yeast
• 4 Tbsp. light soy sauce (I used Bragg’s Liquid Aminos)
• 2 cups vegetable broth (I used 2 cups of water with 1 heaping Tbsp. McKay’s Chicken Seasoning)
• 1/2 tsp. dried sage (I didn’t use this because I don’t think I had any on hand.)
• 1/2 tsp. salt (I didn’t use this because the chicken seasoning and the liquid aminos were already providing enough sodium)
• 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour, nutritional yeast, and soy sauce to form a smooth paste. Gradually whisk in the broth. Season with sage, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, stirring constantly, until thickened.

The recipe said that once you reduce the heat you should stir it for another 8-10 minutes. My gravy did not take that long to thicken at all, so I would actually shorten that time to 2-3 minutes.

Both the mashed potatoes and the gravy turned out really well. When I was seasoning the potatoes and trying to achieve the perfect flavor I realized that I was trying to get it to taste more like potato salad. It didn’t taste exactly like potato salad, but even if it had I would have still loved it.

There are still some turnips and rutabagas sitting in my kitchen, so I am sure to make this recipe again in the very near future.

More Thanksgiving recipes to come in the next few days!