Twice Baked Walnut and Broccoli Sweet Potatoes

First, I cannot start this post without seriously thanking one of our lovely readers, Alex, for leaving me such a truly smile-inducing voice mail! I woke up to it first thing and it just totally made my day! I love getting the voice mails. So, thanks, Alex! Now onto food. Step aside you peasanty twice baked white potatoes! Your snobby, sophisticated and downright sexy cousins are in town! So next time you're thinking of making boring and commonplace twice baked potatoes, let your rad side roam free and make these Twice Baked Walnut and Broccoli Sweet Potatoes instead.

These are certainly healthier than regular baked potatoes and I assure you much, much tastier. Class it up, people! You're only cool if you're making twice baked sweet potatoes anyways. Hadn't you heard?

Twice Baked Walnut and Broccoli Sweet Potatoes 

Inspired by Daily Bites

Makes 4

• 4 medium sweet potatoes (equal shape and size)
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• sprinkling of kosher salt
• heaping 1/3 cup walnuts, chopped small
• 2 Tbsp. pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds), chopped
• 2 cups broccoli (florets only), chopped small
• 1/3 cup vegan cheddar cheese, shredded
• 2 Tbsp. walnut oil (or olive oil)
• 1 Tbsp. ground flaxseed (optional)
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper

Preheat oven to 400 F. Scrub the outside of the sweet potatoes and then dry them. Poke a few slits in each potato with the end of a knife. Rub them with olive oil and a generous sprinkling of kosher salt. Arrange on a rimmed baking sheet and bake 1 hour or until tender when poked with a fork. 

Now, go curl up on the couch and read with a cup of hot cider. Or take your dog for a walk and call a friend to catch up. I did all three of these, you can do what you want. When the potatoes are done cooking, taking great care, cut them almost in half. Be sure to leave a small bit intact on both the ends of the potatoes, however. Allow them to cool on the baking sheet while you prepare the stuffing. Just trust me, you're gonna want to let these mofos cool. Leave the oven on.

On a different baking sheet, arrange the chopped walnuts and pepitas and toast for about 7-10 minutes in the 400 F oven or until fragrant. Careful not to let them burn. They're tricky. Once done, remove them from the oven and cool. Still leaving the oven on.

In a large bowl, combine all the remaining ingredients including the walnuts and pepitas and stir well. When the potatoes have cooled sufficiently, very carefully scoop out the insides and place them in the large bowl with the broccoli. You don't have to scrape every last bit, just be sure to get most of it. Careful not to damage the skin. 

Mix all the sweet potato meat with the broccoli mixture and stir until very well combined. 

Now, carefully place all the stuffing back into the potatoes. Once they are all stuffed and bulging *snicker snicker*, feel free to kind of shape them as you please. Top them with a little extra cheese, if you wish and place them back in the oven to bake at 400 F for about 15 minutes. 

Serve hot! These are badass enough to be a main meal if you're a little guy like me, or as a giant side, I suppose. 

We went for an awesome walk today and Todd took some beautiful, Alaskan Fall photos for you all! I'm in the pink, and my BFF in the purple. We have some termination dust! Long live Winter.

What am I listening to? Ghostland Observatory – Sad Sad City

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Creamy Pasta with Roasted Butternut Squash and Kale

Oh. Good. Heavens!

I literally pranced around the kitchen like a little kid on Christmas morning when I tasted this bangin' pasta. In case you don't know, that is part of some song. I don't know what song, if you know what song, let me know. That's the only part I can recite. Anyways, new favorite dish alert! Gah, this pasta dish is so delicious I could never do it justice just talking about it. You'll just have to go make it, I'm sorry. 

This is Fall comfort food at it's best. It's sweet, it's savory, it's creamy and cheesy and guess what? It's actually pretty darn good for you too thanks to delicious roasted butternut squash and wilted kale. Really, there's not a whole lot tastier than roasted butternut squash. And it makes the whole house smell so wonderful and cuddly and just goddamn lovely. Sigh. 

If you're trying out veganism this is a fantastic dish to start with. I feel like this would definitely be my "bible" of vegan dishes. Like, if I was going around door to door trying to convert people (as I always do...) then I would definitely use this dish as my converting weapon of choice. That was probably horrendously offensive. I can't be controlled.

Anyway, seriously, it's amazing. But I mean, lets be real here...everything, most things, some things I make are pretty amazing. Well, everything I post at least. Did you try yesterday's soup?! It was pretty incredible, too. 

Vegan and omnivores alike are going to love this pasta. Come on, it has cheese in it okay? And yes, some vegan cheese is downright excellent!

Creamy Pasta with Roasted Butternut Squash and Kale

Inspired by Apartment 34

Serves 6

• 1 small butternut squash, peeled and diced small (about 6 cups)
• 1-2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper
• 1/4 cup vegan butter
• 17 oz. of pasta ( I used whole wheat spaghetti) 
• 2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced 
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large bunch of kale, de-stemmed and chopped
• 1/2 cup vegan mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
• 1/4 tsp. dried sage

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Peel, remove seeds, and dice the butternut squash. Then, on a parchment lined, rimmed baking sheet scatter the squash cubes and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss around to coat. Bake for 40 minutes or until squash is tender when poked with a fork.

Meanwhile, slice the onions and mince the garlic. When there is about 20 minutes left for the squash to cook, bring a large saucepan of salted water to boil for the pasta. Once boiling add the pasta, cook for about 10 minutes or according to package and then drain. Reserve about 1/2 cup of the pasta water for use later.

Heat the butter in a very large soup pot. Allow to melt over medium heat for about 3 minutes then add in the onions and the garlic. Saute until the onions begin to turn translucent, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, de-stem and chop the kale, then add it to onions and cook until wilted, about 5 minutes. 

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Add in the cooked pasta, reserved pasta water, cheese, nutritional yeast and sage and stir well to combine. Make sure there's no clumps of cheese. Now, add in the squash and stir gently to combine.  

Serve hot with additional sage or nutritional yeast to garnish or even some pumpkin seeds! Yum!

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Thai Coconut Soup

I thought about calling this soup "Bastardized Vegan Tom Kha Gai", but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. It was way, way too delicious for mockery. 

Did I want kaffir lime leaves and galangal and serrano chilies in this soup? Of course I did. Do we have any of these things in Alaska? Sure, probably. Do we have them in Wasilla, Alaska? No. This is the home of Sarah Palin after all. I called both grocery stores. To the credit of Carrs, they did tell me that they had lemon leaves, however, when I got to there the last package was gone. Also, a different produce man than the one I had talked to one the phone told me that they actually were lime leaves, not lemon leaves. So, who knows what the heck was going on really...

M point is, if you live in a rural and/or uncultured (a joke...kind of) place such as Wasilla, Alaska then this is the soup for you. Or, if you don't want to make a special trip to the Asian market, you should be able to find all of the following ingredients at your regular grocery store.

To improvise without these classic Tom Kha Gai ingredients, I added lime juice in place of the kaffir lime leaves, used ginger instead of galangal (I'm sorry but drastic times call for drastic measures) and I used fresh ground chili paste in place of the serrano chilies. So there you have it. An unbelievably creamy, Thai inspired coconut soup with tofu and mushrooms that is just as tasty as the vegnaized classic!

Thai Coconut Soup

Inspired by Cooking and Me

Serves 4-6

• 2 14 oz. blocks of silken tofu, pressed and diced
• 4 lemongrass stalks, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
• 3 oz. fresh ginger, peeled and chunked
• 8 shallots, peeled and sliced thin
• 8 oz. baby bella mushrooms, sliced (or whatever mushrooms you like)
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 tsp. fresh ground chili paste
• 2 tsp. brown sugar
• 2 15 oz. cans of canned full-fat coconut milk (not lite!)
• 1/2 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1/2 lime, juiced
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped 

To start, press the tofu blocks. To do this easily, just wrap each block in two layered paper towels, then place within a doubled-over dish towel and place a cutting board or something similar on top. Then place something heavy on top of that. I used a box of watercolor painting supplies. Allow the tofu to press until ready to use. 

To prepare the lemongrass, cut off the top and bottom two inches of the stalks until the middle portion is about about the length of your hand. Now chop the stalks  into about 1/2-1 inch pieces. You want them long enough so you won't accidentally eat them. They are very woody. You don't want to eat them, trust me. 

Bring the vegetable stock in a large soup pot to a boil over high heat.

Meanwhile, peel (I use the edge of a spoon) and chop the ginger into big enough pieces that you won't accidentally eat it. Big hunks of ginger (uncrystallized) are just not that appetizing.  Peel and slice the shallots thinly. Slice the mushrooms if needed.

Add the lemongrass, ginger, shallots, chili paste, and brown sugar to the broth and allow to simmer for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile dice the tofu into bite sized pieces. Add in the mushrooms, tofu, soy sauce and coconut milk to the broth and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes over medium-low heat or until the mushrooms become tender. Careful not to allow it boil, sometimes that can curdle the coconut milk. Once done cooking, remove from heat and stir in the lime juice.

Serve hot and topped with fresh cilantro. Careful not to eat the lemongrass and ginger chunks at the bottom of the bowl!

This soup is perfect for a chilly Autumn night in! And for fun, what am I listening to? Bright Eyes – Shell Games

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