Maggie's Vegan Charoset for Passover

Happy Passover, friends! As you've read in other posts on my blog, Shana was raised Jewish and I've been slowly developing a repertoire of traditionally Jewish foods. For example, I've got two recipes for kugel (sweet and savory), challah, matzo ball soup, and a faux brisket.

Both the frisket and matzo ball soup graced our table recently when we hosted our annual Seder for Passover. I *love* Seder. It's filled with tradition, symbolism, storytelling, and singing. It brings together an amazing group of people (we always bring in at least a couple of Seder newbies). Moreover, the fundamental message that's relayed is that no one is free until all are free. I love everything about all of that.

One of the symbolic foods eaten at a Passover Seder is charoset (huh-ROE-set), a lovely mixture of apples, walnuts, and other ingredients. I think of charoset the Italian red sauce of Seders - every family has their own traditional version, which they claim as the best. I'll stake my claim on that as well, because my charoset is so good you'll want to eat it other times of the year!

Vegan Tikka Masala with Soy Curls

It's been a long time, dear readers, and I'm very sorry. In fact, this may be the longest time between posts on this blog - yikes! Life has just been busy for the two of us, which means we've been meal planning around events and/or meetings most nights. We've gotten involved with some local organizations pretty heavily, I took on a new 1/3 time role at work, last semester was rough on campus, my dad was diagnosed with and treated for cancer, and we are working to make a dream/business(?) of Shana's into a non-profit! All of this creates a hectic schedule and also means that I haven't had time to be creative.

Although I haven't been creative in the kitchen on my own, I have been tweaking and we have been eating some new foods, including this amazing vegan tikka masala sauce. I love my version of this recipe for the following reasons:
1. I can mostly throw things in the Instant Pot and end up with magic.
2. I had to purchase a new herb!
3. IT'S SO DELICIOUS!!! Seriously, it's magic.

The recipe for the sauce I've tweaked from Vegan Richa's recipe (her whole blog is SO good!), most importantly to remove the ginger since Shana is intolerant. In addition, the inclusion of soy curls makes this a hearty and satisfying main dish. While there are a number of components to make the recipe this way, I promise that your taste buds will thank you.

Winter Lentil Soup

It's soup season. I love soup season so much. Soup is versatile, filling, and (usually) healthy. More importantly, soup is warm in my tummy and my soul. Many folks, myself included, need warmth in both of those places right now. Sometimes life is stressful and hard, but good food can nourish in multiple ways.

Enter this lentil soup. This soup has such an amazing taste and blend of textures. It's rich and velvety and round. Plus, it's full of good-for-you lentils and veggies. After a big bowl of this soup (plus some crusty bread), I'm comforted.

Maggie's Vegan Enchilasagna

The weather has finally turned into a chilly fall here in Indiana. It was a stark change, with plenty of memes going around. For me, the chilly weather means I'm excited to have the oven on and want to eat all the warm, cozy foods I can imagine.

Tonight, we had some new friends over for dinner and I made this enchilasagna recipe. One of them asked how the recipe emerged, which made me realize that dish was actually due to a series of kitchen misadventures. A while ago, I decided to bring my enchilada recipe to vegan potluck. All set to cook, I when I get home that I'm out of the rice I need for the recipe. I had other rice, but not enough time to cook it. In a pinch, I figured I would use quinoa instead, as inside the enchilada, no one would really notice. I had also planned ahead and planned to swap corn tortillas for the flour tortillas in order to make the dish gluten-free. I fill my first corn tortilla, being to wrap it up, and it breaks - it doesn't roll at all. I figure I just need to be gentle for the next one and gingerly try to roll a second corn tortilla. It broke, too. Short on time if we were going to get to dinner on time, I figured I'd just try a layered dish and call it a vegan enchilasagna. It was a hit! I'm sure it will be a hit for you and yours, too!

Yup, melting faux cheese! Plus, a bit of enchilasaga deconstruction in the back. 

Richa's Peanut Lentil Sauce

As I do periodically, a few weeks ago I went digging through old recipes I'd saved or tagged or noted in some way or another. I came across one from a blog I've been following for a while, leaned over to show it to Shana, who responded with "why aren't we eating that right now?!" I got her subtle message and we had it later that week.

While we both loved it, I realized I needed to make it again to make sure that the notes I'd jotted down about adjustments while cooking were actually correct (more than one note was a I-think-that's-what-I-remember-doing note). I'm thrilled to say it's still amazing. In the time it takes to cook rice in the instant pot and lentils on the stove (aka, less than 30 minutes), you can make a hearty, beautiful, flavorful meal that tastes like it belongs at a fancy dinner party.