Posts tagged ‘Pumpkin’

October 25th, 2011

Vegan MoFo: Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

I attempted to work from home today but I ended up doing what I always do when I work from home. Baking. Hence, here is a recipe for some Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins based on the Cranberry Walnut Pumpkin Muffins that I made a few weeks ago. I love these muffins because they’re whole grain, low in sugar and fat but still super moist and delicious!

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins (Whole grain and low fat)

2 cups spelt flour

½ tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp allspice

pinch salt

1 tbs ground flax

1 cup almond milk

1 cup pureed pumpkin

1/3 cup maple syrup

2 tbs oil

1 tsp vanilla

½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)

½ to ¾ cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl (except the flax). In another bowl, mix together the soy milk and the ground flax seed. Let the soy milk/flax mixture sit for 5 minutes then add the pumpkin, maple syrup, oil and vanilla. Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Fold in the walnuts and chocolate chips. Spoon into a muffin pan that has either been greased or lined. Bake at 350 F for 26 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

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October 23rd, 2011

Vegan MoFo: Fall Inspired Vegan Brunch

I had some good friends over for brunch this afternoon. Even though I’ve been dying to try making banana coconut french toast, I decided to do a fall themed brunch showcasing some amazing local and organic produce. It’s shortly after 5pm as I write this and I’m still stuffed, so I think I may have over done it! It was impossible not to, all the food was so good! Here’s what I served.

Pumpkin French Toast from the PPK – I made this recipe a few weeks ago and it turned out so good that I decided to make it again! I just keep them warm in the oven until they were all cooked.

Maple Cranberry Topping for the french toast – I combined 1 cup french cranberries with ½ cup maple syrup and ½ cup water along with 2 cinnamon sticks and boiled over medium low heat for 15-20 minutes. This went really well with the pumpkin french toast!

Smokey Maple Breakfast Sausages – I made this recipe from the PPK and made 12 small sausages instead of four large ones. Then I fried them in a tablespoon of Earth Balance just before serving. I think these were the best vegan sausages I’ve made yet. Even the omnivores liked them!

Scrambled Tofu with Peppers and Spinach – I always use this recipe from Bittersweet Vegan and use bell peppers instead of the mushrooms and zucchini.

Baked Home Fries – Simply chopped potatoes tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika then baked at 400 F for 50 minutes.

Lemon Cranberry Scones – I used the basic scone recipe in The Complete Vegan Kitchen and added ⅓ cup dried cranberries and 1 tsp zested lemon. The trick to great scones is to cut the Earth Balance into cubes and chill it in the freezer for 20 minutes.

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October 21st, 2011

Vegan MoFo: Pumpkin Black Bean Enchiladas (and Pumpkin Coffee Cake!)

So I had another random squash hanging out that needed to be used up. I got this one in my CSA even before the giant Candy Roaster squash. I had noticed last week that it was starting to get a bad spot so the clock was ticking. Apparently this one was a Potimarron squash. According to my CSA this is “a famous winter squash from France. The name is derived from potiron (pumpkin) and marron (chestnut) – very aromatic and chestnut-like in taste.”

This is a Potimarron Squash. Picture from: http://chezpim.com/cook/soupe_de_potima

It was also a good friend’s birthday yesterday and I wanted to invite her over for dinner. I had been planning on making the pumpkin black bean casserole from fat free vegan but since I was going to have company I wanted to make something a bit fancier. She’s a big fan of Mexican food so I decided on pumpkin black bean enchiladas. There are a lot of recipes out there for sweet potato black bean enchiladas, I used this one and this one for inspiration. I just used salsa since I had some on hand but you could definitely use canned or home made enchilada sauce instead.

We all really enjoyed these and I’m happy to have found another main dish recipe for winter squash!

Pumpkin Black Bean Enchiladas

It's really hard to get a good picture of the inside of an enchilada...

And since I had 1 cup of left over pumpkin, and no birthday dinner is complete without dessert, I also made this Pumpkin Coffee Cake from Peas and Thank You. I didn’t bother with the icing since I don’t keep vegan cream cheese on hand and it was still great.

Pumpkin Coffee Cake - recipe from Peas and Thank You

Pumpkin Black Bean Enchiladas


1 onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
1 jalapeno pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbs chilli powder
1 tsp cumin
2 cups cooked black beans
2 cups cooked roasted pumpkin or other winter squash
½ cup water or vegetable broth
juice of ½ a lime
salt and pepper
2 cups salsa
6-8 large flour tortillas
½ cup cheddar Daiya
Vegan sour cream for serving

Preheat oven to 350 F. Heat 1 tbs of oil or water in a sauce pan and saute the onion, garlic, bell pepper and jalapeno until soft, approximately 7-10 minutes. Stir in the spices, beans and pumpkin. Add water or broth until it reaches a thick creamy consistency that you can stir easily. Add the lime juice and salt and pepper to taste. If you want a little more spices, add some cayenne pepper. Spread 1 cup of salsa in the bottom of a 9 by 13 inch glass pan. On a flat surface, lay out one tortilla, fill with filling, roll up and place in the glass pan with the fold facing down. Repeat with remaining tortillas until you run out of filling or you run out of room. I made mine quite large so I only used 6 tortillas. Top the tortillas with the remaining cup of salsa and Daiya cheese. Bake uncovered for 25 minutes until cheese is melted and salsa is bubbling.

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October 12th, 2011

Vegan MoFo: Baked Pumpkin Ziti


I still had some ‘pumpkin’ to use up from my giant candy roaster squash as well as some left over stale bread from making French toast, so I made the Baked Pumpkin Ziti from Vegannomicon. I mostly followed the recipe but I reduced the amount of oil and margarine substantially. The original recipe has 9 tablespoons of added oil and margarine (in addition to the naturally occurring fat in the cashews and walnuts). I reduced this to 2 tablespoons and the result was still incredibly delicious! I used 1 tbs of oil for the caramelized onions, didn’t add any oil to the ricotta and used 1 tbs of Earth Balance for the Sage Breadcrumb topping. This is definitely a dish that is fancy enough to make for company. And it makes a ton!

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October 11th, 2011

Vegan MoFo: Perfect Pumpkin Muffins with Cranberries and Walnuts

I’ve been looking for a great pumpkin muffin recipe for a while now. Most of the recipes out there are loaded with sugar and white flour, but I like my muffin recipes to be fairly healthy – whole grains, low in sugar and oil. I decided to try and make a recipe using Dreena Burton’s Pumpkin Raisin Loaf as a starting point. I love how healthy her baking recipes are! I decided to add fresh cranberries and walnuts to make these muffins extra delicious.

This is also my recipe featuring cranberries for the Sweet or Savory Kitchen Challenge over at Diet Dessert and Dogs and Affairs of Living.


Cranberry Walnut Pumpkin Muffins (Whole grain and low fat)
2 cups whole spelt flour
¼ cup unrefined sugar
½ tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
pinch salt
1 tbs ground flax seeds
1 cup almond milk
1 cup pureed pumpkin
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 tbs oil
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup chopped walnuts
1 cup fresh cranberries

Topping – 2 tbs unrefined sugar mixed with ½ tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl (except the flax). In another bowl, mix together the soy milk and the ground flax seed. Let the soy milk/flax mixture sit for 5 minutes then add the pumpkin, maple syrup, oil and vanilla. Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Fold in the walnuts and cranberries. Spoon into a muffin pan that has either been greased or lined. Combine the topping ingredients and sprinkle over muffins. Bake at 350 F for 26 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

You can use sweetened dried cranberries instead of fresh but omit the sugar topping or they will be too sweet.

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October 10th, 2011

Vegan MoFo:Pumpkin French Toast with Maple Sauteed Apples

We had been planning to do a big Thanksgiving dinner today, but we went to Dave’s family’s house for Thanksgiving dinner last night and they had made lots of vegan food for us to eat! They made a fancy vegan phyllo pastry dish just for us along with separate mashed potatoes and stuffing. We left so stuffed that we decided there was no need to do our own dinner today. But, now I had to find something to do with the stale loaf of multigrain bread that I had been planning to use for stuffing. Clearly this called for French Toast!

Since I also have a bunch of my giant squash left, I decided to make this recipe for Pumpkin French Toast from the PPK. This was actually my first time making french toast. I topped them with Maple Sauteed Apples. I followed the recipe as is but I reduced the spices a lot only including 1 tsp cinnamon and 2 pinches nutmeg. I also added some sweetener (2 tsp maple syrup) because my almond milk was unsweetened.

For the apples I just melted 1 tsp Earth Balance in a large sauce pan over medium heat and added 2 sliced apples and 1 tbs maple syrup and cooked them until the apples were tender, around 7 minutes.

This meal was so good I think we have started a new Thanksgiving brunch tradition!

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October 9th, 2011

Vegan MoFo: Pumpkin Pie Brownies

Happy Thanksgiving weekend to everyone in Canada!

I received a giant squash in my CSA basket last week.


It’s called a Candy Roaster squash and apparently it is supposed to make a better pumpkin pie than pumpkin. I roasted it and got over 8 cups of puree out of it! I’m not even a huge pumpkin fan but this squash was delicous! It was hard to stop eating it by the spoonful. The first thing I decided to make with this bounty was the Pumpkin Pie Brownies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. I baked them in an 8 inch square pan. I baked them for an extra 10 minutes and the pumpkin layer was still not firm in the centre. I took them out since I didn’t want to over cook the brownie layer. They firmed up a little in the fridge but still not as much as I was expecting. They were still delicious though. The brownie layer is amazing and incredibly dense and fudgy. Where the pumpkin layer didn’t firm all the way it just tasted like pumpkin frosting which still works!

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November 4th, 2010

Vegan MoFo: Roasted Pumpkin Seeds Two Ways

A friend of mine had a pumpkin carving party last week. I think we carved 7 or 8 pumpkins in total.

During my breaks from carving, I went through the large bucket of pumpkin guts to dig out all the delicious seeds. No seeds were going to waste on my watch!

I baked up two baking sheets worth of roasted seeds during the party and everyone devoured them.

There was still a bunch left over so I took them home to experiment with. I finally got around to it this evening and decided to make Cajun and salt and vinegar flavours.

The salt an vinegar ones were inspired by Peas and Thanks You. I wanted a more traditional flavour so I used white vinegar instead of balsamic.

Cajun Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

1 1/2 cups pumpkin seeds, washed and dried
1 tsp Cajun seasoning
1/2 tsp seasoning salt
1 tsp refined coconut oil

Salt and Vinegar Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

1 1/2 cups pumpkin seeds, washed and dried
2 tbs white vinegar
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp refined coconut oil

Preheat oven to 375 F. Mix ingredients together and spread on a baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper. Bake for 20 minutes for Cajun and closer to 30 minutes for salt and vinegar, stirring a few times during baking.

I really liked the Cajun ones. I found the salt and vinegar ones lost most of the vinegary zing during baking and they didn’t seem to get as crunchy because of the extra liquid. So I probably won’t be making them again! Does anyone have any ideas on how to make them zingy and still crunchy?

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