Tag: Fall

Chocolate Pumpkin Brownies

Chocolate Pumpkin Brownies
The leaves have turned a bright orange color and have covered the streets (and mostly on top of my car) . So obviously we know it’s been PUMPKIN season for a while! The PSL (pumpkin spice latte) trend starts probably just after Labor Day, but since Thanksgiving is next week (seriously, right?), a pumpkin recipe just feels oh so appropriate. So, without further ado, let’s dive into these Chocolate Pumpkin Brownies!
I know, I always say my recipes are “easy”, but I can promise you, that THIS recipe is really just that. It’s only a handful of ingredients. No eggs, no flours. 100% vegan and totally delicious. It’s thick, rich and decadent, yet somehow these brownies don’t feel too heavy. The almond butter give these  treats a smooth, almost buttery (well, thank you almond butter) texture and the pumpkin puree acts like a binder, so no eggs were harmed in the making of this dessert.

Almond BUTTER?!?

Okay, but first, I have to share this funny story in regards to these brownies.
I made these on a whim last Sukkot and brought them to my parents house to share with my family. Remember those days, when we all spent holidays together? Oh, how pre-COVID seems like a lifetime ago. I took these out of the fridge and ate a few bites. Yes, be sure to keep them cold since there’s no preservatives, but they freeze well.
My sister Melissa saw me sneaking a few bites of this chocolatey goodness and immediately came right over and asked what was in them, because obviously she wanted to take a bite. Quality control, right? 🙂 I told her, “Pumpkin puree, cocoa powder, almond butter…” And well, she looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. “Almond BUTTER,” she asked quizzically. “Yea, you know, almond butter.”
And after about a 15-20 second pause and a funny slow-motion stare-off, her brain clicked and she said “oh, oh my gosh, almond butter. DUH.” It’s almost as if her brain wasn’t computing the two words “almond” and “butter” and was probably imagining a stick of butter and a bag of almonds. In her defense, yes that does seem like an odd combo. Oh but what a world we live in – with “butters” and “milks” made out of every nut and seed imaginable!

A spin on tradition

All kidding aside (love you Minty), this recipe is beyond easy, and yet it’s so versatile. I like the addition of the chocolate chips since it gives it a bit of texture throughout, and the sprinkle of sea salt just brings out all of the rich chocolatey flavors.
This is a great dessert for a Shabbat table, or even for your Thanksgiving meal. If you want to go the traditional way and still make pumpkin pie, hey, who am I to mess with tradition? I’m just a big fan of whipping up a crowd-pleasing dessert in under 45 min, start to finish. But you know me, I just love to put spins on traditional food – my way!
A quick tip for making these brownies: since the cocoa powder has a tendency to just fly everywhere, you can add all the ingredients into a blender or food processor, instead of hand-mixing. It’ll also give your brownies a smooth texture, if you prefer that. But make sure to add in the chocolate chips after you blend the batter.
Hope ya’ll are staying healthy and safe! And even if you’re Thanksgiving plans are just set for a table for 2 (like they will be at my house), that means we can keep these brownies all to ourselves, HA!
Happy holidays!
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Chocolate Pumpkin Brownies
Prep Time
10 mins
Cook Time
35 mins
 
Course: Dessert
Author: Rachel Katzman
Ingredients
  • 2 15 oz. Cans of Pumpkin Puree NOT pumpkin pie filling
  • 1 1/2 cups Cocoa Powder
  • 1 1/2 cups Unsweetened Almond Butter Cashew Butter would be good in this too. I like almond butter for this because it's a mild flavor and pairs well with pumpkin and chocolate
  • 1 cup Sugar, or sugar substitute I prefer Swerve sugar substitute brand, or the Monkfruit from Thrive Market
  • 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
  • 1/4 tsp Sea Salt Optional, but will help bring out all of the flavors, plus it looks pretty 🙂
  • 1 cup Chocolate chips Optional, for extra chocolatey goodness
Instructions

  1. Pre heat oven to 350°F and line an 8x8 inch pan with parchment paper

  2. In a large mixing bowl, combine pumpkin puree, cocoa powder, almond butter, vanilla extract, and sugar. Using a hand mixer, mix all ingredients together until smooth and fully combined

  3. Fold the chocolate chips into the batter

  4. Transfer the batter to prepared pan and sprinkle sea salt on top, if using

  5. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 35 min

  6. Let cool, slice into squares and serve, maybe with some vanilla ice cream!

Don’t forget to check out some of our other gluten free dessert recipes:

Sea Salt Caramel Crème Brulee

Cocoa Nib Biscotti

Dairy-Free Maple Cinnamon Custard

Lemon Bars

Delicata Squash Stuffed With Apples Dates and Leeks and Rosh Hashanah Menu

Stuffed Delicata Squash

A Hearty Recipe for A Successful New Year

The Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah (AKA New Year’s) is just around the corner.  On Rosh Hashanah many Jews have the custom to eat traditional symbolic foods to promote different types of success in the coming year. Apples, leeks, dates, and gourds are all part of that tradition. Many people just put these foods on a plate and serve them as is but I wanted to come up with an easy side dish using them.

Rosh Hashanah also signifies the beginning of autumn. One of my favorite things about autumn is the availability of winter squash. The firm flesh of a winter squash makes for a great hearty side dish, and the yellow and orange colors match the colors of the changing leaves. one of my favorite parts of the season.  This recipe calls for delicata squash (squash is in the extended gourd family) as they are all the rage these days and their skin is edible. (I personally believe they are just a gateway drug to pumpkin spice.) You could use acorn or butternut squash if you cannot find  delicata and you don’t mind scooping the flesh from the skin at the table. The recipe also calls for some “warm” spices which are great as the temperature begins to dip this time of year.

Rosh Hashanah Menu

For the first night of Rosh Hashanah we usually invite Rachel and her husband Elliott along with a few other friends. I tend to go all out and break out some higher end proteins. I happen to have a large rib-eye and a couple of ducks in freezer, so instead of spending more money I decided to use those.

My full menu includes:

Cinnamon Sugar Challah (Made by my lovely wife Ronit)

Potato Leek Soup

Teriyaki Salmon (At my wife’s request)

Smashed Potatoes

Pomegranate Glazed Roast Duck

Sous Vide Rib-eye Roast

Roasted Delicata Squash Stuffed with Apples, Dates, and Leeks

Spinach Mango Salad with Beet Chips and A Pomegranate Vinaigrette

Apple Turnovers

As we head in to a new year I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you guys for reading our work. I feel like we have grown significantly in the past year and hope you all will continue on this journey with us in the coming year. We are working on some great things, so stay tuned. I have one favor to ask all of you, we can only be successful with your help. If you could all share this post with your friends across social media it would mean the world to us. From our families to yours, thank you, Shanah Tovah, and have a happy sweet new year.

Don’t forget check out Rachel’s newest Rosh Hashanah recipe: Tomato Pomegranate Salad

Recipe: Delicata Squash Stuffed with Apples, Dates, and Leeks

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Stuffed Delicata Squash
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Delicata Squash Stuffed With Apples Dates and Leeks
Prep Time
15 mins
Cook Time
1 hr 30 mins
 

This is a great dish as the weather begins cool off. It uses some great fall flavors of warm spices, along with apples and winter squash.

Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Delicata, Delicata Squash, Fall, rosh hashanah, Side Dish, Squash
Servings: 4
Author: Daniel Peikes
Ingredients
  • 2 Delicata Squashes Sliced in half the long way and seeds removed
  • 4 Apples Peeled, cored, and diced
  • 2 Leeks (Just the while part) Sliced in to 1/2" rounds and cleaned
  • 12 Dates Pitted and roughly chopped
  • 3 tbsp Oil for sauteing
  • 3 tbsp Ginger Ground
  • 3 tbsp Cinnamon
  • 3 tbsp Nutmeg Freshly ground
  • Salt and Pepper To taste
Instructions

  1. Sprinkle each of the squashes with a tablespoon each of the ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Then season with salt and pepper to taste. Reassemble the 2 halves of two squashes (sans seeds) and wrap each one tightly in aluminum foil. Place on a foil lined sheet pan and roast at 350°F until it a knife pierces it easily, about 90 minutes.

  2. While the squash roasts, add the oil to the skillet and place over medium heat. Add the leeks to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently until the leeks just begin to brown, then add the apples and dates as well as the remaining cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Continue to cook and stir until the apples are a caramel brown and remove from the heat.

  3. Cut each squash in half the short way. You should have 8 shorter pieces when you are done. Fill each squash piece with the apple, leek, and date mixture and serve.

Don’t forget to check out some of our other Rosh Hashanah recipes:

Beef Bacon Wrapped Mergez Stuffed Date

Zucchini Leek Soup

Gluten-Free Honey Muffins

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Curried Pumpkin Bisque

It’s official.  The temperature is dropping and the leaves are slowly turning their bright orange – but how do you know fall is REALLY here?  Well, of course, the aroma of pumpkin spice lattes filling the air like a thick cloud! Pumpkin spice lovers, rejoice!

And as we prepare for the festival of Sukkot that starts this evening, so what a perfect way to bring in the official first few days of fall with…you guessed it – PUMPKIN!  I know you may be rolling your eyes thinking “ugh, another pumpkin recipe?  Really?”  But this one is just slightly different.  Think of sweet and creamy pumpkin with a touch of heat and warm aromatic spices.  This is not your typical overly-sweetened pumpkin pie or pumpkin latte.  No, this is pumpkin kicked up a notch!

When I was in college, I became a little obsessed with making soups.  So much so that my roommate bought me a soup-only cookbook!  I think with the craziness of being a full-time college student and working jobs and internships that forced me to make easy dishes that I could make in huge batches and freeze for later.  I loved being able to make this in advance and have friends over for Shabbat dinner, serving up giant bowls of soup like this one, or my Mexican Tortilla Soup (that one was a bit hit).  And even better, anything that you can make in just one pot is always a win in my book.  And this soup would be great if you froze it to serve later.

Quick Tip

Here’s a quick freezer tip:  Add the soup in a plastic zip top bag and lay it flat in the freezer (labeled with the content and date, of course) – it makes it easier to store, versus a bulky container!

Fun fact!  Did you know that about 10 years ago, I started writing a cookbook?  Of course it was titled “Risky Veggie” but I decided to turn it into a blog (well, now technically it morphed into TWO blogs of course), but this soup is one of the recipes from that project – granted it’s been tweaked just slightly over the years.  And thank you to my very talented sister Avi, for taking this photo! Maybe one day I’ll get start up again on that cookbook… but in the meantime, here at Meat Your Vegetables, we’d like to wish everyone a chag sameach and Happy Sukkot!

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Curried Pumpkin Bisque
Prep Time
15 mins
Cook Time
45 mins
Total Time
1 hr
 
Servings: 4 people
Author: Rachel Katzman
Ingredients
  • 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 tsp. cumin seeds
  • 1 white onion, diced
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/4 tsp. salt Add more, to taste
  • 1/4 tsp. white pepper
  • 1 15 oz. can of pumpkin puree NOT pumpkin pie filling
  • 1/4 cup light brown sugar, or coconut sugar Feel free to use any other sugar substitute, like "Swerve" or Stevia
  • 1/4 tsp. ginger
  • 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp. cloves
  • 1/4 tsp. allspice
  • 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper Add more/less depending on how spicy you like it. Make sure to taste as you go along and adjust seasoning to how you like it!
  • 1/2 tsp. curry powder
  • 1/2 cup non-dairy milk (almond, coconut cream, cashew, oat) If making this dairy, feel free to add heavy cream instead
  • 1/2 cup vegetable stock Use store-bought or homemade - whatever you have on hand!
  • 2 tbsp. lemon juice For some brightness
  • 1/4 cup chives, minced (optional) For garnish. Or, you can use popcorn!
Instructions

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat.

  2. Add the cumin seeds and toast for 1 minute, making sure not to burn.

  3. Add the onion, garlic and saute for 2-3 minutes.

  4. Add the ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, cayenne, curry powder, salt and pepper, and toast the spices for another 2 minutes.

  5. Add the pumpkin puree, vegetable stock (or you can use chicken stock, if you're making this for a fleishig meal), and light brown sugar . Taste the soup and adjust seasonings if needed.

  6. Simmer the soup for 45 minutes on low-medium until all of the flavors meld together.

  7. Using a handheld immersion blender, blend the soup until smooth.  If you don't have an immersion blender, you can ladle the soup into a few batches into your blender - make sure not to fill your blender to the top, as you want some heat to escape.  

  8. Pour the soup back in the pot (if using a blender), and add the non-dairy milk (or heavy cream, if making a milchig meal) and lemon juice. 

  9. Ladle into bowls and garnish with freshly snipped chives, or sprinkle with parve popcorn!