FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Vegan Mashed Potatoes With Garlic Chives

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Vegan Mashed Potatoes

My entire life, I’ve been fooled into thinking that mashed potatoes take so long to make and are so special that they are a side reserved only for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  And even after years of being one of the kitchen leads during the holidays {knowing that mashed potatoes are not tough} they still feel like a special occasion thing.

Boiled Potatoes

With that said, nothing particularly special happened today to warrant mashed potatoes.  I’m about to finish my first restaurant project {the construction portion}. And I’m about to head to Italy for the trip of a lifetime.  But nothing out of the ordinary happened that called for mashed potatoes today.

Mashed Potatoes

But as I wandered around Whole Foods after yoga {an atypical 40-ish minutes of wandering}, I kept thinking about potatoes.  And not quite the holiday potatoes I’m accustomed to, but vegan potatoes with garlic chives that I would later confuse by pairing with a steak.  Vegan potatoes with garlic chives that my steak-eating roommate said was the best part of his meal.

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Going Home For Turkey

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A few years ago I traveled to Shreveport, Louisiana for Thanksgiving.  At that time, my Aunt Michele was a new mom and had just found out that her husband had to travel abroad for work over the holiday.  My family sent me up there and Michele and I decided to make it as much of a girls’ weekend as possible having a one year old in tow.  We packed up the car Thanksgiving morning and headed to Dallas for a shopping adventure, stopping at Cracker Barrel on the way for Thanksgiving dinner.  I cried.

I cried serious tears.  Michele looked at me with inquiring eyes.  I couldn’t believe that the baby’s first Thanksgiving was at Cracker Barrel, away from our family, away from our food, away from Gramma’s pie crust.  We called the family so everyone could tease me, thoroughly, and I dried my eyes.  We hopped back in the car and headed to Dallas.  It ended up not being a big deal, but in that wink of a moment, it felt like the biggest deal.

When I heard the Lawson brothers, my friends turned neighbors, might not be able to make it back to Wichita Falls for Thanksgiving this year, that same big deal feeling came over me.  I immediately made plans to make a mini holiday meal and drop it off before my flight to Florida.  I kept portions of each dish aside for my roommate, who is also staying in Austin this week, and quickly realized how not-mini this meal was going to be.  A little embarrassing, but what can ya do.

I made classic mashed potatoes,  The Pioneer Woman’s green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie with Savory Spice Shop’s Chinese Five Spice.  Everything was darn good.  The green bean casserole was like bacon macaroni and cheese meets green beans.  And even though the pie looked a bit funkier than usual, I suspect the addition of the Chinese five spice in lieu of pumpkin pie spice was a killer trade (I also made this substitution with the Pumpkin Roll Cake).

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

Smashed Squash

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I can’t tell you enough about my thoughts on white potatoes and how they, unless completely masked by butter, garlic, and milk, are a total waste of time.  Years ago, mashed cauliflower came into the picture as a low-cal alternative.  It dawned on people that an otherwise tasteless veggie can be whipped into oblivion with creamy goodness and will taste good.  Genius, right?

My question is…  Why hasn’t the obsession been with flavorful root veggies that need minimal “fats” to get them to a tasty place?  Tonight I used severely out of season butternut squash.  But why not beets, rutabaga, or one of the gazillion other varieties of squash out there?  Maybe I’m getting crazy here.  Or… maybe I’m not.

FoodFash Smashed Squash (yields 4 servings)

1 butternut squash, cubed

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk

2 tablespoons Earth Balance (or butter)

garlic salt & pepper to taste

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Place squash cubes on a greased cookie sheet, lightly spray with olive oil cooking spray, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Bake for 30 minutes.  In a mixing bowl, add squash, coconut oil, and Earth Balance.  Use a stand or electric mixer and mix on medium until all of the ingredients are blended.  Mix on high for a couple minutes until the squash looks whipped.   Add garlic salt to taste and then stir in the fresh basil.

After sampling my first bite, I had one of those this-dish-could-totally-be-served-at-my-favorite-restaurant smiles.  I dug everything about it.  Dairy free, slightly sweet, savory but light, and fresh.  Scooch on over white potatoes, smashed squash is where it’s at!