Well, the weather is dreary, but we haven’t had rain in a couple of weeks, so no complaints. It’s nice to have a rainy day every once in a while. Today’s rainy agenda: breakfast at the Good Egg (vegetarian hash…amazing!), trip to Whole Foods for weekly groceries, home to make stew, off to a movie (Fame, it was horrible!), now back home for stew and cake! Now, as I have said before, I am eating a 80% raw diet, but I cook for two eaters (my partner, S, and sister, L) that are definitely not on the raw bandwagon. And they have been in mourning, since I have started eating raw. Tonight’s dinner is a gift to them. Enjoy you guys!

Seitan Stew
The Kripalu Cookbook

3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 C chopped onions
1 1/2 C chopped seitan (again, this is a dinner for S and L, you can just as easily not use seitan)
1 C diced butternut squash
1 C sliced carrots
3/4 C sliced celery
1 C diced potatoes
6 C water
1/4 C Tamari
3/4 C quartered mushrooms
1/2 C canned diced tomatoes
1 Tsp. sage
1 C fresh or frozen peas
1 Tbsp. arrowroot dissolved in 1/2 C cold water (I had to sprinkle some whole wheat flour to help thicken, arrowroot wasn’t enough)
1/2 Tsp. balsamic vinegar

In a large pot, heat the oil and saute the onions for 3-5 minutes or until translucent. Add the seitan and continue to saute until the seitan starts to brown.

Mix in the squash, carrots, celery, potatoes, water and tamari and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer and cook for about 25 min., or until vegetables are tender. Add mushrooms, tomatoes, sage and peas. Simmer for 10 mins. more.

Stir in dissolved arrowroot and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. When arrowroot if fully absorbed, reduce the heat to simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5-10 min. Add vinegar and serve immediately.

And for dessert we had some beets from our CSA farm share kicking around so I made a L’s favorite…Chocolate Beet Cake.

Chocolate Beet Cake

2 Beets (1 C pureed)
1 C Unsweetened applesauce
5 Dates*
1 Tsp. Vanilla
1 Tsp. Apple Cider Vinegar
1 C Whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 C All-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 Cacao Powder or cocoa powder
1/2 C sugar*
1 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tsp baking soda
1/2 Tsp salt
1/2 Tsp cinnamon
* I have been playing around with sugar-free recipes and using only dates to sweeten treats. If you don’t want to use any dates, use 1 C sugar. If you don’t want to use any sugar, I think 10 dates are enough to sweeten this recipe.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Put beets in a saucepan with just enough water to cover them. Boil until tender 15-20 min. Strain beets. Place beets in food processor and measure out 1 C pureed beets. Put 1 C of beets back into the food processor  along with applesauce, dates, vanilla and apple cider vinegar.

Mix dry ingredients. Then add to pureed mixture to the dry mix. Stir. You may need to add a little water if the batter is too thick, but you don’t want it too runny, either. Place mixture in an 8X8 greased pan. Cook for about 35 min. Checking at 25 min. A dry cake is such a sad thing. Enjoy with whatever topping you feel inspired to add. Simple confectionery sugar sifted on top is nice or this glaze:

Confectionery Glaze:

1 C Confectionery sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla
Water

Add the vanilla to the sugar. Add water 1 Tbsp at a time until you like the consistency of the glaze. Drizzle over a completely cooled cake. Enjoy! I know L and S will, me too, of course!

Categories: General

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 27th, 2009 at 5:07 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.