Golden Beet Soup with Cinnamon

A colorful, warming soup for cold winter evenings, this recipe is decadently creamy without the presence of actual cream (thanks, coconut milk!). Try to use small, fresh beets that are still juicy. The tablespoon of applesauce at the end really brings the warm spiced forward, but you can skip it if you don't want to crack open a whole jar just for this one recipe.


6 yellow beets (4 cups)
1 sweet potato (2 cups)
2 tablespoons butter (or olive oil)
olive oil
pinch of allspice
pinch of nutmeg
1 clove
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 tablespoon plain applesauce

Chop the sweet potatoes and beets into 1/2 inch cubes. Melt the butter over medium heat in a large saucepan, then add yams and beets. Cover and saute, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. (There should be enough liquid to keep the vegetables from sticking and burning. If your beets and yams don't give off enough liquid, add a few tablespoons of water.)

Stir in a little olive oil, turn the heat up to medium-high, and stir frequently, until the beets and yams are browned. Sprinkle in the spices and stir for a minute. Add the coconut milk, salt, applesauce and enough water to cover the vegetables. Simmer for 5 minutes, then puree well, adding more water as needed.

Kabocha, Beer and Cheese Soup

Due to CSA-induced extreme squash consumption several years ago, there has been a winter squash strike in our house for a while now. If we can eat and love this soup, so can the staunchest winter squash hater at your Thanksgiving table! (Booze and cheese will do that for a vegetable). This recipe was inspired by the pumpkin rarebit soup from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. Here, we've used kabocha squash, which is less stringy and watery than a regular pumpkin. You can also try this with a buttercup squash.

For the lactose-intolerant or otherwise cheese-avoiding readers, this is also good without the cheese.

1 large kabocha squash
2 tablespoons butter
3 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole
1 large onion, sliced into rings
Vegetable stock, as needed, up to 1 cup
1 12-ounce bottle of beer (we like pale ale)
salt
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 375. Cut squash into eighths and bake, covered, until tender, about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, heat butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are browned and soft.

When squash is done, slice off skin and transfer pieces to a food processor with the caramelized onions and garlic. Add just enough stock to blend to a smooth puree. Transfer to the saucepan, add the beer, salt to taste and simmer for 10 minutes.

Ladle into ramekins and top with the cheese, then broil until cheese is bubbly and starting to brown. (Or, if you're not feeling like ramekins, you can just stir in the cheese, add a little extra stock and simmer a few minutes longer). Let sit for a few minutes before serving to prevent serious internal mouth burns!

Braised Brussels Sprouts with Rosemary and Lemon

We love Brussels sprouts roasted and stir-fried, but we wanted to experiment a little and decided that since cabbage is delicious braised, why not see if Brussels sprouts would be amenable to the same treatment?

And oh, are they ever.

olive oil
2-3 cups Brussels sprouts
6 cloves garlic
1-2 cups stock
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary (stems removed)
juice of 1 lemon
salt

Trim the bottoms of the sprouts and slice in half lengthwise. Heat a little olive oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add the garlic and only as many sprouts as will fit in a single layer. Saute for a minute or two, until the sprouts are bright green and glistening. Add enough stock to cover the Brussels a little more than halfway. Add rosemary and salt (keep in mind how much salt your stock may already have). Turn the heat up to medium-high and cook, uncovered, until the liquid has completely evaporated.

Add some olive oil and flip the sprouts so that they are all cut-side-down. Fry until the bottoms of the Brussels are well-browned. Remove the sprouts, garlic and rosemary to a serving dish. Return the saucepan to low heat and add the lemon juice. Deglaze, scraping the pan to get all of the delicious browned bits, then simmer just a minute or so, to reduce the lemon juice. Pour sauce over Brussels and serve.

Seethed Potatoes with Thyme

No, these cute little potatoes aren't angry at anyone--seething is a cooking technique in which small potatoes are left whole and cooked in just a little water, butter, and aromatics like garlic and herbs. We got the basic idea from One Potato, Two Potato about a year ago and have been modifying and loving it since then; we've increased the garlic from the original recipe and tried several different herbs before deciding thyme is our favorite. Try this with the most adorable tiny potatoes you can find--it's a great dish for using the small heirloom varieties that are cropping up at farmer's markets this time of year!

1.5 lbs tiny potatoes, scrubbed
5 large cloves garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
3 tablespoons butter
Salt
Freshly-ground black pepper

Place potatoes, garlic, thyme and butter in a wide skillet--you want to be able to fit the potatoes in a single layer. Barely cover with water, bring to a boil, and simmer, partially covered, for 20-25 minutes, until potatoes are soft and nearly all of the water has evaporated. Turn the heat back up and shake the pan around for a minute or so, which will coat the potatoes in smashed, soft garlic. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Shredded Skillet Brussels Sprouts with Walnuts

Mark Bittman wrote last month that the story of Brussels sprouts' new life as an actually-liked vegetable "is one part mystery, one part thanks to bacon, and one part a tribute to our ability (finally) to appreciate members of the cabbage family." While you're appreciating, try this: a quick stovetop option in which they're shredded to cut down on cooking time. These sprouts cook down to a third of their original size, so if you're making dinner for a crowd, scale up.

3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
4 cups brussels sprouts, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons dry red wine
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
salt

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sprouts and walnuts and saute, stirring frequently, until the Brussels are well-browned. Add the wine and vinegar, cook until they've evaporated. Salt generously and serve immediately.

Chai-Spiced Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Bring a little bit of India to your Thanksgiving table with these spicy sweet potatoes--we've taken the components of a steaming cup of masala chai and applied them to sweet potatoes for a nice change of pace from that tired old marshmallow-and-canned-pineapple routine. This may seem like a lot of ginger, but we've found that any less doesn't really do much.

Sweet potatoes have such vast size variation that we've listed the amount you'll need in cups of chopped sweet potato rather than in number of potatoes. For us, this was one gigantic sweet potato.

1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons finely grated fresh ginger
3 cups chopped sweet potatoes, in 1/2-inch cubes

Preheat oven to 375. In a medium-sized bowl, toss ingredients together. Spread in a single layer on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake, stirring occasionally, until sweet potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes.

Rachel's Roasted Asian Pear and Fennel Soup

It's time to start planning exciting veggie side dishes to go with that big, boring Thanksgiving turkey. To jump-start your menu planning, we're blogging hearty, seasonal, late-autumn fare from now until the big day. And check out our Thanksgiving tag for inspiration from years past.

Our first Thanksgiving submission is another genius recipe from Hannah's sister! This soup combines the crisp, delicate flavors of two November favorites--Asian pears and fennel--roasted to bring out their rich, creamy potential. The result is a lovely blend of sweet and savory, an excellent first course if you're serving anything sharply-flavored like arugula. Although there are a lot of concurrent activities here, most of this recipe is inactive: you're basically just waiting around for half an hour or so while the pears and fennel roast, the stock simmers and the onions caramelize.

3 medium-sized Asian pears, diced (save the cores for stock)
1 bulb fennel, diced (save the stalks for stock and the fronds for garnish)
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt
Freshly-ground black pepper
1 onion, sliced into rings (save skins and trimmings for stock)
1/4 cup whole peppercorns
1/2 cup apple cider

For garnish:
Plain yogurt (optional if you want to make it vegan)
Fennel fronds

Preheat oven to 375. In a 9 x 13 inch pan, toss the fennel and pears with two tablespoons of the olive oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Roast for 40-45 minutes, until very soft.

Meanwhile, combine pear cores, fennel stalks, onion skins & trimmings and peppercorns in a saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Simmer while everything else cooks, about half an hour, then strain out solids.

While the stock is simmering and the pears and fennel are roasting, heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and saute, stirring occasionally, until the onions are browned and soft.

Now, put it all together: combine the roasted pears, fennel, 3 cups of stock, caramelized onions and cider in a blender and blend until very smooth. (We also passed ours through a food mill to remove any grainy pieces of Asian pear peel and get the texture extra-velvety.) Add salt and pepper to taste and then serve with a swirl of yogurt and some chopped fennel fronds.

Berkeley Rarebit

Berkeley Rarebit is like Welsh Rarebit, only with hippie-friendly flour. Other than that, we don't have a lot to add to this classic recipe, other than to say: you MUST eat this! We've been serving this boozy cheese sauce with simple vegetables to keep dinner exciting and to use up the beer that has languished in the fridge since our last party. Here, we serve it alongside roasted brussels sprouts.

2 tablespoons butter
2-3 tablespoons whole wheat flour (use extra flour for a thicker sauce)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 12-ounce bottle of beer
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, packed
black pepper

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the garlic and flour and whisk until the flour is browned. Keep whisking while you add the beer and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring frequently, for about ten minutes. Add the cheese and pepper and stir until the cheese is melted. Salt isn't really necessary, but it wouldn't hurt.

Mashed Potato Pancakes

Mashed potato pancakes are an excellent way to turn leftover mashed potatoes into a whole new meal with minimal effort. If you're truly lazy and can't even work up enough energy to fry your potato pancakes, we've discovered that baking works just as well.

2 scallions
1 tablespoon minced fresh dill
2 eggs
4 cups leftover mashed potatoes
Canola oil

Mix together all of the ingredients except the canola oil.

Choose your cooking method: baking or frying.

The Easy Way: Grease a cookie sheet and dot with tablespoons of batter, pressing each mound down to flatten it. Bake at 450 until the bottoms of the pancakes are golden and crispy. Flip the pancakes over, return the tray to the oven and bake until the undersides are golden. It should take about 10 minutes on each side.

The Hard But Deliciously Fatty Way: Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a cast iron skillet, medium-high. Drop 1 tablespoon of the batter into the pan. Flatten the mound of batter slightly with the back of a spoon. Add as several more mounds, then fry for about 5 minutes on each side, until the bottom is golden and crispy. Transfer to paper towels to blot the oil.

Serve with ketchup.

Skillet Cornbread with Gruyere and Chives

Our free subscription to Gourmet (who are you, wonderful secret admirer?) is seriously the best thing ever. The second seriously best thing ever is our latest favorite cheese, gruyere. Combine these two and you get our doctored version of the cornbread in the Thanksgiving issue--personalized with some gruyere, yogurt instead of buttermilk, chives from the farmer's market, slightly less butter and, as usual, agave instead of the sugar.

Between the cornmeal, egg and yogurt, this is complete protein, and a leftover wedge makes a fantastic breakfast on the go. Also, try some as an accompaniment to bean dishes and hearty stews--this was delicious with the leftover frijoles con todo from lunch at Tacubaya.

Finally, an unrelated public service announcement: Manzanita Restaurant, which we heart because it always has kale on the menu, has re-instated dinner service on Fridays and Saturdays. Bay Area readers, please take note and take advantage!

Adapted from Gourmet

1 and 1/2 cups cornmeal
1 tablespoon agave nectar
3/4 tablespoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cups plain whole-milk yogurt
1 cup grated gruyere cheese
2 tablespoons minced chives
3 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 425°F. Place a medium-sized cast-iron skillet in the oven to heat up for 10 minutes while you get everything else ready.

Stir together dry ingredients and beat together eggs, yogurt, gruyere and chives in a large bowl. Get out your thickest potholder and remove the skillet from the oven. Put the butter in the skillet, tilting it so the butter melts and coats the bottom and sides. Pour the butter into the wet mixture and stir quickly, then add dry ingredients and mix to combine. Transfer batter to hot skillet and bake until a toothpick comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Run a butter knife around the sides of the cornbread and flip onto a plate to serve.

Gruyere-Crusted Root Vegetables

You can use whatever kind of root vegetables you want here: try a mix of potatoes, something assertive like turnips or rutabagas, and something sweet like beets, parsnips or sweet potatoes. If you use parsnips or sweet potatoes, be careful not to put them on the bottom, since they'll burn easily. If you're going the beet route, use golden beets or chioggia beets so you don't turn the entire dish pink. We served this with a dollop of kale pesto.

3 lbs root vegetables (we used chioggia beets, golden turnips and Yukon gold potatoes)
4 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup grated Gruyere cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350. Slice root vegetables 1/8 inch thick (please, for the love of all things holy, do this with a mandoline if you've got one). Melt the butter and toss with the root vegetables in a medium-sized cast-iron skillet. Cover with aluminum foil (or a lid, if you were smart enough to register for a cast-iron skillet with a lid. Next time we get married, next time...). Bake for half an hour, then uncover and bake 10 more minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and bake another ten minutes, until bubbly and golden-brown on top.

Pumpkin Coconut Milk Ice Cream

We've been perfecting our coconut milk ice cream technique for a few months, ever since we realized we were busting our grocery budget on Coconut Bliss, the most rich, delicious frozen treat on the market for the lactose-intolerant among you. This rendition is our creamiest and most authentic yet--it really has the texture and decadence of ice cream. Try this for Thanksgiving and please everyone from Grandpa Meat-and-Potatoes to Cousin Vegan-Liberation. We prefer to use our low-glycemic index friend, agave nectar, but any sweetener will do.

1 14-ounce can coconut milk (regular, not low-fat)
3 tablespoons cooked pumpkin puree (canned works well -- but make sure it's unflavored)
1/4 - 1/2 cup sweetener (agave, honey, maple syrup, sucanat, sugar)
1 inch piece of ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of allspice

Grate the ginger and then squeeze it between your fingers or in a cheesecloth to extract the juice. Discard the squeezed ginger pulp. Combine the ginger juice with all of the ingredients except the sweetener and whisk well.

Heat the mixture over a low flame and add the sweetener slowly, tasting as you go. (It won't need to be very hot, just enough to dissolve the sugar and meld the flavors.) Transfer to the fridge until it's cool, then follow the directions for your particular ice cream maker.

Yogurt-Mashed Parsnips and Potatoes with Thyme

Take a break from mashing your spuds with milk and butter--these mashed potatoes are enlivened with fresh flavors from parsnips, thyme and yogurt. The sweetness of the parsnips works wonderfully with the tang of plain yogurt, and you get some extra probiotics and calcium out of the deal, too.

3 medium-sized Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed and diced (we keep the skins on)
4 parsnips, scrubbed and diced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons plain whole-milk yogurt
salt and pepper to taste

Place the potatoes and parsnips in a saucepan with water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook, uncovered, for 10-15 minutes, until vegetables are fork-tender. Drain, return to the pan, and mash with the thyme, olive oil and yogurt. Add salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!

Whole-Grain Stuffing with Apricots and Allspice

Perusing the mainstream Thanksgiving stuffing recipes available, we once more found ourselves thinking, "Again with the day-old artisan bread?" Apricots and allspice bring a little Syrian flair to this complex-carb incarnation, which is comforting and delicious on its own or stuffed inside whatever festive protein you're into. This serves 4-6 as a side dish, so scale up if you have a bigger crowd.

2 tablespoons butter
1 small leek, white and pale green parts, diced
3 ribs celery, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
6 slices whole-grain bread (we used Alvarado St. sprouted bread), cubed
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
1 teaspoon allspice
1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped roughly
1 egg
1 and 1/2 cups vegetable stock
Olive oil
Salt and black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add leeks, celery and garlic and saute 5 minutes, then transfer to a greased 9 x 13 inch casserole. Reheat skillet and toast bread cubes and add those to the casserole with the vegetables. Mix in thyme, allspice and apricots. Beat together egg and stock and stir into stuffing. Drizzle olive oil over the top, salt and pepper to taste and bake for 30 minutes.

Raw Cranberry Sauce

The last thing you need while you're trying to make Thanksgiving dinner is another simmering pot to keep track of...especially one filled with popping cranberries. This year, just go raw. All you have to do is throw everything in a food processor and press go.

Try to get an organic orange, since you'll be using the whole thing, peel and all.

1 and 1/2 cups cranberries
1 whole unpeeled Valencia or other juicy orange, chopped
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger

Combine all ingredients in your food processor and grind.

Conquering Mount Brussels

If the phrase "brussels sprouts" triggers your gag reflex, you're probably remembering freezer-burned, over-boiled mush-balls. Fresh brussels, cooked properly, are so delicious that they get munched up before they even make it to the dinner table. We've included two great introductions to brussels sprouts -- a light stir-fry and a greasy, crispy roast.

We like to buy a whole stalk of sprouts and enjoy the street cred it earns us on the way home from the Berkeley Bowl. You can also buy your brussels loose -- look for green, perky
leaves.

Stir-Fried Brussels Sprouts and Greens with Walnuts

2 teaspoons olive oil
8-10 fresh brussels sprouts, quartered lengthwise
1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
2 cups packed, chopped kale
Salt to taste

Heat olive oil in a wok or large skillet over medium-high heat. Add in brussels sprouts and walnuts, stirring 3-5 minutes, until sprouts begin to be tinged with brown. Toss in kale and saute until wilted. Season to taste with salt.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Ginger-Lime Sweet Potatoes


25-30 Brussels sprouts
Olive oil
Salt
2 large Garnet or Jewel sweet potatoes
2 tablespoons butter
1-inch hunk of ginger, peeled and very finely chopped (this is a great time to whip out a microplane if you have one)
zest and juice of 1/2 a lime


Preheat oven to 375. Cut an "X" across the tops of the brussels sprouts as shown above, then transfer to a cookie sheet, toss with olive oil and salt, and roast until browned, about 40-45 minutes.

Meanwhile, peel and dice the sweet potatoes into 1-inch cubes. Bring a large pot of water to boil, add sweet potatoes, and boil until soft. Drain, transfer to a large bowl and mash with butter, ginger, lime juice and lime zest.

Cranberry-Persimmon Crisp with Filbert Streusel

Two fruit happenings inspired this crisp: we both came home from the office with free persimmons from co-workers' trees, and we found last year's bag of cranberries in the freezer while cleaning it out in anticipation of Thanksgiving. Phoebe came up with this dessert to combine the two, and the sweetness of ripe persimmons plays beautifully off the tart cranberries.

A note about the topping: we found a jar of ground-up filberts left over from an attempt at Passover-friendly cookies (again:we were cleaning house), but if your pantry is a little less bizarre than ours, you could just grind some almonds in a food processor until they turn into almond meal. Or just buy the almond meal ready-made at Trader Joe's.


4 ripe Fuyu persimmons, diced
1/2 cup cranberries, fresh or frozen
2 tablespoons agave nectar or maple syrup
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup filbert meal or other finely-ground nuts
1/4 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
4 tablespoons butter or Earth Balance, melted
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 375. Grease a round cake pan and add the fruit, then drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the agave or maple syrup. In a medium-sized bowl, combine oats, filbert meal, chopped walnuts, melted butter or Earth Balance, the remaining tablespoon of agave or maple syrup, cinnamon, vanilla and salt. Sprinkle topping over the fruit, cover pan with foil, and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake for 5 more minutes, until topping is browned.

Pumpkin Pie with Honey-Caramelized Walnuts

I've been traveling for the last week and a half, and on my flight home (yay JetBlue!) I watched 6 straight hours of the Food Network, all Thanksgiving-themed, which really got me in the mood for pumpkin pie. Our moist version combines traditional elements with cardamom and coconut milk, and the honey-caramelized walnuts add a delicious textural contrast. (The plan was to have them cover the top, but we ate a few while the pie was baking and...well, you can see how that ended).

Way Less Annoying Than Rachael Ray

1 9-inch pie crust (we had a spelt one in the freezer and used that, but if you have time to make your own, go crazy)
1 15-ounce can pumpkin
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup coconut milk
a pinch each of ground cloves, nutmeg and allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons honey mixed with 2 teaspoons water
1 tablespoon butter or Earth Balance
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped roughly

And Almost As Hot As Giada DeLaurentiis

Preheat oven to 375. In a large bowl, stir together pumpkin, eggs, agave, coconut milk, salt and spices. Pour into the crust and bake for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 350. Once the pie has been in for 50 minutes total, start the caramel!

To make caramel, microwave the honey-water mixture in one-minute increments, stopping between increments to check if it's the right consistency yet. To check the consistency, drop a little of the mixture into a glass of cold water--when it forms a soft ball, it's caramel. (This usually takes around five minutes in the microwave.) Add the butter, stir quickly and add to walnuts, stirring to coat.

Sprinkle caramelized walnuts on top of the pie and bake for 10-15 more minutes, until the pie center stays firm when you gently jiggle the pan from side to side. (Total cooking time - about 1 hour 10 minutes) Allow the pie to cool to room temperature, which will give it time to firm up. Eat alone or with your creamy frozen treat of choice.