Black Pepper Ricotta Gnocchi with Butternut Squash and Swiss Chard in Béchamel Sauce
Soft ricotta gnocchi in a creamy parmesan béchamel sauce with fall vegetables. Rich and comforting, perfect for a cool fall or winter night.
Ingredient: flour
Vegetarian Mushroom Bourguignon
This vegetarian riff on the French classic beef bourguignon is a rich stew of mushrooms, herbs, and vegetables simmered in red wine. Once you remove the meat and serve it over quinoa it might no longer be quite as French but it still tastes great. …
Easy Vegetarian Enchilada Sauce
This enchilada sauce is super easy to make and comes together quickly. It doesn’t use beef or chicken broth so it’s completely vegetarian and vegan-friendly, but still had plenty of flavor. The spices and chipotle in adobo sauce make it nice and smokey with a bit of a kick. In addition to enchiladas, this sauce can be used for chilaquiles, as a taco salad dressing, or over egg dishes like huevos rancheros.
I love enchiladas but was pretty disappointed when I realized that my go-to enchilada sauce listed chicken in the ingredients. I then realized that most enchilada sauces use some sort of chicken or beef broth and/or fat. My first couple attempts at homemade enchilada sauce had more of a thin salsa consistency than what I was hoping for but after a few tries I finally came up with a recipe that has the proper consistency of an enchilada sauce and all of the flavor that one would expect, but without the beef or chicken!
I usually use a 15-ounce can plus a smaller 8-ounce can of tomato sauce, but if you’re not as in love with the tomato flavor, or if you don’t feel like opening a second can, sticking to just 1 15-ounce can should work fine. Depending on how much tomato sauce is added, this recipe makes about 4-5 cups – enough for a batch of my veggie enchiladas.
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Ingredients
- 3 tbsp butter
- 3 tbsp flour
- 1.5 tbsp chili powder
- .5 tbsp cumin
- 5. tbsp garlic salt
- 1.5-2 tbsp chipotle in adobo sauce from the can, not the actual chili
- pinch cayenne pepper optional
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 15-23 ounces tomato sauce depending on how tomato-y you like it
Ingredients
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Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
- Add the chili powder, cumin, garlic salt, chipotle in adobo sauce, and cayenne pepper to the butter and cook about a minute.
- Stir in flour and cook for another minute.
- While whisking continuously, slowly add the vegetable broth. Continue stirring to incorporate all spices and flour for about 3-4 minutes, until the sauce has thickened.
- Add the tomato sauce and bring it to a low simmer. Continue stirring for another 5 minutes. Taste for seasoning, then transfer to a heat-proof jar for later, or wide, shallow bowl to use immediately.
Recipe Notes
If you are making this sauce to use with these enchiladas, once you finish with the large skillet after making the sauce, pour the sauce into a wide shallow bowl and set aside for later. Do not wash the skillet, but instead use the layer of remaining sauce in the pan to start cooking the filling.
Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon and Honey Cream Cheese Frosting
Moist pumpkin and spice cupcakes with a cinnamon cream cheese and honey frosting
Apple Crumble Shortbread Bars
Nothing quite embodies simplistic deliciousness like a good shortbread. It’s a decadent treat on its own, but also makes a sturdy foundation upon which to pile seasonal fruit and additional crumbly toppings.
And fortunately for me, September is here and it’s officially socially acceptable to pretend fall is upon us…even if the temperature is still in the 80s. But the apple orchard is also ready for fall and I now have half a bushel of apples and a kitchen that smells like cinnamon.
I love this recipe because it’s basically a cross between a Dutch apple pie and a shortbread cookie resulting in a delicious hand-held shortbread with a soft spiced apple topping and a crunchy top layer. And if apples aren’t your jam, you can always swap a berry or other fruit flavored topping. Regardless of flavor, they’re super easy to make; the hardest part of the recipe is waiting for them to cool.
This recipe can be made in either a 9×13 dish, or a 9×9 dish. I have made these both ways, and the only part of the recipe I would adjust is the apple topping. Too much apple topping could result in a soggy/moisture issue, too little apple topping would be sad. The layers will obviously be a bit thicker in the 9×9 dish. If you go with the 9×9 dish, I would suggest reducing the apple topping to 2 apples, 4 tablespoons of sugar, 1 tablespoon of butter and a bit less of the lemon juice, spices, and butter.
Once you hit the 40 minute mark of baking, go ahead and take a peek. It will be ready when the top is slightly browned.
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Ingredients
Ingredients
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Instructions
- Make the apple topping. In a medium saucepan at medium to low heat, combine apples, sugar (6 tablespoons), cinnamon, nutmeg, butter, and lemon juice. Stir regularly for about 10 minutes, until apples start to break down creating a slightly sauce-like consistency. If the apples release a lot of liquid, wait until some of the liquid cooks off to avoid a soggy situation.
- While the apples cook, begin the shortbread base. Use an electric mixer to combine the butter and sugar (3/4 of a cup). Combine salt and flour together, then by hand, mix them into the butter and sugar mixture, just until combined. It should be somewhat of a pea-like consistency.
- Pat two thirds of the mixture evenly into the bottom of a 9x13 pan lined in parchment paper. If you don't have parchment paper, it's not the end of the world.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Make the crumble topping. Stir the granola and sliced almonds into the remaining shortbread mixture to create the crumble topping. It's helpful here to just stir by hand creating a rough mixture. Set aside for a moment.
- When the apples appear to be ready, evenly pour the apple mixture over shortbread base, using a spoon to spread the apples and avoiding the edges of the pan so that the apples won't stick to the side. Once the apples are in place, sprinkle the crumble topping over the apples and lightly pat down so that the topping stays in place.
- Sprinkle top with a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes, until the top is lightly browned.
- Leave to cool completely, then cut into 9 or 12 bars.