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Maple Dijon Pecan Hasselback Butternut Squash | Simple Vegan Holiday

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Simple.

Beautiful.

Delicious.

Tha’s what I’m talkin’ about!

This Holiday, why not skip the Turk and whip yourself up a hasselback butternut squash?

Hasselback it up to prett-ify it to the maximum, and you have yourself a wow-effect kinda dish.

Why Hasselback? According to the Google-tron, it’s because once upon a time at the Hasselbacken hotel in Stockholm, Sweden, they sliced up potatoes like this, served them to the guests and dubbed them the funky name. Ya learn something new every day.

If you’re a last minute kind of person, and you need to whip something special up for the holiday table, I’ve got you.

In just a few steps, your house will be smelling better than Jamie Oliver’s fancy kitchen.

This is a dish that looks fancier than the minimal effort you put into it. Shhh… You can tell everyone you were in the kitchen for hours and hours, I won’t tell.

This Maple Dijon butter topped off with caramelized pecans really does take your typical butternut to the next level. Grab a beauty organic squash from Spud (you can use my code if you’re around the Vancouver area CRVAN-MURJUB, for 20$ off 🙂

Happy Holidays!!

Maple Thyme Hasselback Butternut Squash | Simple Vegan Holiday Dish
 
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A delicious way to devour the butternut squash. If you're looking for a beautiful dish for the holiday table, you've come to the right place! A simple dish with a big wow factor.
Author:
Recipe type: Holiday
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 large butternut squash, halved length-wise, seeds scooped out, then peeled to the bright orange colour
  • 1 tsp coconut oil (or avocado oil)
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 1 garlic clove, sliced

  • Baste:
  • 1 tbsp thyme, minced
  • 1 tbsp vegan butter (I used 'Melt')
  • 2 tsp dijon mustard
  • 1½ tbsp maple syrup
Instructions
  1. Pre-heat oven to 400°F.
  2. Place squash face down on a parchment-covered baking sheet, rub with oil and sprinkle with salt.
  3. Bake for 10-15 minutes (to soften).
  4. Take out of the oven, and transfer to a cutting board to cool for 10 minutes.
  5. When the face-down squash is cool enough to handle, slice the hasselback cuts as thinly as you can. Stop slicing ¾ of the way down the squash to keep the base in tact.
  6. Place the squash, face-down, back onto the parchment covered baking sheet.
  7. Stuff a few garlic slices throughout the sliced squash.
  8. Bake for 10 more minutes while you make the baste.
  9. Make baste: whisk all of the baste ingredients together in a bowl.
  10. Remove the squash from the oven and pour ¾ of the baste over both halves. Use a basting brush to get it all over!
  11. Bake for another 20 minutes. Then add the pecans to the rest of the baste, and pour this mixture over the squash. Use the basting brush to spread any excess liquid on the pan, overtop of the squash.
  12. Bake 10 more minutes.
  13. Serve with roasted veg!

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Caramelized Onion Sage Cream BBQ Pasta

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Lucky for you, you’ve found yourself on a page with the secret to my new favourite sauce…all mixed up with the pasta that tells me ‘summer is on, baby’! This creamy vegan pasta could easily become a staple for those summery patio days.

Serve it up family style. Picture this… an outdoor picnic with a big bowl o’ pasta, a salad bowl packed with greens drizzled with this flavourful oil-free dressing, and a bowl of smokey vegan parm…now all that’s missing is funky tunes and fruity popsicles.

Caramelized onions give anything a deeper, sultry taste. Double or triple the caramelized onions I call for in this recipe, just so your fridge can be a good friend by having it on hand for your next savoury meal.

The BBQ’d veggies give this pasta a smokey flavour, and keep the house a little cooler than the oven would on a hot summery day.

And fresh sage… the ingredient that makes any dish seem more professional that it really is. Take a simple meal, sage it up, and voila: Top Chef material. Sage is so easy to grow outside or on a window sill (unlike basil, which somehow likes to wither away anytime I try to give it a good life…)

Benefits:

  • Zucchini has a good dose of antioxidants to help prevent disease, vitamin C to boost your immunity and potassium to help balance electrolytes and blood pressure.
  • Sage is commonly used for digestive issues, like bloating, gas, diarrhea and stomach pain. Plus, it’s fantastic for depression, memory loss and the prevention of Alzheimers
  • Onions contain sulfur, which is needed for the synthesis of the antioxidant glutathione, plus it helps strengthen hair and nails.

Caramelized Onion Sage Cream BBQ Pasta
 
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A simple dinner packed with nutrients. A go-to weeknight scramble recipe. Make lots of it, because the leftovers taste better by the day!
Author:
Recipe type: pasta, dinner, bbq
Serves: 3-4
Ingredients
  • 1 package of brown rice pasta (or any other pasta with just 2 ingredients...like quinoa + water)
  • 3-4 sweet onions, de-skinned, halved, then sliced in ⅛ inch pieces
  • 5 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 zucchinis, halved lengthwise
  • 2 red peppers, de-stemmed, halved lengthwise
  • 3 portobello mushrooms (crimini or white work, too)
  • 1 tbsp coconut oil
  • Salt + Pepper
  • Vegan sausage of choice (I used Gusta)

  • Sage Cream Sauce:
  • ½ cup cashews, pre-soaked overnight or for 10 minutes in hot water
  • ½ cup fresh sage
  • 2 tbsp miso paste
  • ¾ cup caramelized onions, with a few tablespoons of the liquid
Instructions
  1. Caramelize onions: heat large pot to medium, then add onions. Let brown a few minutes, then add ¼ cup water. Turn down the heat, add the garlic and let simmer for 30 minutes, lid on. Stir every 10 minutes or so to make sure they're not burning. If they're sticking just add a bit more water.
  2. Heat the BBQ to 400°F.
  3. Prep the veggies by adding the coconut oil to your hands and massaging the oil all over each piece of veg and place on the grill. Twist some salt and pepper on them, and let cook for 10 minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil. Once boiling, add a dash of salt and pour in the pasta. Cook according to time on the package.
  5. Flip the BBQ'd veggies, and salt + pepper the other side. Let cook another 10 minutes.
  6. Throw the sausages on the BBQ. Cook for 8 minutes, rotating every couple of minutes.
  7. Strain the pasta and pour the pasta back into the pot.
  8. Make the sauce: add all sauce ingredients to your blender, and blend until smooth.

 

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This week was all about manipulating your genetics with diet!

Hooked On Plants Interview: Cheap Lazy Vegan + Crispy Korean Tofu

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Extreme. Expensive. Difficult. Time consuming. Bland….Not when it comes to Cheap Lazy Vegan food! 

Do those words pop into your mind when someone says ‘vegan’?

Well, you obviously haven’t heard of the Cheap Lazy Vegan.

Rose is the Cheap Lazy Vegan. With over 450,000 youtube subscribers, she’s doing an amazing job at spreading the word that vegan doesn’t have to mean complicated or expensive.

She makes vegan easy and attainable. If you’re still skepticle… watch one of Rose’s youtube videos showing the ease of delicious 10 minutes meals, and you’ll be blown away at the simplicity of it all.

Along with being a youtube star, she now has an all vegan café (SaVeg Café) in Calgary, AB.

To celebrate National Vegetarian Week, it’s the perfect time to get to know Rose and bring some inspiration to you guys for cheap and easy vegan meals!

I was lucky enough to stop by the new café with my glorious Grandma to meet this beautiful soul! We also met her Mama who cooked up an amazing Tofu Sweet Potato Korean dish and a super spicy soup that we easily polished off (so dang good).

Let’s get to know Rose.

Hooked On Plants: Cheap Lazy Vegan resonates with hundreds of thousands of people now!  What was your first youtube video about?

Cheap Lazy Vegan: The first video I did was a simple introduction of my channel where I explain that you can be cheap AND lazy on a vegan diet… along with a “What I Ate in a Day” where I showed viewers some easy, simple meals that I ate in a day.

HOP: Did you come up with the awesome name, Cheap Lazy Vegan? Is there a story behind that?

CLV: I did… I had just moved to London, UK at the time and I was making very little money but spending a lot simply because I was living in one of the most expensive cities in the world. I found myself buying affordable groceries and making very inexpensive meals. I realized that I was super lazy when it came to cooking. At the same time, I’ve always been a foodie so I always have enjoyed taking photos of food. So I just came up with an Instagram page with the handle @cheaplazyvegan which is how it all started… 🙂

 

HOP: How long have you been vegan, and what was the main reason? Animals? Environment? or Health?

CLV: I’ve been mostly plant-based for about 7 years total (I became a pescatarian at first, staying away from meat, dairy and eggs, but still had a hard time staying away from fish) and now I’ve been VEGAN for almost 4 years. I went vegan purely for ethical & animal rights reasons and the other stuff (like health and environmental benefits) were just little bonuses for me. I read some books and watched some movies, which really opened up my eyes to the realities of what happens to the animals that I claimed to “love”. 

HOP: Did you take your time to take animal products out of your diet, or did you go completely vegan overnight?

CLV: It took time. I think it takes time to get used to the dietary aspect but also to mentally get your head around the whole idea. I first gave up meat, then about a month later stopped eating dairy and eggs, then lastly I quit fish, years later.

 

HOP: It is SO exciting that you’ve opened a 100% vegan café in ‘CowTown’! With Calgary being known for it’s Alberta Beef, it’s so it’s so inspiring that you’ve taken the initiative to get more vegan food into people’s mouths! Plus, you’re working with your Mom! How did you come up with the name SaVeg?

CLV: Haha, I really wish I could take credit for the name, but it was actually my friend’s sister that had the idea. I liked the trendiness of the name and the smart play-on-words.

HOP: What was the catalyst for opening SaVeg Café?

CLV: My mom already owned the cafe but it wasn’t a vegan one. I helped out there for just a few hours each day and I felt that my own time and the cafe space could be used in a better way. I wanted to be more involved and help out more, but I knew I couldn’t invest my own time/money/energy in a business that sold animal products. So, I approached my mom about the idea of fully changing the menu and concept of the cafe into a vegan one (and of course, me taking half ownership!). Calgary also is lacking in vegan establishments (in my opinion), so it made sense from a business perspective as well.

HOP: What are you excited about this year? Do you have any other cool projects you’re working on?

CLV: At the moment, I’m trying to juggle doing my social media and running the cafe! I’m focusing on getting the cafe established and learning to manage my time before moving onto other projects. I definitely would like to get involved in some new projects in the future!

Here’s a playlist of Rose’s quick meal ideas: Cheap Lazy Vegan quick meals

I had to share this recipe of hers. These spicy korean tofu bits were the special at her café when we came to visit. They were deeeeeelicious.

Spicy Korean Fried Chicken-Style Tofu
 
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Rose AKA Cheap Lazy Vegan's crispy, comfort food style tofu that's good in any dinner bowl or wrap!
Author:
Recipe type: vegan meat, lunch, dinner, tofu recipe
Serves: 2
Ingredients
  • 1 block extra firm tofu
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 2 tbsp rice vinegar
  • ¼ cup almond flour OR bread crumbs
  • 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds (optional)

  • Sauce
  • 1 tbsp gochujang (Korean red hot pepper paste)
  • ½ tbsp maple syrup
  • 4 tbsp ketchup
  • 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
  • 1 tbsp garlic powder (or you can use 1 clove of fresh minced garlic)
Instructions
  1. Press your tofu to take out some of the liquid for about 10-20 minutes… I’ll be honest, I rarely do this because I don’t have the patience.
  2. Cut up your tofu into small bite sized pieces.
  3. Add your tofu pieces into a mixing bowl and add in soy sauce, sesame oil and rice vinegar. Mix until well combined.
  4. Toss your tofu pieces with almond flour or bread crumbs until each piece is nicely coated.
  5. Add into your air fryer at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes – moving them around at around the halfway point to make sure they cook evenly.
  6. While your tofu is in the air fryer, you can prepare the sauce by adding all the sauce ingredients into a small bowl and mixing very well.
  7. When your tofu is finished, mix in the sauce and sesame seeds (optional) so that the tofu is nicely coated in the delicious red sauce.
  8. Now you can enjoy….!!! Warning: these are ridiculously addictive!

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Raw Vegan Matcha Charcoal Swirl Cheese Cake

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Forget friends with benefits… dessert with benefits way more fun. And yes, this raw vegan matcha charcoal swirl cheese cake does taste as good as it looks.

This luscious  dessert is a crowd-pleases and SO easy!! It only takes 15 minutes of actual time in the kitchen for you. The rest of the time is for soaking the nuts and freezing the cake so it’s a cheese cake-like texture.

Matcha + Activated Charcoal.

Mixing these two wonders together creates a black and green galaxy of antioxidants and intense detoxifying powers your body will thank you for. Matcha does wonders as an antioxidant powerhouse, and activated charcoal actually binds to toxins and heavy metals in your body (great for hangovers).

This crust is just 3 main superfood ingredients with some lemon zest and sea salt. Easy as pie (crust).

Who knew dessert could be so powerful?

Matcha is one of the most powerful antioxidants in the world. I’ve been loving the ceremonial grade DoMatcha. They’re all about quality and transparency with their matcha (check out where they source it from and how it’s made here).

I’m so in love with matcha. One of my Jules Fuel overnight buckwheat oat breakfast cereals is made with DoMatcha, and when I’m working from home I end up having at least 2 matcha hemp milk lattés throughout the day, and I feel gooooood about it.
This dessert was a hit at my good friend’s 30th birthday (Happy Birthday Shannon). No one was vegan, and everyone wanted more 😉

7  benefits of Matcha:
  1. Antioxidant powerhouse! Matcha helps slow aging process by fighting free radicals and protecting your cells from damage and minimizing your risk for disease
  2. Sustained energy release compared to coffee (no jitters)
  3. High in the antioxidant EGCG, which is shown to boost metabolism, increase fat loss, and help prevent disease
  4. 137 times more antioxidants that your typical green tea
  5. L-theanine in matcha improves memory and boosts your mood by helping produce dopamine and serotonin
  6. High levels of chlorophyll in matcha detoxifies your body by helping remove heavy metals and chemical toxins
  7. Increases your immunity with it’s antibiotic properties and good levels of vitamin A, C and potassium

5.0 from 1 reviews
Raw Vegan Matcha Charcoal Swirl Cheese Cake
 
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A decadent, raw vegan dessert packed to the brim with antioxidants and detoxifying effects! It only takes 15 minutes of actual 'work in the kitchen time', the rest is freezing or soaking time! It's delish and has mega benefits.
Author:
Recipe type: dessert, pie, raw dessert
Cuisine: raw vegan
Serves: 10-12
Ingredients
  • Crust:
  • ½ cup oats (gluten-free if needed)
  • 1 cup pitted dates
  • 1 cup walnuts
  • 1 tsp lemon zest
  • ⅛ tsp salt

  • Filling:
  • 2 cups cashews, soaked at least 3 hours (or 1 hour in hot water)
  • 1 cup full fat coconut cream (scrape the solid white stuff out of the can, leave the liquid)
  • ½ cup maple syrup
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • juice of 1 large lemon
  • 2 tbsp coconut oil
  • 2 tsp matcha powder (I used ceremonial grade matcha fromDo Matcha)
  • 1 tsp activated charcoal (sub cacao powder)
Instructions
  1. Make crust: in your food processor, blend dates until they've become small chunks or a ball. Remove from food processor and blend walnuts and oats until their a fine meal. Add the dates back in. Blend until well combined. Texture? It should stick together when squeezed.
  2. Press crust into a parchment lined spring form pan (up the sides too).
  3. Place the crusted pan into the freezer.
  4. Make filling: in your blender, blend cashews, coconut cream, maple syrup, vanilla and lemon until smooth and silky. This will give you 2½ cups of white filling.
  5. Pour ¾ of the filling (1¾ cups) out into a jar, keeping half of the filling in the blender.
  6. Add matcha to the blender and blend until combined.
  7. Pour matcha filling in the pie crust.
  8. Blend the rest of the white filling with the activated charcoal (or cacao).
  9. Drizzle the activated charcoal filling in a swirl over the matcha filling. Use a butter knife or chop stick to create art! (zig zag motion)
  10. Place the pie in the freezer for at least 2 hours.
  11. When you're ready to eat it, take it out of the freezer and let sit 10 minutes.
  12. Store it in the freezer!
Notes
The actual 'work time' of this pie is only 15 minutes, or so (blending the crust, then blending both fillings). The soak time and the freezer time is included in the total time.
The longer the cashews are soaked, the creamier the pie.
You can freeze it for less time, but it just won't be as solid.

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Last week’s email was all about the adoption process for our new pup, Zak!

Check my instagram for Zak’s cuteness: @hookedonplants

Creamy Cashew Sour Cream | Raw Vegan | 5 Ingredients

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It’s not all about carrots and celery (all though… dip those in this and you are winning).

This creamy, easy recipe is living proof that ‘vegan comfort food’ is NOT an oxymoron.

With just 5 ingredients and a blender you will have yourself a decadent, tangy, sour cream-like sauce for your tacos, stuffed taters, lunch wraps, to drizzle on roasted veggies, and… and… and…

You should probably have a jar of this in your fridge at all times. It makes life better.

Just sayin’.

Sauces are the spice of this plant-based life. So get a few recipes in your repertoire and keep stocking that fridge of yours with your faves!

Benefits:

  • Avoiding dairy (in the form of sour cream, cheese, milk, ice cream, whey, butter) means your avoiding IGF-1, hormones (naturally occuring and sythetic), antibiotics (in some cases), carcinogenic casein, addictive casomorphins (opiate-like substances formed by consuming dairy, that leave you craving more), steroids, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, fertilizers, veterinary medications, synthetic preservatives, additives, cholesterol, saturated fat and white blood cells (aka pus).
  • Cashews are packed with vitamins B6, E, and K, minerals like copper, phosphorus, zinc, magnesium, iron, and the antioxidant, selenium. The magnesium in these kidney-shaped nuts helps regulate calcium and balance your muscles and nerves. The monounsaturated fats in cashews are great for your heart health and blood sugar regulation.
  • Lemon helps to create an alkaline environment in your body. If you’re alkaline, and not acidic, your chance of disease, sickness and cancer is extremely low!

Creamy Cashew Sour Cream

Time: 5 minutes + 2-8 hours soaking time

Serves: Small mason jar full

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup raw cashews, soaked 8 hours, then strained (or Quick Soak: boil water, pour over cashews, let sit 2 hours)
  • 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp water (or unflavoured, unsweetened almond milk)
  • **optional, chopped chives for topping

Directions:

  1. Add all ingredients to high speed blender or food processor (works best with the smallest container attachment)
  2. Blend!
  3. And done! Top with chives 🙂

 

What else happened this week?

We paddled a river, hiked 8 hours, slept on top of a mountain, and round mountain bikes.

All in between eating delicious plant-based meals 😉

For more of this, follow my daily adventures on instagram:  @hookedonplants and @juliamurrayski 

Having so many amazing trails around Whistler to ride on makes me so happy. #Fuelledbyplants 😉

 

Literally walking in my backyard. Holy #grateful. Loving my Maloja clothing for hikes and adventuring!

 

Taking the Elaho Kahuna Paddle Board for a river rip.

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