Saturday, October 20, 2012

Pumpkin Ravioli with Roasted Broccoli

Dinner 10/20

Pumpkin Ravioli

Roasted Broccoli


"...and you may ask yourself -- well, how did I get here?"


Previously on "What the hell does a vegan eat anyway?"



This volunteer Cinderella Pumpkin grew in our front year this year...



...over the summer we partook in many of the blossoms it offered by making Fritto Misto, stuffing it with a mix of vegan cream cheese, shallots, smoked paprika and nooch, dipped them in a batter and deep-fried them. Good Times, yeah.



Then we harvested the pumpkin, cut it into wedges and roasted it with a little olive oil, salt and pepper (425°F for about 1 hour).


After it roasted, we scooped out the pumpkin, put it in a chinois strainer and let the water drain. We saved the delicious pumpkin liquid. There may or may not have been some experimental bourbon cocktails invented in the wake of this discovery, sadly the knowledge was tragically lost upon imbibing said cocktails.

For dinner, the filling was as follows...

Ravioli Filling

1 tbs. olive oil
2 medium onions
2 cloves garlic
1 tbs. fresh thyme
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
1/4 cup parsley
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
salt and pepper

16oz (1 block) firm tofu, crumbled
1/2 cup vegan cream cheese

4 cups of the roasted pumpkin

Saute the onions and garlic until softened, add the thyme, smoked paprika, nutritional yeast, parsley, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, add the tofu and vegan cream cheese and mix together -- if you have an immersion blender, now would be a good time to use it -- otherwise a potato masher works surprisingly well. Add the onion mixture as well as the roasted pumpkin. Hit it again with the immersion blender until it all comes together. Set aside and make the dough.

Ravioli Dough

2 c. Einkorn flour (or AP flour)
1 tsp. salt
1 tbs. olive oil
2 tbs. vegan cream cheese
1/4 cup water (add more if needed)

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients by hand in a large mixing bowl, until a dough starts to form. Remove from the bowl and on a clean surface that's been dusted with flour, knead on countertop for 5-10 minutes. Roll the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic, and let rest at room temp for 15 minutes.


To assemble, we used a pasta roller attachment on our KitchenAid (as shown). You start on thickness number "1" and after each pass, change the setting until you eventually roll it to a "4" using the Einkorn flour -- if using AP flour you might get to a "5" -- although with a hand cranked roller we've gone as thin as a "6" or "7" (YMMV).


Liz used a single layer of dough, added a scant tablespoon of filling along the left hand side and then folded the dough over like a book, trimming with the pasta cutter to crimp the edges.


The majority of ravioli were placed on a floured cookie sheet and frozen for a couple of hours, then vacuum sealed for later use. Like January. ;)

The rest we made for dinner, adding them to gently boiling salted water until they float to the surface. Remove, drain and toss with melted Earth Balance, salt & pepper.

The broccoli was trimmed, tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted in a 450°F oven for 15 minutes.

So, there you are -- root to blossom cooking, Gangnam vegan style.

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