Tag: Mashed Potatoes

Mashed Potatoes

Amazing Mashed Potatoes – The Best Vegan Mashed Potatoes Recipe – Dairy Free, Vegan

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I first made these last year. I wanted super creamy, buttery rich mashed potatoes without any of the dairy. These definitely fit the bill. They were unbelievably good, and I hope that you love them as much as I do.

These mashed potatoes reheat better than normal mashed potatoes (hooray!) and can be made ahead of time and reheated just before serving.

Do be sure to let your guests know that the mashed potatoes have cashews in them though, just in case anyone has any nut allergies.

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By gently heating the olive oil it removes the pepperiness of the olive oil, and gives it a much more neutral flavor. This also removes some of the nutrients of cold pressed olive oil. To me, that’s ok for the holidays, but you could use any neutral oil in place of the olive oil and they mashed potatoes would probably still turn out well. If you do use a neutral flavored oil, then you can skip the step of heating the oil and add the oil directly to the cooked potatoes along with the cashew cream.

Amazing Mashed Potatoes
Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1/3 cup raw cashews, soaked overnight

½ cup + 3 tbsp. water

3 lb russet potatoes (I used 2.8 lb for reference)

2/3 cup + 1 tbsp. olive oil (or neutral flavored oil)

1 ¼ tsp. – 1 ¾ tsp. sea salt

¾ tsp. black pepper

Instructions

1. To make the cashew cream soak the cashews overnight, then drain them.  Blend the cashews and 1/2 cup + 3 tbsp of water until smooth. Set aside.

If you forget to soak the cashews, you can boil them for 50 minutes (it’s a long time I know, but they plump right up), adding water the pot occasionally if the water runs low. Drain them and allow them to cool to room temp before using.

2. I would heat the oil on the back burner of the stove, just so it’s less likely to be accidentally knocked over by a pet or a small child. Gently heat the olive oil in a dry medium saucepan (if there is any water in the pan, then the oil might splatter) over medium heat for 5-7 minutes, until it loses it’s peppery aroma and smells slightly fruity. Don’t touch the oil but waft it so that you can smell if the oil has lost its pepperiness.

Olive oil naturally smells peppery, but when it loses that smell, it loses that peppery bite in its flavor as well, which is what we’re looking for here. Once it smells fruity, take the pan off the heat and set it aside to cool to room temp.

3. Peel and cut the potatoes into 1 inch cubes. Add the potatoes to a large pot of cool water along with a drop of oil to prevent the pot from boiling over. Bring the potatoes to a boil over medium high heat and then turn the heat to medium and cook the potatoes for about 10-15 minutes until you get no resistance at all when you pierce the potatoes with a fork.

4. Drain the potatoes and put them into a large mixing bowl. The potatoes should take about 50 minutes to cook, and at this point, the olive oil should be cool.

If the pan of oil is still warm, spoon about 1 tsp of oil onto a plate and let it cool for a few minutes. Taste the cooled olive oil and see if it’s still peppery.

If it still has a peppery flavor, heat it for a few minutes longer over medium heat until it smells fruity. Drop a teaspoon of the oil onto a plate, allow it to cool and taste it again.

If the olive oil has lost it’s peppery flavor, allow the olive oil to cool to room temp before adding it to the potatoes. Don’t stir the hot oil into the potatoes, because you’ll be using a hand mixer to whip the mashed potatoes and you don’t want hot oil to splatter over anything or anyone while the potatoes are being whipped.

5. Roughly mash the potatoes with a fork, and stir the oil into the potatoes by hand until you no longer see any pools of olive oil. Stir in the cashew cream, 1 tsp of salt, and pepper. Then using a hand mixer, whip the potatoes until creamy and fluffy.

6. Taste the potatoes, and add salt ¼ tsp. at a time until you’re happy with the seasoning. I ended up adding 1 ¾ tsp. salt to my batch, but you may have to adjust your seasoning depending on if you have a slightly different weight of potatoes.

7. Serve warm, or stash in the fridge to reheat right before serving.

If you’re putting a dish straight from the fridge into the oven, put the fridge-cold dish into the cold oven (so that the ceramic dish does shatter from the temperature change between the cold fridge and the hot oven). Then preheat your oven with the dish inside so that it warms up with the oven and bake as usual.

You can reheat any mashed potatoes by covering the dish tightly with foil, and baking at 300 degrees for 45 minutes until warmed through.

 

Note- You can also add in some granulated garlic, and some nutritional yeast for “cheesy” mashed potatoes that are just delicious, or just have some extra nutritional yeast and granulated garlic on the table in case someone would like to add them to their own serving.

gravy

Gorgeous Gravy – The Best Vegan And Gluten Free Gravy Recipe

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This is hands down the best gravy I’ve ever had. It’s totally vegan, and incredibly delicious.

It has all the flavors that you want in a gravy. The browned mushrooms give it a deep savory richness. The sage and the other spices give it that special Thanksgiving charm, and the oat flour gives the gravy a velvety, creamy, buttery texture with out any dairy.

I promise that you won’t miss the chicken stock or the butter.

It’s great served over mashed potatoes, turkey and stuffing, but delicious enough to be eaten on it’s own. You can double or triple the recipe and serve it with sautéed mushrooms as a creamy mushroom soup, or serve it over pasta for something like a creamy mushroom alfredo sauce.

I would add just a pinch more salt to this myself, but I like things more on the savory side. Some people like things less salty, and leaving that extra little bit of salt out gives your guests a little more wiggle room as far as the savory level of their gravy is concerned.

This recipe works well with lots of different dietary restrictions, but if you know that one of your guests has celiac disease, then be sure to use certified gluten free oats. Oats are naturally gluten free, but normal oats from bulk bins can sometimes be processed on the same equipment as normal flour, and can contain trace amounts of gluten.

You can make this gravy ahead of time, and just reheat it right before serving. One less (delicious) thing to worry about cooking on Thanksgiving is something to be thankful for indeed.

Gorgeous Gravy
Makes 2 cups

Prep time – 5 min
Cook Time – 30 min
Total Time – 1 hr 20 min

Ingredients

1 2/3 cup diced mushrooms (about 5 white or crimini mushrooms)

¾ cup diced onion (about ½ a medium onion)

1 tbsp. diced celery

7 tbsp. olive oil

¼ cup oat flour *

2 cups water

 

½ + 1/8 tsp. sea salt

¼ tsp. black pepper

¼ + 1/8 tsp. dried rubbed sage

¼ tsp. dried thyme

3 tsp. finely chopped fresh parsley.


Instructions

1. Sauté the mushrooms over medium high heat with 4 tbsp of olive oil for about 8 – 10 minutes until the mushrooms have become golden brown around the edges. Pour the mushrooms and olive oil into a bowl and set aside.

2. Allow the pan to cool off the heat for 10 minutes. The onions and celery will cook more evenly if they are allowed to start off cooking from a cool pan.

3. Add the onions and celery into the cooled pan along with another 3 tbsp of olive oil. Cook the onions and celery over medium high heat for 3-4 minutes. Then turn the heat down to medium and cook for another 3 minutes until the vegetables are softened.

4. Add the oat flour into the celery and onions and cook for 3 minutes, stirring the mixture as it cooks.

5. Add the 2 cups of water and the cooked mushrooms to the pan and turn the heat up to medium high. Cook uncovered for about 8 minutes until the mixture has thickened, stirring frequently. Don’t worry if the gravy looks a little lumpy right now, the blender will smooth that all out.

6. Take the pan off the heat, and let the gravy cool for 30 minutes.

Caution when blending hot liquids – remove the little clear plastic cap off the top of the blender lid (the lid’s center insert) and put a folded towel over the top, then blend.

If you don’t allow the blender to vent steam while blending hot liquids, pressure can build up and the blender contents can explode. Taking the center insert off the lid, and using the folded towel should prevent this from happening.

Add the gravy to the blender, and blend until smooth. Add in the the salt, pepper, sage, parsley and thyme and give the gravy a quick blitz to stir in the spices, but still allow some green from the fresh parsley to show through in the final gravy.

You can stash this in the fridge overnight and then reheat the gravy in a saucepan over medium heat right before serving.

Notes – * I grind oats into oat flour using a blender. Don’t grind the oats in a food processor because the flour won’t be fine enough.

Any extra oat flour I don’t use in the recipe goes into an airtight container and I use it for another recipe.

cornbread dressing - stuffing

Southern Style Cornbread Dressing – Gluten and Dairy Free Stuffing Recipe

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There are many types of incredible stuffing, but Southern Style Cornbread Dressing is my absolute favorite. The taste of this brings back so many happy memories of friends and family over the years, and always brings a smile to my face. It’s slightly crispy on the top and moist and creamy in the middle, and it’s definitely a crowd-pleaser.

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You can either bake this in a muffin tin (will make 12 muffin size portions of stuffing) or bake it in a 13 x 9 casserole dish. The baking time will be the same either way. I would use the muffin pan if you’re planning on making the stuffing ahead or want to freeze individual portions to enjoy later.

Southern Style Cornbread Dressing – Gluten Free
Makes 4-6 servings

Adapted from this recipe.

For the Cornbread

Ingredients

¼ level cup + 1/3 level cup of oat flour*

1 level cup + 3 tbsp. of cornmeal **

¾ level tsp. baking soda

1 tbsp. ground flax seed (or add another ½ a beaten egg to the wet ingredients)

4.5 tbsp. avocado oil – or any neutral flavored oil

2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar (or white vinegar)

1 ½ tsp. maple syrup

1 cup of water

1 egg

 

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 425. Grease and flour a 8 x 8 baking dish with oat flour and any neutral flavored oil.

2. Sift the cornmeal, oat flour, baking soda, and ground flax seed in a large mixing bowl.

3. Stir together the wet ingredients until well combined. Add the wet into the dry and stir to combine. Pour into the 8×8 baking dish.

4. Bake at 425 for 30 minutes until golden brown. Set the cornbread aside to cool.

Notes – * I grind oats into oat flour using a blender. Don’t grind the oats in a food processor because the flour won’t be fine enough.

Any extra oat flour (or ground flax seed) I don’t use in the recipe goes into an airtight container and I use it for another recipe.

**If you’re allergic to corn, you could try substituting brown rice flour for the cornmeal at a 1:1 ratio. I didn’t test this recipe specifically with this substitution, so I’m not 100% sure this will work, but last year I made a cornbread dressing with brown rice flour instead of cornmeal and it came out great. You couldn’t tell the difference at all.

 

For the Cornbread Dressing

3 tbsp. olive oil

½ cup diced onion

¾ cup diced celery

1 egg

2 cups of chicken broth (homemade or store bought)

¾ tsp. pepper

¾ tsp. dried rubbed sage

¼ + 1/8 tsp. sea salt

Instructions

1. Sauté the diced onion and celery in the olive oil over medium heat until tender, about 12 minutes.

2. Add the sage and sauté 1 minute longer.

3. Crumble the cornbread into a large mixing bowl. Add the cooked vegetables, salt, pepper, sage and chicken broth to the mixture. Taste for seasoning, and add more salt and pepper if needed.

4. Stir in the beaten egg, then cover and chill the mixture overnight (at least 8 hours).

5. Preheat the oven to 375. Grease and flour your muffin tin or 13 x 9 baking dish with oil and oat flour. Pour the mixture into the pan and bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes until golden brown on top.

If your making this in a muffin pan, let the stuffing cool in the muffin pan for 30 -45 minutes so that the stuffing has some time to firm up and hold it’s shape. Run a butter knife around the edges to loosen them, pop the stuffing muffins out and refrigerate. Reheat them to serve.

If you’re putting a dish straight from the fridge into the oven, put the fridge-cold dish into the cold oven (so that the ceramic dish does shatter from the temperature change between the cold fridge and the hot oven). Then preheat your oven with the dish inside so that it warms up with the oven and bake as usual.

You can reheat any leftover stuffing by covering the dish tightly with foil, and baking at 300 degrees for 45 minutes until warmed through.