Carrot Souffle
I was looking for some inspiration for new things to try for Thanksgiving this year, so I asked my friends on twitter for some ideas. There were a few things that peaked my interest, but the one that caught my attention was the suggestion of a carrot souffle. Not only had I never heard of such a thing, I was instantly determined to make one.
I wasn’t sure a vegan souffle would puff up and have those wonderful qualities that make a souffle what it is, but this sure did. It was a beautiful thing.
The recipe I based this on was a bit sweeter than I was interested in, so I cut down the sugar a fair amount. While it was lovely this way, you might want to forgo the sugar in the topping altogether and instead use some savory seasonings. I would go as far as to say that one might not even need the crumb top, but it’s also nice to have the crunch.
Also, I should note, that even though this is a recipe with carrots as it’s main ingredient, it isn’t the healthiest thing ever. But who cares? Make some as a side dish for Thanksgiving. Your guests will love it, I’m sure. And yeah, it’s got carrots!
Vegan Carrot Souffle
adapted from here
Crumb topping
- 1/2 cup bread crumbs
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp Earth Balance, softened
Souffle
- 1 cup firm tofu
- 1 lb carrots, cooked until soft (I boiled them)
- 1/4 cup apple cider
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 3 Tbsp flour
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup melted Earth Balance
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp salt
- Clean, cut and cook your carrots. They should be soft but don’t need to be mushy.
- Preheat the oven to 350°
- Combine the bread crumbs, brown sugar and Earth Balance in a bowl using a fork. Set aside.
- Crumble your tofu into a food processor and mix until it is fairly smooth, scraping down the sides when necessary.
- Add the carrots to the food processor and blend together until the mixture is smooth, light and fluffy.
- Add in the remaining ingredients for the souffle and continue to blend until combined.
- Pour into souffle dishes, being mindful not to overfill as they will puff up a they bake.
- Bake for 40 minutes.
- Remove the dishes from the oven and sprinkle with the crumb topping. Bake for 8 minutes, turning on the broiler for the last minute or so to brown.
- Let cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.
Thanksgiving 2009
I’m going to keep the chatting to a minimum and just show you a photo tour of our Thanksgiving this year. Enjoy!
It all started with a donut from Madeline Bistro.
The phillet no phish sandwich, Thanksgiving sandwich (which is pretty much all you could ever want from Thanksgiving), mashed potatoes and gravy.
Vanishing meal. Also consumed: biscuits & gravy, crepes filled with fruit. All amazing.
Visiting turkeys from Animal Acres. Luckily these guys will live long happy lives instead of being abused and murdered this Thanksgiving. Yeah, I said that.
Homemade pumpkin soy nog. My mom made this! I think that’s pretty awesome.
When making a pie, it is absolutely necessary to make a mess. It makes it taste better, I promise.
Best way to work up an appetite before Thanksgiving dinner. Okay so it was a rather leisurely ride to the beach. We were rewarded with a gorgeous sunset.
Brussels sprouts with capers. Oh how I love brussels sprouts.
Perfectly fluffy and wonderful mashed potatoes whipped up by Shawn. He also made fabulous gravy to go on top.
There’s that apple pie! All baked up with the infamous crumbly top. This is the last thing I stuffed in my face today.
Happy Thanksgiving! (p.s. Shawn does not like to smile in photos. He really is having a good time, don’t let the serious face fool you.)
Thanksgiving and more
This Thanksgiving was all about stuffing. Shawn and I made probably about 20 servings worth of stuffing which has lasted us for days. We both spent the whole day in the kitchen with our various projects. Despite the potato peel disaster of 2008 everything turned out really well.Instead of Tofurky, I made a version of the Seitan Roulade from Vegan Yum Yum. I filled it with apple cranberry stuffing (more stuffing!) that made it taste even better a day later. The fruit flavors seeped into the seitan after being refrigerated. Although it probably would have been prettier cut into smaller pieces, it was kind of fun to eat “caterpillars” for Thanksgiving.
Shawn made a monster batch of mashed potatoes that further tested the abilities of the new mixer. Of course they turned out smooth and delicious. I also made my first apple pie. I made the crust from scratch, which was slightly terrifying. Unfortunately I decided to bake it in our small oven (yes we have two) and ended up with a slightly burnt top crust. It still tasted really good, the filling was the perfect consistency and sweetness, and the bottom crust was not bad at all, but it wasn’t quite photo material. I can’t wait to try another.
I also got a new cupcake courier, and a good deal on it no less. I love this thing. I previously had a smaller carrier that carried 24 cupcakes but was always irritated that half the holders were too shallow and the other half were too deep. The new one holds 36 cupcakes securely for travel. It’s great. So here it is on it’s first delivery filled with red velvet, pumpkin spice and vanilla/chocolate cupcakes (from the top).
Hope everyone else had a great turkey-free Thanksgiving.
