Bjork once noted in an interview that she sometimes writes her lyrics in English, translates them to Icelandic, and then translates them back to English. Neat, no?

Similarly, this recipe has gone through a series telephone-like translations and I think you’ll find the results equally (or more, quoth the Li’l Sis) delicious than the original recipe. I learned to make Khichri (a classic Indian comfort dish - sometimes the first solid food a baby eats) from Nalini Mehta and I posted this recipe of a traditional Khichri combination last year. A friend, who I will refer to as Mr. Appleseed, surprised me on a dark rainy October night with a big pot of complex-scented rice, peas, and veggies very similar to the below recipe. I was extremely pleased to be treated to a hot home-cooked meal (the downside of having a food blog is that I’m always the one sweating it out in the kitchen) and even more flattered so to find that dish I was eating was in fact based on one of my very own recipes. How endearing! Admittedly, I am highly susceptible to flattery when eating delicious food prepared by hands other than my own.

So anyway - here is my new recipe for Green Autumn Khichri based on Mr. Appleseed’s Khichri which is based on my other Khichri recipe, which I initially adapted from Nalini Mehta. Chewy short-grain brown rice makes a great base for the smoky green split peas and the combination of vegetables is just plain inspired.

Serves: 4 hungry people
Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Green Autumn Khichri

Olive oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
8 cloves
8 black peppercorns
1 tsp turmeric
¼ tsp asafetida, optional
½ tsp coriander powder
½ tsp ground cumin
1 tsp garam masala
1 ½ cup green split peas, toor dal, or moog dal
1 ¼ cups short grain brown rice
7 cups water
1 inch fresh ginger, minced
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno (I used red), minced (de-seed if you don’t like things very spicy)
3 carrots, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 japanese eggplants, cut into coins
1 bunch swiss chard, chopped
salt

Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a large pot and toss in the dried spices: cumin seeds, cloves, and peppercorns. Stir them for few minutes until they turn a few shades darker.

Add the ground spices: ginger, turmeric, asafetida, coriander, cumin, and garam masala and stir.

Add the peas and rice, stirring to coat them with the spices, then add the water.

Bring the rice mixture to a low boil, set a lid on and simmer for 20 minutes. Tip: this could be a good time to chop your veggies.

Stir well, check to see if more water is needed (like a risotto, this mix “eats” water) and add the vegetables: garlic, carrots, green peppers, hot peppers, eggplant, and chard.

Covered, bring the pot to a simmer and stir occasionally for another 40 minutes until the vegetables are tender and the rice is mushy. Add salt to taste.

I know the title of this blog is Vanesscipes, suggesting that these are all Vanessa’s (that’s me) recipes. That’s why I feel compelled to mention right at the very start of this recipe that this is NOT my recipe. It is in fact the brainchild of my dear friend Emily, who happens to also be the Director of Catering at the Met. My input on this dish pretty much started and ended with, “Mac and Cheese Cupcakes - good God YES!” So, if I’m a genius for recognizing the genius of putting mac and cheese in an easy-to-eat cupcake format with wonderfully crispy golden edges and an ooey gooey center, then I’m just waiting for my MacArthur grant check to come in. (MacArthur people - you can get me at vanesscipes@gmail.com)

Emily developed these cupcakes for a Hors D’oeurve party we helped host at the LondonParisNewYork event space/art gallery in Williamsburg. We had a full list of H’ds which included such specialties as truffled popcorn and vegan apple cider donuts, but I think these cupcakes were the favorite.

For all you sticklers out there, please note the below photos were taken a few hours before the party during a Mac & Cheese Cupcake test run (aka: dinner for me!) so none of the shiitakes or smoky autumn-flavored thyme can be witnessed. Let me also mention that if you’re interested in tasting something like this in person, please sign up for my events mailing list by emailing me at vanesscipes@gmail.com, or just wait until I accept my MacArthur award, in which case Emily will provide thousands upon thousands of these little gems.

Time: 30 minutes prep, 20 minutes for each batch (makes about 4 batches of 12)
Makes: about 48 mini-cupcakes

Shiitake Mac & Cheese Cupcakes

1/2 lb elbow noodles
olive oil
1 small shallot, minced
1 pound shiitake mushrooms, cleaned, destemed and sliced
4 Tbsp organic butter + more to butter cupcake pans
2 Tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
1/4 cup flour
2 cups organic whole milk
2 cups gruyere cheese, grated
1 cup sharp white cheddar cheese, grated
salt and fresh ground pepper
panko breadcrumbs (less than 2 cups)

Preheat oven to 375

Boil noodles according to package directions. Drain, toss with a little olive oil to prevent sticking, and set aside.

Sauté shallots in olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat until wilted, about one minute. Add mushrooms and sauté until browned, about 5 more minutes. Toss with butter, thyme, season with salt and pepper. Set aside in a large mixing bowl.

In small sauce pan, warm milk over low heat. In large sauce pan, melt butter. Add flour to the butter and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring continuously until smooth and bubbly. Slowly pour the warm milk into the butter mixture and stir or whisk to combine. Let liquid come to a boil; mixture will start to thicken. Add the grated cheeses and turn off the heat. Stir until the cheese has melted.

Pour the cheese mixture in with the noodles and mix. Fold in mushroom mixture and thyme. Adjust for salt and pepper.

Grease mini cup cake pans with butter. Sprinkle pan liberally with panko and shake pan to adhere the panko to the sides. Dump out extra panko. Spoon mac and cheese into the top of each cupcake mold.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until edges and top are golden.

Remove from oven, let cool slightly. Flip pan over onto a plate or sheet pan to remove cupcakes. Garnish with fresh thyme if desired.

Is there anyone in this hemisphere that doesn’t want soup right now?  This garlicky beans & greens combo has an ingredient list that you can count on your fingers…on one hand (well, almost).

You could use any white bean (cannellini, great northern, butter bean) or green (kale, chard, broccoli raab) but the silky texture of cooked escarole is so appealing and it has just enough bite to give some punch to soup.  But feel free use whatever green catches your eye at the market.

This soup could be made really simple by using canned chickpeas, but cooking your own from dried creates a tasty broth and saves a few cents in the process.  Please note that if you do use canned chickpeas be sure to buy a reputable organic brand (I use Eden) that lines the aluminum cans so the tin flavor and other strange elements don’t leach in - it’s especially important since you’ll be using the bean liquid in the soup.

Now, since I’ve made this so easy on you, unless you’re anti-breadbowl (like this guy, sheesh) go ahead and buy some nice solid loaves of sourdough bread and get to work.

serves: 6
time: 25 minutes for canned chickpeas, cooking chickpeas from dried is an additional 45 minutes – 8 hours

Chickpea and Escarole Soup in a Breadbowl

1 bag dried chickpeas (or 4 cans organic chickpeas, with liquid)
olive oil
6 cloves of garlic, sliced
about 1 Tbsp fresh rosemary, stems removed and chopped
2 veggie bullion cubes (or stock)
2 large heads escarole, washed, cored and roughly chopped
cracked black pepper
sploosh of olive oil
bread for breadbowl - crusty sourdough works well
To top: olive oil, parmesan or romano cheese (optional)

Soak your dried chickpeas one of two ways:

1) Overnight or 2) using the quick-soak method of bringing the chickpeas to a boil and then letting them stand for an hour or two.  Drain and rinse.

Add enough water to cover the beans by an inch or two.  Cook the beans; You could do this in a crock-pot for on high for 4 hours or low for 8 OR on stove for one and half hours OR in a pressure cooker for 45 minutes.

In a large soup pot, sauté the garlic in a large glug of olive oil for a few minutes over medium-low, heat until they start to turn golden.  Add the cooked beans and liquid (or canned beans and canning liquid + 1 can water) and the bullion cubes.  Taste and adjust for salt/pepper.  If you prefer a thicker soup (especially if you are using a breadbowl), at this point you can take out a cup or two of soup and puree in a blender, returning it to the pot to give the soup more body.

Add the escarole and simmer for about 10 minutes until dark green and wilted.

For the breadbowl, cut a crusty sourdough loaf downward in a circle (or rectangle, if you bread is rectangular) ¾ of an inch away from the sides of the loaf. Remove the top crust and pull away the interior of the loaf, reserving it for breadcrumbs or croutons.  Try pull out as much bread as possible without creating a hole anywhere.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 - 25 minutes, until hot and crusty. Pour your soup in the breadbowl and forget about the dishes.

Between my CSA takings and my weekly farmers market ritual buying spree, I end up spending a lot of time thinking of how to turn seasonal veggies into dinner. So why not turn them into dessert?

Inspired by this fascinating vegan Chocolate Beetroot cake from Kathryn’s information-rich blog Limes & Lycopene, I designed a lively-tasting vegan cupcake - with beets - that lives up to it’s party pink exterior.

There’s a really cool (geeky?) science-experimenty situation happening in this recipe; the uncooked batter is a murky magenta from the grated beets but when baked it turns to a gold flaxen color. More beet research suggests that if left uneaten long enough the pink icing will turn back into white in a magic-disappearing ink sort of way but I suspect that these cupcakes won’t last long enough for you to test this hypothesis.

I’m entering these cupcakes to Minko’s (another Aussie!) Think Pink for Pinktober event over at Couture Cupcakes - she promises to send $1 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation for every pink recipe. Check out her Pinktober Pomegranate Turkish Delight Cupcakes - um, wow! I also can’t wait to try her vegan Lime Zucchini Pistachio Cupcakes - another creative veggie-packed dairy-free dessert!

Time: 25 minutes plus 20 minutes to bake plus cooling time before frosting
Makes: 12 cupcakes

Vegan Ginger-Beet Cupcakes with Very Pink Frosting

Cupcakes
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup plain or vanilla soymilk
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup of raw grated beet (a bit less than one medium-sized beet)
3 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1/2 cup coconut oil (or any mild-tasting veggie oil)
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
spray oil

Frosting
1/4 cup vegan margarine
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1/4 cup soymilk
splash beet juice (extra grated beet mixed with water)
squeeze of lemon
dash salt

Preheat the oven to 350º.

Fill a cupcake tray with 12 cupcake liners (I like to spray the inside of the muffin papers with spray oil to help the cupcakes release). Set aside.

Mix the vinegar with the soy mix well and set aside (the mixture will curdle).

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

In another mixing bowl whisk together the soymilk mixture, beet, ginger, coconut oil, and vanilla. Add the wet to the dry ingredients and beat until smooth using a hand-held mixer, stopping once to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Fill each muffin cup 2/3 full with batter. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.

Let cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then remove cupcakes from the pan and place on a wire rack. Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.

To make the frosting, first cream together the vegan margarine and shortening. You want to cream these together REALLY well, so mix vigorously with a fork for 5 minutes, until your arm is very tired.

Beat the powdered sugar into the margarine mixture until well combined. Then add a splash of beet juice for color and a squeeze of lemon and pinch of salt to help balance out the sweet. Mix for another few minutes until the frosting is pink pink and fluffy fluffy.

I know I’ve presented mini-blitz of squash recipes lately, but I’m following a new cooking mantra (and trying to clear my fridge, windowsill, and veggie bins of CSA veggies) to only cook seasonal fruits and veggies. Sometimes inspiration comes from the strangest places. I was doing my obligatory CSA hours at the farmer’s market and I noticed a customer checking out the produce with the time and attention that a curator might take to inspect a potentially fraudulent painting. When he paid for his items I asked him what he was considering so carefully – he was choosing just the right butternut to make squash gnocchi. “Squash Gnocchi!,” I thought with an exclamation point, “boy, I’ve got to try that at home.”

What I found is that this is not, sadly, the simplest dish to make. But it’s very satisfying in a this-is-want-I-want-after-a-long-day-of-raking-leaves sort of way. I followed gnocchi making directions that suggested to roll a piece of already labor-intensive dough down a fork in such a way that it had tine-marks on one side and an indentation on the other side. I couldn’t quite figure this out, even though I practiced about 80 times. And if I ever had to do it again I’d probably impale myself on a rake. I’m suggesting the diagonally-chopped log approach to you folks - it will save a lot of time and frustration and I suspect that your gnocchi will be more tender to boot since you won’t be handing them as much.

With all the care that goes into making these gnocchi you’re not going to want to disguise your work with a bulky sauce. So this one is just butter and mellow roasted garlic laced with crispy sage leaves. Perfect for the season.

Serves: 4
Time: 3 hours (2 hours to cook and cool the squash, 1 hour to make the gnocchi and sauce)

Squash Gnocchi with Roasted Garlic and Sage Brown Butter

1 medium squash (try a drier variety like butternut or buttercup)
2 heads garlic
olive oil

Pasta
2 eggs
1 1/2 - 2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt

Sauce
1 stick butter
20 or so whole fresh sage leaves, stems removed
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Halve the squash lengthwise and place it cut side down on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Bake for 1 to 1 ½ hours, or until soft to the touch. Cool and set aside.

Discard any loose leaves on the garlic heads and brush off any dirt. Slice the top off the head of the garlic so it exposes the interior of each garlic clove. Place on a baking sheet cut side up, drizzle with a little olive oil, and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour until the garlic is golden and fragrant. When garlic has cooled sufficiently, pop the cloves out of the skins by squeezing the root side of bulb. Set aside for the sauce.

When the squash has cooled, scoop out the seeds and surrounding stringy matter with a spoon. Extract the flesh from the skin and whip with a fork, or pass through a food mill if you happen to have one of these contraptions. What I’ve found is that watery squash makes for a less flavorful gnocchi so simmer the squash pulp over medium heat until reduced and dry, but not browning or burnt. You want to work with ¾ cup of squash.

Beat eggs in a small bowl and incorporate ¾ cup of condensed squash pulp. In a different larger bowl mix 1 1/2 cups flour with salt.

Start water boiling in one or two large pots. Be sure to salt the water quite a bit.

Slowly fold the squash/egg mixture into the flour, working as little and lightly as possible. Depending on the consistency of your squash you may need to add more flour until the dough stops sticking to your hands.

Break dough into a few pieces and on a lightly floured surface roll the dough out into a snake shape with the width the size of a nickel. Dust the top of the snake with flour and cut 1/2 inch slices on a diagonal to make the gnocchi. Keep the gnocchi on lightly floured baking sheet while you are rolling and cutting the rest of the dough, but it’s best to get them cooked as close to their creation as possible.

Gently ease the gnocchi into the lightly boiling water. You will probably not be able to fit them all in at once, so do them in batches. Stir to make sure they don’t stick to the bottom. With a slotted spoon, take them out when they start to float, 2-3 minutes.

In a large pot melt the butter over medium heat. When it starts to foam add the sage leaves and cook until the butter starts to brown and the sage gets crispy. Add the whole roasted garlic cloves and cooked gnocchi and mix until the flavors meld together.

Serve immediately with a side of sautéed greens, maybe a warm beet salad, and definitely a glass of crisp white wine.