Veggie Sides!*

HERBED SOUR CREAM MASHED POTATOES
Ingredients:
2 pounds brown baking potatoes
butter to taste (vegan or regular - as you wish)
1.5 cups sour cream (vegan or regular - as you wish)
at least 2 tablespoons each chopped dill, chives, flat-leaf parsley
carmelized shallots

This is pretty self-explanatory. Boil potatoes for about 20 minutes or until soft. Mash potatoes with butter and sour cream. Stir in chopped herbs. Top with carmelized shallots. Mmm mmm good.



SPICY CREAMED SPINACH
Ingredients:
1 shallot
butter (vegan or regular - as you wish)
2 x 10oz bags spinach
1 tablespoon flour
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce (vegan or regular - as you wish)
1 cup veggie broth
1/2 cup sour cream (vegan or regular - as you wish)
salt and cayenne pepper to taste
a pinch of nutmeg

Cook 1 chopped shallot in a skillet with butter until soft. Add spinach and cook until it's wilted down. Add flour, Worcestershire sauce, veggie broth, sour cream, salt, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg. Cook 5 mins and serve. Mmm mmm good.



GLAZED PEARL ONIONS
Ingredients:
1 pound bag of frozen onions
1 cup veggie broth
2 tablespoons each molasses, cider vinegar, and butter
salt and pepper to taste
chopped flat-leaf parsley

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer, stirring occasionally, until reduced to a glaze, about 20 mins. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Mmm mmm good.

*These recipes were adapted from recipes found in Food Network magazine - November 2011 issue - pages 132, 133, and 159.

Vegan Terrine

*This recipe is adapted from the Vegetarian Times magazine November 2011, p.65, recipe entitled "Mediterranean Terrine."

This yummy terrine has roasted red peppers, roasted eggplant, and a cashew cream.

Cashew Cream Ingredients
3/4 cup raw cashews
1/4 cup nutritonal yeast
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons agar powder or flakes (a sea vegetable available in health food stores which thickens sauces - often used as a vegan substitute for gelatin)
1 teaspoon garlic powder

Terrine
2 jars roasted red peppers (I like to buy them already roasted and save myself the trouble)
1 teaspoon salt
1 large eggplant
olive oil
flat-leaf Italian parsley

First, make the cashew cream. Soak cashews in a large bowl of water for 3 hours or even overnight. Drain and return to bowl. Add nutritional yeast, lemon juice, mustard, and salt. Set aside.
Whisk agar and garlic powder into 1.5 cups water in a saucepan over medium heat. Simmer for 5 mins or until agar dissolves; stir constantly.
Add agar mixture to cashew mixture in a food processor and process until smooth.
Pour into a rectangular-shaped loaf pan and chill for 1 hour.
Slice eggplant lengthwise, brush with olive oil, and roast eggplant slices.
Once, agar/cashew mixture has solidified, unmold it onto a plate and slice it lengthwise into two layers.
Line loaf pan with plastic wrap so that the plastic wrap hangs over the sides.
Put parsley leaves into the bottom of the loaf pan, layer with eggplant, slices of roasted red pepper, and a layer of the cashew cream. Repeat. End with a layer of eggplant. Wrap loaf pan in plastic wrap and chill mixture. You can place something heavy on top so that the terrine takes the shape of the loaf pan.
When you're ready to eat it, unmold it by flipping the terrine over onto a flat plate. Ta da!