When you live and work trade at a sustainable living skills center, food becomes an extremely important and meaningful part of your life. We grow a lot of vegetables in our ample garden space and cook for upwards of 10 people on the daily. Thanksgiving might as well be every day here. But anyway...
On this day, we've all decided to make a dish for the group. I chose to make something near and dear to my heart: stuffing (or filling as some of my family calls it). I've baked stuffing before and helped out with others' recipes, but this is the first time I've actually baked the bread that I was going to use:
Actually, this is the first time I've ever baked my own bread. Having done it, I can't believe I haven't done it sooner. It's so unbelievably simple! It's so empowering! Think about it: mix some flour, yeast, salt and water and watch the dough rise before your very eyes. How awesome is that? And then you bake it and it tastes so amazing that you hesitate to cube it and put it into a casserole, instead wanting to just eat the entire loaf right there. But I digress...
This is also the first time I've attempted to make vegan stuffing. To add a little thickness and protein, I chose to marinate some cubed tempeh (fermented soy beans and grains) in tamari and ginger, and then fry/glaze it. This is the before pic as I forgot to take an after pic. Trust me when I say it was awesome:
Using the same pan with all of the juicy tempeh goodness still lingering inside, I sauteed some onions, garlic, carrots, celery and mushrooms with a little bit of parsley. I mixed them in with the tempeh, made a casserole with that mix and the cubed bread and baked for an hour at 350. The squash are added for effect:
I haven't tried the final product as of this writing, but it smelled amazing!
On that note, I'm going to help out others in the kitchen to get the rest of this meal on the table. Wherever you are and whatever you're doing today, much love and have a Happy Thanksgiving.
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