This soothing winter dish will satisfy all ages with its smooth comforting flavours. We added frozen peas for colourful fibre, but you can also use other favourites such as broccoli florets, sugar snap peas, or spinach.
Per serving:
Soak cashews in cold water for at least 2 hours or up to 8 hours. Rinse and drain.
In food processor, combine soaked nuts, 2 Tbsp (30 mL) nutritional yeast, parsley, and salt. Whirl until you have coarse crumbs. Transfer to airtight container and refrigerate until ready to use. Cashew Crumble can be refrigerated for a couple of days.
Preheat oven to 400 F (200 C). Peel and dice squash. You should have about 3 cups (750 mL). In large bowl, toss squash and garlic with 1 Tbsp (15 mL) melted coconut oil. Tumble onto baking sheet and spread out in single layer. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes or until fork tender. Transfer to high-speed blender or food processor with remaining ingredients except milk, pasta, peas, and chili flakes. Whirl mixture, adding enough milk until desired creamy sauce is formed. Add a little water if needed for sauce to be of pouring consistency.
In large pot with boiling water, cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain well and place in large bowl with remaining 1 Tbsp (15 mL) coconut oil. Toss to evenly coat. Drizzle with butternut squash cream sauce and gently fold together to evenly coat. Fold in petit pois. Add more seasonings to taste, if you wish.
Preheat oven to 325 F (175 C). Generously oil 2 L baking dish. Transfer mixture to dish and sprinkle with Cashew Crumble. Bake in oven for about 20 minutes until piping hot and topping is golden.
Serve immediately with a generous pinch of crushed chilies, if you wish.
TIP: Creamy Butternut Pasta can be made and assembled in a baking dish and refrigerated for up to a day or overnight before baking if you wish. When ready, bake, covered, for 30 minutes, then uncover and bake for another 10 minutes.
Yogurt completely transforms the texture of these chicken thighs, making them tender and flavourful with bright notes of lemon and cilantro. Ideal for a day trip, these can be marinated in the morning and cooked in the evening, but they also work well when cooked in advance and packed for a picnic to be eaten cold. Marinade mentions Marinate chicken thighs for anywhere between 4 and 24 hours. Discard excess marinade that has been in contact with raw chicken. It should not be consumed uncooked.
Citrusy and slightly sour sumac and a touch of maple syrup enliven pickled onions in a perfect complement to this salad. Kale and Napa cabbage stand up for hours to the sweet and puckery dressing, and hearty farro will keep you going while on the road. This salad is sure to be a favourite for picnics, backyard potlucks, or road trip lunch stops. Dressing for dinner This salad stands up well, even while dressed, for up to 4 hours. (Truth be told, I’ve often happily eaten it the next day.) In fact, time helps kale to soften up and become even more delicious. If you’re travelling for a longer period, make the pickled onion dressing as described above: let it stand for about 20 minutes, and then add all the oil and pack it into a separate container so you can finish the salad when you arrive at your destination. The pickled onions are also great with steaks or chicken.
These wraps are perfect for an overnight journey when you want to have something quick and satisfying the next day. Sweet smoked paprika adds just a hint of smoky flavour to sweet potatoes, which join with spinach and red pepper to dress up eggs in a pleasing way. Make these wraps anytime and stick them in the freezer for your next excursion. Pack them frozen and they’ll have time to thaw on the journey, or put them in the fridge the night before you travel so you have something convenient and tasty to eat before you set off. Leave the ketchup bottle behind, and serve them with your own smoky red pepper sauce. Freeze with ease While foil is convenient for freezing and reheating these wraps, to cut down on waste, freeze wraps in a single freezer-proof container. Insert a small piece of parchment between each wrap so they don’t stick together. This will allow you to remove individual wraps easily when you need them.
While sablefish’s texture and fat content stand up admirably to the heat of the grill, this firm fish is also delicious poached. For this recipe, sablefish’s luxurious taste is combined with a light fragrant broth of lemongrass and ginger punctuated with the heat of Thai chili. Sustainability status Sablefish, also known as butterfish or black cod, is a rich and satisfying fish, plentiful in omega-3s and sourced sustainably from the Pacific Northwest. Skin and bones Sablefish has large pin bones. Ideally, your fishmonger will remove them, but if not, before you begin, locate them along the fish’s centreline and, using a pair of needle nose pliers, grasp them firmly to remove. You can leave the skin on for this recipe, which may help the fish hold together a little better while cooking, but it can be tricky to peel the skin away from the cooked fish and discard before plating. I opted to remove the skin first and simply keep a close eye on the cooking time, being careful to remove the fish from the poaching liquid before it flakes apart.