Sunday, November 26, 2006

Pumpkin Hummus Lasagna & Cupcakes

I've been working on a recipe for "no tomato sauce" lasagna for a while. Megan the Vegan's lasagnas were very intriguing. After much thought, I decided to use hummus instead of sauce, a tempeh sausage (from VWAV) and veggie filling, fresh spinach, and spelt lasagna noodles. The noodles get a big thumbs down. Good taste, poor cooking instructions (only 3 minutes!) and too hard to work with. We wanted a wheat free noodle, but we definitely won't use these again.

I made the hummus Saturday and I can't believe I didn't eat it all before tonight. It was the best, creamiest hummus ever. I'll post the recipe further down because you absolutely have to make this hummus!




The filling was made with tempeh sausage, onions, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, and roasted red peppers. Eight ounces of sausage was not enough. It got lost among the other ingredients.



I also made Easy French Bread from La Dolce Vegan, which became garlic bread.


And a salad with mixed greens, broccoli, golden raisins, and toasted pumpkin seeds. I made a dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, dijon mustard, maple sugar, and agave. It was very good. We all wished I had made more.



Chase built the lasagna......


Ready to bake......


Ready to eat.




We did make cupcakes before we had dinner. Yes, I finally got Vegan Cupcakes. I found these neat little disposable muffin tins at the grocery store today. I thought they would make good take home containers too. I detest paper liners and cannot find foil liners anywhere. I baked the cupcakes in these foil tins, and then after they were cool, I did put them in paper liners so we could pick them up and decorate them. That's right, I put them in liners AFTER I baked them. I've never tried to hide the fact that I'm weird, so now you know another of my quirks. Here's a couple more that came up tonight. I used to get mad at Chase for spilling on my place mats and he would always say, "Mom, that's what they're for." Today I got out a new dish sponge and I didn't want to get it dirty with chocolate frosting.

On to the pictures.....



Perfectly done cupcakes.



Ready to decorate.



My cupcake.

Then I got the fun stuff out so Chase and Liz could decorate.





The peanut butter cakes are fabulous! But the chocolate buttercream was not what we wanted with these. My fault, I wanted it to decorate with. But it overwhelmed the wonderful peanut flavor in the cakes. The little drizzle of chocolate as presented in the book is not as pretty, but would be the perfect topping.

I hope you try this hummus recipe. It makes 4 cups and can be halved.

Pumpkin Hummus:
1 can pumpkin puree
1 medium sweet potato, cooked
(if halving the recipe, use either pumpkin or sweet potato)
1 large onion, chopped
1 30-ounce can chickpeas
1/4 cup tahini
1 cup (or as needed) vegetable stock
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 tablespoon Bragg's
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Blend all ingredients in a food processor until smooth.

I tailored the spices for more of an Italian flavor, but you could flavor it with the normal cumin and lemon juice. It really is so creamy with a beautiful flavor and color.

13 comments:

Candi said...

Chase is so lucky to have such a great mom and one who is magical in the kitchen and keeps it healthy too!! I love the hummus recipe! Thanks for sharing it. It has a few new ingredients compared to my typical hummus, but I bet it makes it more interesting!! I would love to try it!

The lasagna is really huge and looks great! Too bad about those spelt noodles. We made lots of spelt noodles, but only shells and elbows - never lasagna noodles.

Lol! I love the quirks! lol! I'm sure we all have them. I thought your cupckae liner quirk was cute! only use them after they bake! lol!

I'm happy you got the cupcake book! Your peanut butter cakes do look great! I love the decorations and the frosting. Looks like a fun decorating party was going on there!

Anonymous said...

wow what beautifull food, you did a super job here! thanks for the recipe too!

bazu said...

Oh, you had me laughing with your cupcake story. Don't worry, you're not the weirdest person around here (I proudly raise my hand!). Decorating cupcakes is a little too much fun. I must remind myself that frosting is a "sometime food"(cookie monster reference!)
that hummus sounds amazing. what a great twist on the idea.

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

Quite frankly, pumpkin hummus sounds amazing.

JENNA said...

you are quite the pumpkin queen. pumpkin soup and now pumpkin hummus lasagna. it all sounds wonderful. i'm not a lasagna fan and i think it's because of the tomato sauce. I love this idea of using the pumpkin hummus. the only lasagna that i've ever liked was one I made with a tofu mousse instead of sauce. hummus sounds better.

JENNA

Anonymous said...

it all just looks so good. Your lasagna sounded spectacular! Pumpkin hummas...great idea!

Anonymous said...

Everything looks so delicious! I wish I lived nearby so I could invite myself over for your weekly dinner as well!! Yum.

Vicki's Vegan Vice said...

the french bread looks so yummy & i'll be looking that soon - just so i can smell the aroma that goes along with your photo! LOL!

Ben Kaelan said...

Shit I totally thought I had commented on this. Wow! That's a massive amount of food. Send some on this side of the border will ya? :) Yum yum yum. I love the idea of pumpkin hummus! I miss hummus (chickpeas are acidic.....but maybe I could balance them out with some pumpkin... :) )...

Love the cupcakes! very yummy posts!

Nikk said...

Pumpkin hummus sounds wonderful! I am a pumpkin addict, I think it will cure my craving.

The cuppers look great...and don't worry about the weirdness, you should hear some of my weird bits!

aTxVegn said...

Thanks for your comments, everybody! The pumpkin hummus really is amazing. And it's good to know I'm not the only weirdo here!

Candy, as you probably have guessed, I love being Chase's mom! That lasagna is huge, huh?

b36, I'm supposed to be the chocolate queen, but I am really into the seasonal pumpkin thing now. Also bread. I'm working on a chocolate thingy for my next dinner.

Crystal, if you're ever in the neighborhood, please come over!

Ben, can you have ANY beans? White bean hummus is good too. We don't eat all the food in one sitting. I let my son take home all the leftovers. Starving student, you know. As for commenting, I have found that I have to do the verification twice almost every time.

Kris said...

Wow, this looks so amazing. I've been thinking of making lasagna soon, too. I never thought of using hummus!

Your cupcakes are so pretty! I love pipping frosting, it's so much fun.

K Allrich said...

Hummus looks yummy!

I just wanted to clarify [for those new to celiac or living gluten-free] that spelt is not gluten-free. It's an ancient version of wheat and contains gluten. Celiacs must avoid spelt, unfortunately.

Take care and be well! :-)