Beltane 2020

I know that spooooooky season has just ended (though the horror of the world continues). I have never much been one for Halloween. I didn't grow up with it, and I just do not like food that is made to look like gross body parts. I don't want to eat it. Or look at it. Halloween has been growing in popularity in Australia, but I remain unmoved. Though I love seeing my friends getting a lot of joy out of it. Why am I talking about Halloween in a post about Beltane? Because in the Northern hemisphere, Halloween lines up with Samhain, and it is a nice autumny time. In Australia, it is spring but really it is already summer where I live in. And because our year of the wheel for sabbats is the opposite down here, the 31st of October is actually time to celebrate Beltane.

Beltane (31st October - 1st November, 2020)

Beltane is between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, and it celebrates life and fertility. Beltane fires are a common theme, but I did not light any fires here. And I certainly didn't jump over them. And certainly not with another human. Nor did I make a Maypole. Instead, I did what I do best and celebrated with food. All the recipes I made ended up being from books written by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau! That wasn't a concious decision, it just worked out that way.

Strawberry Lemonade from Color Me Vegan: My first time making homemade lemonade, it it won't be my last. In fact, I have another recipe chilling in my fridge as I type this. Strawberries are just going out of season here, so I made the most of them with this gorgeous drink. It is really nice and tangy, with the right amount of sugar and a good flavour balance. It did foam up a lot in the blender, which you can see here. But delicious.
Rating: :)



Pasta Primavera from The Vegan Table: Spring vegetables is a great way to celebrate Beltane, and this very simple pasta dish was packed with carrots, zucchini, asparagus, tomatoes, and basil. Also some olives. I left out the capsicum, scallions, and red pepper flakes. I made this with 8oz (250g) of pasta rather than 12oz (which the book says would be 160g of pasta, which is just completely wrong), and because I was using less pasta I only used 3/4 cup or stock rather than 1 cup for the final simmer. The next day I had the leftovers made into a pasta salad, with some Vegenaise, nooch, and chopped celery added. I love turning pasta leftovers into pasta salads, inspired by Food for Dissertating.
Rating: :)





Fruity Spinach Salad: I picked this salad because spinach is a great spring vegetable, and it had berries in the dressing, also very Beltane. The dressing is a really nice blend of raspberries (I used frozen ones, thawed out) and seasoned rice vinegar. I made a half recipe of the dressing, and kind of just went by feel for the rest of the ingreidents. But it has baby spinach, oranges, cucumbers, slivered almonds (that I used instead of chopped macadamias), and sunflower seeds in it. It was also meant to have poppy seeds in it, but I was out.
Rating: :)



Raspberry Oatmeal Bars from The Joy of Vegan Baking: This recipe is so quick and easy to make! It is a simple crumble of flour, brown sugar, oats, and Nuttelex that is pressed into the base, covered in raspberry jam, and then sprinkled with more of the oat crumble mix. The only think you need to think about is remembering to take your Nuttelex out to soften.
Rating: :)



And here is my dinner all together.



The next day I did not wash my face in the morning dew, as some people speak about. That would not really work here. But I did have a lovely breakfast of crumpets with rice malt syrup (instead of honey) and some fresh strawberries on the side.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Just a couple of cuties.