Mabon and Samhain 2021

Two more Sabbats have passed this year. For us in the southern hemisphere it was Mabon and Samhain.

Mabon aka Autumn Equinox (19th March, 2021)

Autumn Equinox is often still very warm here. Brisbane's seasons tend to run towards the majority of the year being some sort of summer. For previous Mabon's I have made salads, but it was a bit cooler this year!

Cranberry Chili from 500 Vegan Recipes by Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman: I have loads of frozen cranberries that I have hoarded in my freezer. They are rarely if ever available here and when they are I tend to buy loads and then am reluctant to use them so I can 'save them'. A fine thought, except for freezer burn. So time to get using them. This is an unsual chili that is a mix of frozen cranberries and kidney beans. This recipe called for a tiny bit of tequila, which I didnpt have so a web site suggested a mix of lime and water as a potential sub. I would not use lime again, as my cranberries were very tart. Next time I'd just leave out the sub all together and add a smidge extra agave. Because I am me, I of course did notuse actual chili powder in my chili, using paprika instead. I had to rapid simmer it at the end for about five minutes to get it to thicken up enough. I served it that night with spinach and roasted sweet potato, which was a nice side. I had some leftovers which I reheated with some corn (for sweetness), celery and spinach and served over a baked potato.
Rating: :)





Pumpkin Spice Bread from Forks Over Knives The Cookbook (recipe by Isa Chandra Moskowitz): This recipe is full of autumn flavours, with pumpkin, apple butter (I'll be doing a future post about this), and lots of spices. You can only get tinned pumpkin puree here from online, so I used homemade butternut puree (which I prefer anyway). This recipe has the option of adding raisins and walnuts, but I left them out. The bread itself was a touch gummy, but it was really nice and smelled amazing. I ate this a number of ways. On it's own, smeared with apple butter, or one day with some leftover ice cream and blueberry sauce.
Rating: :)





Samhain (April 30th - May 1st, 2021)

Samhain is on the 31st of October in the northern hemisphere, which is the same time as Halloween. Here it is at the end of April, so I don't really go for Halloween-type food. Samhain is traditionally considered the time when the veil between the worlds is thinnest, and is the new year on the wheel of the year. It is a time for honouring those that have passed. I ate my dinner in silence, and lit a candle for everyone who has passed... which this year included my sweet Dim Sim, as well as so many others.

Autumn Stroganoff from Cafe Flora Cookbook: This is a wonderful stew that has roasted pumpkin (it called for delicata which I cannot get, so I used butternut) and roasted mushrooms (I had a mix of cremini and portobello), with caramelised onions. You start by making a mushroom essence, a slow simmered mushroom stock, which is further reduced by simmering in this recipe. This recipe is not written vegan, but is super easy to make vegan by using vegan butter for the butter (I used Nuttelex) and I used Kingland Natural Soy Yoghurt in place of the creme fraiche. It is served over noodles, and I used the Nature's Kitchen fresh spinach fettucine from Coles. Served over some baby spinach, I got three very satisfying serves.
Rating: :D



Chocolate Pumpkin Loaf from Forks Over Knives The Cookbook (recipe by Isa Chandra Moskowitz): I had some leftover butternut puree in my freezer, so decided to dip back into FOK for another yummy load. This time it is butternut and chocolate (cocoa in the dry mix and chocolate chips folded through the batter), full of spices. I also added some plump apple-juice sweetened semi-dried cranberries. I needed to bake this for an extra 15 minutes to cook it through.
Rating: :)