Persimmon Pecan Crumble Bars {Vegan!}

The man and I are hosting a little holiday potluck this weekend, as if the holidays didn't give me enough of an excuse to bake my brains out. We got our tree, decorated our tiny apartment, and washed the dog - we're super excited about it.

I discovered vegan baking several months ago and every time I experiment with a new vegan recipe I feel amazed at what great things can be made with purely whole, plant-based foods. Seriously, dates, bananas, flax seeds, coconut oil - amazing stuff. So when I found out that not one, not two, but three vegans RSVPed to our potluck the first words that entered my mind were "I'VE GOT THIS!" 

I've been working on a vegan hot chocolate that is deadly good, stay tuned. And yesterday, inspired by the 8 persimmons that have been sitting in our fruit basket for weeks (those things last forever), I veganized my favorite crumble bars by smitten kitchen. It was surprisingly easy, and minus the time it takes to peel and dice the fruit, this recipe is a breeze. 

The persimmons are subtle and sweet and the crumble is addicting to say the least. These make a great holiday potluck dish, and if you're wondering, your meat-eating, vegan-skeptical friends will never be able to tell! 

Vegan Persimmon Pecan Crumble Bars 
Adapted from smitten kitchen
Fills a 9x13 inch pan with approximately 30 small bars 

For the crust + crumble: 
2 sticks vegan butter (I used Earth Balance) 
1 flax egg (1 tbsp flax seed meal, 3 tbsp water, 1/4 tsp baking powder)
2 cups all purpose flour 
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup toasted pecans, roughly chopped 
1 cup brown sugar, packed 
1/2 tsp salt 
1 tsp baking powder 
1/2 tsp cinnamon 
1/4 tsp nutmeg 

For the filling: 
10 small fuyu persimmons, (about 2.5 cups) peeled & diced 
2 tbsp lemon juice 
2 tbsp cane sugar 
1 tbsp corn starch 
1/4 tsp cinnamon 

Prep work: Chop the vegan butter into small cubes and place in the freezer for 20-30 minutes. Prepare the flax egg by whisking together flax seed meal, water, and baking powder in a small bowl, let sit for 20 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a 9x13 inch baking dish with parchment paper, making sure it covers the edges - this will make it easier to pull the bars out once their baked. Rub the parchment with excess butter or spray with coconut oil (I used Trader Joe's coconut oil spray). 

Prepare the filling. In a medium bowl, combine peeled and diced persimmons with lemon juice, sugar, corn starch, and cinnamon. Set aside. 

Prepare the crumble: In a large bowl whisk together flour, oats, pecans, sugar, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add in cold butter cubes and flax egg. Using your hands (or a pastry cutter) to gently break up the butter pieces until the mixture looks like sand with large pea-sized butter chunks. 

Pour about 2/3 of the crumble into the bottom of the baking dish and press it down until it forms a solid crust. Top with the filling then sprinkle remaining crumble on top. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting into squares. Refrigerate until cold and serve. 

Notes: 

• Not vegan and want to use traditional ingredients? Use two sticks of real unsalted butter in place of the vegan butter, and 1 large egg in place of the flax egg. 
• I think these taste best served cold, the crumble thickens and I feel like the flavors are brought out more, but you could totally serve these warm or room temperature, they will just be messier. 
• I froze these for our party this weekend. I'll post an update, but I'd imagine they freeze great. 
• Can't find persimmons? You can make these bars with pretty much any fruit. I've made over 4 flavors of smitten kitchen's bars, all of them varying just slightly. These things are so simple, feel free to experiment. 

Creamy Butternut Squash Goat Cheese Pasta with Brown Butter & Crispy Sage

It's no secret I have a bit of a love affair with brown butter and sage. I was way too old the first time I experienced the dynamic duo last Christmas. I made homemade butternut squash gnocchi in a brown butter sage creme fraiche sauce and it was quite possibly the most epic and decadent meal I've ever made and oh so worthy for a first vegetarian christmas. I do submit that there is no better smell in the world than crispy sage cooking in bubbly brown butter. It's cozy, comforting, and so damn decadent. 

So inspired by that dish I decided to make a simpler, more week-night appropriate version. The result is perfection. Creamy roasted butternut squash is puréed with tangy goat cheese and a dollop of creme fraiche. The sauce is then poured over pasta and topped with crispy sage and brown butter. It's holiday worthy, it's cozy, and it's so good.  

Creamy Butternut Squash Goat Cheese Pasta with Brown Butter & Crispy Sage
Inspired by Chow 
Serves 4-6

1 large butternut squash
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, divided  
1 large bunch of sage, about 2 oz 
3 large shallots 
1 pound angel hair pasta 
1/8 tsp nutmeg 
3.75 oz creme fraiche 
2.5 oz goat cheese 
3/4 - 1 cup pasta water 
3/4 tsp salt 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Slice butternut squash length-wise, remove the seeds (they are great roasted separately in olive oil) and discard the stringy center. Drizzle the squash with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, then cook on a baking sheet cut-side up for 45 minutes - 1 hour until completely soft and the top begins to look caramelized. Set aside to cool slightly. 

Meanwhile, warm 2 tbsp of butter in a medium skillet over medium heat and slice shallots (everything gets blended together so how you slice them doesn't matter much). Add the shallots to the butter and sauté until soft and just slightly browned. Pour cooked shallots into a blender. 

Bring a large stock pot of salted water to a boil. Warm the remaining 6 tablespoons of butter over medium low heat. The butter will warm and white bubbles with appear. Just as the bubbles begin to subside add in whole sage leaves. The sage will start to become crispy, and the butter will start to turn a rich caramel color with little brown bits. Watch like a hawk as this happens as brown butter turns to burnt butter quickly. I like to bring the brown butter right to the edge of burnt to get it as caramelly with as many brown bits as possible.  

Once water is boiling, add the pasta and cook. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water for the sauce and place drained pasta in a sauté pan. 

Once it's cooled enough to handle, scrape out the center of the butternut squash with a spoon and add it to the blender. Add the nutmeg, creme fraiche, and goat cheese and blend. Slowly add in pasta water, starting with 1/2 a cup and adding more until you reach your desired thickness. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour the sauce over the pasta and toss. Once combined, top with brown butter and sage and toss lightly with tongs as not to break the sage leaves. Top with parmesan and serve. 

Notes: To blend I used my vitamix but any blender should work, as well as a food processor. I've made this with homemade pasta and dried. It's approximately twice as good with homemade, but I realize normal people don't have that kind of time. 

Juice Cleanse + My Favorite Fall Green Juice

After four days filled with pie, homemade ice cream, mashed potatoes with the best damn vegetarian gravy I've ever had, and rugelach, so. much. rugelach, forgive me if I swear off food for a little while, and divert things to talk about juice instead. Green juice! 

Let's start from the beginning. I bought a juicer a little over a year and a half ago. And I can honestly say it was worth every penny. Up until a couple of weeks ago, I would juice fruits and vegetables (lots of vegetables) for a healthy snack or breakfast. Last January I even did a green-juice-a-day-january where I drank one for 31 days straight to help myself build the habit. Juicing is an easy way to ensure you digest the full 9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day that we're all supposed to get (though no one actually does), in a fast straight-to-the-blood-stream, kind of way. Not only does drinking green juice make my body feel energized and light, but it has a pretty incredible affect on my mind, my mood, and my ability to focus. And for me, that's a pretty big deal. 

So two weeks ago my husband went out of the country for what felt like the millionth time this year for work. I went to work in the morning, then spent the rest of the day in bed feeling sorry for myself, feeling trapped in a life I didn't choose and feeling less than hopeful that things were ever going to get any better. Things were shitty. And I felt super depressed. On top of this, I'd gained almost 5 pounds over the past couple months, and despite feeling pretty confident in knowing how to take care of my body, and continually bring myself back into balance, those numbers on the scale scared me. I felt heavy and lazy, sad and hopeless. I knew I needed a shift that was a bit more dramatic, and I needed it fast. So with my husband gone I attempted a juice cleanse. 4 days. No food. All green juice. 

The first day was, of course, the roughest. I wanted food and I wanted it badly. But somehow I felt nourished enough by the juices. I drank 2-4 giant juices per day, somehow needing less and less of them as the days continued. Much like a fast, I avoided any strenuous exercise, and limited things to lots of gentle and yin yoga classes along with walks for P. Physically I felt less energy, but mentally my mind became light, clear, and focused; my mood improved dramatically. The most difficult parts of the day were the evenings. When the sun went down around 4:30 and it got cold, all I wanted was a warm meal. Each evening I swore today would be the last day and tomorrow I'd end this thing. But each morning I work up feeling good and more determined to finish what I'd started, so I'd drink a giant glass of warm water with lemon (a healthy habit I totally fell in love with) and carry on. 

Throughout the four days I learned how much our culture revolves around food. We socialize around it. I found myself postponing meetings with friends because pretty much all people do when they get together is eat.  I found I couldn't open the fridge or go near restaurants (which felt like they were everywhere!). I couldn't watch the food network, read my favorite food blogs, and at times I felt so desperate, I actually started drooling over the trashy big mac commercials on tv. I snuck a raw almond while organizing my pantry on night two, and I swear to you, nothing has ever tasted so good in my life. Oh and I craved meat. Like steak. Big time. I feared that when this cleanse ended I would eat and just never stop eating. 

Fortunately that's not what happened. And when I eased off things by drinking warm homemade almond milk with cinnamon at the end of day four, I thought I'd die of happiness. Nothing has even felt so nourishing and delicious than that glass. I started day 5 with a fruit and spinach smoothie. I made kale chips and toasted almonds with olive oil and sea salt for lunch and couldn't believe how delicious they tasted. I savoured every bite like I was eating for the first time. Everything tasted so good. For dinner, I ended things in a big way with Green Kitchen Stories' New Yoga Pot. And it was perfect. Over the next couple of days I pretty much ate just whole fruits and vegetables, then slowly started incorporating some dairy, like greek yogurt, and feta in a salad, then grains. 

A week after the beginning of the cleanse, I felt pretty fantastic. I felt empowered and like I'd given my body a fresh start to eat really well. To focus more on whole fruits and vegetables. To limit the amount of bread I eat (avocado toast, I love you). Oh and although this wasn't my main goal, and I don't recommend cleansing purely the loose weight, I lost those pesky 5 pounds and got back to my "normal". Obviously it goes without saying, I'm not a doctor, and believe every body is different - what's good for one could be bad for another, but for me the experience was great. 

So today I share with you, my favorite fall green juice. Because I believe health is about balance, and balance, just like I teach my yoga students, is not about standing perfectly still, but about constantly moving around center. It's about staying present enough to make those little, or sometimes big, adjustments to keep you around center. And if you try to stand perfectly still, you will, undoubtedly, fall. I see it in my students, I see it in myself. And for me green juices help me balance around center, so I can enjoy carmel pear pie on thanksgiving then drink kale the next morning. 

My Favorite Fall Green Juice 
Makes about 1 quart 

2-3 large apples* 
1 pear 
1 handful baby spinach 
1 large bunch of Kale 
1 large head of romaine 
1 lemon 
1/2 medium cucumber 

Wash and thoroughly dry all ingredients (salad spinners work great here). Press all ingredients through a juicer. To get the most out of the baby spinach, pack it tightly between the two apples.

*I start with two apples, taste, then if you'd like it sweeter add a third. Apple juice is low-glycemic, so the sugar from it won't spike your blood sugar, plus apples have always been my sweetener of choice for juices.