Orange Pumpkin Spice Latte

Stop! 

Don't throw out those Pumpkin Guts from your Halloween Pumpkin carving (or recipe) adventures! 

You need them to make this  amazing drink -- trust me you don't want to miss out on this one.

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First I want to give a little thank you to Alisha of Seattleite Imagery ("This American Wife"), for her comment/suggestion on yesterday's post about a raw vegan Eggnog-like drink. I got that comment as I was turning out the light and my head was hitting the pillow...but you know what I did? I got out of bed, tip-toed into the kitchen, put a couple bags of my favorite Chai Tea in some water, stuck it in the fridge and went back to bed. 

It was only natural waking up this morning that eggnog was still stuck in my head. 

Obviously this isn't eggnog, but it's definitely inspired by the popular holiday drink. 

This is a serious tip of the hat to Pumpkin Lovers everywhere. It's creamy, rich, spicy, sweet and so easy to make you won't believe it!

Important Note About This Recipe

It's SO GOOD!

 Excitement aside, not only is this a rich and decant drink it's very simple to make. Here's what you're going to need:

AtV Sour Cream

Pumpkin guts and the seeds that are naturally mixed into it (don't worry about separating the two)

Your Favorite Chai Tea (loose leave or bag will do)

A Blender

A Mesh Strainer

...and last but not least, a little bit of time and patience

About the Pumpkin Guts

This is the part of the pumpkin that actually tends to hold the most pumpkin flavor when used raw. The raw pumpkin seeds alone are so rich in nutrients, and they're actually fairly soft and fleshy themselves - which makes for easy blending. 

Hot or Cold ?

You can enjoy this drink over ice or heated up. It's really up to you and your own preference. I had mine over ice, in place of my morning smoothie and it was was perfect!

Orange Pumpkin Spice Latte

Makes a little more than two 12 oz servings

2 Bags //or// 2 Tbsp loose leaf - Chai Tea  & 1 and 1/2 cups Water 

Cold Brew your Tea overnight in your fridge //or// Brew it as you would normally in warm or hot water until your tea water is a dark amber color

1 c packed Pumpkin guts and seeds

3/4 to 1 cup Orange Juice 

&; 

1 tsp Orange Zest

1/2 c AtV Sour Cream (click for the recipe)

10 Medjool Dates - soak dates in water for 10 minutes and remove seeds

Put everything into your Blender and blend on high for up to 30 seconds.

Even though I have a high speed blender you don't need one to make this. It's perfectly fine if your blended ingredients are a bit choppy or grainy - you'll be running them through a strainer.

Now that you've finished blending your Ingredients together you should have a very thick and chunky puree - the next step is the most time consuming and requires a bit of patience. But you're so close to being finished, so hang in there!

Set up your fine mesh strainer over a big jar or measuring glass. 

Have a bowl close by to transfer your pulp to. 

Proceed to pour small batches of your blended mixture into your strainer, use a spoon to mix it around pushing the pulp against the mesh to move as much of the liquid through that you can

You may need to rinse your strainer once or twice to un-clog it, as the pulp may begin to collect. This is totally normal - and I recommend having your station set up by your sink to streamline everything.

Look at all of that Orange Pumpkin Spice creaminess!

Don't forget, you're going to have a lot of pulp leftover from the straining process. You can save this in your freezer and use it to make something else. 

I might even have a recipe for that too!

Cheers and Happy Friday to all of you Pumpkin Lovers!

xoxo,

Sarahfae - AtV

P.S. I just want to thank you all for being so wonderful and encouraging over the last couple of weeks. Your enthusiasm and love of food (especially Pumpkin!) is what inspires me to keep going in the kitchen. I feel so fortunate to be able to share my love and excitement with each and every one of you. 

Orange Pumpkin Spice Cookies!

They're finally here!

If you've been in search of an aromatic Orange infused Cookie, with Pumpkin-spice richness and a melt-in-your-mouth texture...look no further!
This Cookie brings gourmet to the forefront - but it's SO easy to make you won't believe it.

I may have choreographed a celebratory dance due to the tastiness of these little buggers. I guess that truly speaks to how good they are...or how weird I am. 

Important Note About This Recipe

The drying/warming time for these Cookies varies depending on the thickness - the thinner the cookie the less time they'll need to spend in the oven/dehydrator. Follow the warming methods at the end of the recipe for further instructions. 

Orange Pumpkin Spice Cookies

This recipe yields a lot of cookie dough, depending on the thickness and dimension of your Cookie you could end up with around Three dozen. But don't worry, you won't have any trouble getting rid of them.

Step 1. 

Dry Ingredients

3 c raw Almond Flour (store bought will also work, although it's not always raw)

1 C Coconut Flour

Mix all of your dry ingredients together:

Set your Dry Ingredients aside and move onto the next step.

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Step 2.

Wet Ingredients

2 c (packed) shredded fresh Pumpkin - I recommend Kabocha (Japanese) Pumpkin

3/4 c Coconut Crystals/Palm Sugar //or// Sucanat

3 Tbsp Orange Zest (roughly the zest of 1 Orange)

3 Tbsp Lemon Juice

2 tsp Vanilla

1 tsp ground Cinnamon

1 tsp ground Allspice

2 pinches Salt

1/4 c Coconut Oil - melted 

Puree everything together for about 1 minute total:

Move on to the final step of making your cookies!

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Step 3.

Combining Dry and Wet Ingredients:

Make a well in the center of your Dry Ingredients (from Step 1) and Proceed to fill it with your Wet Ingredients (from Step 2): 

Mix everything together evenly -- until you have a big 'ol ball of yummy Cookie dough:

Yay! Cookie dough is finished!

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Step 4.

Assembling and drying/warming your cookies:

Whether you're using your Oven set at it's lowest heat with the door cracked open, or your dehydrator - it all depends on how thick your cookies are in order to determine how long they will need to be in the oven/dehydrator.

My cookies were a little less than a half an inch in thickness. 

I warmed 1 batch in the dehydrator and another batch in the oven (again - set at the lowest heat, with the oven door cracked open).

The total drying time was about 2 hours for my cookies - but if you want them to set/finish quicker then simply make them thinner. 

It's as simple as that!

The end.

And what a tasty ending it is.

xoxo,

Sarahfae - AtV

Rerun Recipe: Fluffy Chocolate Almond Butter

Hi everyone!

At the moment I'm finding myself buried deep in lots of Addicted to Veggies work outside of the Kitchen. I wish this weren't so, because it's taken time away from recipe creation and forced me to rely on old recipes.

I hope you'll forgive today's rerun - and I promise to be back on Wednesday with something yummy, warm, and comforting...and now I'm getting hungry.

Fluffy Chocolate Almond Butter

For the full recipe - click!

xoxo,

Sarahfae - AtV

Harvest Pumpkin Stuffing

I just didn't feel like doing something difficult today, and this is the perfect "fake out" dish if you want a lot of flavor with minimal time in the kitchen. It's also the perfect dish if you're a Pumpkin lover. 

If you have your veggies prepped beforehand then all you have to do is throw them together (with the herbs and spices) and warm it all up. 

Added bonus: your kitchen will smell heavenly (like you've been slaving away for hours).

This also falls somewhere in between these two recipes:

Oyster Mushroom Hash 

Rustic Brown 'Rice' & Veggies 

...with typical AtV emphasis on "comfort food".

Important Notes About This Recipe

I've chosen to use Bloomed Wild Rice in this recipe, but you can also use sprouted Quinoa or Lentils instead.

On it's own this is a fairly light dish, but you have all the room in the world to add your own personal flair to it. My recommendations:

- Add a couple handfuls of Walnuts, Raisins or dried Cranberries

- Pair it with your protein of choice 

- Stuff into: Mushrooms, Peppers, or even an Apple or Pear

Sweating the Pumpkin

In the first step of this recipe you're going to "sweat" the shredded Pumpkin (this technique has also been used recently in this post). This is a fairly important step because sweating tenderizes your raw Pumpkin and also removes a good amount of water. 

Harvest Pumpkin Stuffing 

This Recipe yields about four generous side servings

Step 1. 

Prepping your Pumpkin:

Kubocha Pumpkin works best for this recipe 

Shred your Pumpkin Flesh until you have:

 2 cups packed shredded Pumpkin flesh - the amount you will need for this recipe

Place your shredded Pumpkin into a colander and add roughly 2 tsp of Salt - tossing it evenly throughout your Pumpkin flesh. (Don't worry, we'll be washing most of the salt off!)

Let your Pumpkin flesh sit with the salt for 10 to 15 minutes 

Rinse your Pumpkin very very well.

After you've rinsed your Pumpkin proceed to squeeze as much of the access liquid from it. Use your muscles! 

This is the confusing part...

Your sweated Pumpkin will now have gone from 2 cups to roughly 1 cup of packed Pumpkin flesh. This is perfectly okay and expected of any squash after you've sweated it, because of how much liquid it looses.

Place your Pumpkin into a big mixing bowl and move onto the next step.

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Step 2.

Putting everything together:

Into a Large mixing bowl combine the following:

All of your Pumpkin Flesh from Step 1.

1 c bloomed Wild Rice

1 c dried (or fresh) Crimini Mushroom - sliced

1 c fresh Corn kernals

3/4 c Red Bell Pepper - chopped

1/2 c Green Onion - chopped

1/2 c White Onion - chopped

1/2 c finely shredded/packed Parsnip

Optional, and really good: A heaping handful of fresh Dill

Seasoning:

1 Tbsp dried Thyme

1 Tbsp dried Parsley

1 Tbsp Onion powder

1 Tbsp Nutritional yeast

1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

1 tsp dried Sage

1/2 tsp Garlic Granules

1/4 tsp ground Celery Seed

4 Tbsp of one of the following: Grapeseed Oil, Olive Oil, or Walnut Oil

Warming Directions

On a parchment lined baking sheet evenly spread your Stuffing.

Set your oven at it's very lowest heat, leaving the oven door cracked open.

Place your stuffing into the oven and leave it to warm for about 30 minutes.

You can also warm this in your Dehydrator if you prefer.

I also recommend pairing this yummy stuffing with a tasty sauce or gravy:

White Miso Gravy

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

I might be making another trip to the Pumpkin patch again...

xoxo,

Sarahfae - AtV