stroganoff burrito

  

Overview

Time: 30 minutes
Dishes: large skillet, baking sheet, oven

Hello, hello Dear Readers!

As easy and fast as it is to make meatless, vegetarian and vegan Stroganoff (an excellent recipe is in Everyday Vegan Eats), I was ready to see if there was an even faster and easier way to make it. Instead of preparing pasta, I decided to roll it in a burrito.

Firstly, the Stroganoff is great - well-seasoned and flavorful. It is not as saucy as if making it for pasta, but, instead, it is perfect for filling a burrito. After rolling the filling in a warm tortilla (warmed so it does not break), I broiled it until the tortilla was crisp. 

The sauce is seasoned easily with my Easy Savory Broth Mix and a bit of Dijon mustard. The all-important vegan sour cream is added at the end, with the heat off. About 10 ingredients and lunch was ready in less than 30 minutes. 

The burrito was an excellent way to prepare this. I sautéed some Brussels sprouts on the side (another recipe in EVE) and served it with sliced apples. 

It was fast, filling and delicious. Note that this serves only 2 or 3 in large fajita-sized burritos. That is the way with mushrooms - it looks like a ton going into the pan and then you wonder where it all went when it comes time to fill a tortilla. Worth it, though. Very tasty. 

NEW TO PLANT-BASED EATING? Get my free zines and check out the wrap-up of Fall 2020 recipes HERE. Great way to set yourself up for success!

Enjoy!

Speedy Cooking Tips:

• Gather ingredients.
• Heat the pan and add the mushrooms as they are sliced.
• Chop the onion, pepper and garlic and add as they are ready.
• Cook on high and only stir when needed to allow the mushrooms to release their liquid and brown instead of steam.
• Be sure to turn the heat off before adding sour cream.
• Preheat broiler before adding the sour cream. 

(Printer-friendly doesn't seem to be so friendly. Just select the text between the arrows (including the white space to add margin on the top), right-click, select Print, and now it's printer-friendly. Can also be saved as PDF:  choose Save as PDF in Destination drop-down, instead of a printer.)

Stroganoff Burrito

www.ZsusVeganPantry.com

Makes 2 to 3 servings 

easy

1. Mushroom: Add the oil to a large skillet, over high heat. Add the mushrooms, bell pepper, onion and garlic. Season with salt. Cook until the mushrooms are golden and the pan is almost dry, about 10-15 minutes. Stir only as needed. 

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 1/2 pounds mushrooms (button, crimini, portobello, oyster), sliced

1 small pepper, diced

1/2 small onion, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

2. Seasoning: Add the broth mix, mustard, and tomato paste to the Mushrooms. Mix well. Cook for 1 minute. 

1 tablespoons Easy Savory Broth mix

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons tomato paste 

3. Sour Cream: Turn off the heat. Preheat the broiler. Add the sour cream to the Mushrooms. Mix well. Season with salt and black pepper.

1/2 cup vegan sour cream

4. Broil: Warm the tortillas over the stove burner or microwave for 10 seconds. Fill the tortillas with the Mushrooms. Roll and place on a baking sheet. Spray with oil and broil until golden, about 3 minutes. Serve. 

2 or 3 large burrito-size tortillas 

Oil spray

© 2021 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

Pint It!

veganmofo - old fam recipe + túrós csusza

Day Twenty of #vgnmf15! Prompt: old family recipe, veganized, of course.

This prompt will result in a flurry of childhood or family recipes being veganized, I've no doubt. Like everyone else, I, too, have one of those old family recipes hanging on the back shelf waiting to be improved.

My recipe is an old traditional Hungarian recipe that is really quick and easy. It is called Túrós CSusza which translates basically to cheese pasta.

I remember my mom or dad making this very often and the only thing preventing me from making it vegan is the Quark Cheese, which seemed exotic to me at the time. Ultimately, it is just a soft cheese curd of sorts that can be subbed with any good crumbled vegan cheese - or even tofu, when push comes to shove.

This meal consists of pasta with a sauce made of quark cheese (almost like cottage cheese), sour cream and bacon. Seasoned with salt and plenty of black pepper, this is a very fast meal to throw together, given you have vegan bacon and a few store-bought ingredients on hand.

So, after 15 or so years, I stocked up on the requisite ingredients and finally decided to make this family recipe that also happens to be in many other Hungarian family's meal rotations.

I used the crisp vegan bacon from Everyday Vegan Eats (Amazon, B&N) because it is our favorite. I made a triple batch in order to have enough bacon to make the California Club Sandwiches (also from EVE) later in the week, and then I went to work re-creating this pasta dish.

Below is the recipe and I hope you enjoy!

As an aside, over the past few days I've had a few questions regarding substitutions in the recipes in my new cookbook Vegan Bowls (Amazon, B&N). One was a nut replacement request because of allergies.

If you have bought the book and need substitutions for an ingredient, please contact me and I will be more than happy to help in any way I can. In addition, I will be starting a page on this blog specifically for nut substitutes as that is the only primary allergen that the book does not include substitutes for (due to lack of space).

I am hosting an International giveaway of the Kindle edition of  Vegan Bowls. Enter HERE. Contest ends Monday night, September 21.

Truros Csusza

Makes 4 servings

12 ounces pasta, rotelli, shells, etc.

8 ounces nondairy cream cheese

10 ounces nondairy sour cream 

2 to 4 tablespoons mashed tofu or vegan cheese

1 cup chopped crisp vegan bacon (Everyday Vegan Eats has a delicious vegan bacon recipe)

Sea salt and plenty of ground black pepper

1. Cook the pasta in a pot of salted boiling water until al dente. Drain and set aside. 

2. Combine the cream cheese, sour cream, tofu and ¼ cup of the bacon in a medium saucepot. Mix well and heat over medium heat until warmed through. Season with salt and black pepper. Toss half of the sauce with the pasta. Serve in bowls garnished with the rest of the sauce and bacon. Season with more cracked black pepper and serve. 

 © 2015 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

hungarian seitan paprikas - throwback thursday foods

When I read Cadry's post, 11 Ways to Know You're a Food Blogger, it struck me that, one, not only am I food blogger [busted] but that there are so many of us around the blogoshpere. Although Cadry didn't limit her list of obvious tip-offs to just vegan food bloggers, there happens to be many of those, as well. Again, caught red-handed.

And, two, that these self-professed food bloggers happen to be excellent at their photography and blog content. I'm sure many of us have our favorites and religiously visit the sites at least weekly. Just noticing my personal food blog, it is quite apparent that my photography and recipe writing skills have dramatically improved over the years.

That is not to pat myself on the back; I'm just pointing out that from where I began, many lessons have been learned. In other words, I may have gotten better, but that is only because I had such a long way to go!

I am sure many of us can look back on our first few blog posts and laugh - yes, I took that photo! and I wrote that?!?

As I was assembling last week's menu (using my Menu Template), my son asked me to make Paprikas, a Hungarian paprika and sour cream stew. I recalled having made it just a few years ago (yes, that is exactly what I told him! "We just had that a few years ago.") and it hit me that, hey!, I can improve on said recipe, but if not the recipe, that photo can only get better.

And then Cadry's post came creeping back on my mind. Why, yes, I do, indeed, have more cloth napkins, plates and mason jars than any sane person would. I even have an equal number of plates and bowls reserved only for photos as there are in my cupboard reserved for daily meals.

I can't really write a blog post about something I've already done! Can I? Yes! I can if I improve it and call it Throwback Thursday -- only this TBT is about food posts!

Here is my first installment of Throwback Thursday - Food Blogger Style:

Remaking this dish, I enhanced the recipe, and therefore the flavor and retook the photo. If you'd like to check out the original attempt, you are welcome to gaze upon the curiosity that was Paprikas 1.0

Paprikas happens to be a variation on the Hungarian Goulash and if you omit the sour cream, you would have a great Seitan Goulash, but if you include it, voila!, it's transformed into a completely different dish.

Serve the Paprikas with pasta, rice or thick slices of bread to soak up the sauce. I made my stew using my SteaK Seitan recipe, but any good seitan recipe will be wonderful.

I also added some kale sprouts on top of my serving to boost nutrition and because I love a little bit of green with my rich stews. However, minced parsley is just as welcoming.

I'm sure we all have our fair share of Throwback Thursday Foods lurking in the back of our food blogs; I know I have plenty enough to keep this theme going for many, many moons to come.

 HUNGARIAN SETIAN PAPRIKAS PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

Hungarian Seitan Paprikas

Serves 4

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 teaspoons toasted sesame seed oil, divided

1 large onion, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

¼ cup unbleached all-purpose white flour

1 large Hungarian wax or bell pepper, diced

1 large ripe tomato, diced

1 tablespoon Hungarian paprika

2 cups vegetable broth

1 pound seitan cutlets (about 4)

¾ cups vegan sour cream

2 teaspoons nutritional yeast

1. Heat the olive oil and 2 teaspoons of sesame oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and stir and cook until the onion is golden, about 4 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper.

2. Stir in the flour and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the flour smells toasted, about 3 more minutes.

3. Add the bell pepper and tomato. Stir and cook until the pepper softens, about 3 minutes. Stir in the paprika and the broth. Stir well to combine. Bring the sauce to a boil, reduce to a medium simmer, and cook until thickened, about 10 minutes.

4. Toss the seitan slices with the remaining teaspoon of sesame oil. Heat a grill pan over medium heat. Cook the seitan until grill marks appear, about 2 minutes per side. Remove to a work surface and coarsely chop the seitan. Add the seitan to the sauce and cook to heat through. Remove the pot from heat.

5. Stir in the sour cream and nutritional yeast, season to taste and serve over cooked rice, cooked pasta or with crusty bread.

© 2014 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

I am linking to these recipe parties: Healthy Vegan Fridays, What I Ate Wednesday and Virtual Vegan Linky Potluck. 

 

back to basics - vegan sour cream

A few days ago I read a comment on another blog that vegan sour cream was hard to locate for the author. Whether you have easy access to vegan sour cream or not, this recipe, another one that didn't make it into my cookbook, Everyday Vegan Eats, is the perfect vegan sour cream recipe for any number of reasons: lack of availability or a need-to-know the ingredients in your condiment.

I did a lot of research into what makes dairy cream turn into dairy sour cream and I am here to share the delicious news.

Dairy sour cream is made by culturing cream. Dairy yogurt is made by culturing milk. The difference between cream and milk is the fat content. Cream is much higher in fat and therefore, dairy sour cream is higher in fat. Milk is lower in fat and therefore yogurt is lower in fat. 

It stands to reason that the difference between sour cream and yogurt is the fat content. This is the key to making homemade vegan sour cream taste delicious! Stirring vegan butter (homemade or store-bought) into homemade vegan yogurt adds much needed richness to the yogurt, which is easily made at home, and thus results in vegan sour cream. Add a little more tang to the yogurt and behold: homemade vegan sour cream. 

The tang is the next challenge. Yogurt has some of its own tang, but to make sour cream we need to add just a tad more. Most vegan sour cream recipes use lemon juice to achieve that tang, but adding just lemon juice is not enough - another dimension is needed since lemon juice alone leaves the typical homemade vegan sour cream flat.

This is where lime juice is useful. Lime juice is tangy, but since it is slightly different from lemon juice, it layers the tangy goodness, and thus offers another needed dimension of flavor without adding any unusual acid, such as vinegar.

You must use homemade vegan yogurt for this (link to yogurt making steps and recipe). All store-bought yogurt tested in this recipe did not taste good. In fact, your own homemade yogurt cultured with your own homemade yogurt is the very best! The only exception might be, which I haven't tried, yet, is Whole Soy, which has been off the market for a while, but is now back on the shelves.

Make sure that you drain your yogurt for four hours before making the sour cream. Use cheesecloth layered 8 times or a nut milk bag. Set the yogurt in the cheesecloth, set the cheesecloth in a strainer and set the strainer over a bowl. 

Now you can make your own creamy, dreamy, tangy vegan sour cream at home, in a few easy steps.

STEP 1: ASSEMBLE INGREDIENTS

INGREDIENTS: VEGAN YOGURT, VEGAN BUTTER, SILKEN TOFU, LEMON AND LIME JUICE, SALT

STEP 2: BLEND ALL THE INGREDIENTS AND CHILL TO THICKEN

VEGAN SOUR CREAM PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

Speaking of Everyday Vegan Eats, 

Vegan Crunk of Cookin' Crunk, reviewed Everyday Vegan Eats and I deeply appreciate it. She made this Creamy Macaroni Salad from EVE. Thank you, Bianca!

The Vegan Cookbook Aficionado by Maggie did a bang up job of reviewing the book, complete with gorgeous photos, such as this one of the Deli Reuben:

Photo by Maggie Muggins of Vegan Cookbook Aficionado

And in case you have't seen the recipe for Baked Macaroni and Cheese, Chic Vegan has posted it:

From around the web, a few other bloggers have taken precious time and energy to review Everyday Vegan Eats, such as another one of my fabulous testers, Claire of Great Vegan Expectations, who has this great photo of Flaky Buttermilk Herb Biscuits.  Thank you, Claire!

And VegBlogger, who reviewed the book and made my kids' favorite dish: Tater Tot Casserole. Thank you for your review and kind words!

classic mushroom stroganoff

RECIPE UPDATE: this dish has been tested and revised and will be featured in the upcoming cookbook "Everyday Vegan Eats," by Zsu Dever.

I lied; this is not a "classic" stroganoff, since classic stroganoff contains no mushrooms. However, it has since (since classic times?) become so traditional to add 'shrooms to this dish, that it has come to be associated as a staple of it. Besides, who is to say that it is not part of the recipe, for that very reason. Sort of like new words in a dictionary. If  "e.v.o.o."  can be added by Webster, then you and I can subscribe mushrooms as part of a classic stroganoff . 

Stroganoff is typically thin beef slices in a creamy, beefy sauce. It is also usually served over pasta, but it certainly does not have to be. I do not see the importance that beef (or substitutes thereof) can add to this dish; it is perfection all in its glorious mushroom-self. In fact, that broth that precludes the sauce, owes part of its glory to the mushrooms. 

I call this "classic" not only because of the aforementioned pseudo-crisis, but because I used vegan commercial sour cream (replacing dairy sour cream). I have a recipe, Eggplant and Zucchini Stroganoff, that makes use of homemade cashew cream, so take a gander over yonder if that's what floats your boat. 

The sauce is creamy and "beefy" without the unnecessary addition of meat.
 A great Meatless Monday Meal for the newly initiated!

Cost Breakdown

mushrooms: $5
vegan sour cream, broth: $1.50
dijon, tomato paste, spices: $.75
pasta: $3

Total to make 4 servings:
$10.25

stuffed cabbage soup

Tapping into our inner lazy, this soup manifests. Stuffed Cabbage is a Hungarian specialty in which cabbage is rolled around a filling of ground meat and rice, and  is then cooked with sauerkraut and a few tomatoes. 

Since I try to find the fastest way around a boulder of any kind, unless it is a special occasion, at which time I will painstakingly roll said cabbage around stated filling, I decided to make this dish into a soup, at which point I came up with this creative name -

Stuffed Cabbage Soup.

It utilizes all of the main ingredients that are in the stuffed cabbage, including the ground protein, rice, sauerkraut, sour cream and tomatoes. It came out to being a delicious alternative to its more labor-intensive cousin.

Cost Breakdown

TVP (or seitan): $1

sauerkraut, cabbage: $2.50

tomatoes, broth, rice: $2.50

onion, garlic, sour cream: $1

Total to make 5 servings:

$7.00

Stuffed Cabbage Soup Recipe

lángos

My dad's dream was to live in New York City and introduce Lángos to the people of America. In fact, he always said that if he could just let people taste this Hungarian street food, he could make millions! I'm pretty sure it was this and his desire for a BMW that kept him going for so many years. My parents owned and operated more than a dozen restaurants throughout our lifetime, even one in New York, but, unfortunately my dad never did get his Big Wish granted. Which is a shame, since  Lángos is so amazing.

It is a savory doughnut, so to speak. The dough is made with flour and a little mashed potato. After being fried, it is seasoned with salt, rubbed with raw garlic and eaten with a drizzle or dollop of sour cream. This is not everyday food, but one that I remember having on New Year's Day and maybe at another time during the year. 

And so it goes at our house as well. The kids will begin mentioning their desire for it months before it is actually made. Not that it is hard to make; on the contrary, after the dough rises, it is stretched into a thin disk and deep fried. Nothing complicated about it. Since it isn't health food, however, it has become an annual or semi-annual indulgence. 

Worth every delicious, garlicky bite.

Lángos Recipe

hungarina potato soup with bay leaves

I remember this soup vividly growing up. My mother would make it after getting off of her work shift of 12 hours. Having nothing in the house to cook but potatoes and apples, this was one of her go-tos. Have I mentioned what a fantastic woman she was? While the taste of this soup is just as clear to me as if I was still that little girl supping on it, unfortunately, thanks to my stubbornness and refusing to learn how to cook until it was way too late to ask the chef herself how it was done, I never learned the intricacies of this soup. Which left me with having to piece together this dish using a combination of memory, blogs and cookbooks. None of the written words I read spoke the exact recipe to me, but according to my palate, this here recipe that I came up with is as close as I will likely get.

My mom did not have nutritional yeast, and it is not an authentic part of the soup, but it does help to add another dimension that the original soup acquires using sour cream.

The kids love this soup. I love this soup. You, too, will love this soup as long as you don't overdo the vinegar. While the subtle flavor of it is essential, along with the bay leaves, overdoing either one will lead to disaster. Add a little vinegar at a time, but make sure not to taste the soup too often. Tasting the same dish more than 4 or 5 times will overwhelm your taste buds and render them useless.

Cost Breakdown
potatoes: $2.50
bay, pepper, parsley: $.75
celery, onion, nutritional yeast: $2.50
vinegar, sour cream: $2
Total to make 8 servings:
$7.75

HUNGARIAN POTATO SOUP WITH BAY LEAVES PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

chiocciole with vodka sauce

Butter and Cream. Two highly difficult, if not impossible, flavors to veganize well.

Vodka Sauce is a basic tomato sauce, with vodka added, and at the end, cream stirred in. There are many 'creamer' substitutes on the market, Silk, So Delicious Coconut, and Mimic are a few that come to mind. Any of these would be appropriate to use as a creamer substitute (make sure they are unsweetened). For this recipe I used readily available vegan sour cream (I am not sure about this claim globally) and non-dairy milk instead of dairy cream. I normally use homemade almond or cashew cream, but I have noticed that these 'break' when heated, so if using nut creamers made at home (without the laboratory-induced stabilizers), do not heat the sauce after adding the 'cream.'

Since this is a Vodka Sauce, use a vegan vodka (Absolut, Skyy, Stoli are vegan friendly according to Barnivore.com.), but you won't need much, so unless you are also throwing a vegan dinner party, buy small or have an after dinner cocktail.

The pasta I tossed this with is called Chiocciole. Simple sauce on unique macaroni.

I tend not to cook a whole pound of pasta for our family of five as we tend to have too much leftover, but I did this time. Creamy sauces are a favorite at our house and the lack of other vegetables to round out the dish made me sure that the family was going to pile on the starch. As predicted, there was very little leftover, and what remained was secretly eaten by a lucky breakfast-er. If it was solely up to me, this would have been Pasta Primavera with Vodka Sauce - with the addition of lots of sauteed vegetables. I gave in this time and let the majority's voice rule. Just every once in a while. 

Cost Breakdown

pasta: $3
tomatoes: $2
vodka: $.50
vegan sour cream and milk: $1.50
onion, garlic, herbs: $1.50
Total to make 5 servings:
$8.50

  

gypsy goulash

European Night

Gypsy Goulash, or Szeged Gulyas, originates in Hungary in, you guessed it, the city of Szeged.  While the name literally means, 'gypsy,' it actually has not much to do with gypsies, except that maybe nomadic peoples might have been more apt to cook it over a roaring fire, ...or might have been the founders of the city for which the dish is named after. 

The dish contains pork, sauerkraut, onions, paprika and sour cream. Except for a little salt and pepper, that is all that the authentic version contains. In order to veganize it, and therefore improve on it, I used pressed, marinated and then baked tofu. 

Starting with an onion and vegan butter, sauteing it will signal to everyone in the house that dinner is on its way. When the onions have caramelized somewhat, adding garlic, paprika and the saurkraut to the pot will continue the assault on the senses of those same unfortunate hungry. Since the tofu renders no 'natural juices' during the braising process, it is easy to add a few cups of excellent vegetable stock (broth will be fine as well) and then letting the dish simmer uncovered for an hour. By this time you should have plenty of nosy visitors begging to know when dinner will be ready.

To finish off the Goulash, add a cup of vegan sour cream and fold it into the tofu and sauerkraut gently. Serve this with something simple, like boiled potatoes or cooked pasta. These will reward you by soaking up the creamy gravy. IF there is any leftovers, be sure to save them because while most meals are best left to the original meal, this one improves while it sits in the fridge overnight.  Be sure to hide it behind the kale so it doesn't get pilfered.

Cost Breakdown

tofu: $4

sauerkraut: $4

onion, garlic, tomato: $2

spices: $1

vegetable stock: $2

potatoes: $3

Total to feed 6 people:

$16.00

GYPSY GOULASH PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

21st century tacos

Continuing with the American Vegan Kitchen and PPK cookbook challenge, today's dinner was 21st Century Tacos.

These are made with TVP granules, tomato sauce and spices.

Yeah, well, who does not know how to make a simple taco? and what is so special about this taco recipe? I was thinking the same thing when I was perusing her recipes. Luckily, I needed something pretty simple and quick to make and so I thought a taco recipe was ideal.

Like most of Tami's recipes, this one delivered with ease, simplicity and flavor. These surprised me. I thought I was going to make your old run-of-the-mill tacos, and instead I made a spicy (to taste), flavorful and totally gourmet taco filling. The toppings, of course, are up to you. I put lettuce, tomato, sour cream (vegan), olives and onions on mine. Fabulous!

I sauteed the reconstituted TVP before I added the tomato sauce to enhance the flavor more.

A note about Tami's recipes: while the list of ingredients are longer, most of the ingredients are spices and flavorings that need to be added at the same time. Just measure them into a small container and add them when needed.
When 7 out of the 10 ingredients are spices, the list only seems long.

Cost Breakdown

taco shells: $3

TVP: $1

tomato sauce, spices and flavorings: $3

toppings:  $2

onion, garlic, peppers: $1

Total to make 12 tacos;

$10.00



greens (MoFo 10)

Greens is a renowned San Francisco fixture, on the bayside in Fort Mason. It is a vegetarian restaurant that has been patronized since 1979. Although it is vegetarian, vegans can find something to eat, albeit not as easily as their more frequent customers.

The restaurant boasts Chef Annie Sommerville, who daily chooses her menu based on the local offerings. The food is fresh, vibrant, local and delicious. It is time some of those wonderful dishes were veganized.

My first choice is a squash soup. I had given up on making any sort of squash soup, but since my CSA brought me squash and it has been almost a year since I've thrown in my squash towel, I figured I could give it another try; especially using a recipe from Greens. The soup is Kabocha Squash and Chestnut Soup. Outstanding. Finally a squash soup we liked. Maybe the secret was in the chestnuts or the stock the squash was cooked in or just because it was a kobacha squash...regardless, a winner.

Tarts and Filo pastries are a signature of Greens so I made their Red Onion, Goat Cheese and Walnut Tart. Goat cheese I had none of, but I did need to simulate the tartness, sharpness, and creaminess that it affords. I used a combination of Better Than Sour Cream and B.T. Cream Cheese with a splash of lemon juice. Nice crunch from the nuts, sweetness from the onions and creaminess from the nondairy sour cream and cream cheese. The tart dough was easy to make and turned out crispy and light.

I decided to make another dessert, since they use eggs and dairy. Another signature item on the menu is the Ginger Cake. The original recipe is a pound cake and calls for 6 eggs. I replaced the eggs with well whipped ener-G egg replacer and increased the bake time by about a half hour - it needed it. I also made poached cherries using dried cherries in a simple syrup that was decadent with the cake. 

My hubby worked almost next door to Greens in San Fran and while difficult to find something vegan right off the menu, what we did have was delicious. It was great to have now some of the dishes we couldn't have then.

And now for the cookbook, Sinfully Vegan, winner. I removed me from the count and the few who did not want to be entered in the contest for a total of 10 entrees. According to random.org, the comment from Tender Branson is the winner. 

Thanks everyone for participating. Another contest on Friday or Saturday. 

Cost Breakdown:

soup:

squash, chestnuts: $6

stock, herbs: $1.50

Total to make 7 servings;

$7.50

tarts:

dough: $1.50

onion, nuts, spices: $2.50

Better Than sour cream and cream cheese: $3

Total to make 8 tarts:

  $7.00

cake:

Earth Balance: $2.50

flour, baking powder: $1.50

sugar: $2

cherries, vanilla, lemon: $3

Total to make 8 servings:

$9.00

Squash and Chestnut Soup

Tart

Ginger Cake

Winter Squash and Chestnut Soup Recipe

Dough for Tarts Recipe