Vegan Maple Roasted Pecans with Roast Pumpkin and Garlic Cream Cheese Salad

Sometimes my body just screams for salad. Something crunchy, creamy, healthy and delicious. These pecans are phenomenal. They are just so good that I'm even considering making some and placing them in little gift bags for people for Christmas. And they are so simple. Delish. This recipe does look complicated, but it's really just cooking time. I choose to think of cooking time as time I can be doing other things, like dancing around the house. The ingredients and simple and so is the method. Trust me. You want to eat it.

Makes: 2 Serves.
Time: 10 Minutes prep, 45 Minutes cooking and 2 Minutes to throw it together.

Roasted Pumpkin Chunks

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of diced pumpkin.
• 1 Tablespoon of olive oil.
• A few shakes of the old salt and pepper.

Method:

Place the pumpkin on a tray and rub the olive oil all over the little suckers. Sprinkle the salt and pepper over the top. Bake in the oven at 180C/ 360F for 45 minutes, turning after 15 minutes.


Maple Roasted Pecans


Ingredients:

• Half a cup of Pecans.
• 1 Tablespoon of Maple Syrup.
• Small pinch of salt. 

Method:

Place all of the ingredients on a baking sheet on a tray and mix together with your hands.
Place in the oven next to the pumpkin at 180C/ 360F for 15 Minutes.
That's them done.


Next the Garlic Cream Cheese.

I'm usually opposed to adding tofu to things. I think this is because when I first went veg in 1992, The taste of tofu was terrible and mum used to add it to everything. I drowned out the taste with tomato sauce. Tofu is now one of my favourite things. It's delish. Honestly though, the tofu in this dish is offset by the fresh garlic. I love garlic. Feel free to adjust if you aren't really a garlic person. Oh, and you could use white beans instead of tofu for a very similar effect if soy is not your thing.


Makes: About 2 Cups.
Lasts: About a week in a sealed container in the fridge.


Ingredients:

• 1 Cup of ground cashews (Use a coffee grinder or a spice mill or a super heavy mallet. Ground cashews make everything so creamy. It's a worthwhile investment.)
• Juice of one lemon.
• 2 Tablespoons of olive oil.
• 1 and a half cups of silken firm tofu or cooked white beans.
• 2 cloves of chopped fresh garlic. 
• 1 Tablespoon of fresh parsley, chopped.
• A few shakes of pepper and salt. 

Method:

Add all of these ingredients to a blender and blend until creamy. Stop occasionally to scrape the sides down.

Now the salad:

Ingredients:

• All of the above plus a few fistfuls of shredded iceberg lettuce. 

Method:

Place the lettuce into two bowls. Place half the pumpkin and pecans on each. Add one Tablespoon of the cream cheese. 

Eat and enjoy! xx