Vegan Fall Recipes (Dinners & Desserts)

• Wash and dry the kale leaves, preheat the oven to 280F or 140C.

  Note: It's important that the leaves are dried well or else the water will prevent them from being crisp when we cook them in the oven.

  Note: It's important that the kale cooks slowly at a low temperature so that it gets crisp without burning.
  
• On two baking trays, place the leaves next to each other, without too much overlapping.

  You can cut off the bottom part of each leaf if it's too hard and woody.
  
• Grate the zest of half a lemon on top of the kale leaves.
  
• To a small bowl, add some grated garlic (or minced garlic) and olive oil. With a brush, brush each kale leave with the olive oil and garlic mixture.
  
• Bake in the oven at 280F or 140C for about 20 to 30 minutes. Check the kale at the 20-minute mark, if it's crisp take it out, if not cook for a few more minutes, checking often, till it's crisp.
  
• Take the kale out of the oven, season with salt, some chili flakes, and some grated lemon zest. Arrange on a plate to be served.
  

Make the pesto (it can be made in advance)

• You can either boil the chestnuts yourself or you can use store-bought pre-boiled, or steamed chestnuts to speed things up.

  To boil the chestnuts: wash 1 cup of chestnuts, then in a large pot, put them to boil with plenty of water.

  Boil for 50 minutes, then drain, and peel them with a paring knife. Remove the outer shell and the thin brown skin under the outer shell. Don't worry if they break, we'll blend them in a second.
  
• Blend all the ingredients together until you have a thick cream, almost like a hummus.

  You can make the cream more or less smooth based on your preference. We like it smooth but with a grainy texture. Set aside.

  Note: depending on the chestnuts, you might need to add one or two tablespoons of extra soy milk to get the blender going.
  

For the pasta dish

• In a large pot, bring the water to boil, then salt it with coarse sea salt and add the spaghetti.

  Give it a stir. Cook as instructed on the package, minus 1 minute. Save two cups of pasta cooking water before draining the pasta.
  
• While the pasta boils, add the oil to a non stick pan. When the oil is warm, add the clove of garlic and chopped mushrooms.

  Cook the mushrooms on medium heat for 8 minutes, season with salt, then add 4 to 5 spoonfuls of chestnut pesto and 1 cup of pasta cooking water.
  
• Stir to dissolve the pesto and turn it into a sauce. Add more pasta water if necessary.
  
• Add the spaghetti to the pan and stir well. Add some chopped parsley and finish cooking the pasta until creamy and al dente. If the sauce is too thick, add more pasta water.
  
• Portion into serving plates, sprinkle with some more parsley, serve and eat immediately.
  

• Blend the hazelnuts in a blender for a few seconds. You should get a coarse hazelnut powder.
  
• Add the hazelnut powder to a bowl, then sift in the chestnut flour.
  
• Mix with a spoon, then add sugar, coffee, soy milk, hazelnut chocolate spread, and rum (optional).
  
• With a silicone spatula, or with a spoon, mix the ingredients together. You can also mix with your hands to be faster.
  
• Mix till you get a compact dough, that is a little sticky. It should take a couple of minutes.
  
• Divide the dough into small pieces of about 22 grams each. I like to use a scale here. That is the best weight to make these truffles bite-size. You should be able to get about 25 pieces.
  
• With the palms of your hands, shape the dough pieces into smooth balls.
  
• On a small plate add the cacao powder, on another small plate add the shredded coconut. Roll each ball into either the cacao powder or the shredded coconut.
  
• Set aside on a serving plate and serve. If you don't serve them immediately you can put them in the refrigerator for up to 3 - 4 days.
  

• Preheat the oven to 400F or 200C.

  Oil your springform pan (or cake pan) with 1 tablespoon (15 grams) of oil.

  In a small bowl, put the raisins to soak for 10 minutes with some warm water.
  
• To a blender, add chestnut flour, water, sugar, and 1 tablespoon (15 grams) of olive oil. Blend for a couple of minutes till completely smooth.
  
• Take the blender container off the blender and add in almost all raisins (without their soaking water) and chopped walnuts. Set aside some raisins and some walnuts to add on top.

  DO NOT BLEND again, just stir with a spoon to mix the ingredients together.
  
• Pour the cake batter into the springform pan. Then add the remaining raisins and walnuts on top, randomly. Finally, add a few rosemary needles on top.

  Optional: sprinkle with some drops of olive oil on top. I use a brush to do that. See video for technique.
  
• Bake in the oven at 400F or 200C for 35 minutes. Then, let cool down 10 minutes, and remove from the pan. Cut in slices and enjoy slightly warm or at room temperature.

  You can sprinkle with a little powdered sugar to make it look prettier, but that's entirely optional.