Forays into nutritional yeast

Inspired by some of the excellent vegan blogs out there, I decided that I wanted to try making some food that included nutritional yeast. It seemed like a lot of the vegan recipes that needed a tangy cheese kind of flavor used it in combination with a salty item like miso or soy sauce.

I started with a sauce made with finely diced onion sauteed in olive oil, 4 cloves of pressed garlic, a shake of red pepper flakes and a shake of smoked paprika, a spoonful of red miso paste, some salt, soy milk and fresh basil. For tonight's meal, I reconstituted some dried sun-dried tomatoes (a recent PCC score) and added them to the sauce.
Served it with some whole-wheat gnocci (a recent Trader Joe's score). It was very tasty.
The remaining sauce I mixed with some kidney beans and will probably eat with greens and rice, or perhaps with squash as I tried a new variety this week.
The new squash is a "turban squash." I got a small one to try it out, but most of them at the store are enormous. The shell stayed somewhat hard after baking so it would be a good one to use as a serving bowl for squash soup. On first taste, it was not as sweet as the delicata and also it was a bit wetter which is not my favorite, but mixed in with the delicata and some other flavors I imagine I will enjoy it.
All in all, a successful cooking experiment day. And Adelaide was happy, because she got a couple of hours to play spelling and math games on the iPad.

November says "Pot Pie"

Chilly gray weather this weekend inspired some comfort food in the form of pot pie. First I cooked an onion, carrots and a diced sweet potato in some olive oil and butter until it the potato was mostly tender. Then I made a little space and melted a bit more butter, added about 1/4 cup of flour for a quick roux, and coated the veggies. Seasoned with nutritional yeast, fresh basil and fresh parsley, then added veggie broth and allowed it to bubble up and thicken a bit.
Meanwhile I rolled out an imperfect but eventually still delicious crust, and browned some Quorn cutlets to add to the veg and gravy.
Mixed in some peas and a little bit of Irish cheddar.
Added some top crust, and baked about 20 minutes at about 375.
The result: yum! Not as popular with Adelaide, but I think she heard "pie" and then was a bit disappointed that it was a meal, not a dessert. She did eat a bit, and if it hadn't had onions she might have eaten it more readily.