Recipe: Pumpkin pudding

(Painting by Bierstadt Albert)

It's not technically the fall for a few more days, but if you live in Canada (and not on the balmy west coast) then you know that the real first day of fall is September 1st. This recipe is a celebration of the beginning of fall. It's like pumpkin pie filling, minus the crust and with some extra protein thrown in.

A few of my fellow grad students at my new campus invited me to join their "lunch club". I told them that I'd love to... but I'm vegan. To my surprise and great delight, they decided that we would have a vegan lunch club! On a rotating basis each of us will prepare lunch for everybody else in the lunch club. Today was my first day being the cook for our lunch club. I brought delicious thai-inspired sweet potato burgers and this pumpkin pudding. I think they were both a hit!

Recipe: Pumpkin pudding
Serves 8

1 can of pure pumpkin puree (796 ml)
1 package of soft tofu (350 g)
1/3 cup maple syrup, or to taste
1/4 cup coconut oil
3 tbs orange juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1. Put the coconut oil in the microwave for a few seconds to melt it. Alternatively, you could make a hot water bath to melt the coconut oil.

2. Place all the ingredients in a blender. Blend until very smooth.

3. Serve immediately or allow to chill in the refrigerator before serving. The cooler its temperature, the thicker the pudding will be. Enjoy!

Product review: Yoso non-dairy yogurt

There's a new health food store which opened up near our place and my roommate, Sam, and I decided to poke around the other day and see what they have. There were a lot of interesting products I hadn't seen before, but the one that most caught my eye was the non-dairy, non-soy yogurts by Yoso. I like dairy yogurt and I've tried soy yogurt as a substitute, but I've always been disappointed. All the soy yogurts I've tried have a strong soy taste which I find off-putting. I bought two Yoso yogurts: one coconut milk yogurt and one almond-cashew yogurt. They are both organic, vegan, and cultured with non-dairy bacteria. I really enjoyed both of them, especially the coconut milk yogurt. They both are high-calcium, high fiber, and the almond-cashew yogurt is high protein. They both have very smooth textures, especially the coconut, and a yogurty taste from the fermentation. If you don't eat dairy or want to switch up your yogurt routine, I recommend you give Yoso a try.