Pumpkin Polenta with Pumpkin-Seed-Sage Pesto

To all my American readers - Happy, Happy Day-Before-Thanksgiving-Dinner Day!!
(And Happy Day Of Vegan Gravy, Number 24!)

No last-minute-dinner-and-turkey-themed post here though. I'm on vacation, hiding out from cooking, food, family and the insane frenzy that accompanies this day way too often.
In fact, the Sprouts and I are in Portland, Oregon, city of all things vegan (including a million places to get vegan gravy made by people more, and possibly less, competent than myself).
I'm POSITIVE you'll hear all about our adventures soon! But until then, stay tuned with this retro-pumpkin post.

This makes a great Pumpkin-themed pre-holiday lunch, it's a nice way to use up that extra little bit of cooked pumpkin left over from Holiday baking, OR it's handy any time you want to impress the non-vegan-socks off someone.

Pesto, once again, is a "sauce", not exactly a "gravy" like you'd put over mashed potatoes, but I promise you, I've actually seen it referred to as "crushed-herb-gravy-sauce" in some of the old, 60's era European cookbooks that I have in my collection.

You can use canned plain pumpkin here if you want, or if you want to use fresh: Bake or microwave a small pumpkin (the sugar-pie type, not the big jack-o-lantern type - or any dense winter squash will work) until soft.

Scoop out squash and mash or puree. Measure out 1/2 cup squash for this recipe:

Crispy Pumpkin Polenta Triangles

1/2 cup squash or pumpkin puree

1 1/2 cups water

2 tablespoons soymilk

1 tablespoon margarine

1/2 tablespoon agave or maple syrup

Salt

1/2 cup polenta cornmeal (or coarse ground cornmeal)

1/4 cup vegetable oil, plus more for frying

In a medium saucepan, combine the pumpkin with the water and bring to a boil. Add the soymilk, margarine, agave and a generous pinch of salt.

Add the polenta cornmeal in a thin stream, whisking constantly. Cook over low-ish heat, stirring until thickened and cornmeal is cooked - about 20 minutes.

Scrape the polenta into a loaf pan and refrigerate until firm. When firm and chilled, run a knife around the sides of the pan and unmold the polenta. Slice into 1 1/2 -inch squares/rectangles, and then crosswise into triangles;

Fry the triangles in batches, turning once, until deep golden and crisp, about 2 - 5 minutes per side.

Transfer to paper towels or brown paper bag to absorb excess oil and drain. Keep hot in low oven.

Now, make Pumpkin-Seed Sage Pesto to go with:

Pumpkin-Seed and Sage Pesto

3/4 cup lightly packed fresh sage leaves (from 2 large bunches)

3/4 cup raw, hulled pumpkin seeds/raw pepitas (about 4 ounces)

1/4 cup (packed) fresh parsley leaves

1 - 3 garlic cloves

3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons olive oil

1 Tbsp. nutritional yeast

4 Tbsp raw cashew pieces

squeeze fresh lemon juice

Put cashews in bowl of food processor and blend into a fine powder.

Using on/off turns, blend sage leaves, pumpkin seeds, parsley, and garlic in processor until mixture is finely chopped.

With machine running, add 3/4 cup oil and squeeze of lemon juice and blend until thick paste forms.

Transfer to small bowl; season with salt and pepper. Warm for a few moments in a saucepan. If it gets too thick, add several tbsp. non-dairy milk.

Serve crispy hot polenta triangles with pesto sauce.

As you can see, I had a hard time getting a picture, my kids kept eating the polenta before I had enough to photograph!

Sage and Pumpkin-Seed Pesto (again).

If you're thinking this recipe sounds familiar, it just might be. I came up with it exactly a year ago for some Pumpkin-themed cooking contest which I hate to admit, I don't even remember the outcome of!

Must not have been that big a deal. The contest anyway. The pesto sauce, however, has been a huge hit in our household ever since.

I was reminded of it when looking in my freezer at all the fresh basil pesto I'd frozen over the summer. I was craving pesto, but didn't really want to break into my freezer "stash" yet...

Since the sage in my herb garden grows pretty much year-round, (AND I had pumpkin seeds in the freezer) I was able to make this fresh tonight. YUM!

Pumpkin seeds are awesomely good for you, by the way; a quarter cup of raw seeds has 46.1% of the daily value for magnesium, 28.7% of the DV for iron, 52.0% of the DV for manganese, 24.0% of the DV for copper, 16.9% of the DV for protein, and 17.1% of the DV for zinc.

Sage Pumpkin-Seed Pesto recipe here.

The only things I did differently (you knew I would) were: I served it over pasta (obviously) instead of polenta, I did not blend it so smooth, and I mixed in some cracked black pepper and a couple tablespoons of Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese to make it a creamier and lighter sauce...

PERFECT for fall. Enjoy.