Pumpkins aren’t available here much. And I’m not sure I love them enough to be bothered to tackle the whole ones you can get in the run up to Halloween. But in Calais they were selling them already cut up in chunks so I decided to get a piece.
The first dish I tried was this risotto. I have a huge sage bush rampaging through my garden and I love it so I’m always on the look out for ways to use it. I wasn’t overly thrilled by this dish though. I guess it’s supposed to have a subtle flavour but I don’t really do subtle and I had to add a tonne of Yellow Rose Recipes vegan parmesan to enjoy it.
I had some pumpkin leftover. Not really enough to be the key ingredient in a main course but enough not to waste.
Brunch testing has gone very quiet recently. I think Isa is getting the manuscript finished and sorted out and has posted most of the recipes. But I remembered seeing a pumpkin french toast which hadn’t been tested too much so I decided to give it a go.
Pumpkin is one of those vegetables (or fruits) which gets used far more and in totally different ways in America. It seems to be used in both sweet and savoury dishes, unlike here. It even gets sold, ready pureed, in tins!! I’m still not fully tuned in to the ways sweet and savoury things turn up on the same plate in America by the way – especially at breakfast time. You will find tempeh bacon on the same plate as pancakes, fruit and tofu scramble, and other even weirder combinations. Anyway, in this dish the pumpkin is pureed with non dairy milk and spices, and used as the batter for french toast. I served it with sorghum molasses and some cashew cream (cashews blended with water, icing sugar and lemon zest). It was a really nice brunch and made a change!
Cooking the Vegan Books 
I hear you about the sweet and savoury combo – not really my thing either. That French Toast looks yummy!
(which country do you live in ‘cos I’m trying to work it out and I’m confused?)
haha…i thought it was funny about the sweet and savory thing for breakfast being weird… just because i’m so used to it! on other people’s plates, that is. i myself do not mix them. i’m gonna try my hand at that risotto tonight…we’ll see if i can make the flavor a little more powerful.