veganmofo.1.4: Squash and Adzuki Beans

As I mentioned earlier this week, I'm trying to avoid sugar in my diet for the long-term. This is very difficult for me, as I've been raised on crazy amounts of sweets since I was a baby. As a kid, when I had friends over, their eyes would pop when they saw all the candy and cookies and ice cream we had. You know how most college kids gain weight when they move away from home? Well I actually lost weight because I no longer had a candy shop for a pantry!

As an adult and as a vegan, I've been much healthier in terms of the sweets I do eat, using natural sweeteners and whole-grain flours and such, but a wholegrain vegan muffin still does not replace a healthy whole foods meal or snack. In the recent past, sometimes if I went to a vegan-friendly restaurant or cafe and couldn't afford a meal and a dessert, I'd skip the meal and just get dessert. Or sometimes I would get an energy bar and a sweetened soy latte and call it lunch. I think these poor habits crept up on me, as over the summer my energy got really low and I went to the doctor and found out I was anemic. I knew it was totally my fault for not eating a balanced vegan diet. I just can't seem to find a balance of eating sweets only every once in a while - I want to eat them every day! It's an emotional attachment I think, wanting to 'treat' myself when I'm feeling down or am bored or stressed.

So I want to cut out sugar until I know I've broken my emotional attachment to it, and then maybe I'll start introducing small amounts of sugar every once in a while, or maybe not - who knows. I've cut sugar and coffee together before, but after a week or two I always caved in because I felt too tired and blah without them. So this time I decided to just cut the sugar and keep the coffee (I am an architecture graduate student after all, and I usually just have one cup of coffee in a day anyway). It has been almost two weeks now, and I feel fine! I didn't notice any withdrawal symptoms like headache, just the occasional craving when I'm feeling down or tired. I think my body was just really ready to quit this time.

Now, when I want to 'treat' myself, I'll take a hot bath, watch a movie with a nice cup of tea, or take myself out to dinner. I'll share some of my other coping strategies later, but diet-wise, I've been eating lots of squash lately (in case you didn't notice) - it satisfies my want for something sweet and starchy.

earlier this week I got to sleep in, and I really felt like baking. Except I don't have an oven (to make savoury muffins). So how to satisfy my desire to bake? I thought about pancakes. They are a cake, of sorts. How can I make a yummy pancake without sugar that feels like a baked good? I decided to combine squash and adzuki beans - both are naturally sweet, they are a lovely combination, and they were both in my fridge. So I did some experimenting, and here's the result:

Unfortunately my gas stove does not like cooking things at a low temperature, so burning was a problem (I burnt my last pancake, even at the lowest heat and with constant checking). They were also a bit greasy for what I'm used to (I used to make pancakes with spray oil, which I don't have here) but they did hit the spot at the time.

Then tonight I had more cravings (long day), so I went home and stuffed some squash with polenta and adzuki beans, served alongside a simple but tasty salad with cabbage, mizuna, snow peas, bean sprouts and a sesame oil dressing. By the time I was finished dinner, the cravings were completely gone, and now I feel fine. So yay for squash!

Curried Adzuki-Edamame Stuffed Kabocha Squash

I love fall. I absolutely love it. When the air feels crisp and you can hear the wind through the trees and colored leaves falling. Cheesy as that sounds, I just love it.

A few weeks ago I got a little over-excited at a farm market and bought six squashes, with no idea as to what to do with them. I knew I would come up with something. Then this weekend, I woke up in the morning and it felt like a particularly autumn-y day, and I thought to myself: “I’m going to make a curried stuffed squash today, and maybe also a squash pie (see other post for the pie recipe). And I felt so healthy and balanced in making and eating it. Sometimes there are more important things than school…


Curried Adzuki-Edamame Stuffed Kabocha Squash

1 large kabocha squash, seeded and quartered

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 small onion, diced small
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon coriander
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon cardamom
1 pinch ground cloves
1 pinch asafetida/hing (optional)
¾ teaspoon salt
2 large tomatoes, diced small
1 sweet red pepper, seeded and diced small
1 cup shelled edamame
1 cup adzuki beans, soaked overnight
1 cup brown rice, soaked overnight
3 cups water (or more, as needed)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium-sized pot, fry the oil and mustard seeds together over medium heat until the seeds start to pop. Add the onions and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the garlic, ginger, spices and salt. Fry for a minute or so, then add the tomatoes and pepper and fry for a couple of minutes more. Add the edamame, adzuki beans, rice and water, stir a little, then increase the heat to high and allow to boil. Cover and reduce heat to simmer, and cook for about 35 minutes, adding more water if the mixture gets too dry. Meanwhile, prepare the squash. Place pieces face-down on a greased baking sheet, and bake until the filling mixture is ready. Take the squash out, flip it so the skins are on the bottom, and scoop as much of the filling as you can into the middle of each squash portion, place bake into the oven, and bake for about 30 minutes more. Enjoy!