I hope everyone enjoyed time away from work, time with their friends and/or families and some delicious eats. I definitely did and am so thankful for it. As such, I was hoping to bring you a festive side dish to share not only at future thanksgivings, but for any Fall meal(!) ...but really what I have for you today is a disaster.
Yeah, that's right. I'm blogging about my food disaster. I was trying to come up with a lighter veggie centered dish that was not only beautiful for Fall but also more elegant than a salad. Ya know? I mean, it is Thanksgiving after all. And there is only so much room on our plates! So when push comes to shove, who is gonna pick a Plain Jane Salad over delicious dressing, turkey or sweet potato casserole?! Not me. (Except, I did pass on this dressing this year. I had a delicious & successful (albeit this dish) Dairy and Gluten Free (Duten Free as a good friend of mine calls it) Thanksgiving meal! Yahoo!)
Anyway, this disaster. A friend of mine brought her go-to vegan dish to our Thanksgiving meal at work this past week -- Roasted Butternut Squash and Broccoli. It was fantastic!!! It was the only item I ate seconds of. I even didn't finish a few things that were still delicious just so I could eat more of her dish! So naturally, I wanted to recreate it with whatever current obsession I had going on (aka Pomegranates). Poms are a winter fruit that I absolutely loooove! All I could think about was how gorgeous the colors would be if I threw some pom seeds in there with the squash and broccoli.
So I went for it. I roasted the butternut squash and the broccoli. But instead of using olive oil & garlic as my friend did, I went the sweeter route with coconut oil and maple syrup (just a hint). I chilled it and then sprinkled pom seeds all over the top and even threw some cooled, roasted butternut squash seeds on there too! I had it covered. I really thought I had nailed it on this one! ....Until I tasted it.
The broccoli didn't quite crisp up but it wasn't tender either. It was some weird texture in-between stale and chewy. GROSS! And there was missing something. Sure, I sprinkled some salt on there... but it really needed more than that. My dad later suggested rosemary which I totally agree with. The butternut squash was cooked well and tasted good as it almost always does... but there was some serious lacking going on in this dish. (Amidst the gross texture of the broccoli!).
Sad to say this dish was a total flop...but I did dedicate myself to it and got a few good shots! So I'm sharing them with you anyway. Hey, maybe you can recreate this dish WAY better than I can! I'm thinking next time, I will add in rosemary & thyme and use brussels sprouts instead of broccoli. Maybe then it'll be a success! If you try it, let me know. I haven't decided if I'm brave enough yet. Ha!
On the flip side, I am excited to say that I made maybe the best version of Sweet Potato Casserole yet -- all without any refined sugar, gluten or lactose. Plus it was all organic! Woooo! I'll have to share this one with you soon.
For now, enjoy these pics and the rest of your holiday. Many thanks to my sweet family who put up with me climbing all over the kitchen to get shots for a dish that wasn't even delicious. Maybe next time! : )
Happy Thanksgiving, failed dishes and all!
Anne
Way to go! These are gorgeous pictures. And good for you for posting about a failure—we've all had them. That's encouraging to people who don't cook as much, plus you still get the credit!
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