If you would like to wow your guests with an unusual side dish at your next holiday dinner…
This one is for you!
There is nothing I love more than taking classic dishes and shaking them up a little.
Before we get to this beautiful dish…two quick things:
1) Daily Pictures are up. [My excitement got the best of me and I posted them at 12:01 am. Is that nerdy or what?]
2) I am organizing and updating my recipes page.
Hallelujah! Can you hear the angels singing? I sure can.
I fell off the recipe-updating wagon for about 2-3 months, but I hope to get caught up by my 53rd birthday with any luck.
Ok, ok my 50th birthday. So demanding.
Tonight, I updated, organized, and alphabetized my Breads, Cakes/cupcakes/pies, Cookies, Muffins, Raw foods/No Bake, and Other categories!
It is incredible how long the list is getting.
It is also incredible that I remember how to alphabetize.
Or spell alphabetize for that matter.
I still have to update my Dinner, Lunch, Breakfast, and Appetizer categories though. That will be a massive undertaking. I will need a Green Monster to my right and a glass of wine to my left for that one.
I have also added my Project Food Blog posts at the top of my recipes page. If you are looking for any of the recipes I have made for PFB, that is where they are hiding!
Whew. There is hope for me yet.
Tonight, I whipped up a delicious holiday-inspired side dish that will have heads turning, tongues wagging, and drool dripping.
Or people might look at your dish and run like hell. I really can’t guarantee anything here.
Garlic Pumpkin Mashed Potatoes with Spinach
Pumpkin mashed potatoes…with SPINACH! Such a crazy, yet lovely flavour combination. I fell in love with these potatoes as did Eric. The flavours of the pumpkin, garlic, sea salt, and spinach really go lovely with the potatoes.
Adapted from Cake, Batter, Bowl.
Ingredients:
- 7 red potatoes, scrubbed & chopped (or Yukon Gold variety)
- 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1-1.5 cups pumpkin puree, to taste
- Two handfuls spinach, stems removed & chopped
- 1/2 cup Almond milk
- 2 tbsp Earth Balance or butter
- 1.5 teaspoons kosher salt, or more to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- Paprika, for garnish
Directions: Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat and boil potatoes for 18 to 22 minutes or until fork tender. Drain and place in a very large bowl. Meanwhile, heat olive oil over low heat in a skillet and sauté garlic for about 1 minute. be careful not to burn it like I did! Drain and mash potato chunks in the large bowl with a fork. Mix in pumpkin puree, spinach, almond milk, Earth Balance/butter, black pepper, and salt. Makes 5-7 servings.
*Best served immediately- the potatoes tend to get a bit watery (from the pumpkin) if they are put in the fridge.
Recipe note: This is the last pumpkin recipe I am making for a while!!!
Gather the troops!
Cook, drain, and admire the beauty of zee taters.
Also, admire the beauty of your tired hand-me-down pots and pot holders.
New things are over rated.
Now magic happens….
A beautiful unison of two things I never thought I would see together: Pumpkin and Potatoes.
Isn’t that just lovely?
Add in your salt, pepper, spinach, almond milk, and [hopefully not burned] garlic and give that arm a workout.
Sprinkle with Paprika if you dare.
It adds a little flare.
Uh oh, the poet in me is coming out.
I best get myself to bed.
Speaking of sleep, I have been having the craziest dreams lately….and many nightmares about random things! Many of them involve people chasing me or trying to hurt me. I even had a few dreams about Project Food Blog this past week. One of them was that I went to submit my video this coming Sunday and Foodbuzz told me that I handed it in a week late and was disqualified. I tried to show them that my video was uploaded on November 7th, but they didn’t care. Then my head was chopped off.
Ok, that last part didn’t happen, but it could have!
I can go for weeks without remembering any significant dreams and then all of a sudden I have a slew of strange dreams and nightmares all at once and random people popping up from my past. Sometimes I ‘see’ people in my dreams and I think to myself, ‘Where the hell did you come from!?’
Do you remember your dreams much or give much thought to them? Do you think that they mean anything or are they just a product of random thoughts swirling through your mind?
Wow! I love that this dish looks gorgeous AND is very healthy. (This way you don’t have to coax people into trying it – like green monsters.) I’m in love.
I like to shake up the classics too. This might just make it to my Thanksgiving table. GREG
Hi Angela! These potatoes look amazing! Thank you for organizing your recipes. I bookmark every one and it will be so much easier to find them now. I really agree that an OSG cookbook is in order. You would make a lot of people VERY happy. PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Perfect way too get my husband to eat spinach. Muhahaha.
Love this healthy side! Loads of color in the potatoes. Yukon gold is tops on my list.
Man oh man those potatoes look amazing! So festive! I’ve been dreaming of eathquakes lately. Not sure what that means, but I don’t think I want to find out. :)
Dreams often bring me concern. I rarely have a happy dream. Why is that?
I quit smoking 24 years ago. However, I often dream that I have taken up smoking again.
I am always so upset with myself! ?? I don’t have the slightest conscious desire to smoke.
Funny story, My husband once had a dream I was cheating on him. His dream had him
so upset he was literally angry at me the whole day. Haha! He didn’t think it funny at all. LOL!
Your dream about PFB makes perfect since. You were so prepared and, in control. Then, just like that the game plan changed. Not fair. Not to worry, you are going to win! :)
I think dreams are *mostly* day residue. Our brain trying to process and make sense of what happened in our day and concocts any type of story, i.e. the dream, in order to do so, even if it wouldnt make sense to our fully conscious and awake-state brain.
Sometimes I remember them and sometimes I don’t.
I actually had a very detailed past life regression analysis done where I was hypnotized b/c I had been having interesting, (ahem, freaking disturbing troubling intense) dreams for a few years and even after meditating, pondering, thinking, you name it, I still couldnt get to the bottom of the reason for these dreams.
The past life regression analysis helped me unlock some things and confirmed what I already felt I knew but wasnt allowing myself to believe b/c it felt too “hokey” and goofy. And with that i will stop before this comment gets too hokey and goofy. But you have a pysch background so hopefully you can appreciate :)
this looks soooo good!!! I’m definitely bookmarking this recipe. Glad I came across your blog =)
I go through phases sometimes where I will have horrible nightmares for a week or so, and then it will taper off again. I don’t really know why!
P.S. You take the most wonderful, colorful, vibrant pictures. I love looking at them! It also helps that you eat such a colorful diet. Some days, all I’ve eaten are brown things (a.k.a. carbs!).
Just emailed the recipe to my mom to use for Thanksgiving!!
And I usually remember my dreams vividly..I even remember my recurring nightmares from when I was little. I DO think they mean something, I’m just not sure what!!
Just emailed the recipe to my mom to use for Thanksgiving!!
And I usually remember my dreams vividly..I even remember my recurring nightmares from when I was little. I DO think they mean something, I’m just not sure what!!
I almost never remember my dreams– but I’m like you, and will occasionally have a few nights in a row that I do remember. (usually it’s the nightmares that I remember!!) I don’t think they necessarily “mean” anything, but most likely have to do with the random thoughts you have swirling around in your conscious and/or unconscious!
Looks like fun Thanksgiving recipe! Though, I have a VERY picky husband who would KILL me if I tried changing up one of his favorite courses at Thanksgiving dinner! In fact, he doesn’t even like REAL mashed potatoes– he prefers the boxed version, because it reminds him of his childhood! LOL ;)
Can’t wait to try the potatoes; they look amazing!
I always think it’s kind of weird when I have the same dream over and over again…I think they’re just a way for your to sort out your day or just random mishmoshes of what you thought about that day.
I have weird dreams, when I was a kid I used to dream that Michael Jackson and Bubbles were chasing me around and around in circles and they were driving Noddys car, this went on for ages. I do remember a few of my dreams, only because sometimes they are so weird.
Those mashed potatoes look sooo good! Since I’m a kid, I am the biggest mashed potato fan! I used to eat 2-3 servings (stopped because there was none left) and loved them with carrots or cheese.
Speaking of your recipes page, I was browsing through it last week and got inspired to try your Pumpkin Curry Quinoa. It was amazing and so easy to make! :D
these look delicious!! mmmmmmmmmm
I went straight to my kitchen tonight and made these. So easy! So delicious! And guess what I had for lunch? Your three-bean chili from your project food blog entry. My house is filled with your food. :)
Randon aside: We live in Jersey, but my husband’s family has a cottage up in McGregor Bay, so sometimes when you mention certain things about Canada, I think, “that sounds familiar… maybe we drove past there on our way up.” It’s a beautiful place to live.
Glad to hear this!
These look simply delicious!!! I’m trying to decide what to make for my family for Thanksgiving that will show off how delicious healthier alternatives can be! I love this recipe idea and your high protein mash potatoes recipe. Do you use a gravy on your high protein mash potatoes?
Any ideas for a delicious Thanksgiving spread that would win over the family would be much appreciated! I’m trying to figure out a good turkey alternative… a veggie meatloaf with gravy? You have so many amazing recipes… I don’t know where to begin! If only I had time to make all of them… :)