Bottom rack patties and roasted veg

The recipes tonight cover sweet, salty, and savory tastes. These cooler Fall nights definitely conjure up hunger for slow cooked meals. This meal does have quite a long cooking time, but it's worth it! Roasted sweet potatoes, roasted broccoli, chickpea patties topped with mushroom sauce are featured this evening. I love playing with sweet and salty combos, and the sweet potatoes in this dish really satisfy the sweet/salty craving.

Also, this is a great dish to make if you trying to limit the amount of meat in your diet because the patties substitute for chicken, pork, or veal cutlets. The basic chickpea patty base is one I make often. The herbs and spices can be changed to fit your taste. I went for an Indian feel by adding curry powder to the chickpea patty mixture. I recommend altering the mushroom sauce to compliment the spices in the chickpea patty. So, for this recipe, I added coriander to the mushroom sauce to compliment the curry powder. Other combinations that work well are French influenced by using thyme and garlic in the chickpea patty and thyme and dijon mustard or mustard powder in the mushroom sauce. You could also do an Italian take on it and add parsley, basil, and oregano to the chickpea patty and tomatoes, garlic, and oregano to the mushroom sauce. Be creative!

There are several components so, let's jump right into the recipes.

Sweet Potatoes
4 large sweet potatoes
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Pre heat oven to 375 degrees. Wash sweet potatoes. Dice into 1.5 inch cubes and place into large mixing bowl. Pour olive oil over potatoes and toss. Add brown sugar, chili powder, salt and pepper. Pour into a greased casserole dish and bake for 1.5 hours. Stir occasionally to prevent brown sugar from over caramelizing.

Broccoli
2 - 4 heads of broccoli
3 garlic cloves
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Wash broccoli and cut it into bite sized pieces. Mince the garlic. In a bowl, toss together olive oil, broccoli, garlic, salt and pepper. Pour into a greased 9 inch square pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes

Chickpea Cutlets 
1 C wheat gluten flour
1 C bread crumbs
2 Tbsp curry powder
2 Tsp salt
1 Tsp pepper
1 8 oz can of chickpeas
1/2 C veggie broth
1/4 C chopped parsley
2 garlic cloves minced

In a large mixing bowl combine the wheat gluten flour, bread crumbs, curry powder, salt, and pepper. In a tall liquid measuring cup, add the chickpeas, parsley, minced garlic, and veggie broth. Use an immersion blender to combine ingredients. Pulse the immersion blender as to not completely turn this mixture into liquid. You still want the pieces of the chickpeas visible. This will give the chickpea patty texture. Pour this liquid mixture into the dry. With clean hands, mix and knead about 5 times. You should get an elastic ball of chickpea doug. Pull off a handfull and form into a patty. This should yield 6 patties. Spray or brush each side of the patty with olive oil and bake at 375 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. Bake on the bottom rack and flip once so that the outsides get a nice golden crisp.

Mushroom Sauce
I just came up with this tonight, so if it doesn't remake well, sorry! I probably need to remake it a few times!

1/2 Tbsp vegan butter or canola oil
1 container sliced white button mushrooms
1/2 yellow onion
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 Tbsp vegan or canola oil mayo
4 Tbsp veggie broth

Saute onion and garlic in the vegan butter or canola oil until onions are fragrant. Add in mushrooms and cover for 10 minutes. Add spices, salt, and pepper. Cook for two minutes. Stir in mayo and veggie broth. Use immersion blender to combine.

Part of the class I teach includes a lesson on plating food, and I am in total violation of color choice here. Beige on beige ugh, but I swear the mushroom sauce NEEDS to go on top of the patty. Delish!