Substituting in Kosher Cooking

You don't have to let a recipe stymie you just because it contains meat and milk. There are ways around this.
When you find a recipe you think you would love just find substitutes for some of the ingredients.
One way is to find suitable pareve soy products that replace milk, creams and cheeses.
They come in all varieties now and they are quite good and very healthy.

Soy based yogurts are tasty and can be used to act like cream in a recipe. The idea of the cream is to make the recipe richer. Pareve plain Yogurt can accomplish the same thing.


Mayonnaise can be a good butter and oil substitute.


Soy cheeses are delicious and some are really indistinguishable from real cheese.

Beer in recipes is often substituted with non alcoholic beer or chicken broth. So, chicken broth might be substituted with beer.. if you are adventurous that is!

You have to experiment with these things to find out what works and what doesn't but over all I have had good results in using them.

If you don't like the idea of soy based products and want the real thing you can substitute for meat and its products in a recipe too.
If it calls for chicken broth, why not try a vegetable broth instead?

Also 1 Tablespoon of soy sauce in a cup of water will substitute for chicken broth.

Yogurt is a great substitute for buttermilk. You can use it in pancakes.

To substitute for cream use a pareve whipped topping.

Tofu can substitute for meat in so many things as well. Once cooked with spices and sauces it takes on it's own tastes and most can't tell it's not meat of some sort.

Recipes are rarely written in stone. You can and should add your own ideas and innovations to them.
Sometimes you will have a hit and sometimes a miss but you will be learning and having fun along the way.

Pumpkin Bread

This is a nice recipe for pumpkin bread.

2 tsp. cinnamon
one 16 ounce can of canned pumpkin
2 tsp. nutmeg
3 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon allspice
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup vegetable oil
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 and 1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups of water
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)
2 lightly floured and greased loaf pans( 9"X5")
2 tsp. baking soda

In a large bowl , stir together flour, spices , salt and baking soda.
Now add your eggs , oil, water and the pumpkin and mix in nicely until you have a batter.
You can add your nuts now if you wish. They are optional in the recipe, of course.

Pour the mixture into the loaf pans and bake for about one hour at 350° F
Test with a toothpick or tester . If it comes out clean the bread is finished.

Cool a bit and serve or wait one day as it tastes better the next day.
You can refrigerate it once you wrap it in clear cling wrap.

Enjoy.

Adjustment to Pumpkin Soup recipe.

A reader called to my attention that I failed to add the adjustments to the recipe as I have in all my other posts.
A substitution of pareve soy based yogurt and soy milk is what I use in place of the cream in the recipe. I have used both together, and just the yogurt and found it worked nicely with the recipe.
You can also use pareve whipped topping or pareve thick creamer as a substitute for cream. It works very nicely.

Most cheeses and milks and creams are now available in soy pareve form.
I have even found cheddar in a pareve form. Enjoy.
If you don't like soy foods, then you might not like the recipe.

Thanks for the help anonymous!!

Pumpkin Soup

Autumn is the time to cook up recipes that use harvest vegetables and are homey and soothing to the taste.
Pumpkin soup is one such recipe that can become an autumn favorite.
Here's are a few variations of it:

For a thick cream soup:
1/2 cup of half and half
2 cups of mashed cooked pumpkin. You can use canned pumpkin just be sure it has no spices or sugar in it.
1 tsp of sea salt
1Tablespoon of sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp black pepper
3 cups of good chicken broth... use a flavorful kind or make your own. Be sure its nice a chickeny .
3Tbs of butter
1/2 cup of yellow onion, chopped

Saute the onions in some of the butter , as they become transparent, add your pumpkin and heat through a bit.
Now add all your spices and pour in the broth while stirring.
Don't let this boil up. Keep it simmering to heat it and meld the flavors.
When just about to serve, add the half and half cream and stir through.


Spanish Pumpkin Soup :

Spices:
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp chili powder
½ tsp ground coriander
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
1 can (15oz) pumpkin(spice free!)
1 cup whipping or heavy cream
3 Tbls of dark brown sugar
3 cups of chicken broth or stock

Mix the broth and cream in a pan and heat to very hot...almost boiling.
Stir in the pumpkin and the sugar and spices and simmer low til flavors mix from the heat.
Soup should thicken from the pumpkin . Simmer about 10 minutes or so.
Season off heat with salt and pepper.
Garnish with grated cheese. Cheddar is nice.


Enjoy!