VTK report, Oct. 27, 2025

At our most recent meeting on Oct. 25, we sampled a wide variety of dishes with the common ingredient of winter squash. We had squash leather (dried squash slices that were chewy and tasty), two kinds of squash bread, vegetable curry, squash-bean burritos, roasted squash and daikon radish, and two kinds of cheezy squash dip.

I personally wouldn’t make Caroline’s squash bread, because it uses commercial gluten-free flour mix and sugar, two ingredients I like to avoid as they are ultraprocessed, fiber-free foods. But it tasted really good and the texture was almost perfect this time because she used xanthan gum (or was it guar gum?) to keep the bread from crumbling. I want to know how much she used so I can make my own version, probably with sorghum flour and sweetened with dates, when I need to cook gluten free. I ordinarily use barley flour for quick breads, which is lower in gluten than wheat but still has some.

I’d also like to make a version of Ben’s Thai Curry. He shared a link to the recipe:

https://rainbowplantlife.com/thai-butternut-squash-chickpea-curry/#steps

This recipe is too hot/spicy for me, so I’d have to find some mild curry paste. Does anybody know where to buy that? Or ingredients like lemongrass to make my own?

I was happy with how my burritos came out. They need a little cheese on top to taste right, and I was worried that the vegan cheese I used wouldn’t be good enough. It was good enough, but barely. I am waiting impatiently for commercial vegan cheeses to improve. Mary said she might experiment with making her own fermented cheese.

The filling for the burritos uses refried black beans, and I’ve been using a canned commercial product because when I tried to make my own the beans came out dry, crumbly, and tasteless. Can anybody tell me how to make refried beans right? The canned ones are very good, but expensive.

Thanks to everyone who attended! We decided that our next meeting will be on Saturday Dec. 6. The theme is holiday foods. Though it will be tempting to make desserts, I hope at least a few people will make entrees, soups, and side dishes colorful and tasty enough for a holiday table. 

Susanne reminded me that the Madison Fair Trade Holiday Festival is the same day:

https://www.fairtrademadison.org/

She and I will be playing music there from 9-10 AM, just in case you were thinking of going. She plays folk harp and I play tenor recorder. I also hear that the Raging Grannies will be performing.

I have had trouble accessing the website, so unfortunately that project isn’t advancing the way I’d like.

Hope to see you at the next meeting.

Ann