Knowledge Base > Fran Costigan & Vesanto Melina - Protein Packed Treats
Fran Costigan & Vesanto Melina - Protein Packed Treats
This event was on
Thursday, October 19, 2023 at 4:00 pm Pacific, 4:00 pm Eastern
Explore the world of protein-enriched treats with Chef Fran Costigan and Registered Dietitian Vesanto Melina in an insightful discussion that strikes a harmonious balance between fla… Read More.
Question:
What ideas might you have for a “fun dessert” that is nut-free and oil-free for Thanksgiving dinner?
— Char Nolan
Answer:
he first thing that popped into my mind was to make a pumpkin type pudding or mose. Uh, pumpkin has a lot of nutrition. I actually like using squash, either butternut squash or cabucha squash because they're so sweet. Pureing them. You can add, uh, the healthy spices. You know, there is a lot of nutrition in Spice Jar. I know that you know that. And if you would like to blend in some tofu as well, the strong flavor of the, you know, those warm spices in the pumpkin should really help you and then let it set up. And you can put them into little dishes. Uh, you don't want any nuts, but maybe you can put some hemp seeds on the top, sesame seeds if that isn't an allergen for you. And you can always do a little tiny drizzle of a high percentage chocolate. So that's what I think, and I hope that you'll send me some pictures, Char, of what you do at this, um, farm dinner Shaw's on her way to Italy. Everybody I said that. Wonderful. So that's what I think a Simpler one. Okay. Well this is one that I do with kids and we've done it with a lot of different people, indigenous people, lots of people. But we have frozen banana ice cream, and we put it through a champion juicer and add some strawberries. And it's fun because all the people get to push down the, um, the frozen bananas. So the bananas are peeled first and broken into about half or a third of the length of the banana put on trays in the freezer, and then they're all frozen. And you can just, it's, it's really simple. Like you can make a banana ice cream by adding other things like tofu too, but Do that Vesanto. And it's wonderful, you know, with berries, with chocolate. But that's not gonna work for Char because she has, she's not going to be in a place with a freezer. But that is something that people should remember. But to make banana ice cream is what we call it, it's wonderful. Okay. We call that vegan gas. Yeah. Oh, that's great. Vegan. I love that. Yeah. Gonna use that.