Knowledge Base > Fran Costigan - Grateful, Sweet, and Totally Vegan Holiday Desserts
Fran Costigan - Grateful, Sweet, and Totally Vegan Holiday Desserts
This event was on
Tuesday, November 04, 2025 at 1:00 pm Pacific, 4:00 pm Eastern
Join Chef Fran Costigan, Rouxbe Director of Vegan Pastry for a discussion of how to make holiday desserts delicious and easy. Fran will offer suggestions for Thanksgiving desserts th… Read More.
Question:
What fresh herbs and spices would you recommend a pumpkin purée side dish?
— Char Nolan
Answer:
Let me just say that I've been adding more savory herbs and spices to my desserts just because I started experimenting and I really like it. But I get that you want a pumpkin side dish and you don't want it to taste like pumpkin pie. So I pulled some things that I think would work. So stick with me. I really like cardamom lately and I think that some cardamom would be delicious in pumpkin. This is burlap and barrel. If anybody is interested in learning a lot about spices, go into the Rouxbe Live Event Library and find a live event that I did with Ori Zohar who is the co-founder of Burlap and Barrel. He gave us so much information. So this, you know, using some cardamon would allow, there are a lot of Swedish desserts that use cardamon, but I think this would be really nice. And of course chef Char and I know, and some of you may as well, that when you're making something that you can taste, you do it in a small bowl. 'cause you can always add, but it's hard to take back. Another thing that I would do, because I think it's very Thanksgiving, is to use some sage, some fresh sage or this dried sage. Now in terms of your spices and herbs, you really need to make sure that they're fresh and that they have, you know, you can, you can taste them in your mouth. Another thing that I think would nice is some cumin and um, because I just love it and I think the earthiness would be really nice with the pumpkin, I would suggest curry, except I think I know my friend Sha doesn't particularly care for curry. And if I'm right, then we're not gonna use that. But ginger, turmeric, fresh pepper would be really delicious.