When brainstorming our ideas for volcano week we wanted to incorporate several elements that we thought reminded us of the mighty power of a volcano. Our ideas were especially inspired by the recent and ongoing activity of the Kilauea volcano. A meal inspired by a volcano to us means a lot of spices that are on the hotter side as well as various sauces or dressings to imitate flowing lava.
Dish 1:
Mashed potatoes with red gravy
Baked carrots and broccoli
Mixed salad with strawberry vinaigrette
In this dish we used the mashed potatoes as the main focus of our plate to represent the volcano. We then created a well in the potatoes and filled it with red gravy to mimic lava flowing out of the volcano. We placed the baked veggies on the outer edge of the potatoes to represent an area of rocks that would form at the base of a volcano after the lava hardens. Outside the veggies we placed the salad which represents lush vegetation that would form outside the path of lava flow, such as a rainforest or field.
Dish 2:
Fried tofu with sweet and spicy Hawaiin bbq sauce
Sweet potato fries
Coleslaw with mac nut milk dressing
The fire and smoke from a volcano reminded us of a barbeque, and although we do not have a barbeque grill on the farm we had a really fun time brainstorming ways to incorporate barbeque elements into our dish. Chef Simmy had already concocted a delicious Hawaiin inspired BBQ sauce and we thought it would pair really nicely with fried tofu. Traditional barbeques usually always have a potato dish so we utilized the sweet potatoes that we had by frying them. As a group we thought a dressing that resembled ranch would be really good on our coleslaw but to accommodate people following a vegan diet on the farm we didn’t really want to use mayonnaise, so we used mac nut milk instead. The end product wasn’t as creamy as a ranch, but still tasted really good.
Dish 3:
Stuffed bell peppers
Collard greens
To stick with the volcano theme and utilize ingredients we had in the kitchen we decided to flavor rice, beans, tomatoes, and tofu with Hispanic seasonings and stuff it into bell peppers. We topped half the peppers with a carrot and cheddar cheese mixture and the other half with macadamia nut cheese that we made from scratch. We served the peppers with of a side collard greens and onions.
Dish 4:
Squash soup
Plantain chips
Salad with balsamic vinagrette
We have a ton of squash growing on the farm and we really needed to use it before it started going bad so we made some “edible lava” in the form of squash soup. We flavored it with sage, salt, and pepper and blended it up to get the right consistency. We served the soup with fried plantain chips and a mixed salad with balsamic vinaigrette.