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Recipes by Ali Seiter ’16

Pomegranate-Infused Brown Rice Salad with Roasted Butternut Squash, Cauliflower, Hazelnuts, and Arugula
Serves 4–6

Seiter and a Vassar friend reverse engineered this dish (originally a farro salad) after having it in a café near the Brooklyn Museum. Back at Ferry House, on campus, they added their own touches—omitting the glutinous farro in favor of brown rice and roasting the butternut squash and cauliflower with a hint of artisanal pomegranate vinegar. Seiter describes the resulting flavor as “layered, complex, tangy, succulent, bright, and oh, so delicious.”

To this recipe, she adds one important suggestion: “Immediately after toasting and chopping the hazelnuts, stick your nose right into them and get a big ol’ whiff. Your entire day—nay, week—will be fulfilled.”

2 cups short-grain brown rice
1 medium head of cauliflower, trimmed into small florets
1 smallish butternut squash, peeled and small-diced
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons pomegranate vinegar, divided
1 cup raw hazelnuts
Juice of 1 lemon
2–3 ounces baby arugula

Preheat the oven to 400°F. In a large skillet, toast the rice over high heat until fragrant but not browned. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a large pot, bring 8 cups of water to a boil. Add the toasted rice and boil for 45–50 minutes or until tender. If needed, add more water to ensure that the rice doesn’t stick together and can move around freely. (You don’t want it clumped together in the finished salad.) When cooked, drain the rice and spread over a baking sheet to cool and to again prevent clumping.

While the rice cooks, in a medium bowl toss the diced butternut squash with 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1 tablespoon pomegranate vinegar. Spread out on a baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes. Repeat with the cauliflower florets. Transfer both roasted veggies to a large bowl.

Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F. Place the hazelnuts on a baking sheet and toast for 5–7 minutes, checking diligently to ensure that they don’t burn. Lay out a large dishtowel on the countertop and transfer the toasted hazelnuts into the middle of it. Pick up the corners of the towel to form a pouch and vigorously rub the hazelnuts around in it to remove their skins. Roughly chop the skinned hazelnuts and add them to the bowl with the roasted veggies. Stir to combine.

Spoon the brown rice into the veggie/hazelnut bowl in batches, stirring well to combine after each addition until all of the rice is fully incorporated. Add the lemon juice to the mixture and stir well to incorporate. Gently stir in the arugula in small handfuls until well-mixed. Serve and enjoy!

Rosemary Plum Ice Cream
Makes about 4 cups

Seiter says, the inspiration for this flavor combination was Golubka’s Rosemary Plum Crumble, “which disappeared after all of four seconds on the dessert table” of a non-vegan potluck she attended. Hoping to recreate the crumble’s wild success in creamy frozen form, she again “combined the plum’s tart succulence with the rosemary’s savory, piney flavor.” The result? A sophisticated, but not overly sweet treat.

1 cup small ripe plums, pitted and quartered
1 small frozen banana, sliced
1/3 cup cashews or macadamia nuts (if you have a powerful blender, soaking is not necessary)
3 dates, pitted and chopped
2–3 tablespoons fresh rosemary
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 14-ounce can of coconut milk (both lite and regular are fine)
1/2 cup nondairy milk (I used homemade almond milk)

Combine all ingredients in a blender and puree until very smooth.

Ice Cream Machine Method: Pour the pureed mixture into an ice cream maker and churn according to the maker’s instructions. Transfer to a container and store in the freezer.

Non-Ice Cream Machine Method: Pour the pureed mixture into a large Tupperware container, a deep baking dish, or a stainless steel bowl and place inside the freezer. After 45 minutes, remove the mixture from the freezer and stir it vigorously with a spatula or whisk, breaking up any frozen sections. Return the mixture to the freezer, stirring vigorously every 30 minutes for about 2–3 hours, or until the mixture is completely frozen. Store in the freezer. With this method, you’ll have to thaw the ice cream for at least 10 minutes before serving.

An alternative method is to pour the pureed mixture into an ice cube tray and freeze completely. When ready to enjoy a bowl of ice cream, pop a couple of the frozen cubes out of the tray and blend in a food processor until creamy.