As a celebration of World Vegetarian Day, we are sharing the following recipes found in From the Kitchen of YamChops. The full cookbook can be found on Amazon!

This dish regularly takes center stage at our Thanksgiving or Christmas table. If you follow a plant-based diet you’ve probably seen, but have never used Montreal Steak Spice. Well that ends today! Couple these beauties featuring Montreal Steak Spice with mashed potatoes and Shiitake Miso Gravy for a festive meal any day of the year.

serves 4

INGREDIENTS

2-3 butternut squash “necks”
Olive oil
Montreal Steak Spice

PREPARATION

Preheat your oven to 350°F (177 °C).

Preheat your grill pan or counter top griller.

Cut the necks of the butternut squash from the bulbs and trim off the stem ends. Peel the butternut squash and, very carefully, with a very sharp knife, slice the necks into 1/2” (1.3 cm) thick planks. You want to count two steaks per person thus the number of squash you will need will depend on how many half inch steaks you can get from the squash. What I’m trying to say is…look for squash with big necks! Save the off cuts (and the bulbs) for soup or a Butternut Squash Hummus.

When your grill pan is hot, brush both sides of the squash planks with the olive oil. Grill the squash steaks until they are nicely grill marked on both sides. Turn the steaks 45° to form an eye-catching diamond pattern with your grill marks. Place the grilled steaks on your cutting board. Brush them once again with the olive oil and generously coat both sides with the Montreal Steak Spice. Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for approximately 20 minutes or until they are easily pierced with a skewer.

Kick these up a notch and serve them topped with a tablespoon of Parsley-Mint Chimichurri!

Parsley-Mint Chimichurri

(Makes about 1 1/2 cups or 230g)

1 cup (25 g) loosely packed flat leaf parsley

¼ cup (6 g) loosely packed mint leaves
1 small clove garlic, chopped
2 tsp chopped jalapeño
½ lemon, juiced
¼ tsp sea salt
⅛ tsp hickory liquid smoke
⅛ tsp freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup (60 ml) olive oil

Place the parsley, mint, garlic and jalapeño in your high-speed blender, and pulse the mixture a few times to roughly chop the herbs. Add the lemon juice, salt, liquid smoke and pepper, and pulse a couple more times to combine.

With the motor running on low speed slowly stream in the olive oil. Continue to process, scraping down the sides a couple of times along the way, until the chimichurri is smooth.