Uncover the info and inspo behind Thistle’s winer meal ideation, testing, and menu creation. Ready to dish?
When it comes to planning seasonal menus, the Thistle Culinary R&D team takes a holistic approach. Our process includes reflecting on well-received meals from previous seasons, making modifications with customer feedback, and exploring seasonal products. We are always thoughtful about what we serve to our customers.
At the onset of our menu brainstorm, we always start with a list of seasonal winter produce we want to feature. Some of our favorites are hard winter squash—but we want to elevate the vegetable by introducing citrus, pomegranate, as well as spices such as gingerbread and nutmeg.
You might agree that one of our most popular breakfast dishes is our seasonal baked crumbles (similar to this summer crumble recipe on our blog). For our winter menu, one of the members of our Culinary R&D team members, Briana, knew she wanted to use apples as the base for our new iteration. She also wanted a pop of tang and color that would complement the sweetness of the apples. The addition of pomegranate seeds fit the bill perfectly with their beautiful ruby color and tart brightness—then, the creamy cashew cream ties everything together for a decadent yet satisfying breakfast.
Rise and shine this winter with our Eggnog Smoothie with Gingerbread Granola. Personally I did not grow up in an “eggnog family” but I sure did marry into one! When my mother-in-law sent me a photo of the eggnog she had procured at the grocery store back in August, I thought it would be fun to experiment with bringing a Thistle Eggnog to life. I drew inspiration from a dairy-based eggnog produced by a small Northern Californian dairy company called Strauss, which is only mildly sweet and has just a hint of nutmeg and cinnamon (I find nutmeg can be quite overpowering at times so I wanted to be careful here). To ensure my plant-based version would still be thick and creamy, I blended in chickpeas and rolled oats to the base to boost protein and create a thick and creamy consistency. And then the gingerbread granola needed just a little pop color, so I added fruit juice sweetened dried cranberries to add some brightness and balance the spices.
When thinking about new lunch ideas for our winter menu, we wanted to bring in some fun seasonal lettuces such as radicchio. In our Poppy Seed & Radicchio Chop Salad we counteracted the bitterness you can sometimes get from radicchio by pairing it with a sweet and tangy Creamy Poppy Seed Dressing and topping it with dried cranberries, cherries and toasted sunflower seeds.
A hearty dinner our team is really excited to feature is our new Mushroom Stroganoff & Butternut Risotto. Naiha, our Chef de Cuisine here at Thistle, designed this recipe using really fun and special ingredients from some of our favorite partners. Often times the challenge of recreating plant-based versions of traditionally non-plant-based “comfort food” recipes, is finding ways to impart rich depth of flavor and pulling out the umami of special ingredients. Naiha achieved rich flavors of stroganoff by sauteing mushrooms with aromatics and a creamy coconut yogurt made by our friends at Cocojune. Next, she layered in additional flavor by mixing the savory mushrooms with Banza chickpea rice (similar to orzo), coconut aminos and Cool Foods Pinto Bacon along with roasted butternut squash. This savory, protein rich dish will be sure to keep you satisfied and full in the cold winter months.
I know my colleague Naiha is often most inspired in the shower–she’ll write to us in the morning saying “ok, so I had a shower thought…” [followed by something brilliant like the Mushroom Stroganoff above]. Personally my best ideas come to me while I’m driving, which is how the Grasshopper Mousse Cup came to be! I was thinking about the nostalgia of Grasshopper Pie and how fun it would be to make something minty and colored green (naturally of course).
If you’ve been with Thistle for a while now, you may remember the Moringa Leprechaun Bars that we served for St. Patrick’s Day (a riff off the wildly popular Okinawan Sweet Potato Bars), so you know I’m a fan of dying things green. It’s especially fun when the tools you have to dye something green are also superfoods like moringa powder and green spirulina! The trick for the Grasshopper Mousse Cup was finding the right balance of peppermint extract, ensuring the dish didn’t taste like toothpaste, but enough for the mint to shine through. Dialing in the proper amounts of spirulina and moringa was also a challenge. On my first attempt I went a tad overboard and ended up with robin’s egg blue kind of color, which was definitely not the most appetizing. On attempt number two I was much more conservative in addition of the green superfoods, which resulted in a pretty pastel green color similar to mint chip ice cream. To me cacao nibs have a bit of a minty aftertaste on their own, so I thought they would be a perfect addition to the top of this festive mousse cup.
All-in-all the primary goal of the Thistle Culinary R&D team is to honor the seasons by featuring the beautiful bounty we’re offered each year. Sometimes it's also a platform to “convert” those who thought they didn’t like a certain food by serving it in a new way that just works. I, for one, was not the biggest fan of radicchio before this year, but Naiha’s perseverance in creating something both balanced and delicious has completely changed my mind–I even brought a radicchio salad to my Thanksgiving dinner this year! Eating the seasons is a great way to be creative in the kitchen while also eating the most nutrient-rich and flavorful foods at your disposal.
Uncover the info and inspo behind Thistle’s winer meal ideation, testing, and menu creation. Ready to dish?
When it comes to planning seasonal menus, the Thistle Culinary R&D team takes a holistic approach. Our process includes reflecting on well-received meals from previous seasons, making modifications with customer feedback, and exploring seasonal products. We are always thoughtful about what we serve to our customers.
At the onset of our menu brainstorm, we always start with a list of seasonal winter produce we want to feature. Some of our favorites are hard winter squash—but we want to elevate the vegetable by introducing citrus, pomegranate, as well as spices such as gingerbread and nutmeg.
You might agree that one of our most popular breakfast dishes is our seasonal baked crumbles (similar to this summer crumble recipe on our blog). For our winter menu, one of the members of our Culinary R&D team members, Briana, knew she wanted to use apples as the base for our new iteration. She also wanted a pop of tang and color that would complement the sweetness of the apples. The addition of pomegranate seeds fit the bill perfectly with their beautiful ruby color and tart brightness—then, the creamy cashew cream ties everything together for a decadent yet satisfying breakfast.
Rise and shine this winter with our Eggnog Smoothie with Gingerbread Granola. Personally I did not grow up in an “eggnog family” but I sure did marry into one! When my mother-in-law sent me a photo of the eggnog she had procured at the grocery store back in August, I thought it would be fun to experiment with bringing a Thistle Eggnog to life. I drew inspiration from a dairy-based eggnog produced by a small Northern Californian dairy company called Strauss, which is only mildly sweet and has just a hint of nutmeg and cinnamon (I find nutmeg can be quite overpowering at times so I wanted to be careful here). To ensure my plant-based version would still be thick and creamy, I blended in chickpeas and rolled oats to the base to boost protein and create a thick and creamy consistency. And then the gingerbread granola needed just a little pop color, so I added fruit juice sweetened dried cranberries to add some brightness and balance the spices.
When thinking about new lunch ideas for our winter menu, we wanted to bring in some fun seasonal lettuces such as radicchio. In our Poppy Seed & Radicchio Chop Salad we counteracted the bitterness you can sometimes get from radicchio by pairing it with a sweet and tangy Creamy Poppy Seed Dressing and topping it with dried cranberries, cherries and toasted sunflower seeds.
A hearty dinner our team is really excited to feature is our new Mushroom Stroganoff & Butternut Risotto. Naiha, our Chef de Cuisine here at Thistle, designed this recipe using really fun and special ingredients from some of our favorite partners. Often times the challenge of recreating plant-based versions of traditionally non-plant-based “comfort food” recipes, is finding ways to impart rich depth of flavor and pulling out the umami of special ingredients. Naiha achieved rich flavors of stroganoff by sauteing mushrooms with aromatics and a creamy coconut yogurt made by our friends at Cocojune. Next, she layered in additional flavor by mixing the savory mushrooms with Banza chickpea rice (similar to orzo), coconut aminos and Cool Foods Pinto Bacon along with roasted butternut squash. This savory, protein rich dish will be sure to keep you satisfied and full in the cold winter months.
I know my colleague Naiha is often most inspired in the shower–she’ll write to us in the morning saying “ok, so I had a shower thought…” [followed by something brilliant like the Mushroom Stroganoff above]. Personally my best ideas come to me while I’m driving, which is how the Grasshopper Mousse Cup came to be! I was thinking about the nostalgia of Grasshopper Pie and how fun it would be to make something minty and colored green (naturally of course).
If you’ve been with Thistle for a while now, you may remember the Moringa Leprechaun Bars that we served for St. Patrick’s Day (a riff off the wildly popular Okinawan Sweet Potato Bars), so you know I’m a fan of dying things green. It’s especially fun when the tools you have to dye something green are also superfoods like moringa powder and green spirulina! The trick for the Grasshopper Mousse Cup was finding the right balance of peppermint extract, ensuring the dish didn’t taste like toothpaste, but enough for the mint to shine through. Dialing in the proper amounts of spirulina and moringa was also a challenge. On my first attempt I went a tad overboard and ended up with robin’s egg blue kind of color, which was definitely not the most appetizing. On attempt number two I was much more conservative in addition of the green superfoods, which resulted in a pretty pastel green color similar to mint chip ice cream. To me cacao nibs have a bit of a minty aftertaste on their own, so I thought they would be a perfect addition to the top of this festive mousse cup.
All-in-all the primary goal of the Thistle Culinary R&D team is to honor the seasons by featuring the beautiful bounty we’re offered each year. Sometimes it's also a platform to “convert” those who thought they didn’t like a certain food by serving it in a new way that just works. I, for one, was not the biggest fan of radicchio before this year, but Naiha’s perseverance in creating something both balanced and delicious has completely changed my mind–I even brought a radicchio salad to my Thanksgiving dinner this year! Eating the seasons is a great way to be creative in the kitchen while also eating the most nutrient-rich and flavorful foods at your disposal.
