Nutritious and delicious meals are important to everyone when feeding a hungry family.  However, food is more than nutrition for many people.  If you’re like me, cooking a beautiful meal is one of the ways that I show love.  Cooking makes me feel good.

Our holiday meals feature a traditional stuffed turkey as the centerpiece of the meal.  Then we surround the bird all the fancy fixings.  I’ve shared some thoughts last week about how to choose your holiday turkey – if you’d like to read it just click here.  Then come on back and I’ll tell you what that post got me thinking about.

As I was writing about choosing a turkey, I thought back on several holiday meals at which we had guests who were vegetarian seated at our table.  These guests were wonderfully polite and dug into all the vegetable dishes we had available, and there was quite an array.  But, here’s my thought – why should our vegetarian guests be limited to eating our standard side dishes?  Why can’t we create dishes that are more appealing, make more of a statement than a plate of, for instance, green bean casserole and mashed potatoes?

This year I am dedicating myself to making ALL my guests feel as special as I feel having them around my table.  I’m working on some “bountiful” dishes that will qualify as fancy vegetarian main dishes for our holiday meals.  I’ll share what I have so far with you so you can start developing a plan for your own vegetarian dishes.

Lentils & Pumpkin Curry with Apples

• 1 cup lentils
• 6 cups water

• 1 Tbsp. Canola oil
• 1 large sweet onion, diced

Cook lentils in water gently over medium-low heat for 45 minutes.  Drain and reserve the cooking liquid.

Heat oil in large sauce pan, add onion and cook over medium-low heat until onion starts to get transparent.

Add the following ingredients to large saucepan with onion:

• 1 small can diced tomatoes
• 2 tablespoon curry powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• pinch of ground cloves
• 3 cloves of garlic minced
• 1/2 teaspoon each salt and black pepper

Now, stir in the drained lentils and add 2 1/2 cups of the reserved liquid.

Add the following list of ingredients and continue to cook over low heat until vegetables are just fork tender, not mushy.  This should take around 20 to 30 minutes, depending on how low you let this simmer:

• 2 cups of diced pumpkin (make sure it’s the cooking kind and not the jack o’lantern kind) or other winter squash that you like will be good too.
• 2 medium Yukon Gold potatoes or may like to use red potatoes.  Just scrub the potatoes, do not peel, and coarse dice.
• 1 small head of cauliflower, just the florets only cut into bite size pieces.
• 1 or 2 carrots, peeled and diced.

Now stir in the following ingredients and let cook for an additional 8 to 10 minutes, stirring once or twice.  Be sure you don’t let this cook too long.  You want the greens to be just wilted and the apples to be just fork tender, and not turn into applesauce.

• 2 tart crisp apples that are a good size.  Wash but do not peel.  Just core and coarse dice.
• 2 cups fresh chopped greens (kale, spinach, or what have you).  I like kale because it stands up better than spinach does.

Serve in a pretty serving dish on a bed of brown and wild rice.

Here’s how you can make this dish even prettier.  Serve it in a baked pumpkin or other winter squash “bowl.”  Bake a pumpkin by cutting off the top to form a “lid” and scooping out the seeds and stringy stuff.  Set the pumpkin in a baking pan and put a little bit of water in the pan.  Place a sheet of foil over the opening in the pumpkin and place the “lid” on the top of the foil.  You may want to wrap the “handle” with a little foil to keep it from burning up.  Bake your pumpkin in a 375 degree oven for about an hour, but check it at 45 minutes by sticking a fork inside to see if the flesh is soft. Keep the pumpkin bowl warm until your dish is completed.

Here’s another spin on a traditional dish, especially for Thanksgiving.

First Thanksgiving Succotash In Butternut Squash Boats

Wash and cut lengthwise 2 medium butternut squash.  Scoop out the insides and bake cut side down on a baking pan with a drizzle of canola oil covering the bottom of the pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 35 minutes or until fork tender.  Remove and let cool.

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil and saute these ingredients until the onion just starts to get transparent:

• 1 medium yellow onion diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced small
• 1 green bell pepper, diced small
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced

Now, add to the large saucepan the following ingredients, and cook over low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally:

• 2 cups frozen baby lima beans
• 2 cups frozen corn.
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• pinch of nutmeg

When the baked squash has cooled down, carefully scoop out some of the flesh from the skins, being sure to leave the shells intact for filling.  If that means you have to leave some flesh in the shells, that’s okay.  Chop the flesh that you’ve removed and add to the saucepan.  Mix together, then scoop the mixture back into the baked butternut squash shells.  Top with a sprinkle of breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese.

Place the stuffed squash underneath the broiler (about 6 inches) away and allow to brown, about 4 or 5 minutes should do it.

These dishes are pretty and festive, yes, but more importantly they are main dishes, not sides.  These dishes are not an afterthought; they honor your vegetarian guests just like your vegetarian guests honor you by accepting your invitation to share a special holiday meal.

Choosing harvest vegetables, beans, lentils, and colorful brown and wild rice, will give you plenty of opportunities to create dishes that will not only please your guests, but will make you feel good about feeding them!

That is why I chose this topic for Fuzzy Wuzzy Wednesday, because the holidays are all about making our family and friends, and ourselves, feel good inside!  I hope you have a great day today and a warm and wonderful holiday season.

Tags: Thanksgiving recipes for vegetarians, vegetarian dishes for Christmas, vegetarian main dishes, vegetarian meals, vegetarian recipes, vegetarian recipes for Thanksgiving

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 6:30 am and is filed under Fuzzy Wuzzy Wednesday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.