My Vegetarian Recipe of the Day

Fondue may make you think of the 70s, but it’s made a real comeback. It’s cheese dip with class. So whether you are looking for something delicious and a bit different for a vegetarian New Year’s Eve, something to eat while you’re watching the Bowl Games or something to add to a New Year’s brunch buffet, here are three fondue recipes that will fit the bill. These recipes are adapted from recipes found on The Food Network.

Easy Fondue with Vegetables

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 cup half-and-half
8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 cup grated Gruyere or Swiss
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons fresh chives, snipped or chopped
Your choice of vegetables, raw or lightly steamed
Some suggestions: broccoli, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, grilled tofu
You can also choose to use various breads, if you like

To a heavy saucepan over moderate heat, add 1 tablespoon oil and the chopped shallots. Saute shallots for 2 or 3 minutes. Add half-and-half to the pan and reduce heat to low. Cut cream cheese into 1-inch slices and add it to the pot. Allow the cream cheese to slowly melt into the half-and-half, 5 minutes. Add Parmesan and shredded Gruyere or Swiss to the sauce and stir until cheese is melted and fully incorporated. Stir in lemon juice. Season sauce with, nutmeg and black pepper. Place a candle underneath a wire rack or warm a fondue pot. Transfer cheese sauce to fondue pot or place saucepan over wire rack and burning candle. Garnish with chives. Serve with dipping forks or bamboo spears.

Feta Cheese With Walnuts and Parsley

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups whole milk
6 ounces feta cheese
2 scallions minced
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup walnuts toasted and finely chopped

In a 2 quart saucepan over medium heat, melt butter the stir in the flour. Stir the 2 together into a paste. Whisk in the milk to create what the French call a bechamel sauce. Drop the temperature a little and simmer the sauce for about 10 minutes so it thickens and the flour taste cooks out. After that it’s easy, just fold in the crumbled feta, scallions, and parsley. Season it with salt and a little cracked pepper. Finish with the walnuts tossed on top. Serve with bread, broccoli, melons, black olives— whatever suits your fancy.

Chocolate Fondue

2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces chopped bittersweet chocolate
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon cabernet sauvignon, optional
Items for dipping
Suggestions: pound cake, biscotti pieces, strawberries, grapes, oranges

In a microwave-safe bowl, mix the sugar, heavy cream, chocolate, and butter together and microwave for 2 minutes. Take out of microwave and give it a quick whisk. Add wine (if using) and whisk again. Transfer to a fondue pot with a flame underneath.

This recipe could be a bit complicated if you make each of the parts from scratch. However, with the basic idea of the recipe in mind, you can also cheat and make this a simple vegetarian dish to put out on a buffet for New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. Or bring it to a party and wow your friends. There are many variations that you can use. You could use a good black bean dip and top it with pico de gallo, instead of caramelized onions. You could use regular prepared hummus. Add something other than thyme, if you like. Hummus with a bit of tabouli on top, perhaps. Let me know if you use some interesting variation.

Flatbread with hummus, olives and caramelized onions

4 pieces good-quality pita bread, naan, lavash, or Buckwheat Flatbread, recipe follows
White Bean Hummus, recipe follows (or use prepared hummus or black bean dip or anything like this that suits your fancy)
Caramelized Onions, recipe follows
1 cup sliced black olives
Fresh thyme leaves, for garnish

Spread each flatbread with some of the hummus, then top with the caramelized onions, and olives. Garnish with fresh thyme leaves. Cut into wedges and serve.

Buckwheat Flatbread:
1/2-ounce fresh yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/4 cups water, at room temperature
8 ounces bread flour, plus more if needed
3/4 cup buckwheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
All-purpose flour, for dusting and rolling
In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the yeast, sugar, and water. Mix for 1 minute on low speed and let stand until the mixture just begins to bubble. Attach the dough hook and add both flours and the salt to the yeast mixture. Mix until it forms a mass; the dough should be sticky. Continue to add additional flour, if necessary, until the surface is dry enough to handle and dry enough to roll.

Divide the dough into 4 pieces, roll into balls, and lightly brush with oil. Place on a floured surface and cover the balls with plastic wrap and a clean cloth and let proof for 2 hours at room temperature; or, place on a lightly greased baking sheet, cover, and let proof overnight in a refrigerator.

Preheat a grill or preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

To form flatbread, pat each piece of dough out into a 5-inch disk and sprinkle liberally with flour. Roll each disk, on a floured surface, into a 10-inch diameter circle. Puncture the dough liberally with a fork to keep it from rising. Grill or bake each on a pizza stone or a lightly greased sheet pan for about 5 minutes or until dough starts to get crisp on the edges but still remains chewy.

White Bean Hummus:
3 cups white beans, cooked, or canned, drained and rinsed
6 cloves roasted garlic
1 tablespoon harissa
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons tahini
1/2 cup olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Place beans, garlic, harissa, lemon juice, and tahini in the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth. With the machine running, slowly add the olive oil until emulsified. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Caramelized Onions:
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 large Spanish onions, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
Heat oil and butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add the onions and sugar and cook slowly until deep golden brown, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and stir in the thyme.

Only one week until New Year’s Eve. Whether you do snacks, a full meal, or a midnight brunch, you can find great vegetarian options. Obviously, with only sevendays, I don’t have time to post a lot of recipes, so I’m going to remind you of a couple of recipes that have been posted in the past that you might want to include in your celebrations.

Black Eyed Peas are traditional for New Year’s and over the past year I’ve posted three black eyed pea recipes.

Cumin Black Eyed Peas with Tomatoes

Lime Rice and Black Eyed Peas

Black Eyed Pea Scramble

If you’re looking for brunch recipes, here are some of my favorites from the past year:

Easy Biscuits

Prepare Ahead Breakfast Casserole

Banana Macademia Nut Muffins

What if you just want snacks for New Year’s Eve? You might want to try some of these:

Vegetarian Nachos

Cream Cheese With…

Vegetarian 7 Layer Dip

Now, I will still be posting some new recipes, as well, this week. So, if you didn’t find something that you like, check back between now and New Year’s Eve.

I meant to write this one out during Thanksgiving and then somehow forgot about it. This was originally meant as a vegan recipe, but I usually adapt it and make it vegetarian. It’s really very tasty, although it does require a bit more work than some other nut loafs. Although if you double the recipe for the stuffing, you can get a main dish and a side dish for exactly the same amount of work. Vegan ingredient options are marked with a star and in italics. Leave out the eggs for vegan option.

Nut Loaf with vegan alternatives

Loaf

two tablespoons (or more) butter *oil or margarine
2 large onions, chopped fine
5 cloves (or an entire bulb) garlic, minced
3 cups raw cashews
1 1/2 cups bread
1 cup soup stock or broth— you can use water, but I wouldn’t
salt and pepper
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 egg

Cook the onion and garlic in the butter, oil or margarine until tender, and remove from the heat.

Chop the cashews by hand or in a food processor; cut up the bread as well. Add the cashews and bread to the onion, then add the vegetable stock, egg, salt and pepper, nutmeg, and lemon juice. Put half of this mixture into a small, non-stick loaf pan. Even if you’re using a non-stick pan, I would still spray it with non-stick spray or oil it with olive or canola oil. If you want to use a regular pan that is not non-stick, the original recipe recommends lining the pan with parchment paper first.

Stuffing

3 cups bread cubes, toasted
four tablespoons butter *margarine or oil, melted but not hot
1/2 to 3/4 cup finely-chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
1/2 teaspoon sage
3 tablespoons parsley, chopped
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1 egg
enough to stock to moisten

Mix together all the ingredients. Put the mixture on top of the stuff in the loaf pan, and add the rest of the first mixture so that there are three layers of food in the pan.

Place the pan on a baking sheet or in a larger loaf pan (in case it overflows while cooking), and bake at 400 degrees F for half an hour. The top should be browned.

Let the roast cool for a few minutes, then serve out of the pan or invert it on to a plate. Serve with gravy, if desired. I’d recommend the mushroom gravy.

Green bean casserole is an easy enough solution for the vegetarians in your family, but what if you have a vegan coming for dinner? This green bean casserole should help them feel right at home while avoiding any animal products.

Vegan Green Bean Casserole

1 can French cut green beans
1.5 canisters vegan French fried onions (or make your own*)
1.5 cups soymilk
1 cube veggie bouillon (make sure this is vegan)
2-3 tablespoon corn starch (or potato starch) mixed with 2-3 tablespoon cold water to use as a thickener
1/2 medium onion, diced
3/4 cup chopped mushrooms (button, crimini, portabella, whatever)
1-2 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon each of garlic, salt, pepper, basil, oregano, sage, marjoram, thyme,
or whatever seasoning you enjoy

Heat soy milk and veggie bouillon in a saucepan, stirring until bouillon cube disintegrates. Do not boil or scald the soy milk. Just heat it. Sauté onions and mushrooms in the oil in a skillet. Add salt, pepper, and any herbs or spices.

Mix the starch and water well, and pour into the soymilk/bouillon. Stir well, because this will thicken quickly. Quickly add the can of green beans and the sautéed veggies, and stir well.

Pour that mixture into a casserole dish or pan and top with rFrench fried onions. Bake in oven at about 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, until the onions begin to brown. Remove. Eat. Enjoy.

• French Fried Onions

3 large onions, sliced into thin rings
2 cups milk
2 cups all-purpose flour (can use gluten free)
oil (for frying)
salt

Soak the onions in the milk for 5 minutes. Heat the oil in a large skillet or deep fryer. Take a handful of onions and run them through the flour with a fork to coat.
Fry in batches in the oil, stirring as needed to brown evenly. Drain on paper towels and season to taste. Store in an air-tight container.

Every year I try a new latke recipe. We all love the potato latkes, but for eight nights it can get a bit old. I’m thinking of trying this recipe for this year.

Sweet Potato Latkes with Sugared Pecans

2 medium sweet potatoes
1 egg
1 T vanilla
1 T cinnamon
1 t ground nutmeg
Up to 2 T potato flour (regular flour will do if you don’t have potato flour or potato starch)
1/3 c brown sugar; packed
Oil
Sour cream or powder sugar for dusting
Sugared Pecans (recipe below)

Parboil potatoes in boiling water until slightly tender but firm (or microwave for a couple of minutes). Refrigerate potatoes until cold. Remove skin and shred into bowl. Add egg; vanilla, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and potato flour. Mix until well blended. Coat bottom of 10” non-stick skillet with 2 T. oil. Shape latkes into 2 1/2 ” patties. Cook until brown on both sides and transfer to paper towels to drain briefly. Add oil as needed to remaining batches. Pipe dollop of sour cream with pastry bag on top for each latke. Top with Sugared Pecans.

*OPT. Sugared Pecans

1 c. whole pecans
1 egg white
1/3 c. sugar
1 t. cinnamon

Put pecans in ziplock bag with egg white. Shake until coated. Mix together sugar and cinnamon. Add to the ziplock bag— shake until coated. Bake at 400F 9 to 12 min. Cool.

Lasagna is a perfect meal for the holidays. It can be prepared ahead of time and reheated for parties or family dinners. This one is a non-traditional winter inspired acorn squash creation from Martha Stewart. When I make this I plan to double it and use a 9×13 pan or my lasagna pan, but this size would be perfect for a buffet, if you’re serving lots of other dishes.

Acorn Squash Lasagna

Olive oil, for baking dish
4 cups Acorn Squash Purée or 2 packages (12 ounces each) frozen winter squash purée, thawed
1/2 teaspoon dried rubbed sage
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 container (15 ounces) part-skim ricotta cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
8 no-boil lasagna noodles (half of an 8-ounce package) (You could also use regular noodles— just prepare them according to the package ahead of time.)

Preheat oven to 400°. Brush an 8-inch square baking dish with oil; set aside. In a medium bowl, mix squash purée with sage, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. In another bowl, mix ricotta with 1/2 cup Parmesan, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Set aside.

Lay 2 lasagna noodles in the bottom of prepared dish; spread with half the squash mixture. Layer with 2 more noodles, and spread with half the ricotta mixture. Repeat layering with remaining noodles and mixtures. Sprinkle top (ricotta mixture) with remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan.

3. Cover baking dish with foil; place on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until lasagna is heated through, about 45 minutes; remove foil, and continue baking until golden on top, 20 to 25 minutes more.