One of the most attractive elements of meat eating, to those who eat meat, involves fat. The smell of roasting animal fat is, quite simply, enormously enticing to many humans. Vegetarian dishes, needless to say, will lack that olfactory invitation to enjoy. What's a vegetarian to do?
Brown, baby, brown!
You may be a very strict vegetarian, eschewing even cooking your foods very much. But in the interest of satisfying the taste buds and tummies of guests and family members who are not as disciplined--or who have different food beliefs--you can do a few simple things that will help them out without destroying your own choices very much. Yes, it may be a compromise...but life is compromise, and enjoying a meal in the company of family and friends--without insulting anyone's beliefs--is of great value in and of itself. Eating is, as almost any society on earth will confirm, a spiritual act from soup to nuts.
So, first, if you have a recipe calling for sweating onions and garlic, don't sweat them; brown them. Brown them well in an aromatic oil. If the dish can be a bit sweet, use a sweet oil, such a walnut. Even splash a bit of roasted sesame oil in at the end of browning. Or add cheese and bean dishes to your repertoire, and serve those with your simpler, softer vegetables.
In winter, though, you've got the perfect produce to appeal to your non-vegetarian friends: Root vegetables. They are tasty, sweet...and brown-able!
The following method of preparing root vegetables will add almost meat-like texture and aroma to any meal.
Roasted Vegetable and "Sausage" Meal
Ingredients (to serve four):
- Carrots, half pound
- Turnips (rutabagas), one large
- Parsnips, half pound
- Celery root (celeriac), one large
- Onions, 2 large sweet or yellow, or
- Cippolini onions, 5 or six
- Leeks, 2 or 3
- Garlic cloves, 2 to 5, depending on love of garlic
- Fresh rosemary if possible, or dried
- Brown sugar
- Salt
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400 F.
- Cut root vegetables into half-inch thick slices or chunks about half an inch square.
- Quarter onions or leave Cippolini onions whole
- Slice the white portion of the leeks about 1/4 inch thick
- Crush garlic cloves
- Toss together in bowl with 1/4-cup olive oil and a large bunch of snipped fresh rosemary, a tablespoon of brown sugar, and salt to taste.
- Spread on large baking pan or cookie pan, and place in oven.
- Turn with a spatula after about 20 minutes, and continue cooking another 15 to 20 minutes, until tender.
Two Ways with One Dish
If you use mainly carrots, parsnips and Cippolini onions (increasing the amounts to compensate), you can make a sweet/savory dish by increasing the sugar to 2 or 3 Tablespoons, using a sweet oil instead of olive oil (walnut or almond), and sprinkling the vegetables as they leave the oven with a dusting of nutmeg. Omit the garlic and rosemary.
Sausages Two Ways
Make a "mixed grill" meal by browning some vegetarian sausages (2 or 3 per person, depending on size of sausages) to serve with the roasted vegetables. Use Italian hot sausages with the original recipe; use Italian sweet sausage with the variation above.
Serve with a salad of grilled Romaine lettuce.
Grilled Lettuce Salad
Ingredients:
- One large head Romaine lettuce
- Vinaigrette (or sweet vinaigrette, or bleu cheese dressing)
- Raisins and chopped pecans (optional)
Method:
- Wash the entire head of Romaine without detaching leaves from root.
- Slice off root.
- Cut head lengthwise from top to bottom into halves.
- Place a tablespoon of grapeseed oil (it has a higher flashpoint than olive oil) in a skillet, and heat almost to bubbling.
- Place half of the Romaine in skillet, cut side down, and brown the edges for a few minutes.
- Remove, and “roast” the other half.
- Place on cutting board, slice each half lengthwise once and then crosswise at 2-inch intervals.
- Place leaves in salad bowl.
- Dress with any vinaigrette you like. Vary the theme by using a sweet vinaigrette with a handful of raisins and half a cup of chopped pecans added to accompany the sweet version of the roasted vegetables.
- If you’re not vegan, you can add a bleu cheese dressing (and the chopped pecans) to better appeal to the meat-eaters among you.
- Toss.
