It’s Thanksgiving. It’s Recipe Matchmaker. We’re going long today to 1) cover as many requests as possible and 2) give you an excuse to take a few extra minutes for yourself among all of the holiday hoopla. Grateful for you! Let’s get it.
Reader emails have been edited for length and clarity.
We belong to a C.S.A., and this time of year is a lot of kale and butternut squash (with some other squash thrown in there some weeks). I have made the pasta dish with butternut squash and kale pesto. But would love some other ideas. — Sue E.
I’m assuming you’re referring to this Melissa Clark pasta dish, but have you made Ali Slagle’s pasta with butternut squash, kale and brown butter (above)? And for any holiday entertaining, why not make this savory butternut squash pie with tons of shredded kale, from David Tanis? Or split ’em up: Ali’s whole roasted squash with tomato-ginger chickpeas and a side of her coconut creamed kale.
I recently started dating someone, and together we have the dietary restrictions from hell. She is allergic to nightshades, and I keep kosher. Lots of hearty stew dishes are off the table because they have potatoes or tomatoes or eggplants or peppers. Help us find a nice hearty weeknight meal to cook together? — Alexa J.
Stews don’t have to be totally off the table. Immediately I think of something lentil-y, with minimal ingredients that suit your preferences, like Priya Krishna’s everyday dal. The ingredients list is short, free of tomatoes or fresh peppers: “It’s great even without such seemingly essential ingredients as garlic, onion, ginger,” wrote a reader.
Though, with a nightshade allergy, you may want skip the tiny bit of red chile powder. For vegetables, Priya recommends stirring in a packet of frozen spinach — any hearty green would zhuzh up this weeknight wonder.
I have a doozy for you. My breakfast needs to be sans dairy, eggs, gluten and oats. It needs to be warm and should please both myself and my 17-year-old athlete son. Also, it needs to be portable. — Kristal W.
What about a riff on Ali’s New Mexico breakfast burritos? Stick with me for a sec. In place of the eggs in the filling, prepare a tofu scramble (you won’t need the butter then, either). Keep the hash browns and the green chiles. Lose the cheese. Use your favorite pliable gluten-free tortilla or wraps (you want roughly 10-inch ones), whether almond flour, cassava flour or otherwise. Make a bunch of burritos in advance and reheat for a warm, on-the-go breakfast.
Or, perhaps simpler, Kay Chun’s roasted vegetable burritos — lose the cheese and sour cream, add black or refried beans, make your tortilla swap.
I need to bring a dish for a women’s yule/solstice gathering, 10 to 12 people. Some vegetarians, one leaning vegan. I said I’d bring a “tasty salad” but I have zero ideas for making that happen. — Linda A.
Let’s make it happen, Linda! I love this vegan kale and squash salad with a truly genius almond-butter vinaigrette from Ali. It can be easily doubled to serve a crowd, and the festive embellishment opportunities are endless. (And to Sue above with the C.S.A.: This works for you, too!)
Another stellar option: Melissa Clark’s roasted cauliflower and arugula salad, equally easy to double or even triple. It’s got salty capers. It’s got sweet golden raisins, made zippy with lime juice. It’s got the bite of red onion. “There is nothing about this salad that I don’t love,” wrote one reader.
My wife is due to give birth in a week, and it’s suddenly gotten quite cold here in London, so I’m looking for some hearty vegetarian batch-cook recipes to stock up the freezer and make those cold December nights with a crying baby easier! — Theo B.
New life! New recipes! You’ll want vegetarian Bolognese (make the sauce, freeze, prepare the pasta when you’re reheating the sauce). You’ll want slow-cooker ribollita (prepare, and then batch into individual freezer-friendly containers). You’ll want stuffed shells!
Here’s a fabulous reader tip: “I have cooked an entire package of the big shells, stuffed each with the ricotta mixture, and let them cool on wax paper. Then loaded them into freezer bags and froze them. They don’t stick together. Later thawed the stuffed shells and finished with sauce. This way you can take out as many frozen shells as you wish to bake with the sauce.”
Holiday mains. I often end up with cauliflower or eggplant as the anchor for my vegetarian mains if I don’t want to serve a pasta or rice dish. Dishes with brussels sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, etc., often feel more like sides, even if they are delicious. I’m somewhat new to vegetarian cooking so I’m looking for suggestions that are not too complicated. — Jackie B.
Samantha Seneviratne’s vegetarian shepherd’s pie includes some vegetables often relegated to sides — carrots, peas, potatoes — but, when combined with hearty French lentils, they become a dish worthy of your table’s center.
Don’t be deterred by the length of the recipe. Complicated this is not. It is, at its essence, a creamy mashed potato topping with a stewy lentil-and-vegetable filling, baked until the top is browned. “A delightful meal, and I dare say better than meat-based shepherd’s pies I have eaten,” wrote a reader. “I did not find the prep work too much.” We’ll take it!
Thanks for reading. And if I didn’t get to your request — especially if you wrote in about cookies — stay tuned!
One More Thing!
Recipe Matchmaker rapid fire
Q: I need an adaptable recipe for making sautéed or stewed greens that can stand in for an Italian broccoli rabe dish. — Shelley B.
A: Definitely these garlic-braised greens and potatoes, which work with collards, kale, Swiss chard or escarole (or any combination)!
Q: I bought amchur powder for a recipe — and then promptly misplaced the recipe. So now I am stuck with 7 ounces of mango powder and have no idea what to do with it! Help! — Elizabeth G.
A: Sprinkle it over aloo gobi or use it to dress a savory watermelon salad!
Q: Any type of pasta dish — but without dairy or alliums (no garlic, no onion, not even chives). — Rachel C.
A: Vegan cacio e pepe?!
Q: My partner was once an olive hater but is now an olive skeptic (thank you, dirty martinis). I’m looking for that recipe that will finally show him how delicious and not scary they are! — Sarah H.
A: Tuck them first into baked rigatoni with tomatoes, (kalamata) olives and peppers, and then he can graduate to something like this herby potato salad with smashed (Castelvetrano or other green) olives.
Q: A vegetarian main dinner dish that will please vegetable lovers and vegetable tolerators. Must be gluten-free and dairy-free. No pasta. — Sydney P.
A: Mushroom Bourguignon! (For the roux, use gluten-free flour or cornstarch, potato starch or arrowroot starch, as readers have suggested.) Serve over creamy vegan polenta!
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