Vegetarian Christmas

I love vegetarian christmas.  It's like a regular feast, but the vegetables are the main course instead of sides and filler - which means that they get the spotlight.  This year I ate christmas dinner with some friends in Portland, and we turned the traditional holiday dinner inside out.  We stuck to eating mostly seasonal vegetables, so the meal still had the flavor of the holidays, but we dispensed with any notion of fake turkey, or even of stuffing or mashed potatoes.  This year, we ate mushroom and cream sauce lasagna, beet, pear, and chard salad (with chestnuts!), rosemary rolls, and decadent chocolate cookies and Russian tea cakes.  The meal was delicious and colorful and still felt christmas-y, without all the heavy starches and meat (and requisite napping afterward). 

My best friend and hostess made the lasagna, with whole wheat pasta, creamy cheese sauce, and loads of mushrooms.  It was rich enough that it satisfied the holiday calorie overload requirement, without the holiday overload waistline.  I contributed the rolls - a delicious recipe that I got from my aunt Martha and which only comes out at the holidays. Otherwise we would eat bread all the time and completely ignore vegetables and other delicious goodness.  For the salad, I roasted beets and roasted and shelled chestnuts.  Then I tossed the beets and chestnuts with a chopped bosc pear, fresh goat cheese with figs, and chopped rainbow chard.  I topped it with an apple cider vinaigrette that I made with nutmeg and ginger, for an extra holiday kick.  Finally, my hostess and her brother made decadent chocolate cookies with semi-sweet and white chocolate chips (full disclosure, I didn't have one because I don't really like chocolate, but I heard that they were amazing!!)  They also made the most mouthwatering Russian tea cakes with grated orange peel and cardamom.  They were divine (and small enough that I didn't feel like I was overindulging).  We started the meal with mulled wine and topped it off with a glass of champagne - all told a delightful meal.

FYI - I gave my best friend a guide to cheesemaking for christmas, so expect to see cheese experiments appearing soon!