Christmas Dinner 2019, The First Mess and Plant-Based Santa

[gracoman]

"Home cooks head to The First Mess for Laura Wright’s simple-to-prepare seasonal vegan recipes but stay for her beautiful photographs and enchanting storytelling. In her debut cookbook, Wright presents a visually stunning collection of heirloom-quality recipes highlighting the beauty of the seasons. Her 125 produce-forward recipes showcase the best each season has to offer and, as a whole, demonstrate that plant-based wellness is both accessible and delicious."

That's as good a review as any of this amazing plant-based cookbook. I've been a reader of The First Mess blog for quite some time and finally ordered the book to use for this year's plant-based Christmas dinner. Was not disappointed.

The Story of Plant-Based Santa

One day Santa just didn't feel like performing his duties. He was tired. He was obese. He was pre-diabetic and his blood pressure and serum cholesterol were through the roof. He knew he had to do something but he didn't want to treat his symptoms with the battery of pills the well meaning North Pole Doctor prescribed. He wanted to treat the cause but nobody could tell him how.

So Santa decided to take is health into his own hands and did a massive amount of research and, luckily, found just what he was looking for. It had been easy. He had diseases of the Western diet and decided a plant-based was probably best for him. Off he went, filled with apprehension but determined all the same.

After only one week, he began to feel better. So much so, he began to shout about this diet from one of his favorite places. The rooftops. Alas, it didn't go well. Not even Mrs Clause was onboard with this diet. It seemed nobody was. So Santa grumbled and learned to keep this diet to himself.

As time passed, the elves began to notice a change in Santa. His weight was down, his mood was better and, little by little, his meds were decreasing. In fact, Santa was feeling so good he began to add exercise into the mix. Mrs Cause was beginning to like this new Santa and asked questions about it. She climbed aboard and climbed aboard more than just Santa's diet.

"Ho ho ho" Santa bellowed as he hadn't been able to roar since his thin St Nickolas days. The old Santa was back. And better, faster and stronger than before. He is now the dapper, lean, mean, fighting machine you see pictured below moving deftly down the steps to his barn to tend to his reindeer as he hasn't been able to do himself in decades.

[gracoman]

I've been on the lookout for a plant-based dessert for Christmas and found a vegan vanilla custard cake with berry compote. The recipe author describes this dessert as a cream cake? Pudding cake? Cheesecake minus the cheese…cake? Mousse-like must-make magical vanilla stuff? Hmmmmmm....

Any who, I baked a practice Christmas vanilla custard cake. No eggs, no dairy, no butter, no refined sugar.

The crust is made with ground pecans and maple syrup. The custard/cream/pudding/mousse/cheeseless cheesecake filling is made with white Japanese sweet potatoes, medjool dates, almond milk and vanilla (bean or extract).

I made a blueberry compote with frozen wild blueberries, maple syrup and arrowroot starch as a thickener.

Hokey smokes Bullwinkle! This finished up beautifully and tastes like a dream. Hopefully the one I make for the big day will turn out as well.



Recipe:

Ingredients
Crust
1 1/2 cups pecans (*)
3-4 tbsp maple syrup

Vanilla Bean Custard
1 1/2 cups white sweet potato, baked and mashed ((or the orange kind works too))
5-6 pitted medjool dates
1 1/4 cup non-dairy mik
1/2 a vanilla bean ((pod and all)**)

Berry Compote
1 cup frozen berries
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp arrowroot starch (***)

Instructions
-Preheat the oven to 350F.
-For the crust, add the pecans to a blender or food processor and process until broken down into small pieces.
  While it’s running, stream in the maple syrup to form a sticky clumpy texture.
  Press into the bottom of a 6″ springform pan lined that has been lightly sprayed with oil. Set aside.
-For the filling, blend all the ingredients on high until smooth and creamy.
  Pour on top of the crust. Smooth the top. Bake for 45-50 minutes at 350F. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before chilling overnight.
-For the berry compote, stir together all the ingredients in a saucepan on the stove. Cook over medium heat stirring regularly until you have a thick chunky sauce (about 10 minutes).
-Release the cake from the pan, top with berry compote, slice, and enjoy!

*Can sub any kind of nut you like, or even hemp seeds for a nut-free option. Or use this date-sweetened crust recipe instead.
**Can sub 1 tsp vanilla bean powder or 2 tsps vanilla extract.
***Can sub cornstarch or tapioca starch.

Source


Sliced

[gracoman]

Once again, everybody's down for a plant-based Christmas dinner. My daughter's in town, direct from NOLA where she works at Red's Chinese. After living for another year in New Orleans she wants nothing but vegetables. The NOLA food life was fun for a while but I guess the meat-plug, deep-fried, sugary culture there has taken its toll. Wow! Never thought I'd see the day. So, no short cuts... I'm cooking this year.

The menu will be five to six different concoctions served buffet style. Six if I can hold up for all that. We'll see.

1. Garlicky Winter Vegetable and Whole Bean Mash with Mushroom Miso Gravy
2. Classic Plant-based Stuffing. In this context, this is called stuffing so as not to confuse it with plant-based dressings for salads, veggies etc
3. Roasted Chili-Lime Basil Tofu and Broccoli with Brown Rice, Fresh Sprouts and Toasted Sunflower Seeds
4. Vegan Sweet Potato Casserole with Apples and Crunchy Rosemary Walnuts
5. Vegan Mujadara (Lentils and Brown Basmati Rice with Caramelized Onions) served with Shatta, Zhoug (spicy sauces) tahini sauce and vegan yogurt.
6. Vegan Vanilla Custard Cake - See post above

A feast fit for Kings and Queens.

[gracoman]

Christmas dinner was a great success. I wasn't able to make everything listed above but there was a mess of food and it was all top shelf. The sweet potato casserole was amazing. Ingredients were baked sweet potatoes, coconut milk, orange juice, sauteed apples, toasted walnuts with rosemary and seasonings.

The stuffing (dressing) was every bit as comforting as any. It was pretty standard stuff but the "butter" was Miyoko's (awesome stuff) and the stock used was Imagine No-Chicken. Anyone wold be hard pressed to tell the difference between this and any other dressing.

The garlicky veggie mash was made with celery root, parsnips, cauliflower and seasonings cooked and pureed in a food processor and served with mushroom gravy made with lots of shrooms, vegetable stock, thyme, garlic, onion, seasonings and thickened with arrowroot.

Rave reviews. Even from the skeptics.

The only pictures I managed to get were of one plate of Cauliflower Buffalo Wings with vegan Ranch dressing and the best Yule Log Fire we cold find on the idiot box. It was a bit non-traditional, to be sure, but it had the best Christmas music accompaniment so we went with it.