More plant-based recipes for your holiday dinners
Good resolutions this year have a little advance, they start with the realization of festive lunches. And if, this year, we celebrate with more vegetable recipes, reducing products of animal origin without giving up traditional Christmas dishes.
Long considered the dish’s poor relation, a simple side dish and foil of the animal kingdom, vegetables are taking over. Gone are the days of figuration, now they are the center of attention. But a more vegetable cuisine cannot be improvised.
Alternatives to animal proteins
Opting for vegetarian recipes above all means taking a different look at the vegetables we conventionally use to cook them differently and thus structuring the dishes with colours, volumes, textures, softness, crunchiness, overall character. It is also an opportunity to discover alternatives to animal proteins with legumes and how to replace gratin and béchamel cream with coconut tofu or even almond or hazelnut based drinks. .
We take inspiration from those who make our mouth water. Angèle Ferreux-Maeght offers delicate seasonal cuisine with always a touch of originality. Let’s adopt her vegetable curry recipes, her root hummus or her vegetarian samosas! Not forgetting her very gourmet desserts.
The phenomenon Yotam Ottolenghi
In recent years, the Ottolenghi phenomenon has become a point of reference for healthy cooking. At the origin of this worldwide success there is a duo: Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, who have imagined simple and innovative recipes, inspired by their childhood spent respectively in West and East Jerusalem. They have also drawn their ideas from the culinary traditions of the Maghreb , Lebanon, Italy and California. In their books published in France by Hachette, they offer recipes so delicious and accessible that they are quickly acclaimed by the whole family.
Ottolenghi also teaches us these very simple basics, these little nonentities that enhance the classics such as grated carrots with pomegranate and coriander seeds, tabbouleh with candied lemon cubes and whole stalks of fresh mint thrown almost casually on the plate, etc. Also in the culinary program, the discovery of original ingredients: pomegranate syrup, seeds, legumes, seldom used cereals, sumac, citrus peel
Colorful and eye-catching dishes
Ottolenghi’s kitchen is a colorful kitchen, which catches the eye with its deceptively messy staging, large round dishes presented on different levels with tripods. At home, take a cue from these preparation ideas by serving salads in tureens, fruit bowls or even vegetable appetizers for your New Year’s Eve on a mute (a plate formed by a central column that supports 2 or 3 trays of decreasing size starting from the bottom) .
You can also play the trompe-l’oeil card by following chefs’ techniques as an example. In his book Zero meat, zero fish, Jean-François Piège gives a multitude of ideas such as these steamed Romanesco cabbage rillettes, mixed with cheese, seasoned with spices, mustard and aromatic herbs. Another surprising idea are these strips of pumpkin, lightly blanched in boiling salted water and smoked over beech wood: their texture and taste thus evoke smoked salmon. Or these cooked beets passed through a hand grinder, which then lend themselves to a very successful vegetable tartare. The highlight of the party is definitely this vegetable pudding recipe, Jean-François Trap prepares it with cauliflower purée
In my library
Simple, Taste Where is it Test Kitchen extra good stuff, the younger, the works of Yotam Ottolenghi are safe values (Hachette edition).
In her new book, Angèle Ferreux-Maeght presents 365 recipes and tips for eating well naturallywith photo by Émilie Guelpa (Marabout, €29.90).
no meat, no fish, by Jean-François Piège, more than 50 vegetable and gourmet recipes, especially the chapter on creations. Photographs Charly Deslandes (Hachette Cuisine €35).
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The recipes
► Pumpkin like a smoked salmon
Recipe taken from Zero meat, zero fish by Jean-François Piège. Photographs Charly Deslandes (Hachette Cuisine)
For 2 people
300 g of pumpkin
Organic sawdust from fruit trees
2 tbsp. fresh cream
Chopped chives
Zest and juice of 1 lime
salt
Wash and drain the pumpkin. Cut it into strips using a mandoline
Bring plenty of salted water to the boil (35 g of salt per 1 liter of water).
Dip the pumpkin slices for a few seconds to let them blanch. Get rid of them. Put the sawdust in the bottom of a saucepan and put it on fire.
Place the strips on a wire rack. Cover and let it smoke for 4 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
Arrange some crème fraîche in the bottom of a plate, sprinkle with the chopped chives, arrange the squash slices in a domed shape, then arrange the lime zest and juice on top.
► Trunk of coconut, mango and citrus
Recipe taken from 365 recipes and tips for eating well naturally, by Angèle Ferreux-Maeght photographs by Émilie Guelpa, Editions Marabout.
For 4 people
For the registry
80 cl of coconut milk
25 cl of agave syrup
800 g of silken tofu
4 g of agar-agar
For the crunchy
140 g of white chocolate
25 g of puffed rice
2 tablespoons of coconut oil
For the mango coulis
1 mango + ½ mango
For training
½ mango
30 g of grated coconut
Prepare the brittle: in a saucepan, melt the white chocolate with the coconut oil, then add the mixture to the puffed rice and mix well. In a log mold or, failing that, in a cake mold lined with baking paper, pour the crunchy on the bottom and distribute the mixture evenly. Flatten well with the back of a spoon and leave to rest for 30 minutes in the fridge.
In a blender or food processor, mix all ingredients to register. Pour the mixture into a saucepan and bring to a boil. When the mixture boils, continue to cook for 2 minutes without stopping stirring.
In the rinsed bowl of your blender put the mango pulp and blend at high speed to obtain a coulis, take your mold out of the fridge and pour half of the mixture into the mold, pour the mango coulis in the centre, keep -a part for dressing . Then cover with the rest of the coconut mixture. Leave to cool thoroughly and place in the freezer for at least 3 hours, ideally leaving it overnight.
The next morning, unmold the log into a nice dish, then put it in the refrigerator so that it can defrost gently, count at least 3 hours.
Before serving, peel the remaining half mango: cut it into cubes to season it.
Pour the rest of the mango coulis over the trunk, add the diced mango and sprinkle with the grated coconut before tasting.
