Vegetarian Cooking Series-Part 4-Main Course Options
Published June 11th, 2008
For those of you who are just joining this series about vegetarian cooking, you can read Part 1-Introduction to get started.
This week we are tackling what to serve for a main course that is both vegetarian, and sophisticated. As we know by now in the series, vegetarians don’t just eat salad! I think the biggest obstacle people face when think about serving a main course that doesn’t include meat, is whether it will be filling enough–the answer is yes. Today I’ll give you some suggestions that will be sure to please many different tastes.
First of all, choosing the main part of your meal will largely be determined by the tone of your dinner: If it’s completely laid back and casual, you may just want to choose one of the selections from the Pub and Casual Foods article earlier in this series. If you are in the mood for ”ethnic” food (say from China, India, or Thailand), you will have all of the dishes served at once rather than in courses, and can offer both meat and vegetarian curries or stirfries in one sitting–more suggestions for these types of foods can be found in Ethnic Food To Try Part 1 and Part 2.
If you’re thinking along the lines of a more formal dinner served in courses, then you may want to consider some of the suggestions below:
Stuffed mushrooms
I like this idea for a “meat and potatoes” sort of a setup, except that instead of the meat you will substitute one or more hearty stuffed mushrooms. This is a dish with many possibilities, but I’ll give you my version of it. I clean and empty the middle, and remove the stems out of either large white or brown capped mushrooms or portobello mushrooms (some people remove the scales from the portobellos to give more room–I just pile the filling on top in a mound and press it in. A simple filling is very finely diced red onion, celery, the mushroom stems chopped finely, parmesan cheese, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper–and of course topped with some more cheese if you’re using it. When you’re ready you can bake them until they’re cooked through at about 350F until you see the cheese bubbling and clear liquid coming from the cooked filling. You can also cook these on the barbecue!
Stuffed ravioli with asparagus and portobello mushrooms
Vegetarians everywhere get tired of eating the same boring pasta served in some kind of red sauce at every wedding and awards dinner they attend–so dare to be different! How about a ravioli that’s stuffed with ricotta cheese+/- parsley and spinach? Here in Canada, President’s Choice has pasta filled with a yummy walnut and Gorgonzola cheese, or stuffed with Porcini mushrooms. There are many possibilities depending on where you live, but any kind of a stuffed ravioli will do the trick. I usually buy one bunch of asparagus and 4 portobello mushrooms for every 3 people to go with it.
Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package and save some of the starchy cooking water. Snap off the woody ends of the asparagus, and then break or chop it into bite-sized pieces. Slice up the portobello mushrooms, and then cut into bite-sized pieces also. I usually slightly warm some chopped garlic in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil for a few minutes, then add in the asparagus and mushrooms and turn up the heat a bit, to somewhere between medium and low, after a few minutes put in a few tablespoons of either butter or non-hydrogenated margarine and saute until veggies are soft but not over-cooked. Then turn off the heat and add in the pasta and some of the starchy cooking water to give it a bit of liquid, serve hot. Top with black pepper and parmesan cheese as desired.
Cheese cappelletti
This pasta dish is a favourite of mine served in a popular Italian-American eatery here in Canada. It’s very simple, but yummy since it’s baked. I usually combine a tomato pasta sauce and an Alfredo to get a “blush” sauce. I boil the cheese filled cappelletti until done, when it’s ready I add it to the cooked sauce above and turn of the heat. I then put a generous serving of pasta and sauce into individual oven-proof pasta or other serving bowls and top with a generous amount of your favourite cheese. I bake in a 400F oven until heated through and then broil for the last little bit until the cheese starts to bubble. This dish is a real crowd-pleaser, but I wouldn’t serve it to young children or anyone else that you’re worried about burning themselves, because you have to be very very careful when the hot bowls come out of the oven!
Spinach and ricotta cannelloni
One more pasta dish here, but this one’s a keeper. I buy one regular-sized tub of ricotta (or cottage cheese if you’re low on funds) and one healthy bag of spinach for each glass casserole dish full of cannelloni–exact amounts don’t matter. Buy the oven-ready cannelloni or boil your own and stuff with the following: A finely shreded full bag of spinach, add in one beaten egg, all of the ricotta, 3/4 cup of shredded cheese and 2-3 cloves of garlic. Add salt and pepper to taste, mix well and stuff the noodles. If you’re using oven-ready noodles, you’ll need a bit more liquid, so thin out the tomato sauce on the bottom with some water, and line up the stuffed cannelloni noodles in a single layer. Top with the rest of the sauce and some water to make sure that all of the noodles are completely covered. Pile on the rest of the cheese and bake according to the directions on the box for the noodles. This usually takes about 60-75 minutes to cook including the last 10 minutes when you take the foil off for the cheese to brown. Let sit for at least 10 minutes so it’s easier to cut and enjoy!
Individual pot pies
You can make these by lining a deep pie dish, or individual pie dishes with frozen puff pastry or regular unsweetened pie dough, and the veggies of your choice with a vegetable gravy. The exact directions for this are going to depend completely on what type of dough and size of pie you are making, but once you’ve decided this, you can do a web search and get a recipe pretty easily. Some suggestions for veggies include mushrooms, green beans, carrots, cauliflower white or sweet potatoes, and peas added to a base of sauteed garlic and chopped onions. Make a simple gravy by adding a bit of soy sauce and cornstarch to vegetable stock and cook until thickened. Add the cooked veggies and thickened gravy to the pie shells, put the top on, and bake according to the directions.
Well, that’s it for this week! Tune in next week for Part 5–the final post in this series, about suggestions for incorporating vegetarians into traditional holiday types of meals.
Read the rest in this series:
Vegetarian Cooking Series-Part 1-Intro
Vegetarian Cooking Series-Part 2-Pub and Casual Foods
Vegetarian Cooking Series-Part 3-Appetizers and First Courses
Vegetarian Cooking Series-Part 5-The Holiday Feast
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