The feverish pace of cooking for the High Holy Days has let up. Until you look at the calendar to discover that Thanksgiving is breathing down your neck. Although no one is tired of feasting, some may be a bit jaded to a table groaning with turkeys, chicken, roasts and briskets. Maybe it’s time to take a break from the butcher shop and have a closer look at what the farmer’s market and green grocers have to offer.
You’ll find a generous fall bounty that includes a myriad winter squashes, bins of adorable brussels sprouts, yummy yams and red potatoes, and bushels of pears and apples to be eaten out of hand or included in an aromatic pie. Getting to know beans, legumes and grains can be quite a culinary adventure, especially when you pair them with vegetables. Why not consider a vegetarian Thanksgiving feast this year? Kashrut-keepers and veggies will certainly be thankful.
Definitely a departure from tradition, but the fact is the Pilgrims — whose harvest feast was inspired by Sukkot — didn’t feast on turkey at their first Thanksgiving. They dined on codfish, succotash and wortleberry pudding. With a little help from modern technology and supermarkets, we can certainly improve on that menu.
Succotash Salad | Serves 6
1 cup frozen baby lima beans
8 oz. green beans, trimmed,
cut into ½-inch pieces
One 15- to 16-ounce can red
kidney beans, rinsed, drained
1½ cups fresh corn kernels
(from about 2 ears)
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup coarsely chopped
fresh basil
½ cup plain yogurt
¼ cup mayonnaise
1 Tbs. red wine vinegar
3 large tomatoes, sliced
Bring large saucepan of salted water to boil. Add lima beans and cook 2 minutes. Add green beans and cook until all beans are just tender, about 4 minutes longer. Drain.
Rinse beans under cold water; drain well. Transfer to large bowl. Add kidney beans, corn and onion. Puree ¾ cup basil, yogurt, mayonnaise and vinegar in blender. Add dressing to bean mixture; toss to blend well. Season salad with salt and pepper.
Spoon salad onto platter. Surround with tomato slices. Sprinkle remaining ¼ cup basil over salad and serve.
Acorn Squash Stuffed with Wild Rice
and Cranberries | Serves 6
7 cups water
2 cups wild rice (about 12 oz.)
3 small acorn squash
(each about 10 to 12 oz.),
cut in half, seeded
2 Tbs. (¼ stick) butter
2 cups finely chopped onions
2 tsp. crumbled dried
sage leaves
2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
½ cup plus 3 Tbs. dried
cranberries (about 3½ oz.)
½ cup plus 3 Tbs. chopped
toasted hazelnuts
(about 3 oz.)
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
Bring 7 cups water and rice to boil in heavy large saucepan. Reduce heat; cover and simmer until rice is tender, about 1 hour. Drain. Transfer rice to large bowl.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Oil baking sheet. Place squash, cut side down, on sheet. Bake until tender, about 40 minutes. Cool. Using spoon, scoop out pulp from squash, leaving ¼-inch-thick shell; reserve shells.
Transfer pulp to medium bowl. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. Melt butter in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onions; sauté until very tender, about 15 minutes. Add sage; stir 2 minutes.
Add rice, squash pulp and lemon juice; stir until mixed, breaking up squash pulp into smaller pieces. Mix in ½ cup cranberries, ½ cup hazelnuts and parsley. Season with salt and pepper.
Divide rice mixture among reserved squash shells. Place in roasting pan. Bake squash until filling is heated through, about 25 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining
3 Tbs. cranberries and 3 Tbs. hazelnuts.
Louise Fiszer is a Palo Alto cooking teacher, author and the co-author of “Jewish Holiday Cooking.” Her columns alternate with those of Rebecca Ets-Hokin. Questions and recipe ideas can be sent to the Bulletin or to [email protected].