BVR: Putting Together a Vegetarian Meal (Info)

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Putting Together a Vegetarian Meal (Info)

 

Recipe By : Martha Rose Shulman, The Best Vegetarian Recipes

Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time :0:00

Categories : 0 Info and Techniques

 

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method

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-- Putting Together a Vegetarian Meal --

 

Menus can be daunting for any cook, and particularly for a beginning

vegetarian cook. My menu philosophy for everyday family meals is to

focus a meal around one dish, and fill out the menu from there. If the

dish I have in mind is pasta, it's easy: All I need is a salad and some

bread. The same goes for most soups. But, say, I want to make a gratin

with the lovely greens and tomatoes I bought at the market. This by

itself may not be enough to constitute a meal: I can't accept the vision

of it sitting alone on a plate. So I'll cook some grains or a potato

dish, or corn in season, to serve on the side. If it's summer and I've

come home with a basket of corn, tomatoes, and green beans, I may make a

green bean and tomato stew and serve it with the corn; or if I don't

serve the stew with the corn, I'll serve it over pasta. The pantry

really helps when it comes to putting together menus, because by

accompanying a light vegetable dish with grains, noodles, or beans, I've

got a main-dish plate. One-dish meals are much more the norm in

vegetarian cooking than in traditional meat cookery: A couscous topped

with stew, a pasta or risotto or minestrone, a stir-fry with rice or a

hot-pot with noodles constitutes dinner. I usually follow a main dish,

no matter what it is, with a salad. But a salad can also precede the

main dish, or it can be the meal.

 

For entertaining, I like to serve filling, hearty, showy favorites like

risottos, stews server over couscous or noodles, and pastas, preceded or

followed by a salad, depending on whether I've made something else as a

first course. I might make a frittata or a tart as an appetizer to serve

with drinks, or serve croutons topped with a spread. I consider the

overall composition of the meal and color. I don't want all the dishes

to be " busy " and complex, and I want the ethnic composition to be

consistent, or at least complementary. If the main dish is one with

muted colors, I try to garnish it with something bright, or serve a

bright dish alongside. I also avoid repeating pronounced flavors in

every course: If there is a lot of garlic in the hors d'oeuvre and the

main dish, I won't put garlic in the salad dressing. If I'm serving a

tart or omelet as an hors d'oeuvre or first course, my main dish will

not be based on eggs or cheese. My menus for entertaining always include

dessert, whereas for everyday dining they don't. My mother taught me

long ago that guests might not remember anything else they ate at a

dinner party, but they always, " especially the men " , remember the

dessert.

 

Source: Martha Rose Shulman, The Best Vegetarian Recipes, 2001

Typed and MC Formatted by Eruna Schultheiss

 

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