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November 20, 2009 11:59 am
Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
Thanksgiving favorites can all be made in healthful, flavorful ways, as the columnist Martha Rose Shulman writes in this week’s Recipes for Health:
A Vegetarian Thanksgiving
Vegetable dishes to fill your holiday table.
- Squash Raviolo With Walnut Cream
- Mark Bittman’s Top 12
- Turnip and Pear Purée
- Dr. Weil’s Stress-Free Squash Soup
- Kale Salad and Parsnip Purée
- Going Vegetarian for Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving dinner doesn’t have to be the kickoff to a month of holiday overeating, ending with a regretful New Year’s resolution and a January diet. The holiday can be festive, even indulgent, without dishes loaded with fats and salt.
Ms. Shulman presents five Thanksgiving-themed recipes worthy of any health-conscious celebrant’s thanks.
Wild Rice, Almond and Mushroom Stuffing or Pilaf: Use it to stuff turkeys or as a stand-alone side dish.
Savory Cornbread Stuffing: A sweet, grainy cornbread that can be served plain, or turned into a cornbread and sage stuffing.
Mushroom Ragout ‘Gravy’: Skip the fat-laden gravy for this ragout made from mushrooms and fresh herbs.
Sweet Potato, Pumpkin and Apple Puree: You won’t miss the candied yams with this sweet and tart treat.
Cranberry-Orange Relish: A super-fast alternative to cooked (or canned) cranberry sauce.
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Joan in California November 20, 2009 · 2:57 pm
Years ago a friend introduced me to a version of sweet potatoes that are savory rather than sweet.
If you believe that a bit of fat, even saturated, is not as bad as adding all the brown sugar, pineapple, and marshmallow, you might just like this version.
My friend did this as a sort of twice baked potato dish, but you can mash and serve or rebake it as a casserole.
Instead of the sweet additions you use sharp cheese and top with crumbled bacon. She used the bacon grease, but you can use some not-butter instead.
Anyway, start with non-canned sweets or yams. Bake or microwave them. For each fist sized potatoes figure a quarter cup of grated sharp cheddar added to the mashed cooked potato. If you need to do so, put a couple tablespoons of butter or not-butter to get the sweets to a good mashed consistency. You can always subsitute broth for the butter adding a spoonful at a time to keep the fat content confined to the cheese and bacon pieces.
To gild the lily fry some bacon to crisp (microwave works fine here) pat dry, crumble onto the potato dish.
If you’re in no mood for healthful at this point, use the bacon grease instead of the soft butter, non-butter, or broth when you mash the potatoes.
When I make this for a quick supper for myself, I just cook the potato in the microwave, scoop, mash with some not-butter, and mix in some grated parmesan. Just as tasty as cheddar and less work. No gourmet me, I buy the refrigerated grated parmesan from TJ’s.
Warning: cheese is salty as is bacon and bacon grease;
taste before seasoning.
One final suggestion. Try this with one or two sweet potatoes first in case it doesn’t meet your expectations.
krishnamurthi ramachandran November 20, 2009 · 3:26 pm
Very good article on this subject.
As per medical knowledge goes, always sweet potato is good for health and for especially , for growing children, adults, students and to some senior citizens, who faces less weight, muscles weak in doing their actions from time to time, this root of type of vegetables are good in health.
Sweet potato provides, retains calcium, and get some balanced fats for general health.
Today, i have decided to give new recipe for our people.
Take some sweet potato , clean it with proper water, do not take its skin, and put it into pressure cooker with adequate water for few minutes boiling.
In the meanwhile, have a fry pan, put some reasonable quantity of mustard, ginger, pepper, some red or cold chillies, some less pint of turmeric powder, curry leaves, black gram cereals ,then season it with small quantities of olive oil or with some vegetable oil, burn it for some brown color and mix it with already boiled sweet potato.
then, boil with small cup of green gram cereal in a pressur e cooker , then mix with this cereal with already prepare sweet potato , stir up and have through mixing.
A well interested, well prepared sweet potato vegetable curry for ready for mixed rice and it can give with bread.
This is a wonderful South Indian favored dishes for all.
Pamela Gwyn Kripke November 21, 2009 · 10:38 am
To the cornbread/sage stuffing….add chopped apples to the onion and celery mixture, saute and then combine with the cornbread. The sweetness is a nice kick.
heartMonitron November 28, 2009 · 12:50 pm
The low-fat gravy recipe suggested by Martha Rose Shulman is wonderful for turkey-based meals. Very often, we scrap the healthy profile of a recipe by covering it with a sauce or vinaigrette that cancels all of the health benefits of an otherwise perfect meal. I find that the suggested mushroom gravy recipe is more than a substitute recipe, it is an example of better and healthier ways of enhancing a meal.
heartmonitron November 29, 2009 · 2:43 pm
The low-fat gravy recipe suggested by Martha Rose Shulman is wonderful for turkey-based meals. Very often, we scrap the healthy profile of a recipe by covering it with a sauce or vinaigrette that cancels all of the health benefits of an otherwise perfect meal. This sauce contains a lot less fat than our usual gravy. I find that the suggested mushroom gravy recipe is more than a substitute recipe, it is an example of better and healthier ways of enhancing a meal. But I wonder what happens to the taste if you also skim the fat off the top of the stock.
Gena December 9, 2009 · 12:06 pm
I live and work in a drug rehab and work very long hours. I need recipes that are easy preperation and quick. Suggestions, please.
Mona November 1, 2010 · 11:48 am
The NYTIMES Thanksgiving recipe catalog from last year or the year before was FABULOUS! A big, big hit among vegetarians. I remember the orange-scented sweet potatoes were part of that collection as well as brussel sprouts with apples. Oh! and some zucchini cakes with a garlicky sour cream dip that my sister L O V E D! Thanks for giving vegetarians an opportunity to cherish this holiday meal just as much as everyone else.
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