I need your help. I haven’t gotten my Thanksgiving meal assignment(s) yet, but I’m worried I’ll get asked to bring a vegetable side dish again (and I don’t mean carrot and celery sticks).
It’s not that I don’t like vegetables; quite the contrary. It’s just that I tend to prefer simply and freshly cooked vegetables, served immediately. That approach doesn’t work when you’re carting in the dish and when the stove at the destination is liable to be busy with gravy-making and other last-minute details.
Not being a huge fan of the now-ubiquitous green-bean casserole (you know the one), I’m looking for suggestions. In the past, I’ve tried steaming vegetables in advance and then reheating with butter or some fancier sauce. The results have been OK. I’d like to do something better than OK.
The Julia Child’s Braised Belgian Endive recipe (search or scroll down through the article, also available in The Way to Cook) sounds as though it might work, but I’d love to do something green.
Here are my requirements, which seem minimal but are enough to flummox me:
- Must be able to hold up to an hour. A last minute but brief warm-up by way of microwave, conventional oven or stove top is OK.
- Must be primarily green, meaning not primarily potatoes, carrots, turnips and so forth.
Can you help?
Nick // Nov 13, 2007 at 1:29 pm
How do you feel about salads? I green salad won’t hold up great for a long time, but a parsley salad will, as will a raw mustard green salad (check http://www.cookthink.com for the recipe for the mustard greens). Both of those have fairly strong flavors though. Another idea, one that is admittedly not green, is celeriac remoulade. Basically grated celery root, which is then blanched, dressed with a mayonnaise-like sauce, and served chilled. Lately, I’ve also been wanting to try a variation on this substituting beetroot for the celery root; both can stand up and still have some crunch after the grating and blanching process.
Nick // Nov 13, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Something else I just thought of: coleslaw seems to fit your requirements. And if you dislike the traditional sweet, gloppy dressing (as many people seem to), I’ve found that a sweet and sour vinaigrette works very well.
Nick // Nov 13, 2007 at 1:42 pm
And yet another (not green) idea: http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2007/11/a_healthy_thank.html
Nick // Nov 13, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Another one: Blanch then shock a bunch of broccoli florets and/or stems (or substitute julienned kohlrabi) and dress with garlic mayonnaise.
I’m starting to wish I could edit my comments :)
Janet Majure // Nov 13, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Wow, Nick. Thanks for your responses. I do like salads, but my family will consider that a separate dish from the (green) vegetable.
The cauliflower recipe you linked to sounds simple and tasty and could be dressed up with some parsley. (Doesn’t that make it a green vegetable?) I do wonder why they don’t just steam the vegetables and make the sauce with the 1/3 cup milk; hate to think of wasting all that milk.
Sorry about not having a “preview” and “edit” feature on the comments. I’ll add that to my list of improvements I’d like to make once I (a) make a bunch of money and can afford to pay someone to do the improvements or (b) find a bunch of spare time to do it myself. In other words, it won’t happen soon!
Kei // Nov 13, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Why not just roast some beets and winter squash together with some onions? It’s really easy to make, is very symbolic of fall and will go really well with turkey. You just get a mess of beets, delicata squash and some onions, halve the beets and squash, quarter the onions, scoop the seeds out of the squash and then dump some olive oil on top.
You can add whatever herbs suit you, although I would probably use sage and maybe some thyme. Pop it in the oven at 350 and 45 minutes later you have a colorful vegetable dish replete with soft, semi-caramelized onions. If you want greens, too, you can reserve the beet greens and either sautee them with garlic and a touch of soy sauce or pickle them with garlic or onions in unpasteurized apple cider vinegar (like Bragg’s).
And what is the story with green bean casserole? Is that really a holiday staple? I’d never encountered it until I went to Christmas dinner with a friend in Minnesota.
Janet Majure // Nov 13, 2007 at 7:37 pm
Oh, Kei, you’ve lived a sheltered life. The green been casserole appeared, I think, sometime in the 1960s when making things from canned soup was in vogue. I think it stuck around because it does fulfill that make-ahead vegetable requirement, and people who are accustomed to eating processed foods don’t mind the salt.
Your suggestion, meanwhile, sounds really good. I love beets and winter squash. Don’t know about the rest of the family, alas, although I suppose that’s their problem. Meanwhile, I remembered a roasted vegetable dish that a friend made last year. It included Brussels sprouts (green!) and was delicious at room temp. Could be the ticket. I’ll post it if I find it.
Diane // Nov 14, 2007 at 6:44 pm
You can do asparagus with a little olive oil in the oven a few minutes at 450 (If you don’t have this method I can send it to you). Then just heat it a little when you want to serve it (does not need to be very hot) Our favorite sauce is 3 parts mayonnaise to one part mustard and vinegar and salt and pepper. The sauce is good on broccoli, too.
Maxine // Nov 14, 2007 at 6:46 pm
This is good and make ahead. Use:
broccoli
red, yellow, and orange peppers
whatever vegetables you like…
Boil BRIEFLY-1 minute
Put in oven proof dish, drizzle with olive oil,and bake on low temp. basically just to keep warm
Kei // Nov 15, 2007 at 2:45 pm
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003664556
Apparently, I *have* left a sheltered life if I’ve managed to avoid eating something that gets prepared 30 million times between Thanksgiving and Christmas every year.
Janet Majure // Nov 16, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Thanks, Diane and Maxine. I have now officially drawn the vegetable card for Thanksgiving. I think I’m going to do some kind of roasted vegetable dish. If it turns out well, I’ll post it later in case anybody wants to use it for some other upcoming holiday or feast.
Kei, Thanks for the link—I think. That 30 million figure is scary! So much for real food!
And the vegetable-dish winner is… | foodperson.com // Nov 25, 2007 at 9:32 pm
[...] all due deliberation of the many suggestions in the Make-ahead vegetable challenge, I went with Roasted Vegetables with Pecan Gremolata from Bon Apetit for the Thanksgiving vegetable [...]
Another Diane // Dec 20, 2008 at 6:10 pm
I need a make ahead vegi for about 25. I would love green, but every recipe, other than roasted vegetables, that I have found is loaded with cream of something soup and/or tons of cheese - not very healthy. I once had a recipe for a “casserole” of zucchini with cracker crumbs and no sauce. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Janet Majure // Dec 22, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Hello, Another Diane. I don’t think I’m familiar with the dish you describe, although I can think of one that uses zucchini and tomatoes. Still, I never cook those in winter, so I’m no help. Just the same, I decided this topic needed revisiting, so see today’s post, http://foodperson.com/2008/12/22/make-ahead-vegetables-minus-the-cream/.