Do you know any vegetarians? Of course you do.  There's your temperamental teen-age niece, boomer parents, or in my case a four-year old who leans towards vegetarian eating habits and is gluten-free to boot.

A recent survey claims that 3% of Americans are said to be practicing a vegetarian diet, and many of those vegetarian's live in homes with meat eaters.  This clash of the palates can often lead to dinnertime drama and fights over what to cook. 

And who wants to cook two completely different meals? While some may not mind that additional work in the kitchen, in today's world where time is always of the essence a better solution is definitely needed. Enter cookbook author Ivy Manning.  She's learned first hand how to deal with this conundrum: she's a carnivore and her husband is a vegetarian.  Fortunately, for those of us with mixed-diet homes, she decided it was time someone wrote a cookbook with real choices. In her newest release, "The Adaptable Feast", she shares how easy it is to prepare meals that everyone can enjoy. 

Her technique is pretty straight forward; prepare meals as you normally would, which for the most part means including a starch, protein, and vegetable, but find finding a suitable substitute for the protein portion so that the meal pleases both vegetarians and omnivores is portion.

For example in her Chili with Cornbread Biscuit topping recipe (see below), she prepares a  spicy chili with corn, squash, and beans for the vegetarians. For the omnivores she simply adds a little ground buffalo meat to a separate serving. Both dishes are topped with the Cornbread topping.

All it takes is a little creative thinking, two different meals without all the fuss. 

Another great example is the Roasted Squash or Shrimp Bisque (see recipe below), you start out by making a vegetable based Squash soup using silken tofu instead of cream to give it that silky consistency that we love so much in a bisque. When the soup is finished you set aside enough for your vegetarians then add in some shrimp with a quick shrimp stock to the remaining soup which adds another dimension of flavor for the meat eaters. 

These recipes, as with the others in Adaptable Feast, are the perfect compromise for mixed-diet homes. 

Chili with Cornbread Biscuit Topping

From Adaptable Feast by Ivy Manning, Sasquatch Books 2009

Serves 1 to 2 vegetarians and 3 omnivores

The combination of corn, squash, and beans makes this spicy chili much more interesting than the rather uninspired (and sodium-laced) canned chilis we are all familiar with. I add ground buffalo meat to the omnivore portion; buffalo has more flavor and less fat than traditional ground beef. both versions are capped with a fluffy cornbread biscuit topping to make this much jazzier than your everyday bowl o' soup.

Chili:

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 1 Anaheim chile, seeded and chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons New Mexican chile powder
• 5 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 2 pinches ground cloves
• One 28-ounce can diced tomatoes with juice
• 1 1/2 cups Roasted Vegetable Stock (page 227) or packaged
• vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup corn kernels, fresh or frozen
• One 15-ounce can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 cup peeled and finely diced winter squash (see tip)
• 1 pound ground buffalo meat or lean ground beef, browned
• and drained
  

Topping:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup cold butter, finely diced
• 2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon buttermilk
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese

1. Heat the oil in a 3-quart oven-safe sauté pan or skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and chile and sauté until the onions are translucent and begin to brown, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic, chile powder, cumin, paprika, and cloves; continue to sauté for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, stock, brown sugar, and salt and bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer, and cook for 30 minutes. Stir in the corn and beans and continue to cook over low heat.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, cornmeal, and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Add the butter and rub it into the flour mixture with your fingertips until the butter is in tiny pieces. Add the buttermilk and toss with a fork until the dough begins to come together. Gather the dough with your hands and knead it gently on a lightly floured surface 2 or 3 times to create a cohesive dough. Divide the dough into 7 pieces and flatten them into 2- to 21/2-inch-round biscuits about 1/2 inch thick.

3. Vegetarian: Ladle 2 cups of the chili into a 1-quart baking dish and stir in the squash. Top with 2 biscuits and 1/4 cup of the cheese.

4. Stir the browned meat into the remaining chili. Place the remaining 5 biscuits on top of the chili in the sauté pan, spacing the biscuits 1 inch apart (they will expand while baking). Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

5. Transfer both the pan and baking dish to the oven. Bake until the biscuits are golden brown and a knife inserted in the center of the largest biscuit comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Serve immediately.

Tip: If peeling and dicing winter squash is on your list of least favorite chores, take heart! Uncooked diced squash is available in the freezer section of grocery stores and can be used instead.

Roasted Squash or Shrimp Bisque

From Adaptable Feast by Ivy Manning, Sasquatch Books 2009

Serves 2 vegetarians and 4 omnivores

Bisques are an elegant French invention that often feature shrimp or lobster and always tip the scale of creamy luxuriousness and calories. this soup has a similar silky texture, but it is thick and creamy thanks to protein-rich silken tofu, not cream. a touch of curry powder gives the vegetarian bisque its earthy flavor; the omnivores' version is shellfish-errific thanks to chopped shrimp and a simple stock made from shrimp shells.

• 1 1/2 pounds butternut or other winter squash, such as Hubbard
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 8 ounces shrimp, peeled and deveined, shells reserved
• 1 chicken bouillon cube, crumbled
• 11/2 cups water
• 11/2 cups chopped onion
• 1 small leek, white and green parts only, chopped
• 1 large carrot, finely chopped
• 1 medium celery stalk, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 3 to 4 cups Roasted Vegetable Stock (page 227) or packaged
• vegetable stock
• 1 bay leaf
• 8 ounces silken tofu, drained
• 4 teaspoons dry sherry
• Cayenne
• 2 pinches curry powder
• Chopped chives for garnish
  

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Peel the squash, halve it lengthwise, and scrape out the seeds and stringy bits. Cut the flesh into 1-inch cubes and toss with 1 tablespoon of the oil. Place on the prepared baking sheet, sprinkle with the salt and pepper, and roast until the cubes are tender, about 40 minutes. Turn on the broiler and broil the cubes until they are browned and caramelized around the edges, about 3 minutes. Remove and set aside.

2. While the squash is roasting, put the shrimp shells, bouillon cube, and the water in a small saucepan. Bring to boil, reduce the heat, and simmer gently for 20 minutes. Strain and set aside.

3. Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the onions, leeks, carrots, and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables have softened, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and tomato paste and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the wine and bring to a simmer, scraping browned bits from the bottom of the pan, and cook until reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Stir in the squash, 3 cups of the vegetable stock, and bay leaf. Reduce heat to a maintain a gentle simmer. Cover and cook for 20 minutes. Remove the bay leaf. Add the tofu and blend with an immersion blender, or blend in batches in a blender with the lid slightly ajar to allow steam to escape. Return to the pot, stir in the sherry, and season with salt, pepper, and cayenne.

4. Vegetarian: Transfer 2 cups of the bisque to a small pan. Add the curry powder and enough vegetable stock to reach the desired onsistency. Keep warm over medium-low heat.

5. Add the strained shrimp-shell stock and shrimp to the remaining bisque in the pot and bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Cook until the hrimp are cooked through, about 3 minutes.

6. Divide the soups among the bowls, sprinkle with the chives, and serve.

About Adaptable Feast

After marrying a vegetarian, meat-lover Ivy Manning developed a collection of recipes that each had a "fork in the road" to a few vegetarian servings of a meaty dish or a few omnivore servings of a vegetarian dish. Over the years, the author has assembled a diverse and delicious array of recipes from cuisines worldwide that are flexible enough to accommodate everyone at the table. Typical entries in this beautifully illustrated cookbook include elegant Japanese Eggplant and Halibut with Miso Glaze, and a sumptuous Spaghetti Carbonara for gourmands of all persuasions.

Available at Amazon.com

PermaLink