Vegetarian Christmas

Once again, I’m facing the need to combine my cultural traditions with the local ones. We already have two Christmas trees to signal our two Christmases, and now I have to figure out how to make, process and digest two huge meals within a single week: Christmas and New Year’s.

So I have come up with a genius idea: vegetarian Christmas! It’s tricky to come up with a festive dinner that is both vegetarian and special enough for Christmas but here is what I have planned:

1. Carrot and walnut salad;

2. Egg and Happy Cow salad;

3. Beets and prunes salad;

4. Avocado and Chinese pear salad;

5. Mushroom julienne. 

P.S. People asked for the recipe for the wild mushroom and edible flower risotto. Here it is:

First, make the risotto, as usual. Heat up some olive oil in a pan, add a cup of arborio rice, put it in the pan, and mix around until every grain is covered with hot olive oil. Squeeze out several cloves of garlic onto the pan. Add a cup of port and wait for the alcohol to evaporate. Then start gradually adding the stock. Keep moving the rice around and only add stock in small portions. Then start adding wild mushrooms. They need a while to get cooked, so don’t wait too long. When the rice is almost ready, add half of the edible flowers. Then add some parsley. At the very end, add shredded Parmesan cheese. After the rice is cooked to al dente state, decorate it with the most beautiful of the edible flowers.

It’s crucial not to overcook the rice! Nothing is worse than risotto that has turned into a big, cement-like glop. I’m saying this from painful personal experience.