EDITOR’S NOTE: Holiday meals can be easy, nutritious and affordable when you’ve got recipes and tips from the Pioneer’s Kitchen Maven. Be sure to get her “Thrifty Cooking” cookbook for holiday gifts. Ordering information below – and proceeds from the cookbook sales benefit our local food bank! Here’s a link to the first in the series of tips for making Thanksgiving and all your holiday meals easy and good for everyone – https://www.tillamookcountypioneer.net/kitchen-maven-thrifty-nutritious-praiseworthy-holiday-celebrations-menu-options-more/
By Judith Yamada, Kitchen Maven
Scalloped Spiced Sweet Potatoes & Apples with walnuts & cranberries, Potato & Green Chile Stew, White Bean & Spinach Antipasto and Damper Bread are all delicious easy holiday (or any day) recipes to serve every diner at your holiday table. All are visually appealing for a beautiful spread, comforting and nutritious. With the addition of meat dish or dessert, these recipes might happily serve as the entire holiday lunch or dinner menu for most diets.
Spiced Scalloped Sweet Potatoes & Apples with Walnuts & Cranberries
(Gluten free and vegan or vegetarian)
People seem forever looking for a better sweet potato or yam recipe; something simple and wholesome (sans marshmallows – please) yet lovely to look at and even better if it’s filled with both nutrition and flavor. This original recipe takes about 10 minutes to prep and bakes without any checking and fussing. It makes an attractive (inexpensive) presentation for a special occasion, and you’ll be delighted with the simplicity and the taste.
1 Tablespoon salted butter or vegan margarine, for baking pan
2 or 3 medium Oregon garnet yams or sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced in ½ inch thick slices
3 or 4 large Oregon apples (two types if possible: (Fuji, Pink Lady, Golden Delicious), cored, partly peeled (in strips) and sliced in ¾ inch thick slices
¾ cup walnut chunks
½ cup raw Oregon cranberries – unsweetened (fresh or frozen)
¼ cup salted butter OR vegan margarine, melted
1/3 cup real maple syrup OR honey
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom OR ground coriander
Generously grease a 9” x 13” oven safe glass or ceramic baking pan with butter or vegan margarine. Preheat oven to 375º F. Place oven rack in center position
Alternate yam and apple slices (scallop) decoratively, in rows, in prepared baking pan
Sprinkle walnuts and cranberries over yams and apples:
In the saucepan melt the butter, combine the butter with maple syrup (or honey) cinnamon, black pepper, salt, nutmeg, and cardamom (or coriander). Pour syrup or honey mixture evenly over all in the baking dish.
Bake, covered with foil, at 375 F. for around 35 – 45 minutes. Remove from oven; uncover and serve. This is healthy, colorful, and almost like eating dessert. A good side dish with poultry, pork, bean and rice herb pilaf or stuffed winter squash. Serves 4. Easily doubled.
Original: Kitchen Maven
DUTCH OVEN DAMPER BREAD
(vegetarian or vegan)
Damper Bread is a vintage WW 2 rationing recipe from Australia. Many ingredients were hard to find and had to be purchased with stamps from food ration books. Items like sugar, butter and eggs could cost lots of stamps, so recipes had to be adapted to suit the needed thrift and distribution problems of the time. Notably baked over a campfire by Aussie swagmen, home cooks have learned to love its simplicity and good taste. Typically cooked in a Dutch oven or wrapped in foil over a campfire, this easy oven recipe is a nice fluffy but rustic quick bread for the holiday table. Looks nice too.
4 cups All-purpose Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
½ teaspoon Salt
3 tablespoons Salted butter or margarine chilled and cut in cubes
1 1/2 cups buttermilk OR unflavored unsweetened plant-based milk, soured with vinegar*
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.
Add cubed and chilled salted butter or margarine
Using your fingers, crumble the fat into the fat until the fat is barely visible.
Pour cold buttermilk in the middle of the flour mixture and stir until combined. Using your hands, combine it together into a sticky ball.
Lightly knead the dough on a floured surface just to form it into a round dough ball.
Heat the oven to 425° F.
Transfer dough to a lightly oiled Dutch oven.
Cut across on the top surface – halfway through into 8 wedges of dough. Don’t cut all the way through.
Close lid on Dutch oven and bake in the preheated oven for about 30 to 35 minutes.
Check if the bread is done just by tapping it on the top or bottom with your fingers. It will sound hollow when it’s done.
8 servings
*To sour unsweetened/unflavored plant-based milk, add one tablespoon vinegar to one cup plain plant based milk. Stir and allow to sit 5 minutes before using in recipe.
POTATO & GREEN CHILE STEW
(vegetarian or vegan, gluten free)
Economical, quick and satisfying, this stew, adapted from the recipe by Deborah Madison is perfect the day it’s made and even better the next day. Eat with a dollop of sour cream or plain Greek yogurt on top or prepare with water (instead of chicken broth), pass on the sour cream, and this is a satisfying and comforting vegan meal sprinkled with some shelled, roasted pumpkin seeds (pepitas).
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium large onion, diced
2 – 7-ounce cans mild fire roasted diced green chilies
1 teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon ground cumin
2-3 medium garlic cloves, minced
2 large russet potatoes or 1½ – 2 pounds smaller potatoes, peeled and chopped into 2-inch chunks
¾ -1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2-3 cups chicken broth OR water
Sour cream OR plain Greek yogurt to finish, optional
Chopped fresh cilantro OR parsley, optional
Heat the oil in a wide pot or Dutch oven. Add the onion and cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the diced chilies, coriander, cumin, garlic and potatoes along with salt and pepper; stir. Cook together for 3 minutes.
Add the broth or water. Bring to a boil, and then lower heat to a gentle but constant simmer. Cover and cook until the potatoes are completely soft, about 25 minutes.
Taste for seasoning. If desired, mash some of the potatoes to give the dish a creamy background texture.
Pour stew into bowls; add a dollop of sour cream, and the chopped cilantro, if using.
Serves 4
Adapted from original: Deborah Madison/Food 52
WHITE BEAN & SPINACH ANTIPASTO
(vegan, gluten free)
This quick well-balanced recipe, is holiday impressive and uses freezer and pantry ingredients along with a few fresh staples. Not only is it budget friendly but takes just minutes to prepare and is a quick flavorful and light meal for warmer days and a colorful side or starter for holiday tables. Serve it alongside crusty bread, garlic toast or warm rolls. This can be easily doubled.
1 – 10-ounce package frozen leaf spinach
1 – 15 ounce can great
northern beans OR other
white beans drained and
rinsed
1 cup red bell pepper, finely
diced
1 clove fresh garlic, grated or finely chopped
2 Tablespoons snipped fresh
chives OR finely chopped tops
of green onions
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Follow the package directions on the frozen spinach; don’t overcook. Drain, squeeze dry, and finely chop. In a bowl combine the spinach with the beans, bell pepper, garlic, chives, oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Serve chilled, with crusty bread or rolls or garlic toast. Serves 6 as appetizer, 3 as an entrée.
NEXT POST: Gardeners’ Seasonal Company Galette & Gardeners’ Crustless Pie, Oven Barbecued Turkey Legs, Tamari Aioli, Turkey Meatballs Stroganoff.
Many recipes in my posts are found in my cookbook, “Thrifty Comfort Cooking for Challenging Times”. The book is available through Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com. All (100%) of author royalties from retail sales of my cookbook go directly to the Oregon Food Bank, Tillamook Services, to assist families and individuals experiencing food insecurity.
Gift giving time is just around the corner. Purchasing this pantry friendly cookbook will benefit not only the recipient of the book, but people in need, as well. Living near Tillamook County or even in Portland, you can also purchase the book through Food Roots Farm to Table Marketplace for a sale price below that of following online sellers, and all proceeds will go directly to that non-profit organization. Thank you for your support.
Amazon.com: Thrifty Comfort Cooking for Challenging Times: 9780578310763: Berman-Yamada, Judith, Berman-Yamada, Judith: Books