Holiday Eating for Vegetarians

Marsala Mushroom Nut Loaf first came on my radar when I ordered it from a local vegetarian cafe for my Thanksgiving meal. I liked it enough that I was thrilled to find a recipe for it on food.com. Being itinerant musicians, my wife and I spend our Christmas dinner with the rest of the Walt Disney World Orchestra, so I decided to bring two loaves of this dish to our annual Christmas potluck. It's a great substitute for ham or turkey on any major holiday.

Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees and making a roux of sorts, consisting of half a cup of marsala wine, one tablespoon cornstarch, a quarter cup of whole-wheat flour (use sorghum flour for a gluten free version), a quarter teaspoon of dried rosemary, half a teaspoon of dried thyme and two and a half tablespoons of lemon juice. Whisk it until blended.

Saute a cup of chopped onions in one teaspoon of olive oil until they turn translucent. Then, after the onions are soft, add two cloves of minced garlic, two cups of chopped mushrooms, one cup of chopped walnuts (I ran out of walnuts and substituted pecans for the remainder with acceptable results), and three quarters of a cup of RAW cashews. Continue until everything is cooked through, stirring constantly and adding more olive oil as needed.

Add the "roux" and let the mixture thicken, which won't take long at all. Immediately press the mixture into a small loaf pan and bake for half an hour. (I doubled the recipe since I was cooking for a crowd)

My next dish was roasted root veggies. The beauty of this dish is you can make it with whatever you want. I used a beet, a sweet potato, a turnip and half a rutabaga, which came to about three pounds. I chopped them up into bite-size pieces, coated them with salt and olive oil, and put them in a large roasting pan, along with pieces of a large onion. Roast for about half an hour at 400 degrees, stirring after fifteen minutes to insure everything roasts evenly. After half an hour, put in a head of garlic (peeled but not minced, so that the cloves are whole) and continue roasting for an additional fifteen or twenty minutes. The beet juice dyed everything red, making it even more Christmas festive.

After roasting, add whatever seasoning you like. I used a prepackaged mixture of French Provencal herbs, but you could also improvise with dried rosemary and balsamic vinegar.