Meatless Monday: Vegan Vegetarian Chanukah Thanksgiving Recipes by Suz deMello (2024)

GuestBlogger: Suz deMello

Photocourtesy Suz deMello

Happy Meatless Monday! Café Belinda is proud as punch towelcome back an old friend, best-selling,award-winning author Suz deMello, a.k.a Sue Swift. I asked Suz to discussan incredibly rare event this holiday season: the coinciding of Chanukah andThanksgiving. She’s also got a couple quick and easy Kosher vegetarian recipes to share forThanksmukah. Check out her previous Meatless Monday guest posts here.

Thanksmukahand Other Culinary Dilemmas

This year, both the American holiday of Thanksgiving and theJewish celebration of Chanukah fall on the same day. I’m told that this has nothappened for 70,000 years and will not reoccur for another 70,000. That is tosay, it has never happened before because the Jewish religion is less than 6,000years old. And, though the first fabled Thanksgiving took place in 1621, itwasn’t declared a holiday until 1789, when President Washington declared theday to be one of “thanksgiving and prayer.”

For vegetarians, this time of year presents dilemmas, butuntil 2013, Chanukah was delightfully non-controversial. The favored foods wereeither potato latkes if your family’s Ashkenazi, and doughnuts if you’reSephardic. The celebratory foods arefried because the miracle of Chanukah was that a small amount of oil allowedthe “eternal light” in the main temple of Jerusalem to remain aglow for eightdays. This all took place in about 165 BCE.

So what foods should a “Thanksmukah” celebration feature?

In an omnivorous household, the roast turkey would takepride of place alongside side dishes that would include all the traditionalfavorites including potato latkes, and perhaps feature doughnuts as anon-traditional dessert.

As a vegetarian, I often take creative approaches toholidays and shape them to my needs and to the needs of my large extendedfamily. Because we are a large group, with multiple important relationships,time on Thanksgiving Day is often scarce. One of my nieces, for example, is achild of divorced parents and was engaged to a man who was in the samesituation. They therefore had four Thanksgiving celebrations theyfelt obligated to attend. Needless to say, they became truly sick of turkey,stuffing and pumpkin pie!

Here’s a creative approach--Instead of enduring the stressof a giant sit-down dinner for a gazillion people, how about a casual buffetbrunch?

ChanukahThanksgiving Menu

Potato latkes served with applesauce and sour cream

Pumpkin frittata

Fruit salad

Coffee and tea

And here’s a couple of recipes:

PotatoLatkes

1-2 bags frozen hash browns

Grated onions or dried chives

One egg, beaten

Matzoh meal

Salt

Pepper

Safflower oil

Applesauce

Sour cream

You can grate the potatoes yourself but it’s far easier tobuy a bag or two of frozen hash browns. Defrost them in a colander to allow themoisture to drip out, then add some grated onions (also available ready-to-use)or dried chives. Throw enough in so that the chives will add pleasant greenflecks to the mixture. Add a beaten egg and enough matzoh meal to holdeverything together, plus salt and pepper to taste.

Use a frying pan large enough to hold a number of latkeswithout crowding. Pour in enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan, about aquarter of an inch deep, and use an oil that can tolerate high heat, such assafflower oil.

Heat the oil. Wet your hands and shape the latkes into patties about the samesize as an average burger patty, making sure that they are thin enough to cookthrough without burning but thick enough to hold together. After cooking onboth sides to a golden-brown, drain the excess oil from each latke using papertowels. Serve while hot with dollops or dishes of applesauce and sour cream.

PumpkinFrittata—serves 6

A frittata is a baked egg dish sort of like quiche withoutthe crust. Use a cast iron pan that can go from stovetop to oven.

6 eggs

1 ounce of grated cheese

Half cup of grated fresh pumpkin

Half cup of grated fresh zucchini

2 teaspoons butter

Salt, pepper, nutmeg and cinnamon to taste

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Beat together the eggs,cheese and seasonings. Melt the butter in the bottom of the pan on the stovetopand add the vegetables, cooking until they’re soft. Add the egg mixture,stirring everything together. Cook for a few minutes then transfer the pan tothe preheated oven, allowing it to cook through. Cut into pieces and servepromptly.

AboutSuz

Best-selling, award-winning author SuzdeMello, a.k.a Sue Swift, has written over sixteen romance novels in severalsubgenres, including erotica, comedy, historical, paranormal, mystery andsuspense, plus a number of short stories and non-fiction articles on writing. Afreelance editor, she’s worked for Total-E-Bound, Liquid Silver Books and AiPress, where she is currently Managing Editor. She also takes private clients.

Her books have been favorably reviewed in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus and Booklist, won a contest or two,attained the finals of the RITA and hit several bestseller lists.

A former trial attorney, her passion is worldtravel. She’s left the US over a dozen times, including lengthy stints workingoverseas. She’s now writing a vampire tale and planning her next trip.

--She tweets her reading picks@ReadThis4fun