Hello again. I’ve unintentionally taken a few weeks’ hiatus from blogging, but I’m back. I had a busy couple of weekends and found myself spending all my spare energy on the self-care practices that I need to do just to feel good–exercising, yoga, meditating, practicing qigong. Not that all of it always happens, but I need to do some of these things every day. Anyway, I’ve got a blessedly relaxed weekend now, *with nice weather* to boot, and I’ve got a friend coming over for dinner, so things are looking good.
I like cooking, so whenever anyone comes over I get excited about what I can cook for new people. I’m going to hash out my plant-based dinner party menu, which is easy, largely do-ahead, and accessible to people who may not be as adventurous as I am about Weird Food. Of course, all these dishes are delicious on their own, and are in my somewhat-regular rotation.
Dinner Party Menu
Trendy Kale Salad
Spaghetti and Lentil-Mushroom Meatballs
Blood Orange Upside Down Cake (this will get its own post later this week)
White Sangria
So, let’s get cracking.
The easiest way to make a multicourse meal is to make stuff ahead. Last night I made my favorite lemon tahini dressing and massaged it into most of a big bag of pre-chopped raw kale. For a long time I was a kale salad skeptic. I grew up eating kale cooked. I thought it was to fibrous or something to eat raw. But then I read an old Serious Eats post about how oil gets into the waxy coating on the leaves, and it made a lot more sense. Bring on the kale salad! Leave your marinating kale in the fridge overnight.
The other thing I did last night was start on the lentil meatballs. I last made these guys for New Year’s Eve, and they were a big hit. They taste really meaty, but they’re super healthy (lentils are a good source of iron). I made some extra of these so I’ll have them to eat for lunch this week. This is my go-to recipe, from Oh My Veggies last December. I followed the instructions until the step before the rolling and baking part, and parked my lentil “meat” in the fridge overnight. All I have to do today is roll and bake them.
As an aside, I’ve learned that plant-based cooking often reverses the amount of time and effort it takes to cook things. Lasagna and enchiladas get easier and faster when you don’t have to brown meat, but on the flip side, when you want legumes and mushrooms to behave like meat, it takes a little more work than regular old meat would. Just, you know, cooking can be funny.
I use whole wheat spaghetti from a box, and marinara from a jar. I like to mince about 6 cloves of garlic and saute it in a tablespoon of olive oil and then put the jarred sauce in the pan with the garlic, which just makes jarred sauce more awesome. We add crushed red pepper too, because we’re like that.
This morning, I made the cake and the sangria, so all I have to do this evening is boil pasta, heat sauce, bake meatballs, and chop up some other veggies to throw on the kale salad. Probably a red bell pepper, a little onion, and some carrots.
Which brings us to the sangria. I’m in the mood for a white sangria, so I busted out my finest Charles Shaw Pinot Grigio. In your pitcher goes about 1 1/2 cups chopped fruit. I’m still on a blood orange kick, so I used one blood orange and about 8 big strawberries from the big container I bought the other day. Throw in 1/4 cup of triple sec and 1/4 cup of pineapple juice (other kinds of juice would be nice too–mango? pomegranate?) and upend your whole bottle of wine into the pitcher as well. Give it a stir and park it in the fridge. Sangria gets better when you give it a few hours in the fridge.
So, there you go! Complete dinner party without animal products! What do you like to cook for guests?
Flourishing with MS 