Holiday Vegetarian Cooking

Published by Carolin on Tagged recipes, Vegetarian, Salads

Well the holidays are coming up. For the United States they will be celebrating Thanksgiving in a couple of weeks and then for many of us we will be celebrating the Christmas season. We seem to do a lot of cooking at this time of year and we seem to do a lot of eating as well. The cooking we do is usually heavier than usual. It is just the season and by the end of it our waist are feeling the results of it. I find though even during the season I start to crave lighter and healthier foods. I don’t know if it just my body saying stop with the over load. But I know there are days that I have to say stop and just eat light. Now one of the ways I find myself cooking is vegetarian. I have a lot of vegetarian recipes that seem to be on the lighter side and a lot of them are in the salad form. The thing that is nice about vegetarian cooking during this season is for one thing if you are having a lot of company coming and going you are bound to have a vegetarian in the crowd. The second thing is it is nice to slip one of these dishes among the heavier dishes to give a nice balance. Believe me your body will thank you by the end of the season and so will your company

The recipe I am going to share with you can be served as a salad or you could even go so far and have it for your lunch with a bit of crusty bread. It is extremely refreshing and healthy. It has garbanzo beans in it so you will defiantly get your protein if you are worried about that. Try this salad or other vegetarian dishes especially during this season just to give your body a break.

Moroccan Salad

½ lb small mushrooms cleaned
1 can garbanzo beans drained
1 cup black olives
¾ cup chopped green onions
1 red pepper chopped
1 yellow or orange pepper chopped (you could use green)
1 dozen cherry tomatoes

Dressing
1cup yogurt
½ cup mayonnaise
2 garlic cloves minced
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp turmeric
Salt and pepper

Toss salad ingredients together. Whisk dressing ingredients together. Pour over salad. Mix. Chill for several hours or over night.

How simple is that.
Just a little note. I only use mushrooms if I can get small ones. I find if you start chopping them up they tend to go on the slimy side. I usually substitute celery or peas if I can’t get small mushrooms.

TIP OF THE DAY

Store your mushrooms in a paper bag in the fridge. Do not use plastic, as they will start to get mushy.