What to Serve? Diet Restriction Dilemmas

Holiday cooking Keep simple for diff erent diet restrictions? it

By STACY THOMAS

If you’ve hosted any group meals lately, it’s possible you’ve navigated a sticky web of different dietary requirements, such as glutenfree, vegan, vegetarian, paleo, vegetarian-buteats-fi sh-and-cheese, vegan-and-can’t-even-lookat-cheese-except-if-it’s-on-gluten-free-pizza, keto or lactose intolerance. It can get hectic for a host trying to accommodate all of the different restrictions that people have these days. For local chef Clare Stenham-Brown of The Turmeric Trailer, who has been cooking exclusively vegan whole foods since 2018, cooking for many different requirements doesn’t need to be complicated. It can even be delicious. Thinking about dietary restrictions can seem like taking all the fun out of a meal that’s supposed to be the highlight of the year. A host can feel like they’re just fi nding ways to make sure their guests get something, anything to eat. “For Christmas, that’s not what you’re looking to do. You’re looking to indulge and have something that you can enjoy, and that’s delicious. So, it can be challenging for sure,” Stenham-Brown says. Keeping it simple is the key. “First, I wouldn’t even try to accommodate all the different things. Look to create one meal for everyone to enjoy, rather than catering to many different requirements. You’re less stressed, you’re not going to be cooking 10 different things, and it feels more inclusive that way, too.” In order to help everyone feel included and to keep your recipe planning as simple as possible,

Clare Stenham-Brown’s Vegan Mashed Potato recipe

(approx serving: two people — prep time: five mins; cook time: 20 mins)

Ingredients

600g Russet Potatoes 75g Margarine/Vegan Butter 1 Large clove garlic 1/2 cup of Oat Milk Pinch Salt Pinch Pepper Toppings (optional) - Sliced chives or green onion

Instructions

Peel potatoes, cut into even-sized pieces and place in a large stockpot of cold water to cover. Boil until soft for approx 10 to 12 minutes until a knife inserted into the middle of the potato will go in with no resistance. Meanwhile, finely chop or mince garlic into a small pan and add the butter. Melt on a low heat to infuse the butter with the garlic flavour; the longer the better & the butter shouldn’t bubble; just melt gently. Once the potatoes are drained, add them back to the stockpot and add in the melted garlic butter, milk and seasoning. Mash the potatoes until smooth, adding more milk or butter as needed until a creamy consistency. Taste and check for seasoning adjustments. Serve and enjoy!

Stenham-Brown recommends designing a complete meat- and dairy-free menu. “Straight away, take out all the dairy, all the animal products that people might be choosing not to or might not be able to eat,” she says. “A wholefood, plant-based diet seems to be achievable for most people, so just using fruit and vegetables whenever you can, there are not too many things can go wrong, I find.” Okay, how do I do that? You might be thinking. Get creative, get Googling, read reviews and use sites like Pinterest as resources for trying new recipes that might be out of your traditional wheelhouse. Letting go of the attachment to the traditional turkey-and-sides holiday dinner can open up all sorts of possibilities for new and interesting dishes on the table that are just as delicious, if not more so. “It just requires a bit more thought,” says StenhamBrown. “It doesn’t have to be challenging; it doesn’t have to be scary. It’s just learning to cook and think in a new way. When you open your eyes to the world of possibilities and all these different flavours, and ingredients you might not have used before, it’s actually quite exciting.” Instead of the usual turkey, she plans to prepare a stuffed-and-roasted butternut squash as the centrepiece of her holiday meal. “Stuff it with cranberries, quinoa, lentils, onions, garlic, herbs, spices, all of those gorgeous flavours that you would traditionally stuff a bird with; lemon, apple — you can put in butternut squash and roast that, and it’s delicious. It also requires carving, and it’s a substantial piece of food that’s going on a chopping board in the middle of the table and can be served family-style. I think that’s a really beautiful alternative. “The flavours that you can get into the stuffing mix is completely comparable, if not better, than what you would be doing with a traditional roast, and you’re not getting all that dry white meat that nobody really wants.” A nut or lentil loaf, with the herbs and spices found in traditional stuffing, can also be a great alternative to carving a turkey. Or, for those really wanting the experience of eating a meat roast, there are premade alternatives, like Tofurkey-type products you can buy in the grocery store, but those tend to be overprocessed and not very healthy, Stenham-Brown says. However, they do come closer to the texture and taste of a turkey roast. But that’s not the point, she says. “You’re never going to get close to the flavour and textures of what you’ve been used to, or what you’re expecting. So rather than trying to substitute, I would say think about it in a whole different way. My way would be to just say, ‘We’re not doing a traditional Christmas dinner; we’re doing something brand new.’ And to switch the mindset completely. You’re really missing nothing in terms of texture or flavour. It’s just the traditional idea of the meat and the two veg. I’m pretty sure everybody’s really in it for all the other good stuff.”