Dinner Plate #20

 

Here we have slices of Tofurky ham, some green bean casserole (recipe from Post Punk Kitchen), carrots with orange-ginger glaze (recipe from Reader's Digest Live Longer Cookbook (1992)), and mashed purple potatoes with a pat of extra vegan butter.

I'm not as into vegan roasts this year, but I had one in my freezer and I also didn't want to go a winter without green bean casserole. When I ran across part of a bag of crispy fried onions in my pantry, I knew that's what I had to do with them. I didn't have quite as many of the fried onions as I should have for this recipe, but it was still delicious. It always is.

With the ham and the casserole, I figured I would want mashed potatoes, so I boiled and mashed the rest of my purple potatoes. I was concerned that they wouldn't turn out to be pretty, but they stayed pretty vibrant! Adding the soy milk I usually put in tinged them a bit blue, but otherwise, I think the color held up well.

And with all that, it reminded me of childhood Christmas dinners, so I made the nostalgic-for-me glazed carrots. I linked the recipe here, but I cooked it from the physical book. I tend to cook the carrots longer than directed, because I prefer mine to be softer, but you can do what you like. I have always really liked this recipe. You can sub maple syrup or brown sugar for the honey, though here I used vegan honey with good results.

One thing that always feels odd to me about vegetable recipes is how little the authors seem to expect you to eat, in contrasts to main dishes, where you're expected to eat huge portions. I usually devour my vegetables before I run out of other things as I work my way through my leftovers. The carrot recipe is meant to serve four, but that means I'm rationing my carrots if I'm really intending to have them four times.

Oh, well. Next time I'll remember and make more carrots.