It's easy to serve vegetarian

MICHELLE DODEK

For years, vegetarians have attended traditional seders and sat hungrily as a parade of meaty dishes arrived at the table. Pity not only the vegetarians, but conscientious hosts, who stressed for weeks before the seder trying to come up with something meatless to make so their guests will eat and feel included. As if planning a seder isn't enough work, to have to find a parve main course may feel like too much to handle. Emancipate yourselves, seder makers! Here are some suggestions to make everyone, even the most hardcore vegan among us, feel happy at the meal.

There is one key that people who cook modern, delicious food all year round forget at Pesach. Much of your fusion food may already be fine or easily altered. Roasted root vegetables with lots of garlic and rosemary ... perfect. Grilled balsamic glazed portabella mushrooms on sage mashed potatoes ... no problem. There are also hundreds of vegetable side dishes and salads that can be chosen to make up a tapas-style dinner, where there is no real main course, but many flavorful dishes that make up the meal. All good cookbooks contain soup, salad and side dish sections and all of these sections are full of vegetable options that also satisfy the dietary restrictions on Pesach.

Vegetarian dishes for the seder do not necessarily mean changing the entire menu. If you choose parve dishes, they will be appropriate for vegetarians and you can also serve your meat with no kashrut conflict. Vegans, after all, do not eat any dairy products, so a vegan cookbook may be somewhat helpful in finding parve recipes. The trouble for Ashkenazim is, however, that the beans, lentils and rice that are staples of vegan protein, including the ubiquitous tofu, are classified as kitniot. Unless you have the good fortune to be Sephardi, kitniot are not kosher for Passover.

The best kept secret of vegetarian cooking in general, and Pesach specifically, is a super little grain called quinoa (pronounced keen'wa in North America). Unlike most grains, quinoa provides a full protein, so it is a miracle food for vegetarians. It cooks quickly on the stovetop, can be used anywhere one might use rice and is permissible for consumption for Ashkenazi Jews.

When preparing quinoa, be sure to rinse it well first in a sieve. Cooking requires a one-to-one ratio of water to grain and, within 15 minutes or so, the quinoa will be fluffy, soft and ready to eat. Combine it with raisins, currants or other small bits of dried fruit, some toasted nuts and your favorite vinaigrette to make a delightful and healthy pilaf. Stuff peppers with quinoa, vegetables sautéed with garlic and onion and bake in savory tomato sauce for a perfect main course.

Other ideas, if you are interested in having more traditional vegetarian dishes for your seder, include mock chopped liver or kishkeh. The chopped liver is made with walnuts and mushrooms. The flavor we associate with chopped liver comes from the fried onions. The kishkeh includes matzah meal, carrot, onion and celery with seasonings and is solid enough to form into a log that looks like kishkeh but may have a broader appeal for younger people who eat meat but would not venture a taste of something translated into English as guts.

If you want to be super sensitive to vegetarian guests, perhaps consider altering your seder plate. Many people have more than one seder plate at their seder, depending on the size of the meal and the number of tables, so maybe just the table that has the vegetarian guests needs the special plate. The most popular alteration is removing the shank bone and replacing it with a vegetable or facsimile. Some sources suggest a papier mâché copy of a bone and perhaps the egg, too, but most popular seems to be a roasted beet instead of the bone. The beet, with its leaves attached, is attractive and maybe bone-like, but it is the suggestion that it "bleeds" when cut that makes it seem an appropriate substitution. Another source suggested a long, skinny yam, which looks like a bone and rhymes with lamb.

There are so many ways to have fun with the food at the seder, respecting the laws of kashrut and Pesach, as well as making it nutritious and tasty for everyone. Using quinoa is an easy solution for a healthy main vegetarian dish and by preparing some non-traditional everyday foods, vegetarians can be well fed at any seder. All of the vegetables can't hurt, in any case, when you consider the potential side effects of matzah.

Michelle Dodek is a full-time mom and a vegetarian, too. Her kids, however, love meat more than any other food.

^TOP