Many of the recipes that we prepare for Christmas each year are pretty unorthodox. Maybe that goes without saying, as vegetarian dishes generally are quite rare in these merry times of poultry, pig and meatballs. But I have a feeling that some of the dishes from our previous Christmases surprised Santa quite a bit. Our general rule is that if you add a dash of saffron or cinnamon to any dish, it will qualify on our Christmas table.
Strangely enough our unorthodox methods doesn’t correlate with the recipes that we have in our archives from past Decembers. Many of them are surprisingly traditional. You will of course find a few odd birds like saffron falafel, bulgur and rose hip truffles, but some of our most unexpected recipes (Turkish lemon salad!) are yet to be published. We’ll save those for next Christmas.
Today’s recipe actually has all the classic xmas greens (brussels sprout, kale, orange, pomegranate), but prepared and flavored in a not so classic way (raw, shredded and with a tahini dressing). It has already made its way onto a few pre-Christmas dinners of ours, and hopefully it will also make it into your kitchen on the night of the 24th or 25th. You will find the recipe at the bottom of this post.
To give you some more inspiration for a Greener Christmas we have also listed a few favorites from our archive.
Christmas morning
Baked Saffron Pancakes & Forest Berry Jam
Winter Buckwheat Porridge
Christmas Granola
Dinner table
Crispy Red Cabbage & Orange Salad
Saffron Bulgur with Vegetables
Black Quinoa, Kale & Apple Salad
Cinnamon Roasted Vegetables
Baked Saffron Falafels in Red Cabbage Wrap
Spiced Spinach & Mushroom in Almond Tartlet
Millet & Pumpkin Millet Salad
Drinks
Warm Spicy Apple & Carrot Drink
Blueberry Christmas Glögg
Cookies & sweets
Vegan gingerbread
Rose Hip Christmas Truffles
Cinnamon & Chocolate Covered Nuts
Chili, Chocolate & Date Truffles
Pomegranate, Raspberry & Thyme Jam
Frozen Pomegranate & Cashew Cake
Saffron Buns
Shaved Brussels Sprout Christmas Salad
Serves 4-6 as a side dish
300 g brussels sprouts
3-4 kale leaves
3 oranges
1 pomegranate
150 g walnuts or hazelnuts
Dressing
2 tbsp tahini
1 tbsb honey
1 tbsp dijon
2 tbsp orange or lemon juice
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
Prepare the dressing, by whisking all ingredients in a small bowl, set aside. Rinse the brussels sprouts, pick the outer leaf and shred very finely with a sharp knife (be careful) or use a food processor. Rinse the kale and shred very finely. Place shredded brussels sprouts and kale in a large bowl.
Now you have two options:
1. Use your hands to massage the shredded greens with the dressing for 5-10 minutes or until it becomes soft.
OR
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, then add the shredded greens and blanch them for no more than a minute, pour into a colander and rinse immediately in cold water. Then pour the dressing over the shredded greens, toss well to coat.
Toast the nuts in a dry frying pan on medium heat until browned and crispy, be careful not to burn them. Peel and cut the oranges into small wedges and prepare the pomegranate. Place nuts, oranges and pomegranate seeds in the bowl and toss with your hands to mix. Serve right away or let sit for an hour, nice both ways.
Ps. The App Store recently included Green Kitchen for iPad in App Store Best of 2012. We were even selected as App of the Year Runner Up in Canada, England and Scandinavia. We are super giddy and proud of this! But also so very thankful to all of you who have bought it, reviewed it and emailed us feedback on how to make it better. During next year we will make some major improvements to it, you just wait …
Before we leave you we also wanted to thank you for all your sweet comments on our Saffron Bun video. We will definitely try to make a few more of those next year.
Merry Christmas and lots of love!
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