Chef Notes: Vegan Stunner for Thanksgiving

Here's a gorgeous vegetarian -- no, scratch that -- VEGAN dish to pull out at Thanksgiving!

I asked Chef Alex Marsh, most recently of Brick and Solstice restaurants in San Francisco, to do a guest blog for The Yum Diary featuring a simple, delicious Thanksgiving recipe, and he delivered in spades!

He's also going into private chef territory, and he's got a great dinner event, "Winter Delights," coming up at Coffee Bar on Saturday, Dec. 13, with seatings at 5pm and 8pm. It's very underground restaurant style: check out details here.

I'm making his recipe for a fall vegetable tagine, below, for a Thanksgiving potluck where vegetarians will be the minority.

I'm hoping to casually wow them, which I think is something of a rarity in meat eater-vegetarian relationships, at least when it comes to potlucks. We'll see how it goes over!

I've already bought my cauliflower, taters, veggie stock and such, but the crummy Marina Safeway I hit out of necessity the other day didn't have baby turnips, nice green Castelvetrano olives, or red kiri squash (which can be substituted with pumpkin in a pinch, or so they say).

So I'm going to brave Rainbow Grocery tomorrow! Wish a girl some luck. I'll let you know how it turns out. If you make it too, let me know!

Now I'll turn it over to Chef Marsh.

Fall Vegetable Tagine

By: Chef Alex Marsh

Serves: 6

1 head cauliflower

3 bu baby turnips

1 red kiri squash (peeled)

20 castelvetrano olives (pitted)

2 oz olive oil

1 russet potato

2 qrts vegetable stock

1 tsp curry powder

½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground coriander

1 bu parsley, chopped

Salt and white pepper to taste

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 500 degrees.
2. Break the cauliflower into florets, toss with olive oil and salt, and roast them in the oven till they are tender.
3. Peel and chop the red kiri squash into half inch chunks, toss with olive oil and salt, and roast in the oven on a baking sheet till tender.
4. Clean and blanch the turnips in salted boiling water, cooking till tender.
5. Bring the vegetable stock up to a boil and add the cumin, coriander, curry, and chopped potato. Cook till the potato is soft.
6. Puree the stock with the spices and potato while still hot.
7. Put the sauce back on the stove and add the roasted vegetable and the cleaned olives to it.
8. Bring to a boil, check the salt, add chopped parsley and serve family style in a large cassoulet.

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