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Winter Dinners
For the majority of my readers, this is the last month of winter and
soon winter vegetables will be replaced by spring and summer fare. For
those of you south of the equator, you are probably anticipating winter
and will have a few months to enjoy the following recipes! Even though
most winter vegetables are available all year round, they really do
taste best fall through winter.
Winter squashes are very easy
to prepare and are quite delicious. One of my favorites, kabocha
squash, is very sweet and dry... not too dry, just dry enough to hold
its shape and not be drippy like butternut. Now imagine this sweet
kabocha squash, corn, garbanzo beans, spinach and other vegetables all
stewed in coconut milk, and you have Coconut Kabocha Stew.
Since, during the winter, the
variety of vegetables is limited it is a perfect time to try sea
vegetables, a.k.a. seaweed. In spite of how nutritious they are, sea
vegetables remain an unexplored realm for many people. (Clearspring has nutritional information.) They fear that sea
vegetables will be fishy and slimy, however, mild tasting Arame is
neither. If you try the following recipes, it might just become one of
your favorite vegetables. In the
Open Faced Arame Sandwich, wine sautéeed arame, flavored in a
Japanese fashion, smothers toasted whole grain bread spread with
Neufchatel cream cheese. Sweet
Millet with Ginger, Arame and Beans blends sautéeed arame with
yam or squash sweetened millet, ginger and beans and is seasoned with
miso and sesame seeds. 
Finally, I will recap a few winter vegetable recipes
from previous issues.
Hearty Dilled
Vegetable Stew with Dumplings (featured in the January
2005 article, "Warming
Soups and Stews.") uses kabocha as does the
Colorful, Simple
Dinner (featured this month in
"Quick and Easy
Entrees.") One more kabocha recipe is
Sweet Winter
Squash Soup.
While I am writing about winter squash, let me
mention some very nice recipes using butternut squash,
that very sweet squash dripping with natural syrup.
Pumpkin Pie,
Pumpkin Cheesecake
and Luscious
Butternut Soup are all well worth cooking before the
end of the season. Last, but absolutely not least, I
will refer you to
Ginger Lovers' Yam Soup and
Green and White Soup which
blends kale with garbanzo beans. I have even more delicious soups already in the
database for your dining pleasure.
Whether you are beginning your winter or ending it, these recipes will help you stay warm and cozy.
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