AceFoodDesk says here’s todays “Vegetarian“ recipes for over the ‘ Festive Season ‘ to enjoy with Kindness & Love XX A&M

Ace Press News From Cutting Room Floor: Published: Nov.30: 2023: ABC Everyday: TELEGRAM Ace Daily News Link https://t.me/+PuI36tlDsM7GpOJe

Creating a vego-friendly feast this season is easier (and tastier) than ever…………….We’ve got 10 flavourful, satisfying recipes to cover mains and sides which will keep everyone happy at your festive celebration.

Impressive mains

Whole roasted cauliflower with turmeric coconut sauce and fried lentils

There is such ceremony in bringing a whole cauliflower, dressed up and pretty, to the table, ready to be carved. Whole roasted cauliflower is incredibly versatile and there are many flavour possibilities to explore.

Roast butternut pumpkin with a hoisin marmalade glaze

This glazed butternut is an undeniable show-stopper. It’s a modern, vego take on the classic Christmas ham and embodies the festive cheer and playfulness of the season. Plus, studding the pumpkin with whole cloves makes it a fun dish to prepare with the family.

Whole roasted cabbage with maple syrup glaze and balsamic onion gravy

Sticking with the whole-roasted veg theme, this recipe is special enough to rival meaty main dishes. Here, whole cabbage is slow-roasted on a bed of shallots, garlic and thyme and finished with a rich caramelised onion and balsamic gravy.

Substantial sides

Pasta salad with roasted beetroot, pumpkin and herbs

Make this recipe a day ahead and let it sit in the fridge while the flavours develop.(ABC Life: Heidi Sze)none

You can win friends with salad with this flavourful, satisfying make-ahead pasta salad. It’s also versatile for those picky eaters — you can switch up the goats cheese for feta, or sub the beetroot for sweet potato or extra pumpkin.

Spanakopita rolls with tomato, chickpea and dill salad

Customise the filling by adding more feta or some ricotta for extra creaminess, some cheddar or parmesan for extra umami, or a pinch of chilli flakes for spice.(ABC Everyday: Hetty McKinnon)none

This take on spanakopita, the beloved hearty-but-light Greek spinach pie, uses puff pastry instead of the traditional filo, turning the pie into “sausage” rolls that are easy to whip up for your festive celebration. The chickpea salad is a bonus, too.

Sweet potato gratin with cheese and gochujang tomato sauce

The saltiness and sharpness of cheddar works well with this dish but you could experiment with other cheeses such as parmesan, pecorino, or gruyère.(ABC Everyday: Hetty Lui McKinnon)none

While still beautifully cheesy, this is not your typical gratin. This recipe swaps gratin’s usual cream for a vibrant gochujang (a spicy and increasingly popular Korean red chilli paste) accented tomato sauce, which brings nuance to this textural sweet potato bake.

Freekeh salad with sticky roasted carrots, goat cheese and pistachios

Feel free to use whatever grain you wish, if freekeh isn’t available to you.(ABC Life: Tim Grey)none

There’s a lot to love in this recipe, with chewy freekeh, sweet roasted carrots, creamy goat cheese, crunchy pistachios, bright pomegranate seeds, and the star of the show: rich roasted red grapes.

Veggie patties with roasted pumpkin, kidney beans and coriander

If there are some patties left over, use them to make vegetable burgers the next day.(ABC Everyday: Heidi Sze)none

These filling veggie patties are a delicious balance of savoury with a touch of sweetness, and are a great accompaniment to a full plate of festive foods — or on a burger bun if you prefer.

Crunchy green salad with sauce gribiche

If you can nab fresh spring peas, use them, but frozen peas work perfectly for this salad.(ABC Everyday: Hetty Lui McKinnon)none

This lively salad has a creamy, filling sauce gribiche made with hard-boiled eggs and a piquant mix of vinegar, cornichons, capers and mustard. Festive feast tip: make extra sauce gribiche to slather onto bread or mix through roast potatoes.

Sweet corn riblets

You could serve these corn riblets with a chipotle dipping sauce.(Supplied: Jan Cranitch)none

Vibrant sweet corn riblets with turmeric, pepper, lime and butter sauce are a modern take on the meat version and will make your festive table pop.

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AceFoodDesk – Do you hate salad? It’s OK if you do, there are plenty of foods in the world, and lots of different ways to prepare them.

Ace Press News From Cutting Room Floor: Published: Nov.28: 2023: Emma Beckett is a senior lecturer (food science and human nutrition) in the School of Environmental and Life Sciences at the University of Newcastle. This piece first appeared on The Conversation: TELEGRAM Ace Daily News Link https://t.me/+PuI36tlDsM7GpOJe

But given , even though  eating more vegetables is a simple way to improve our health, you might want to try.

If this idea makes you miserable, fear not, with time and a little effort you can make friends with salad.

It’s an unfortunate quirk of evolution that vegetables are so good for us but they aren’t all immediately tasty to all of us. We have evolved to enjoy the sweet or umami (savoury) taste of higher energy foods, because starvation is a more immediate risk than long-term health.

Vegetables aren’t particularly high energy but they are jam-packed with dietary fibre, vitamins and minerals, and health-promoting compounds called bioactives.

Those bioactives are part of the reason vegetables taste bitter. Plant bioactives, also called phytonutrients, are made by plants to protect themselves against environmental stress and predators. The very things that make plant foods bitter, are the things that make them good for us.

Unfortunately, bitter taste evolved to protect us from poisons, and possibly from over-eating one single plant food. So in a way, plant foods can taste like poison.

For some of us, this bitter sensing is particularly acute, and for others it isn’t so bad. This is partly due to our genes. Humans have at least 25 different receptors that detect bitterness, and we each have our own genetic combinations. So some people really, really taste some bitter compounds while others can barely detect them.

This means we don’t all have the same starting point when it comes to interacting with salads and veggies. So be patient with yourself. But the steps toward learning to like salads and veggies are the same regardless of your starting point.

It takes time

We can train our tastes because our genes and our receptors aren’t the end of the story. Repeat exposures to bitter foods can help us adapt over time. Repeat exposures help our brain learn that bitter vegetables aren’t poisons.

And as we change what we eat, the enzymes and other proteins in our saliva change too.

This changes how different compounds in food are broken down and detected by our taste buds. How exactly this works isn’t clear, but it’s similar to other behavioural cognitive training.

Add masking ingredients

The good news is we can use lots of great strategies to mask the bitterness of vegetables, and this positively reinforces our taste training.

Salt and fat can reduce the perception of bitterness, so adding seasoning and dressing can help make salads taste better instantly. You are probably thinking, “but don’t we need to reduce our salt and fat intake?” — yes, but you will get more nutritional bang-for-buck by reducing those in discretionary foods like cakes, biscuits, chips and desserts, not by trying to avoid them with your vegetables.

Adding heat with chillies or pepper can also help by acting as a decoy to the bitterness. Adding fruits to salads adds sweetness and juiciness, this can help improve the overall flavour and texture balance, increasing enjoyment.

Pairing foods you are learning to like with foods you already like can also help.

The options for salads are almost endless, if you don’t like the standard garden salad you were raised on, that’s OK, keep experimenting.

Experimenting with texture (for example chopping vegetables smaller or chunkier) can also help in finding your salad loves.

Challenge your biases

Challenging your biases can also help the salad situation. A phenomenon called the “unhealthy-tasty intuition” makes us assume tasty foods aren’t good for us, and that healthy foods will taste bad. Shaking that assumption off can help you enjoy your vegetables more.

When researchers labelled vegetables with taste-focused labels, priming subjects for an enjoyable taste, they were more likely to enjoy them compared to when they were told how healthy they were.

The bottom line

Vegetables are good for us, but we need to be patient and kind with ourselves when we start trying to eat more.

Try working biology and brain, and not against them.

And hold back from judging yourself or other people if they don’t like the salads you do. We are all on a different point of our taste-training journey.

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AceFoodDesk says here’s today’s recipe and three hearty salads to enjoy as the weather heats up with Kindness & Love XX A&M

Ace Press News From Cutting Room Floor: Published: Nov.23: 2023: ABC Everyday: TELEGRAM Ace Daily News Link https://t.me/+PuI36tlDsM7GpOJe

There’s minimal cooking involved, with many relying on ready-to-eat supermarket staples such as barbecue chicken and vacuum-packed beetroot. 

They’re from Heidi Sze and Julia Busuttil Nishimura and designed for the busy end-of-year period.

There’s minimal cooking in this recipe, which uses a few packets of cooked beetroot. Prepping this meal is simple: roast some almonds, slice the beetroot and grapes, then shake up a dressing in a jar. It’s a sweet and refreshing salad you could easily bulk up by adding tinned lentils, feta cheese or roasted veggies.

BBQ chicken and mango salad with garlic butter wraps 

Grab a rotisserie chicken and some mangoes on your way home and enjoy this crunchy and substantial salad for dinner.

It’s served alongside a stack of garlic butter wraps, which are simple to make and tasty to eat.

Chopped steak salad with avocado and corn

One steak goes a long way when it’s served sliced alongside grilled corn, cos lettuce, avocado and cherry tomatoes.

A garlic and lime dressing brings the salad together. Just be sure to rest your steak before you slice it.

Editor says …Sterling Publishing & Media Service Agency is not responsible for the content of external sites or any reports, posts or links. And thanks for following. As always, I appreciate every like, reblog, retweet and comment. Thank you

@acenewsservices