Changing up menus to match cooler temperatures with richer dishes is often desired as winter approaches. Plant based eating can still suit wintery dining, with plenty of satisfying options.
Antique vegetarian cookbooks reveal warming and hearty recipes made from in season winter produce, perfect for cold weather. Inspired by this history, here are 5 vegan and hearty recipes for a winter dinner.
Celery was an in-demand winter crop in the 19th century, it’s once finicky to cultivate nature making it an expensive and fashionable vegetable. A rare treat for middle class families until the 1870s, celery was often associated with holiday dinners. Dutch farmers who immigrated to Michigan innovated celery growing, making a once fashionably out of reach vegetable more accessible to all. This recipe for stew-like vegetable soup made from root vegetables and celery from an 1887 vegetarian cookbook is an ideal start of a cold weather meal.
VEGETABLE SOUP. Two hours before dinner, put into 2 quarts of boiling water 3 carrots, 3 turnips, and 3 onions, cut into small pieces, and some salt. An hour later put in 2 heads of celery. It may be thickened with 3 oz sago, in which case add a half hour before the soup is done, and stirring occasionally from the time it is put in. If cornflour be used, mix with a little cold water, and add to the soup 10 min. before it is done, stirring all the time. (p. 68)
The same cookbook as the soup recipe recommended a “dressing to eat with vegetable soup”, a Victorian-era take on croutons. A method of making old bread edible, the history of croutons and their pairing with soups dates to the middle ages. The word crouton has French roots, sharing similarities with the French words “croute” and “croustade”, both terms for describing the crust of bread.
DRESSING TO EAT WITH VEGETABLE SOUP. Pour boiling water on pieces of stale bread or crackers, break up with a large spoon, and mix in a little salt, and sage, thyme, summer-savory, basil or other sweet herb, and bake 10 minutes in the oven. (p. 68)