Summer marks barbecue season in Australia. But it’s a tough one for vegetarians and vegans who’d do anything to avoid a barbecue soaked with animal fat, and who’d prefer tasty food over another nut roast.
Melbourne-based naturopath Gill Stannard says there is a dearth of Christmas vegetarian recipes on the internet – most are just plain stodgy or try to mimic northern hemisphere winter recipes.
What Stannard looks forward to eating is really fresh, seasonal organic vegetables with flavoursome young herbs.
“I think it’s difficult to come up with festive vegetarian food,” Stannard says, admitting that she sometimes does silly things such as taking a Christmas tree-shaped cookie cutter to tofu.
“I think most people are over it. [They’re] over faux roasts, nut cutlets. People lack imagination and it’s not about replicating turkey.”
Stannard, who also cheats by eating fish, aims to create light, Asian-style rice noodle salads, with lots of Vietnamese mint.
She says barbecues don’t have to be boring – there are plenty of tasty protein-packed options, including marinated portobello mushrooms, tofu skewers and barbecued eggplant and zucchini. “You can make a really great vegetarian barbecue,” Stannard says.
Stannard loves Indonesian food, especially vegetarian nasi lemak, which is festive in colour and garnished with coconut rice, eggs and ikan bilis (tiny, dried Indonesian anchovies).
Tony Chiodo, a French-trained chef with an Italian heritage, says there are two ways you can approach vegetarian feasting.
“You can look at it from an Italian perspective, where everything has tomatoes and cheese in it,” he says, “Or you can look at it from an Asian perspective, with fresh herbs, tofu, tempeh [an Indonesian soybean cake] and bean salad.”
His secret is always to keep it light – dressing salads with chilli, citrus and delicious fresh oils – and simple.
But the weight of the salad will depend on the sex and food preferences of those eating it, he believes. Just as men are from Mars and women from Venus, ladies (and vegetarians) prefer lighter salads, while men (and carnivores) prefer heavier meals, as they have less-sensitive palates.
This means men and carnivores tend to demand fuller flavours than women or vegetarians. They need more paprika and chilli in their salads to give them a kick, and more protein in the form of nuts and seeds.
Like Stannard, Chiodo believes people need to forget about trying to replicate a meaty roast. He says that people are fed up with the stodgy end of vegetarian food, which includes risotto balls, fake sausages and tofu burgers.
Instead, he recommends serving a series of light salads. These could include Italian-style white bean salads, quinoa (a grain-like seed and super-food of the moment), pumpkin seed and orange salad, and the use of cold Japanese green tea or buckwheat noodles.
He especially likes working with a Japanese-style raw slaw, using carrot, cabbage and radish cut with a Japanese mandoline slicer, plus a dressing of fresh mint, salt, mirin, and rice vinegar.
“I would always include lots of fresh herbs,” he says. “The softer herbs such as chives, parsley and mint will cross over to Asian dishes,” he says.
“In the summer, you don’t want to spend the whole time cooking,” he says.
Tofurkey
Last year, Cindy and Michael of Melbourne-based vegetarian blog Where’s The Beef? embarked on a creative experiment to make vegetarian turkey – also known as “tofurkey” – and scoured the web for recipes.
They quickly came across this one. The recipe calls for one and a half kilos of firm tofu. This is then mashed and combined with herbs and vegetarian stock powder, packed into a muslin-lined bowl, and left to drain for three hours to remove as much liquid as possible. It’s then stuffed with a savoury mixture of onion, carrot, celery and breadcrumbs, as well as herbs, apples, chestnuts and dried cranberries.
The construction is then tipped out and glazed with marinade before roasting in the oven for one and a half hours. See the final product here.
Flavour-packed tips
Pack in flavour by barbecuing fresh seasonal vegetables, such as eggplant and zucchini.
Barbecue sweet corn in the skin and allow the end to brown for additional flavour.
Beans, nuts and grains add protein-packed punch.
Eggs and cheese are tasty, easy options for those vegetarians who eat them.
Dress salads with interesting oils. For instance, sherry vinegar and walnut oil add mouth-watering savoury flavours.
Enhance Asian-style noodle salads using Vietnamese mint and coriander.
You can substitute some Asian herbs for fresh garden herbs, such as mint, dill and basil.
Make a pesto with peas. This works as a lively sauce or dip.
Chef Tony Chiodo says avocado is great with everything thanks to its seductive buttery smoothness and creamy texture.
To add a festive touch to iced drinks, artist Adriane Strampp recommends freezing mint leaves and pomegranate seeds into ice-cubes.