The Healthy Hedonist Holidays: A Year of Multi-Cultural, Vegetarian-Friendly Holiday Feasts [Paperback]

Myra Kornfeld (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 16, 2007

Holidays are a time for family and friends to gather for mouthwatering meals, but catering to every guest's dietary requirements can be a challenge. The menus in The Healthy Hedonist Holidays will entice every guest -- vegetarian, semi-vegetarian, carnivores, omnivores who can't eat dairy, and people who just love good food -- with delicious, satisfying "flexitarian" meals.

Featuring fresh seasonal ingredients, whole grains, natural sugars, and creative seasonings, these flavorful feasts will leave guests feeling satisfied -- without the guilt that usually accompanies holiday indulgence. Each menu offers both a vegetarian and fish or poultry main course, and a range of side dishes, appetizers, and desserts that can be used in any combination to accommodate individual tastes.

Myra Kornfeld's recipes honor America's diverse cultural and ethnic heritage. Even if you're not of Chinese descent, sit down to Sesame Noodles with Wilted Nappa Cabbage and Crispy Five-Spice Tofu with Black Bean Sauce. The traditional flavors of Thanksgiving take on a southwestern flair with a maple sugar-brined turkey accompanied by Mole Gravy with Dried Plums and Ancho Chiles. The Feast of Eid al Fitr explores the flavors of Turkey and Morocco with Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Onions, Cinnamon, Almonds, and Cherries, and Semolina Walnut Cake with Macerated Oranges. A Passover dinner offers herb-flecked matzo balls in a vibrant green spinach soup and a fish terrine studded with asparagus. Christmas dinner turns to the shores of Italy for inspiration with Flounder Roll-ups with Pistachio Pesto and Squash-Portobello Lasagna.

With sections on ingredients, techniques, and a cooking plan for each menu, The Healthy Hedonist Holidays is a book to use, to give, and to savor, over and over again.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kornfeld (The Voluptuous Vegan) focuses on holidays reflecting America's multicultural society. For each celebration Kornfeld offers a vegetarian entree, a fish or poultry dish, numerous sides and dessert, all designed to leave us feeling energetic and nourished after the meal as well as delighted during the experience. The Hanukkah menu turns traditional potato pancakes into light, full-flavored Celery Root–Apple Latkes with Sage. For Kwanzaa, Ethiopian cuisine contributes the spicy warmth of Doro We't (Chicken Stew). Chinese New Year features Sesame Noodles with Wilted Napa Cabbage, with long noodles to bring long life. Dessert for a sumptuous Valentine's Day is Fallen Lemon Ricotta Souffles, and for a Greek inspired Easter, Baklava Cups with Almond-Vanilla Tapioca Pudding and Strawberry Rhubarb Compote. Kornfeld's directions are easy to follow, and her multiday time lines for each holiday feast help to create a more relaxed experience in the kitchen. These unique and inspiring recipes make it easy to infuse your food with intention and cook joyfully. (Nov.)
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About the Author

Myra Kornfeld is the author of The Voluptuous Vegan. She writes regularly for Vegetarian Times and has contributed recipes and articles to Natural Health and Organic Style. A veteran restaurant chef and private cook, she is an instructor at the Natural Gourmet Cookery School in New York City as well as at Sur La Table.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Original edition (October 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743287258
• ISBN-13: 978-0743287258
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,054,040 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars International Flavors and Versatile Feasts, November 5, 2007

By 

Lynne Forte - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Healthy Hedonist Holidays: A Year of Multi-Cultural, Vegetarian-Friendly Holiday Feasts (Paperback)

Just when I'd begun feeling the need to refresh my culinary repertory, Healthy Hedonist Holidays shows up on the bookshelves! Having made extensive use of the recipes in Myra Kornfeld's two prior cookbooks, "The Voluptuous Vegan" and "The Healthy Hedonist", I dove with excitement into this latest publication brimming with international flavors and time-honored, festive traditions. As with her prior cookbooks, fresh, natural and seasonal ingredients take center stage. It's full of cooking tips and invaluable prep notes that allow for advance cooking. Not only has Myra Kornfeld planned your holiday meal for you, but then goes on to lay out the cooking schedule. What's even better is you can make these exotic holiday dishes for dinner on weekdays or weekends, too. I do. The Pomegranate Chicken with Walnuts is already a favorite. I used all chicken thighs and dredged them in spelt flour. The pomegranate molasses gave the chicken outrageous flavor and the thighs came out mouth-wateringly tender, reminiscent of a meal I enjoyed in Marrakech. Same goes for the Breast of Duck with Port-Cherry Sauce. It looks impressive and yet you can make both the sauce and duck in an hour. I've already made both dishes a couple of times and everyone loved them. And the Baby Bok Choy Braised with Mustard Greens and Black Mushrooms is the way to eat greens. I'm looking forward to exploring many more of the recipes in this new book, but also still recommend some super favorites of mine from Myra's 2005 "Healthy Hedonist": Orange-Glazed Flounder with Watercress: flounder doesn't get better than this. Red Snapper Provencale, fabulous. The Wild Rice with Porcini Mushrooms, Pecans, and Dried Cranberries is a great Thanksgiving Day dish. Every salsa, sauce and chutney in that book can be mixed and matched with all sorts of meals making for great variety. The soups are luscious and the recipes work without the need for adjustments: Butternut Squash Soup with Crispy Shallots and Sage! Moroccan Chickpea Soup! White Bean and Spinach Soup with Rosemary! Anyhow, obviously I've cooked enough of this author's recipes to whole-heartedly encourage everyone to explore them on their own.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ethnic Holiday Feasts, November 19, 2007

By 

Sally Nash - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Healthy Hedonist Holidays: A Year of Multi-Cultural, Vegetarian-Friendly Holiday Feasts (Paperback)

The Healthy Hedonist Holidays is an inspiration! I opened this book and immediately felt inspired to cook. In her latest book, Myra Kornfeld demonstrates a passion for fresh foods and quality ingredients. Celebrating our favorite holidays, this book features simple to follow recipes packed with authentic flavors from all over the world. The book is well organized into Holiday Menus that can easily be for a feast, or for just a weeknight meal that will impress anyone that sits at your table.

What is most impressive, is that the recipes work without any tweaking. I have made several recipes from the book and each one has come out tasting fantastic and looking beautiful. Even though I tend to prefer savory foods, the first recipe that I made was the Double Chocolate Cloud Cookies. I took them to the office and everyone inhaled them as if they were clouds! While we are on the subject of dessert, the Truffles are yummy and the Belgian Brownies are more than a little sinful.

Being a vegetarian, I really like that each of the menus has a main dish that is either Vegan or Vegetarian. The Golden Squash and Chickpea Soup with Roasted Chickpea Nuts is delicious with balancing flavors of spicy ginger and clean lemon, perfect for a cool autumn supper. The best Chickpea recipe I have ever tasted is the Charmoula Chickpea Strudel and it is so easy. It also freezes well. For a weekday brunch, I prepared the Cheese Pancakes with Zucchini and Walnuts. They are light and airy, almost like a soufflé. Everyone wanted more!

I recently returned from Mexico and needed a "South of the Border" fix. I made the Tortilla Soup, and the Asparagus Quesadillas with Red Chile Paste and the flavors were authentically recreated. I was back in the sun!

I read cookbooks like novels. I highly recommend actually reading this one from front to back. You will glean so much information about cooking techniques, ethnic flavors, and the role food plays in the celebration of our holidays through taste, smells and memory.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book for Cooking with and for Kids!, November 12, 2007

By 

Margaret A. Peot - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Healthy Hedonist Holidays: A Year of Multi-Cultural, Vegetarian-Friendly Holiday Feasts (Paperback)

Because of the way this cookbook is organized, it is easy to gather ingredients in advance, and the recipes are fast and easy to make. And because holiday foods are special and pretty, they are somehow extremely appealing to children to eat!

My five year old son and I made the Potato Latkes (light and easy with lots of carrots in the mix) and the Cheese Pancakes with Zucchini and Walnuts (scrumptious). He had a good time mixing the potatoes and forming them into small patties for cooking. The mama in me liked the fact of the "hidden" veggies that he wolfed down happily. We made the Mulled Cider-Cranberry Applesauce which my son informed me was "way better" than store bought applesauce: No Kidding! And it was so pretty!

The Pierogis were fun to make together, too, and the dill was a great addition to the Dilled Potato Cheese Pierogis. I love it that they can be made ahead and frozen. I doubled the recipe and filled the freezer with meal-sized bags of them.

The recipes are fantastic, but maybe the best thing about the book is the writing about the holidays inbetween. I love it that I can cook this food with my son, and also talk with him about who makes the same kind of food, and why and what it means to them. It makes the world seem a lot smaller, which can't be a bad thing in these troubled times.

We are looking forward to making the Pomegranate Chicken with Walnuts for Thanksgiving. Thank you, Myra Kornfeld, for another fantastic cookbook!