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

~ (Author)

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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Product Description

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.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1st Simon & Schuster Trade Pbk. Ed edition (October 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743287258
• ISBN-13: 978-0743287258
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 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 (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #329,226 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heavenly Roasted Banana-Chocolate Sauce!, October 19, 2007

By	Anita Leonard - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I already love Myra Kornfeld's previous cookbooks and was excited to receive this one. I just had to start with the Chocolate Hazelnut Sandwich Cookies and had to laugh when I read at the end of the recipe that they would keep for two weeks at room temperature. Good luck keeping yourself away from those delightful treats for two weeks! But I do appreciate that the instructions include such useful information.

The book is organized by holidays that range from Ramadan to Kwanzaa to the Fourth of July, and includes recipes inspired by many different cultures and ethnicities. Each holiday menu contains dishes that perfectly go together and features a vegetarian main course, as well as either a fish or a chicken dish. Each section begins with a little history about the holiday. Particularly useful are the "Cook's Notes," which tell you how far in advance you can prepare each item. Dishes that freeze well, can be made several weeks in advance, others can be made a few days ahead - great for keeping last minute preparations to a minimum.

But don't wait for the holidays to use this book. I found a halibut recipe on the Easter menu easy enough for a weeknight dinner. Besides the onion, there was only one vegetable to chop. And although I couldn't get halibut and used cod instead, the dish was extraordinarily flavorful and delicious. We ended up serving it with the roasted cauliflower dish from the festive New Year's Eve Menu, which just needed to be reheated, and some crusty bread. It was a veritable feast for a weeknight. The Sesame Noodles with Wilted Napa Cabbage from the Chinese New Year is another easy, yet flavorful dish. And it took less than 25 minutes to prepare. I can't wait to try the Crispy Five-Spice Tofu with Black Bean Sauce as soon as I can get the fermented black beans (resources for ingredients that may not be readily available can be found in the back of the book). The Three-Sisters Polenta Casserole from the Thanksgiving menu, which is inspired by Southwestern and Native American flavors, was another winner for a weeknight at our house. Although it is a little more involved, it can be made ahead and reheated. Scoring the top layer of the polenta before reheating is key - it looks so beautiful when it comes out of the oven! And next time we have meat-eating guests for Thanksgiving, Myra Kornfeld's recipe for the Maple Sugar-Brined Southwestern-Style Turkey will be the one I'll turn to, for sure.

The sweets are not your ordinary desserts. Besides the cookies, I've had a chance to make the Coconut Crème Caramel with Roasted Banana-Chocolate Sauce. This was easy to make, and the sauce turned out so heavenly that I had a hard time restraining myself from just sipping it like hot chocolate while the custard cups were chilling in the refrigerator. The Almond-Orange Fortune Cookies sound like they could be a real project. But I like the idea of being able to write my own messages for my guests.

I couldn't find anything to criticize about this book. It is a unique and invaluable resource if you are interested in delighting your guests with an unforgettable holiday feast. Some of the dishes are more involved than others - after all, the book is about cooking for celebrations. But if you're just looking for new inspiration for every day dishes, this book can be a real treasure as well. You can't go wrong with recipes featuring seasonal ingredients while emphasizing flavor. And Myra Kornfeld succeeds beautifully in creating these recipes. I give this excellent book five stars without reservation.

5 of 5 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)

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.

4 of 4 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 (REAL NAME)

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.