Doc V's Healthy Kitchen

For years I was used to prepare a vegetarian alternative for Christmas dinner. Recently Emilie decided to eat vegan and thus, let’s try. Eating vegan in a balanced way is not easy, and for sure, I would not recommand this diet for children. No meat and fish, okay, but vegan is much more than that : no eggs, no butter, no cheese, nothing based on any dairy product. Being strictly vegan needs  knowledge about how to be sure to get everything you need and still have a balanced diet. So, I would advise to see a dietician/doctor ( to follow up and prevent deficits) before deciding to eat strictly vegan.

Anyway, Jamie Oliver has this wonderful Christmas cookbook ( a lovely present from my youngest daughter Katrin) with a lot of classical and less classical recipes. The oven roasted celery with mushroomsauce is a perfect alternative for the ‘poule de Bresse’ with mushroom sauce which the flexitariërs will eat. I will make it real vegan!

I bought a well shaped celery of 1 kilo (small size, so more than enough for 2p as main dish).

Wash the celery thoroughly. Put in the middle of two cross positioned aluminium foils. Oil the celery (with our own olive oil ;-)). Put a few sage leaves, a few fresh thyme stems, a few bay leaves, a few fresh rosemary stems, some sliced garlic  salt, pepper and fresh grated nutmeg on the celery. Close the aluminium foil and put in the oven at 200°for approx 2-2.5h (check).

In the meanwhile, put 25 grams of dried porcini in a cup a hot water. Chop and fry 1 small white onion and 2 chopped garlic cloves. Clean 500 grams of real fresh porcini. Chop them in smaller pieces. Add the mushrooms to the onion/garlic. Stir regularly. Add 200 ml of soy cream and the liquid of the dried porcini. Chop the dried porcini and add to the pan. Add 100 grams of preboiled and chopped chestnuts. Add 150 ml of vegetal stock. Allow to simmer for approx 15-20 mins. Taste, add pepper and salt. Finish with a few drops of good quality truffle oil.

Uncover the celery when ready. Put in the middle of a round preheated dish. Spread the mushroom sauce.

Serve! Send a message to the vegan members of the Christmas meal, and cross your fingers…

Yes, approved!