Holiday Menu | Vegetarian Temptations

Udo Einenkel ran the internationally renowned vegetarian restaurant “Abendmahl” in Kreuzberg from 1990 to 2005. Today, he runs organic cooking classes, works as a certified health adviser, food photographer and author: his first cook book “Vegetarische Verfühurngen” (Vegetarian Temptations) was published earlier this year. It features wholefood recipes without meat, industrially processed sugar and refined fats. If you want your holiday cooking to go as smoothly as possible, consider preparing the salad dressing, dumpling dough, honey-rosemary jus, red cabbage and vanilla sauce one day in advance. 

1. Appetizer: Lamb's lettuce with balsamico dressing, baked pumpkins and suchoke (Topinambur)

Nina Mallmann / HiPi

Balsamico Dressing

1 egg yolk, 50 ml balsamico vinegar, 50 ml vegetable stock, 170 ml olive oil, 1 level tsp salt, pepper

Usking a whisk, froth up egg yolk, vinegar, salt and pepper in a bowl with a whisk. Then slowly pour in olive oil and cold vegetable stock.

Lamb's lettuce 

400g lamb's lettuce, 100g sunchoke, 100g Hokkaido pumpkin, 3 tbsp olive oil, alfalfa sprouts

Wash lettuce in cold water and let drain. Wash sunchoke and pumpkin and let dry. Cut pumkin into quarters, remove core and chop the rest into cubes about 1 cm in size. Cut sunchoke into slices without removing the peel. Gently roast pumpkin and sunchoke in a pan with a little olive oil. Place 100 grams of lettuce per person onto plates and sprinkle with balsamico dressings. Add sunchoke and pumpkin and decorate with alfalfa sprouts.

2. Main Course:  Bread dumplings with Schwammerlsauce, red cabbage with apples, caramelized figs and honey-rosemary jus

Nina Mallmann / HiPi

Bread dumplings

250 g whole wheat bread, 125 g onions, 75 g butter, 250 ml milk, 40 g parmesan, 30 g parsley, 2 eggs, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 pinches pepper, 1 pinch nutmeg 

Cut whole wheat bread or buns into pieces of about 1 cm in size and let dry in an open bowl, ideally up to two days in advance – or place in oven at 50° C for around one hour. Cut onions into small cubes and gently fry until translucent. Add milk, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Let boil and pour over bread. Stir but don't crush! Let cool. Grate parmesan, chop parsley and mix in with bread mass along with eggs. Cover up dough and let rest for 30 minutes. Form dumplings with moist hands and place onto an oiled baking tin. Bake in preheated oven at 175° C for 10-15 minutes. FYI: Raw or baked dumplings can be quick-frozen.

Schwammerlsauce

20 g onions, 20 g butter or olive oil, 50 ml white wine, 250 ml cream, 1 pinch nutmeg, 2 juniper berries, 20 g grated parmesan, 400 g oyster mushrooms or king oyster mushrooms, 2 tbsp olive oil for roasting mushrooms, salt and pepper

Chop up onions and gently roast in oil. Deglaze with white wine. Add cream and nutmeg. Crush juniper berries and add them in. Grate parmesan and mix it in. Season with salt and pepper and let boil. Simmer for 30 minutes, then take out juniper berries. Bring to a boil again and mix with a blender. Cut mushrooms into slices and roast in olive oil. Add into hot sauce and stir for a minute. 

Red cabbage with apples and caramelized figs

800 g red cabbage, 30 ml sunflower oil or olive oil, 150 ml vegetable stock, 80 ml Sherry vinegar, 1 heaped tsp salt, 2 heaped tsp acacia honey, 1 apple, 1/2 cinnamon stick, 3 cloves, 1 bay leaf, 4 juniper berries, 20 whole peppercorns, 2 tbsp acacia honey, 4 fresh figs or 2 apples

Cut red cabbage into fine strips and gently roast in oil. Add vegetable stock, vinegar, salt and honey. Cut apples into wedges without removing core or peel. Place cinnamon roll, cloves, bay leaf, peppercorns and juniper berries in a tea infuser ball. Add apples and spices in tea ball to the red cabbage and simmer in a closed pot for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally. Caramelize two tablespoons acacia honey in a pan. Cut figs into slices and briefly toss in caramel. The red cabbage tastes best when it is prepared one day in advance. 

Honey-Rosmary jus

250 g onions, 100 g fennel, 100 g leek, 100 g celery, 250 g carrots, 100 g parsley roots, 100 ml olive oil, 400 g tomato paste, 1 l red wine, 750 ml sherry (cream) or port wine, 6 l vegetable stock, 200 g honey, 1 clove garlic, 20 juniper berries, 2 bay leaves, 1 chili, 1 bunch basil, 2 bunch rosemary, 1 bunch thyme

Chop onions, fennel, leeks, celery, carrots and parsley roots into cubes. Heat up oil in a large pot, add vegetables and brown. Stir frequently. Add tomato paste and roast for another five to eight minutes. Then add vegetable stock, garlic, chili, bay leaves, honey and juniper berries. Bring to a boil and reduce. Once the jus gets thick, add basil, rosemary and thyme. Reduce to about one liter. Then pass through a strainer. Season with rosemary, salt, pepper and honey. Calculate about three tablespoons of jus per portion. Jus can easily be quick-frozen. Place red cabbage with figs and jus onto plates along with bread dumplings and schwammerlsauce.

3. Dessert: Roast apple filled with orange polenta on vanilla sauce and pomegranate

Nina Mallmann / HiPi

Roast apple

4 apples, 1 tbsp olive oil

Remove apple cores and fill with orange polenta. Place left over polenta on sides, put apples on a greased baking tin and bake at 175 °C for 25-40 minutes.

Orange polenta

250 ml milk, 40 g acacia honey, 15 g butter, 1 pinch salt, 60 g semolina, 1 orange

Boil milk, honey, butter and salt in a pot. Mix in semolina with a whisk. Let simmer on minimum heat for 2 minutes. Stir with a cooking spoon. Grate an orange peel and add it in. 

Vanilla sauce

250 ml milk, 40 g acacia honey, 15 g rice flour, 1/2 vanilla bean or a pinch of vanilla paste, 1 pinch curcuma, 1 pomegranate

Carve the vanilla out of the bean. Then mix all ingredients together and let boil under constant stirring. Das Mark aus der Vanilleschote schaben. Dann alle Zutaten miteinander vermengen und langsam unter ständigem Rühren aufkochen. Arrange on plates with roast apples and decorate with pomegranate seeds.