Hoppin' John Soup ♥

Today's hearty soup recipe: For a double-dose of good luck in the new year, try a soup version of Hoppin' John, the traditional food of 'good fortune' in the American South. It's packed with lucky black-eyed peas and for extra measure, lucky collard greens too. Low carb. A very hearty-tasting Weight Watchers 1 point (Old Points) and 3 points (PointsPlus).

Check your grocery store this week: it'll be selling big bunches of collard greens, it's a promise. That's because greens, especially collard greens, are traditional for New Years' – who wouldn't mind a little more 'green' prosperity? Hoppin' John is a traditional beans 'n' rice dish, so that makes this Hoppin' John in a soup bowl, with collard greens for good measure.

It's a great soup for that long pause between Christmas and New Years, the one where we catch our breath and remember what the heavens must call 'relaxation'. But to be official, serve Hoppin' John on New Years, just to get things off to a good start. It can't hurt and it sure will taste good.

REVIEWS
"I made this on New Years and it was wonderful! It was even better the next day!" ~ Walter
"It was delicious, even forgetting to add the vinegar at the end." ~ Dave

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My Favorite Sweet Potato Recipes Hint: They're Not Just for Fries Anymore!

Finally! It's a veggie evangelist's dream come true, sweet potatoes named a food trend for 2011. In honor, I hereby present my best and favorite sweet potato recipes.

Finally, there's a food trend for vegetable lovers. And it's a vegetable that's found in every grocery store in the world (I'm betting) not an obscure plant grown every third year on a certain hillside in the far reaches of Outer Mongolia reachable only to people who trek in on yaks. And it's affordable not the price of an orthodontist visit. And yahoo, get this -- it's healthy! And maybe famous! Will 2011 be remembered as the Year of the Sweet Potato?

On Monday, Food News Journal (a great source of well-organized and timely food tidbits from both mainstream media and food blogs, best way to follow is via a free e-mail subscription) linked to Food Trend Predictions for 2011 from Tanya Steel at Epicurious. And right there, at #8, were "sweet potatoes". Yes, imagine sweet potatoes going all trendy! The New York Times thinks sweet potatoes are hot too, see Sweet Potatoes Step Out from Under the Marshmallows.

That's the good news. The bad news is that much of the trend is headed toward sweet potato fries -- and you know what I think about sweet potato fries, see Frozen Sweet Potato Fries: Are They Worth the Price, the Calories?.

So I've got a new campaign slogan, whaddaya think? Sweet Potatoes: They're Not Just for Fries Anymore. Here are my favorite sweet potato recipes, hold the fries, please.
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This Year, Let's Give Salads with Abandon: A Simple Dandelion Salad ♥

Today's holiday respite: A simple but elegant dandelion salad. But this is a concept, not a prescription. The gift of a salad, let it soothe the stress of the season.

Shopping before the holidays, it's good to avoid the seasonal one for them, one for me gift-buying trap. But a salad is a gift you can give yourself or gift wrap for those we love -- this year, let's give salads with abandon!

But let's save the staid old every-day salads for another time, those are the socks and the screwdriver sets of gifts, appreciated but fast forgotten. Instead, let's imagine simple but splendid salads, perfectly dressed greens and a sprinkle of festive salad savories, as bright and enticing as the beribboned boxes beneath the tree. No shaking the salads!

It worked for me, a gift not soon forgotten. It was November not December, and we were shopping for a birthday not Christmas. But there we were on a Friday night, hungry for supper but foraging the aisles of the Target store, on the hunt for an Ugly Doll and a Zu Zu Pet to fill a birthday wish list. Don't know what these hot kids' toys are? Don't worry, it doesn't matter, we were shopping for gifts, just like so many of us are now in these weeks before Christmas.

Home finally, and famished, we devoured the stew from the stove. Then I made the salads, slowing down the meal, sipping a glass of wine as I worked, taking the time to gently dress the dandelion greens and to arrange the apple slices, creating plates of beauty. Suddenly the busy-ness business vanished. What a gift.

May I suggest the gift of a salad? You're so welcome. I just knew you'd love it.
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Healthy Red & Green Green-Bean Salad ♥

A heathy 'concept' salad for holiday buffets, potlucks and special meals, a red and green salad that looks as festive as it is healthy. How healthy? Well, Weight Watchers, a full serving is just half a point using the old WW point system, the new Weight Watchers PointsPlus value is 1. (More on PointsPlus, below.) It's low carb, it's high in fiber – and naturally, it tastes great. Not just vegan, "Vegan Done Real".

Around here, cookbooks spill off shelves, stack up on the floor, rest on the coffee table waiting for a look-see. Long-ago favorites take up shelf space in a guest room. The sentimental favorites are the church-style cookbooks of my grandmother's and mother's generation. I shake my head when paging through the so-called "salad" section. You know what's coming, right? All the recipes call for a box of Jello. A third call for cream cheese, a third for mayonnaise and the remaining third get topped with Cool Whip or Dream Whip. (Hey! What happened to Dream Whip? I suppose it was too much work, you had to, you know, actually 'whip' it, just like real cream.) And don't even mention the prevalence of cans of pineapple tidbits and maraschino cherries ...

For Christmas, I wanted to create:

A red and green salad, festive in appearance and able to compete with the prettiest Christmas cookie platter
Made ahead and served cold (though I love this warm, too), perfect for holiday buffets and casual Christmas potlucks
Most of all, a healthy salad, a guilt-free addition to holiday tables.

But my red and green salad is just a start, once you start to consider the possibilities for healthy green bean salads. I haven't made these, but the concept just might spur your own imagination.

Stir in or top with toasted walnuts or pecans.
Skip the tomatoes, stir in chunks of good feta and bacon.
Substitute slivers of roasted or sautéed red pepper for the tomatoes.
Stir in bits of goat cheese, drizzle with a cranberry vinaigrette (a little cranberry sauce, mustard, good vinegar, a little olive oil).
Toss with lime juice, lime zest and dried cranberries or sour cherries.
Toss with lemon juice, lemon zest and Parmesan shavings.
I could go on, but how would you make a healthy green bean salad?
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Vegetarian Entrée Recipes for Thanksgiving

Welcome to A Veggie Venture's collection of vegetarian entrée recipes for Thanksgiving!

When it comes to Thanksgiving vegetarian main dishes, it's a bit of a balancing act, especially when there are both meat eaters and vegetarians at the same table. Over the years, these have become my goals, considering the needs of the hosts and the guests, both:

Thanksgiving is a special meal, a vegetarian entrée should feel special too, not an afterthought.
A vegetarian entrée should appeal to vegetarians and carnivores alike, the main course for the vegetarians, a side dish for the meat eaters. In this way, a quiet word can be said to those who don't eat meat but diet preferences need not become the subject of table conversation.
The vegetarian dish must have a substantial feel, not just be a larger portion of a traditional vegetable side dish.
It must use fresh and seasonal vegetables and be prepped mostly or entirely in advance.
VEGETARIANS, PLEASE NOTE: A Veggie Venture features vegetable recipes but is not vegetarian. The recipes featured on this page are either vegetarian or vegan, as are 80-90% of the recipes on the site. But if you decide to poke around looking for other recipes, either on A Veggie Venture or especially on my food column Kitchen Parade, you might come across a recipe that calls for a meat-based ingredient. For more information, see Note to Vegetarians.
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Savory Sweet Potato Casserole ♥

Today's Thanksgiving Recipe: A savory sweet potato casserole, nary a marshmallow in sight, the natural sweetness puréed into a soft earthiness offset with goat cheese and green chile salsa.

It's November at A Veggie Venture! That means the focus is adding new recipes to Favorite Recipes for Thanksgiving's Favorite Vegetables, a five-year collection of more than three dozen seasonal, delicious vegetable recipes perfect for Thanksgiving.

So we're turning orange around here. Our skin, our eyes, our lips, our teeth ... ... ... ... ... kidding! But if we are what we eat, then we are turning into sweet potatoes because I've made one savory sweet potato casserole recipe after another for the last couple of weeks. Because this is a classic concept recipe, mostly the casseroles have been variations on a theme:

Sweet potatoes cooked and then mashed with a fork, mixing in something creamy like goat cheese, ricotta cheese, even sour cream.
Then thinned with a little milk to create the light and fluffy texture that befits the richest and fluffiest mashed potatoes.
Then the flavors deepened or brightened or turned dark and savory with pantry ingredients.
Then turned into an oven-safe dish for heating through either right away or the next day.
Then sighing with satisfaction, the natural sweetness of the sweet potatoes plenty sweet enough without the addition of butter or cream or maple syrup or marshmallows or all the stuff we use to cover up the goodness, themselves, that are sweet potatoes.

The recipe that follows is one of two that I kept returning to. It shouts 'fall' to me and would be a wonderful contribution to a Thanksgiving table. That said, paired with a salad and an icy glass of Viognier one night, it was a most tasty vegetarian supper, too.

REVIEWS
"I made this for Thanksgiving dinner with sour cream ... and it was a huge hit!" ~ Lisa

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For Green Bean Casserole, Just Say NO! to Canned Green Beans & Mushroom Soup

How to make a green bean casserole from scratch with fresh green beans and fresh mushrooms. Below are step-by-step photos showing how to make the fresh green bean casserole recipe so many cooks have made (and loved!) since 2006. It's an adaptation of a Cooks' Illustrated recipe so good I dubbed it the World's Best Green Bean Casserole.

SAY YES! The green bean casserole is America's favorite casserole for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter (and even Father's Day, Labor Day and other special family occasions). It's worth saying 'yes' to!

SAY NO! to CANNED GREEN BEANS & CANS OF MUSHROOM SOUP But it's the 21st century and cans of more-gray-than green beans and cans of goopy gloppy mushroom soup just don't cut it any more. Making a green bean casserole with fresh green beans and fresh mushroom takes a little more time but it's not hard, not in the least. But the taste difference is so worth the extra effort. If you want to be a star at Thanksgiving, offer to make this green bean casserole with fresh ingredients. I've made one casserole after another for several years and am happy to share all the tips and tricks and techniques that make this a sure-fire success.
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