Vegan Recipes for the Holiday Season

December 23, 2024 Guest Contributor

Among the ingredients in Rabbi Jo's Vegan Brisket is jackfruit. (Image by topntp26 on Freepik)

Increasingly, Americans are adopting a vegan lifestyle. According to a recent survey, about 4% of Americans now consider themselves vegans, as opposed 2% in 2012. Nearly 88 million people around the globe are vegans, according to Strategic Market Research.

Many people cite the health benefits of plant-based veganism for their dietary switch, not to mention concerns about the wellbeing of the planet.

In that vein, Rabbi Dr. Jo David offers these vegan recipes for all to enjoy. Rabbi Jo is a New York-based spiritual leader, author, educator, counselor, facilitator and enthusiast of veganism. (She is also a published romance novelist who works under the nom de plume of Nola Saint James.)

Rabbi Jo’s Vegan Brisket

Ingredients
1 14 oz can of jackfruit – I suggest organic, if you can find it (not sweet)
2 diced yellow onions
3 carrots, diced and parboiled
2 stalks of celery, minced
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon smoked paprika (or more to taste)
2-3 large cloves of garlic, minced.
2 bay leaves
Tomato paste – I like the paste in the tube – to taste
1 cup medium dry red wine
2 Tablespoons Better Than Bouillon – No Beef — beef flavor dissolved in 2 cups hot water
1 cup of water
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil, canola oil or oil of your choice
1-2 bunches of broad leaf parsley, washed and minced. You can mince the stems for a little crunchy texture, which is very nice. Reserve about half for garnishing the “brisket.”

Optional additions – Set aside and add when ready to put the pan into the oven.
4-6 additional carrots – cut into coins and parboiled until slightly undercooked.
1 pound of sliced white mushrooms – dry sautéed. (You can cook mushroom in a hot, non-stick pan without any oil. Keep stirring. Use a little water if they start to stick.)

A note about vegan cooking. Some vegans do not use any type of fat in cooking. This is very doable, even with sautéing, but it’s a learned skill. (Lots of videos on YouTube.) If you don’t know how to dry sauté, use a little bit of olive oil or canola oil to sauté the onions and garlic.

Directions:

In a sauce pan, sauté the onions until they wilt. Add garlic and continue to sauté until the onions are translucent. Add the chopped tomatoes, minced celery and stir until blended.
Transfer the onion mixture to a good-sized pot and add the carrots, paprika, bay leaves, bouillon, ½ cup of red wine and the bouillon.
Bring to a simmer and taste. If you want a deeper tomato taste, some tomato paste, about a tablespoon at a time. At this point, add more bouillon, red wine, water until you are happy with the taste.
Add pepper to taste. (Not salt.)
Add about half the parsley, reserving the remainder for a garnish.
Simmer for a couple of minutes to permit the flavors to blend.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Turn off the heat. Discard the bay leaves.
While the contents in the pot are cooling slightly, prepare the jackfruit.
Drain jackfruit in a strainer and rinse under cold water. When well drained, put the jackfruit onto several layers of paper towel or a clean dish cloth and dry as well as possible.
Transfer to a cutting board. With a large fork or a potato masher, smash the lumps of jackfruit until all of it is broken down into “shreds.”
Using an immersion blender or a table top blender, blend the contents of the pot until the carrots, celery, tomatoes and onions are well incorporated into the liquid.
Transfer the jackfruit to a roasting pan and cover with the blended liquid.
If adding additional carrots and/or mushrooms, add to them to the braising pan at this point. Spoon some of the braising liquid over the vegetables.
Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees until the cooking liquid is bubbling. (30 – 60 minutes.) Test the cooking liquid for taste and adjust as necessary. Add water, bouillon or red wine during cooking if more gravy is desired. If necessary, add salt to taste when the brisket is cooked.
This can be served straight from the oven, but it’s better if it rests in the fridge overnight, just like a beef brisket.
Put the chopped parsley on the table as a garnish for this dish.

Serve with mashed potatoes, egg-free broad noodles or rice.

Rabbi Jo’s Vegan Scones

Equipment
Oven
1 large bowl
2 small bowls
Pastry cutter for working butter into flour mixture – optional. This can be done by hand.
Circular pastry cutter – about 2” wide with straight sides
Wire mesh strainer (large)
Baking sheet
Pastry brush

Ingredients

For the scones:
12 3/4 ounces self-rising flour plus extra for dusting (this is about 3 1/2 cups), but should be weighed
1 teaspoon baking powder – (make sure it’s still active)
1/4 fine ground salt
3 Tablespoons white sugar
3 1/4 ounces vegan butter – cut into small pieces and kept in the refrigerator until needed
6 1/3 ounces almond milk (or other non-dairy milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

For the “egg wash” (no eggs):
3 Tablespoons of almond milk (or other non-dairy milk)
1 teaspoon maple syrup

For serving:
Jam of your choice – raspberry and strawberry are traditional
Non-dairy whipped cream – available at most stores that sell vegan groceries

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Into a large bowl, sift together (using a sifter or a mesh strainer) the dry ingredients – Flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Do this in 2-3 batches so all the ingredients are well combined.
Add the cold, cubed vegan butter to the bowl. Work into the dry ingredients with pastry cutter or with your hands until the texture is that of very fine bread crumbs and all the dry ingredients are well incorporated.
Mix the wet ingredients – almond milk, vanilla extract and lemon juice together in a small bowl.
Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients.
Combine with your hands until you have a sticky dough.
Set dough aside and let it sit in a cool place for a few minutes while you prepare the surface for working the dough, and prepare the egg wash by combining the almond milk and the maple syrup. Set aside.
Lightly flour a work surface. Dip your pastry cutter in flour and set aside.
Tip the dough out onto the surface and sprinkle with a little flour. Gather together in a ball and pat into a circle about 2” high.
Cut out scones with the round pastry cutter. Place each piece on the prepared baking sheet. Leave a little space between each scone. They spread a little bit.
When there are only scraps left, gather into a ball, pat into a circle 2” high and continue to cut out the scones. If there is any dough left and not room on the baking sheet, form the dough into round shapes, wrap in wax paper to keep them separate, place in a plastic bag and freeze. You can bake these straight from the freezer.
Brush the tops of the scones with a pastry brush. (Note: It will take 2-3 brush strokes to create a shiny top. DO NOT brush the sides, or the scones won’t rise.)
Bake the scones for 10-15 minutes (or a little more, depending on your oven) until they are light brown. Check the bottoms to make sure they are lightly browned. Rotate the sheet after about 6 minutes.
When the scones are done, remove from the oven and let them sit for about 5 minutes before serving.