I love tradition. I love the little things that are woven into my family’s tapestry. The outdoor adventure on Thanksgiving to work up an appetite. The winter solstice breakfast celebration. The cross country ski trek into the woods to select our Yule tree (we always choose one that’s in a cluster of others, knowing that by thinning one out the others will be free to grow stronger and healthier.) But I think the key to traditions is truly taking stock: does this really work for me, or am I doing it because I’m “supposed to”? Where is that pressure coming from? Is it possible to release it? 

Prioritize what’s important. What kind of foods bring you pleasure to prepare? My one absolute, unshakable winter holiday tradition is cranberry sauce. I love watching the gem-like cranberries pop and burst in the pot, I love playing with additions like quince, or huckleberries, or extra nutmeg, or a dash of booze. I happily sit in the corner of the kitchen by the stove stirring the sauce with a wooden spoon carved by my aunt, smelling the tartness and the spices and feeling the gratitude of the day fill me. Always cranberry sauce. Always. But the turkey? I could take it or leave it.

If you find joy in baking but feel overwhelmed at the thought of cooking a turkey, ask yourself if you really need it. (If the answer is “yes,” ask a guest to bring one or order a pre-cooked option from a restaurant or caterer.) Allow yourself to spend the afternoon in the kitchen with some uplifting music and maybe a glass of wine. If you’re not feeling the traditional menu, there are no laws saying you can’t mix it up. Last year, every single one of my immediate family members secretly came up with the hope of a seafood Christmas dinner (a far stretch from the usual duck, ham, or turkey options.) Eventually, someone was brave enough to voice their frighteningly non-traditional thoughts, and soon everyone was laughing at our shared agreement. Snow crabs and mussels were the perfect feast. That said, there is no rule saying you have to have any kind of meat at your feast at all. 

With more and more people adopting a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle, I saw the need for a beautiful main dish to stand as a centerpoint to holiday feasts. Finding centerpiece-worthy holiday recipes for plant-based eaters is a tough challenge. Lentil logs and baked tofu just don’t quite have the gravitas of a majestic roast turkey or ham, in my opinion. Despite hours of searching online, I could find very few plant-based options that would fill the place of the centerpoint of a feast and satisfy both vegans and omnivores. This hearty and beautiful dish is my answer to those searches; I wanted to come up with something just as impactful, flavorful, and delicious as the meat-based options, and this recipe is definitely a winner! 

This earthy vegan dish is the perfect cozy weather food - a hearty supper after a day in the cold. Portobello mushrooms are filled with a smoky red pepper sauce and topped with breadcrumbs before being roasted atop conifer branches, which infuse everything with their fresh woodsy flavor while the breadcrumbs on top crisp up nicely. After roasting, the stuffed mushrooms are presented atop a savory and fragrant polenta. A crunchy piece of roasted broccoli is the perfect finishing touch, leaving this dish ready for a holiday feast or a weeknight supper. The best part? You don’t need to spend all day preparing it, and it’s still delicious with cranberry sauce. Happy me. ;)

If you need someone’s permission to break from tradition, you have mine. Stuffed mushrooms  and one perfectly-crafted pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. Seafood stew for Christmas. A lavish feast on some random day when it’s too brisk to stay outside for long and everyone’s drawn to the kitchen instead. There are many ways to mark a day as special or significant; the beautiful thing is that you can decide what days are worth it and how you want to mark them going forwards. 

Smoky Fir-Roast Mushrooms:

The sauce inside these portobello mushrooms is based on the classic Spanish Romesco sauce. This cheerfully bright-orange sauce is full of the rich, smoky flavor of roasted peppers. It’s got a nice texture and some added protein from traditional almonds or sunflower seeds. It’s a great smoky-sweet plant-based sauce for cool weather recipes. To enhance the smokiness and add a little Pacific Northwest magic, the mushrooms are roasted atop clean conifer branches. Going on a walk to gather those branches can be wonderfully refreshing. Just make sure you are foraging responsibly and gathering branches from a clean, un-sprayed location. Don’t take more than one small branch from each large tree. This recipe serves four as a stand-alone dish or more at a feast with many sides. It’s also easily doubled to accommodate larger feasts. 

I can’t get over how delicious this plant-based main truly is. The mushrooms combined with the sauce are succulent and juicy in the best possible way. It tastes just as rich as biting into a piece of meat, with its own delightful mix of umami-rich flavor. My family enjoyed them so much this might be our new holiday tradition. 

A quick note: miso can affect the texture of the polenta quite a bit. Even when the polenta is  thick on the stove, stirring in the miso often softens it up to a more liquid texture. I enjoy the softer texture and the flavor of miso, but if you want a firm polenta you could definitely leave it out and just add a little extra salt. 

Ingredients: 

4-6 large Portobello mushrooms 

1 clove garlic, minced

2 Tbs. olive oil

A few clean fir branches 

Sage polenta (below) 

½ c. breadcrumbs

1 small head of broccoli

½ lemon

Salt and pepper

Fir salt, below

Sauce Ingredients: 

2 large red peppers, roasted* (or buy jarred) 

3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

½ c. blanched almonds or hulled sunflower seeds

1 tsp. Dried bee balm (or oregano) 

3 Tbs fresh lemon juice

2 tsp.  smoked paprika

1 tsp. Salt

½ c. extra virgin olive oil 

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350F with a rack in the middle of the oven. 

2. Slice the head of broccoli into thin slices and place on a small, parchment-lined baking sheet. 

3.  Prepare your mushrooms. Trim off the stems completely out and brush the caps clean (avoid rinsing if at all possible.) Mix the minced garlic with the olive oil and brush on the topside of the cap of each mushroom. Use the rest of the oil to brush on the broccoli slices. Lay out the conifer branches on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and perch the mushrooms gill-side-up on top. 

4. Next, make the sauce: place all of the sauce ingredients into a food processor and pulse to combine, pausing to scrape down the sides every 30 seconds or so. Sauce should be slightly textured. 

5. Fill each portobello cap with romesco sauce, then sprinkle some breadcrumbs on top. Place both pans into the oven. Meanwhile, make the polenta and fir salt  (below.) 

6. Cook the pans for 20-30 minutes, or until the mushrooms have softened, the breadcrumbs have crisped to golden brown, and the broccoli slices are cooked but not burned (if you used really thin slices, you may need to remove them from the oven earlier.) Drizzle fresh lemon juice over the broccoli slices, then place one on top of each mushroom. Sprinkle with fir salt. Place the mushrooms on the polenta and serve hot. 

*To roast your own peppers, select 2 red bell peppers, then slice in half and de-seed. Place them on a non-stick baking tray (or use some parchment) and drizzle with olive oil, then roast in a hot 400F oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the skin has started to brown and blister. You can also purchase pre-roasted red peppers instead. 

Fir Salt: this is as easy as combining a few fresh fir needles in a mortar and pestle with some coarse sea salt and grinding until the needles have broken down. I like adding a little extra salt near the end to have larger pieces too. 

Sage Polenta: 

This is savory comfort food at its finest. The polenta gets a rich flavor from the mushroom broth and miso, with the nostalgic and comforting flavor of fresh sage. 

Ingredients: 

3 cups mushroom broth

3 c. almond milk 

1 1/2 c. instant polenta (or fine cornmeal) 

3 Tbs. chickpea miso 

2 Tbs. vegan butter

3 Tbs.  finely chopped fresh sage

Sea salt, to taste 

While mushrooms are roasting:

1. Bring the stock and milk to a boil in a large saucepan. Reduce the heat to low and slowly whisk in the polenta and continue to whisk constantly until the polenta is thickened to a thick paste, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the butter, miso, and sage until everything is incorporated, which will loosen the mixture up a bit. Season to taste with salt and pepper. 

2. You can either spread the polenta into a big serving dish and top with the mushrooms, or portion it out into four to six  individual bowls.  

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