On sunday I shall be cooking for friends and, due to poor planning on my part, didn’t get around to inviting everyone until yesterday. This wouldn’t have been a problem except that one of the people I invited last night has a rather bizarre allergy: Sweet Peppers.
This doesn’t affect most of the meal, but one of the things I was planning to do was a platter of roast vegetables (mostly root vegetables), and a sauce to go with it that includes red peppers as part of the base. I’m still going to do this, having bought most of the ingredients by this point and not wanting to plan a whole other meal, so what I’d like is an alternate sauce to go with the root vegetables.
It has to be vegetarian, as a significant portion of those invited are vegetarians (as am I, so I prefer not to cook meat in the first place), preferably vegan (but not essential - the other sauce is vegan suitable). And of course it can’t include sweet peppers.
I’ve searched all my cook books, and have had a try at googling recipes but haven’t had much luck. Does anyone have some good suggestion they would like to share?
Well, I don’t know how you’re roasting your veggies… What seasoning are you using other than salt?
You could season the veggies well and skip the sauce. Say grind rosemary over them, and sprinkle with lemon and good olive oil, then roast. That would be very tasty and an easy fix.
Well, my husband and I enjoy this really easy asparagus sauce on pasta, and it’d probably be just as good on veggies. It’s really easy to make, too. It’s not vegan, in that it calls for butter (to cook the onion in) and cream, but we always substitute lowfat milk, so I’m sure a soy milk substitute would work just as well, as would whatever vegan substitute is used for butter.
**DeVena **: She’s not severely allergic to sweet peppers, but curry wouldn’t work because of the way the sauce is made. I don’t think there’s really any way to salvage the sauce unfortunately.
As to the veggies, I was planning to season them fairly lightly. What I may do is to divide them into two different types - one will be Aubergine, Courgettes and a few others, the other will be root vegetables. The former will have herbs, a little bit of garlic and related things, and I’ll season the root vegetables fairly lightly. I’d like to do a sauce to go with them anyway, as the main sauce I’m planning is extremely nice and goes with most things. So, in order to not let her feel left out of the saucy goodness, I’d like to do another alternative.
Shayna: Asparagus? Eww! Thanks for the suggestion 'though. If I were to make it I’d probably not bother with making it vegan, as soy milk is clearly the work of satan.
Here’s the recipe for the sauce I’m using (it’s pretty thick - it’s probably closer to a dip really):
olive oil
1 onion
2 red peppers
1 dried red chilli
100g blanched almonds
1 clove of garlic
Juice of one lemon
Instructions: Roast the almonds lightly, fry the chilli, onion, peppers and garlic with a bit of salt and pepper. Put everything in a blender with the lemon juice, blend until relatively smooth.
The garlic/onion sauce sounds promising. How would you go about making that?
How about a Mustard sauce? Following your recipe, I would substitute 1/3 cup good Dijon mustard for the red peppers and chilis, and , if time allows, substitute roasted garlic for the one clove… half a head roasted, this will give a more mellow accent to the mustard. If time doesn’t allow garlic roasting, I’d do one clove, plus 1/4 c minced shallot; adds some complexity to the harshness of garlic. I’d also add 2 tsp fresh rosemary, or 2tsp Herbes de Provence, if ya have em,sauteed with the onion, etc, to soften. (added hint; Herbes de Provence should be a kitchen staple, they make everything mo’ better, pinch per pinch)
Hope this helps,.Kitarek, you are swell to accomodate other folk’s food needs.
You could just put Tomatillos instead of the peppers. Then again maybe I’m just fixated on Tomatillos right now because I haven’t been able to find any yet this season. mmmmm… Salsa Verde
Thanks for the suggestion 'though. If I were to make it I’d probably not bother with making it vegan, as soy milk is clearly the work of satan.