Ayurvedic 3-course menu for Christmas: as a starter a cauliflower cream soup with fried sultanas, for the main course beetroot schnitzel with fennel-carrot vegetables and parsley root puree and as dessert a poppy seed muffin with pear ragout and vanilla sauce.
Cauliflower cream soup
(for 4 servings)
600 g cauliflower
2 tbsp Ghee or olive oil
1 onion, medium
½ stick of leek
½ tsp coriander, whole
½ tbsp fennel seeds, whole
½ tbsp mustard seed, yellow, whole
¼ tsp nutmeg, ground
600 ml vegetable stock
600 ml almond or rice milk
200 ml almond cream
Some lemon juice
3 tbsp sultanas or currants
1 pinch of cinnamon
Salt, pepper
Wash and chop the vegetables. Heat the Ghee or oil in a large pot, add the coriander, fennel and mustard seeds and fry until the mustard seeds start to pop. Add the vegetables and sauté for about 1-2 minutes without colouring. Add nutmeg, pour in vegetable stock and simmer for 20 minutes.
Let the soup cool a little, stir in the almond milk and almond cream and puree. Season to taste with salt, pepper and some lemon juice. Then heat up, but do not boil any more.
Before serving, fry the sultanas in a pan with some Ghee or oil, add a pinch of cinnamon, swivel, remove from the heat and use as a topping or ingredient for the soup.
Beetroot schnitzel with fennel-carrot vegetables and parsley root puree
(for 4 servings)
Fennel-carrot vegetables
3 carrots
1 fennel tuber
½ tbsp Ghee
½ tsp fennel seeds
½ tsp mustard seeds
Brown sugar
Salt, pepper
Coriander
¼ L vegetable stock
1 bunch fresh parsley
Peel the carrots and cut them into diagonal slices, cut the fennel into small cubes. Heat the Ghee and fry the fennel in it thoroughly, add the carrots and fry them as well. Then add the spices and fry lightly. Sprinkle with sugar and let it caramelise. After caramelising, add some salt, pepper and coriander and fill up with stock. Let the vegetables simmer gently without a lid for about 8-10 minutes until the liquid has reduced to 1/3. Then fold in the chopped parsley.
Beetroot schnitzel
2 beetroot, cooked
2 tbsp chickpea flour
4 tbsp vegetable stock
4 tbsp sesame seeds
Some Ghee
Cut the beetroot into 1 cm thick slices and season with some salt and pepper. Mix the chickpea flour and the vegetable stock to a not too thin dough. Pull the beetroot slices through the dough and toss in the sesame seeds.
Put Ghee in a pan and slowly fry the breaded schnitzels over medium heat until crispy.
Parsley root puree
200 g potatoes, peeled
200 g parsley root, peeled
Salt and water
200-300 ml rice milk
1 pinch of nutmeg
1 tbsp Ghee
Cut the potatoes and parsley roots into small pieces and boil them in some salted water until soft, then pour off the water and let everything steam slightly.
Heat the rice milk and pour over the potatoes, then add the nutmeg and the Ghee. Mash everything with a potato masher and season to taste.
Poppy seed muffin with pear ragout and vanilla sauce
Muffin dough
300 g spelt flour
200 g brown sugar
1 sachet baking powder
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
250 g almond milk
150 ml sunflower oil
Poppy seed mixture
½ L almond milk
85 g brown sugar
½ tbsp vanilla sugar
60 g corn semolina
20 g organic vanilla custard powder
200 g poppy seeds, ground
85 g Ghee or neutral vegetable oil
½ Pkg. soy cream cheese
For the muffins, mix all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl and leave to rest for 15 minutes.
For the poppy seed mixture, bring the almond milk to the boil in a saucepan. Mix the dry ingredients, add them to the almond milk in the saucepan, stirring constantly, and simmer for 1 minute. Stir in the Ghee or oil and leave to cool overnight if possible. Whip the cold mixture and the soy cream cheese with a hand mixer or food processor for 1 minute.
Fill the muffin cases halfway with the dough. Put the poppy seed mixture into a piping bag and fill the cups up to the rim. Bake at 175°C for approx. 20-25 minutes in a fan oven.
Pear ragout
4 pears
2 tbsp agave syrup
½ tsp cardamom, ground
1 dash rose water, to taste
Peel the pears and cut into small cubes. Heat the agave syrup in a pan, add the pear cubes and simmer gently until the juice has reduced. Remove from the heat and add cardamom and rose water to taste.
Vanilla sauce
1 vanilla pod
400 ml vegetable milk (almond, rice etc.; no oat milk!)
4 tsp cornflour
½ tsp turmeric powder
Some sweetener (agave syrup, maple syrup, apple sweetener etc.)
Scrape out the vanilla pod, bring the pulp and pod to the boil in a pan with the plant milk over a medium heat. Mix the cornflour with 3 tbsp cold water, then stir into the boiling vanilla milk. Let it simmer for about 2 minutes over medium heat. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the turmeric powder. Sweeten to taste.
We wish you a contemplative and enjoyable Christmas season 🙂
