A Vegetarian Thanksgiving Menu - Butternut Squash Risotto & a Pumpkin Dessert

Butternut Squash Saffron Risotto

(Apologies for the poor picture quality - it is a product of dim lighting and iPhone 4)

                                                                       Pumpkin Dessert with three textures

We had some friends over for dinner around Thanksgiving so I made a fall-themed dinner. As one of our friends is vegetarian I came up with a vegetarian menu but had no regrets whatsoever! It turned out to be so good that I didn't miss turkey at all. The star of the show was Ina Garten's butternut squash saffron risotto and a delicious pumpkin dessert vying for the limelight. The dessert has three layers - the bottom one like pumpkin pie, the middle one like a cookie and the topmost one crunchy because of the pecans.
I made it with reduced fat evaporated milk and it still tasted good if a bit less firm. Next time I'll make my own yellow cake mix because the store bought is too sweet especially when it sits in one compact layer like in this dessert.

For the risotto I used good New Zealand sauvignon blanc and skipped the pancetta.
To go with the risotto I made a quick tossed greens salad.
Here's the salad recipe... or something like it -
Toss arugula, spinach, thinly sliced pears, grated parmesan and cooked (or canned) garbanzo beans with a dressing of apple cider vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper and sugar.

In general adding garbanzo beans to salads is a great way of incorporating vegetarian protein to your meal. Especially if you want to control the amount of soy protein in your diet because of the concerns regarding its harmful effect on hormones in both men and women.

Pineapple Jam

One thing that you don't easily get in the US is pineapple jam. It's one of my favorite jams so I decided to make a quick fix myself. Followed this recipe with some modifications -
  - Cut the pineapple into small pieces instead of grating it. Then when it was cooked and softened, I mashed it with a masher before adding the sugar.
- Used less sugar
- Used lemon juice instead of lime juice and used less of it.

Rosewater Panna Cotta

I love the flavor of rosewater. One whiff of it transports me to some dreamland! What's better than combining that with a delicious Italian dessert?

Recipe based on this one.

Yields 4 servings

Level: Easy, Time: 20 mins.

• 1 and half cups half-and-half (mixture of full fat milk and cream)

• 4 tbsp 2% reduced fat milk

• 2 to 3 tbsp rose water (I used 'Sadaf' brand - it is really good)

• Rooh Afza - 1 teaspoon or more for color

• 5 tbsp sugar

• 1/2 envelop (1 envelop=0.25 oz) powdered gelatin

Method -
1. Add gelatin to the 2% milk, mix and let stay.
2. Bring half-and-half and sugar to boil or heat until very hot. Then add rooh afza and gelatin mixture, let simmer for 1 minute and turn off heat.
3. Add rose water.
4. Pour into bowls, let cool. Then cover with plastic wrap and keep in fridge for at least 3 hours.
5. You can either serve it in the bowls or place the bowls in hot water one by one, place a small plate on top of the bowl and turn the bowl upside down on the plate and pat the bowl so that the beautiful, luscious panna cotta gently falls on to the plate with a plop. Drizzle a little bit of rooh afza on top if you like.

You can get creative with panna cotta! For instance add baileys to base of bowl and then add vanilla panna cotta mixture. Or top it off with a fruity compote.

Notes:

- Many recipes ask for gelatin leaves to be used but they are harder to find than powdered gelatin. Here's a simple conversion formula between the two -

1 envelop (0.25 oz) powdered gelatin = 4 gelatin sheets/ leaves