Dinner Under the Apple Trees | A Vegetarian Feast
Easy prep for a four course vegetarian spread in the garden.
Thank you for joining me On the Acre. As an Art Director, gardener and cook, I will be sharing the dishes I make, garden tableware and dinner party ideas, my own garden updates, and my adventures in natural dye. I would love to have you join me.
This May I gathered a few of my dear friends beneath the apple trees for a welcome summer dinner. The week leading up to the gathering ended up being very busy, and I set my intention on making a simple menu where I could make a few things ahead, leverage my freezer and pantry, and have minimal prep and plating the day of.
I wanted to course out the menu to set an unhurried pace for the evening, savoring each dish and pausing between. I find this is uncomfortable at first to settle into, especially with a meal I am hosting, but by mid meal I find myself at rest, enjoying the reframing of my normally hurried mind around a slow, leisurely meal.
I wanted a menu that highlights vegetables first and foremost. I leaned into nuts, cheeses, and spreads to boost vegetarian dishes with protein.
The first course includes my Brown Butter Radishes recipe, perfect for the red beauties popping up on my garden.
The salad is a riff on Eden Eats Fennel & Olive Slaw where I added in tender pea shoots, green onion and asparagus for a spring twist.
The tortellini en brodo is a riff on Smitten Kitchen’s recipe from her book Smitten Kitchen Everyday. I am still refining my own recipe, and hope to share it one day.
The leeks recipe is from the cookbook Firepit Feast, featured on Maggie Hoffman’s The Dinner plan. I modified it to make it easy to prepare on the grill instead of a firepit.
The broccoli recipe is my own take on Eden Eats Whole Roasted Broccoli, swapping the romesco for hummus, and golden raisins and hazelnuts instead of dates and almonds in the gremolata.
The apricot glazed carrots is my own creation, emphasizing the carrot’s natural sweetness with apricot preserves and balancing it with cool, creamy yogurt and fresh dill. Simple and so good.
For the rhubarb cake I used Smitten Kitchen Summer Strawberry Cake batter as the base, then swapped in chopped rhubarb instead of strawberries. I also added a heaping 1/4 tsp. cardamom to the sponge. I made this cake the morning of, but it could have been made a day or two in advance.
Easy steps to make prep a breeze
brilliant salad hack
The moment I saw this hack I wanted to exclaim ‘That is genius!’ Alexis has you put your salad dressing on the bottom of your bowl, then layer your salad on top, and right before you serve, toss it all together. It is a massive time saver! For my salad I juiced one lemon on the bottom of my salad serving bowl, added my sliced fennel, then layered the rest of the ingredients on top. I covered my salad and put in the fridge until ready to toss. I drizzled with olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, tossed, tossed, tossed; tasted, then balanced with red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper until the balance of salt and acid was just right.
Par-boil all in one pot
I intentionally chose three main dishes that all use vegetables that I planned to finish on the grill. I par-boiled each of them to get ahead on the cooking process, making time on the grill just about adding color and flavor, not getting the vegetables tender.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Boil whole medium leeks for five minutes, set aside. Boil whole, peeled medium or small carrots for 5 to 6 minutes, set aside. Boil whole heads of broccoli for four minutes, set aside. Store all three vegetables in the fridge until you’re ready to turn on the grill.
Grill = Caramel-y, Charred Goodness
Your veg are perfectly tender already from the par-boil, and you want to enhance their character and flavor through a shorter finishing cook on the grill. I dressed the broccoli and leeks in olive oil and Maldon salt, and glazed and salted my carrots before grilling. I cooked the carrots in a grill pan to keep the glaze from burning, and grilled the leeks and broccoli directly on the grates. All of the veg came of the grill between 15-25 minutes. This is a rough estimate, every grill and preference on char will be unique to each cook. No need to serve these vegetables hot, they are just as delicious at room temp.
Pre-mades are the unsung hero
Premade items are your friend. As much as I believe there is a time and a place for homemade hummus and ricotta, sometimes a high quality store bought is the better move. For the broccoli dish I used Babas hummus - an ultra creamy and light hummus that is unlike anything I can whip up in my blender. Spread on a plate and topped with charred veg, olive oil and gremolata, it checks all the boxes for a vegetarian main dish.
For the ricotta I used a basic grocery store brand and whisked in some salt, pepper, lemon zest and olive oil. It elevates it beautifully without having to shell out for an expensive brand. For the yogurt, I went with Skotidakis 5% Greek Yogurt – so rich and creamy with little to no tang, it is a perfect base for grilled carrots.
My apricot glaze is homemade - kind of. It uses dried apricots, as I love the consistency and intensity of flavor they bring to the finished dish.
Apricot Glaze
Combine 200g. of dried apricots, 150g. of boiling water, and 100 g. of sugar in a heat proof bowl and cover. Let the apricots soak in the boiling water for an hour. Blend everything in a blender until smooth. Transfer to a jar and refrigerate until you’re ready to use.
Leverage the freezer & pantry
I keep my freezer stocked with homemade parmesan broth and homemade filled pasta to make for easy prep. There is something so special about stocking away homemade broths and pasta to tuck into any time, especially in early summer when you want to spend less time in the kitchen. About 30 minutes before serving, I cook my pasta, then place it in a bowl with some butter or a drizzle of olive oil and cover. I de-thaw and heat my broth, letting it gently simmer until I am ready to serve. A ladle of warm broth heats up the tortellini, and topped with fresh dill and drizzle of olive oil, it is ready to eat.
Guests bring the bevs
Don’t fuss over beverages, ask your guests to bring something to share. This gives them something to bring and feel a part of prep without the pressure of fitting into a menu. My friends brought homemade rhubarb and pineapple sage tea and a bottle of rosé, and I had a large pitcher of ice water as well.
Garnish from the garden
I love to have fresh cuttings of herbs from the garden or farmer’s market ready to add finishing touches to every dish. Beyond dill I had Sorel leaves, chervil, pea shoots and thyme. Simple details that bring a dish from plain to elegant in seconds.
Bringing it all together
On my counter are platters ready to plate, the grilled veg, pre-mades, and garnishes sit ready. The pot of broth simmers gently on the stove, and the tortellini sit covered close by. I have moved the table under the trees, the table cloth is spread and set with coupes, plates and silverware, a garden bouquet adorns the center, and citronella candles are set close by to keep the bugs at bay.
Ten minutes before my guests arrive, I start my radishes, so I am plating them as guests enter the kitchen. Warm hellos and welcomes fill the kitchen, and we grab the brown butter radishes, beverages, and salad and head to the garden. We enjoy the first course with sips of rhubarb iced tea, catching up on each other’s lives.
As plates begin to empty, I wander in to ladle the brodo. This course is my favorite to serve, as there is something so special about sipping broth in the garden. We linger on the soup, taking our time with each tortellini, and munching on the last of the salad and radishes.
After savoring well, we clear the first and second course from the table, and open the bottle of rosé. We all head in to plate our three main dishes, each taking a platter to plate and garnish. A spread of hummus or yogurt, topped with grilled vegetable, then garnish or gremolata, a generous drizzle of olive oil and a shower of Maldon and fresh black pepper, we carry our mains out to the garden.
Between sips of rosé we enjoy bites of each dish, how each marries together yet stands on its own. A beautiful medley of flavors. We sit back in our chairs and sigh deeply, listening to the frog song as golden hour begins to wane. “Cake?” I say, after a considerable rest, and we carry in the mains and head back out with slices of cake in hand. How lovely this meal and evening was.
I hope this gives you ideas on how to create your own garden feast. It was lovely to recap the creating and enjoy of this evening with you.
