Help w menu. Need a side w/o pepper(s) To go with spiral ham/scalloped white and sweet potatoes.

M

mariadnoca

Moderator
My sister-in-law is making a spiral ham and scalloped sweet and white potatoes for Christmas. I’m supposed to bring something to go with and I’m not feeling very inspired. My mother-in-law is allergic to pepper of any kind, so no added pepper or peppers can be in the dish. Right now all I can think of is green beans and that just seems so boring for a holiday dinner.

I once had roasted brussels sprouts in some sort of yummy glaze, but never got the recipe and to this day wish I had.

Mixture of beets and turnips or something like that? root vegetables sounds good but I don’t really have a recipe and I’m not sure if it goes with spiral ham.

> Any ideas?

 
Roasted Carrots with Smashed-Walnut Vinaigrette is really good

I made this at Thanksgiving. Food & Wine had a complicated recipe using three kinds of veggies, roasting them seperately and I decided to just make the carrots. I did use tricolor carrots but since then made it again with just orange carrots. It is really tasty, is good hot or room temp and is very nice to look at.

One of the veggies F&W called for was Brussel Sprouts- so you could use them instead of carrots.

Preheat oven to 425. Cut carrots lengthwise (use medium thin carrots not big ones) in half. Put on rimmed baking sheet and toss with a couple T of olive oil. Roast about 30 min. Transfer to a bowl. While carrots roast, whisk 1/4 c sherry vinegar with 2 tsp Dijon mustard and 1 Tbsp maple syrup then whisk in 1/2 c olive oil slowly. Toast 1/2 c whole walnut halves in a dry pan then smash them. Add to the vinaigrette. Stir in 2 T chopped parsley and 1 T orange zest. Drizzle over the carrots and serve.

 
I would avoid more root vegetables because they are sweet and the ham

usually has a sweeter glaze, plus the sweetness in the sweet potatoes.

I always love frenched green beans in browned butter. You can blanche the green beans ahead of time and they can hang out in the kitchen. The browned butter can also be made ahead of time and while it's heating up add slivered or sliced almonds and a bit of lemon zest, then toss the beans in to warm up with a squeeze of the lemon juice. Everyone likes it and the acid in the beans is an nice foil to the ham and potatoes.

 
roasted cauliflower

there are all kinds of ways to do this but even just oil and salt. If you can serve them hot right out of the oven is best but warm is good too. REALLY SIMPLE and everyone in my house devours them. I used to season these with hot sauce but recently I do salt and pepper.

Today I mixed grapeseed oil, salt, pepper and onion powder. I then brushed this on baking sheet at 475. I go by sight but I think it was around 10 minutes.

Do the same with a vinegar and oil style salad dressing. Great flavor.

Today I was thinking it would be a nice combo to roast these up with some pancetta so I'll try that next time.

 
Roasted cauliflower is great with dried, French Tarragon too! Wonderful vegetable

I use it all the time in place of mashed potatoes for the two of us. I add roasted garlic, and do in the food processor. Best method I have found. Add chunked butter. Cook cauliflower in chicken stock first, one large head, to one cup stock. Use about 3 Tbsp. of the stock in food processor.. Add fresh Thyme during the last few seconds of processing.
When I roast in oven, I like to play with different oils. I have used Almond, Walnut, Pistachio, Pesto Oils, all fun and tasty.

 
nice!

speaking of different uses, I used to throw away the leaves and primary stalk. Now I save these. I cut the stalk fairly thin then add to soups. The thick part of the leaves is almost celery or Bok Choy like. Some people will roast the stalk and leaves too but I didn't have a lot of success there so I just save them for soup.

 
I love that idea. Always feel guilty tossing those away, but never tried to do anything with them.

Every so often The Kitchen on the Food Network will have uses for stuff usually tossed into the garbage or compost bin. It is amazing what they come up with.

 
honestly, the past few years

I've been realizing all this and have this lingering guilt for everything I've wasted over the years. But it is fun when you experience how awesome some of these things are.

 
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