by Christi @ Love From The Oven

Question: What are some good recipes for vegetarian ethnic food?
I am most looking for recipes from China, Russia, and the Netherlands and are Jewish. It can be anything, dessert, side, or main course. Please give recipe and specific nation or culture it came from.
*Or are Jewish.

Answer:

Answer by Rozmin
Almost any Russian food can be made in a vegetarian way, during fasting Russian Orthodox church requires that people don’t eat meat. These are all Russian or Ukrainian, I’ve tested them all and my Ukrainian boyfriend loves them.

Okroshka
This is a cold soup served in summer time. Even though to my American mind it sounded weird, I love it. This should serve about 4 people.

Chop 2-3 regular sized scallions (green onions), just the green part is best. Place them in a salad bowl. Sprinkle generously with salt, and mash them with a fork until you start to see juices leaving them. Slice in half 3 hard boiled eggs. Add the yellows to the bowl, set aside the whites. Add about 1 tsp nice mustard (not coarse grained) to the bowl. Mash the egg yolks with the mustard, mix with the onions. Set bowl aside. Chop into cubes (about .25″x.25″ big): about 1/3-1/5 of an English cucumber (the long thin ones), the whites from the eggs, 2 small baked/boiled potatoes (the yukon gold or similar type is best) or 1 med/large potato. The potato is usually peeled, but it’s up to you. Slice 5-10 radishes into thin circles. Add all these to the bowl and mix well. Now, chop up LOTS AND LOTS of herbs: a bit of mint, a lot of dill, a bit of parsley, people add other herbs they like as well. Seriously, a lot, like 1-2 handfuls of fresh stuff is what you should chop up. Add it to the bowl and mix well. Salt and pepper to taste. Here’s the fun part. You now fill the bowl with either kvass, or kefir, or if you don’t have anything else, unflavored sparkling water. If your kefir is very thick, you may need to thin it with water a little. The Turkish beverage Ayran also works well for this. If you use just sparking water (or if your kvass is a bit sour) you may need to add a couple teaspoons of sugar. The ratio of liquid to solids should be similar to that found in a bowl of cereal. The okroshka should be served with as much cream (like creme fraiche, sour cream also works) as you want, mixed in. Served as a 1st course.

Golubtsy
I usually make these with ground beef, but recently I tried it with lots of chopped mushrooms! The name means “doves”, but I’m not sure why it’s called that. (They are cabbage rolls, but can alternatively be made as stuffed bell peppers. Still called the same way, though.)

For the filling: Mix about 4 cups cooked rice with 1 large carrot (peeled and grated), 1 small onion (chopped finely), 1 tomato (chopped), lots of salt and pepper. Chop up about 6-8 medium sized mushrooms. Or you can use an equivalent amount of any kind of mushroom, or a mix. Sautee them in some butter and sunflower oil for a few minutes (until they look cooked). Mix them into the rice mixture.

For cabbage golubtsy: boil a head of cabbage until the leaves peel off easily and won’t snap when you bend them. They need to be soft enough to work with. I’ve heard that instead you can freeze a cabbage and then thaw it, but I haven’t tried it. Carefully peel off the leaves. Stuff each leaf with the mix, folding it like a little burrito. Layer them in a dutch oven as you go (or soup pot). When done, fill the pot with water about 2/3 of the way. Put a lid on it, bring to a soft boil and then simmer them for about 1.5 hours.

With bell peppers: These I do in the microwave! Cut the tops off of 6-10 peppers (depends on size), doesn’t matter which color. Take the insides out. Sprinkle the insides with salt and pepper. Stuff with mix. Replace the lids, and arrange the peppers, standing upright, in a shallow microwave safe casserole. Pour a 50-50 mix of tomato juice and water into the casserole, such that the bottom 1/4-1/3 of the peppers is covered. Cover the whole casserole with plastic wrap, microwave on high for 20 minutes. Remove carefully, it will be hot! In both cases this should be served with sour cream, and chopped dill & parsley. It can be served with the cooking liquid, too. Served as a main course. (2nd)

Borsch
This is THE Russian soup (although the origin is probably actually Ukrainian) in most people’s mind. The meat version has a nice beefy flavor, but certainly it can be made with vegetable broth instead.

Bring about 2 quarts of your favorite vegetable broth up to a boil in a soup pot (I use a 3 quart one for this). When it’s come to a low boil, add about 1/2 a small cabbage that’s been shredded. Let that boil (gently, rolling boil not necessary). Chop about 3 smallish potatoes (I like Yukon Gold or similar) into cubes about .5″x.5″. Peeled or not is fine. After the cabbage has been in for about 20 minutes, add the potatoes. Now, peel and shred 2 small beets or 1 large one. I’ve done this with uncooked ones and pre-cooked ones, both ways have been tasty. Shred 1 carrot. Sautee the beets in a mix of butter and sunflower oil. After they cook about 5 minutes (maybe 10 is required if you used fresh) add the carrot. Cook another 10 minutes or so. If you need to add a little broth from the pot so it doesn’t burn, feel free to do that (but you don’t want it to be too liquidy, you do want them to sautee). Now, add a tablespoon of tomato paste or a chopped tomato (or both if you like). Also add 1 tablespoon white vinegar mixed with 1 tablespoon of sugar. Mix it all that with the beets and carrots, let it cook another couple of minutes. Add the whole mixture to the soup pot, and let that cook together for about 5-10 minutes. Add salt as you need to, you can also add sugar and vinegar/lemon juice to adjust for sweetness and acidity. This should be served hot, with a huge dollop of sour cream, and chopped dill & parsley. You then mix it all together. It’s great! Some people also add olives (I’m not crazy about that) or prunes (I do like that). Other veggies can sometimes be added too (bell pepper sometimes). Served as a 1st course.

Pirozhki
These are different from Polish pierogies. They’re baked pastries.

Filling: grate about 3 carrots, and chop 2 medium onions. Sautee together, add salt to taste and LOTS of ground black pepper. You’re going to need to add 2 eggs, and you can do it in a couple of ways. In a rush, I usually just wait till the carrots and onion are soft and golden, then crack the eggs into the same pan, scramble everything together, then remove from heat. If you have time, you can boil the eggs (hard cooked). When the carrots and onions are ready, remove them from the heat. Peel and chop the cooked eggs, and mix them with the veggies.

Dough: I mix 1 cube of live yeast (it’s about 42 grams, enough for 1 kilo of flour) with a spoon of sugar, a few spoons of flour, and about 1/4 c warm water. Mix well. Water should be warm enough to activate the yeast but not kill it. Cover bowl with a towel, let it sit for 10-15 minutes. If you come back and it’s not bubbly, try again with new yeast. If it’s bubbly and kinda puffy, good! Mix in about 1/3 of a 1 kilo bag of flour, 2 cups of buttermilk, 2 T melted butter, about 3 tsp salt. Add the remaining 1/2 kilo as you mix (all at once = mess). Mix until everything is incorporated well, then cover it and let it sit for 2 hours. Come back, and mix it just a little with your hands, if it’s too sticky to work with add some flour. You should have a big chunk of dough. Preheat your oven to about 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Rip off balls that are about 1.5″ in diameter (I do them 1 at a time). Roll the ball out on a floured surface, it should be about 5″-6″ in diameter. Place a few T of the stuffing (not hot) in the center. Fold it in half and pinch the sides well so it won’t open. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or greased. After you’ve put them on the sheet, let them sit for about 20 minutes. Just before putting them in the oven you can brush them with a mix of beaten raw egg + melted butter. Put them in the oven, as soon as they turn LIGHT brown, turn the heat down to 300 degrees and bake for about 20 minutes more. This makes a LOT of them! Like 20-30. They take a lot of time but are soooo good. You can make other fillings, I also like a filling of mash potatoes mixed with fried onions. You can also do this without making your own dough, I’ve heard from Russians in the States that they sometimes use Pillsbury dough. These are eaten with a meal, can be with any course you want, or as a snack, or even a breakfast or as an entire light meal. If you want you can add a little more sugar to the dough and then fill it with a fruit filling, then they are a dessert.

Vareniki
It means “boiled thing”, it’s more Ukrainian. There are different types, I like the ones filled with tvorog (like ricotta cheese). They’re kind of like a ravioli, but are usually for dessert. Cherry filling is also popular, and tasty.

Filling: 250 g ricotta cheese, about 3 T sugar, 1 egg beaten. Mix all these well.

Dough: All you need is flour, 1 egg, water and a bit of salt. I usually take about 2 c of flour, mix with the beaten egg and a little salt. Then I add water bit by bit until the dough forms a consistency that it’s not sticky and can be rolled into a nice ball with a sort of silky texture. I let the dough sit about 10 minutes, then I break off balls about 1″ in diameter. If the dough has become too sticky after sitting, add flour little by little. Roll a ball out on a floured surface, until it is 3″-4″ in diameter. Place a spoon or so of the filling in the middle, close into a half-moon shape, pinching well. Continue with all of them. Its best if you leave them sit on a floured wooden cutting board and don’t let them touch or they’ll stick. Cook them about 8-10 minutes in lightly salted boiling water. Drain and serve with lots of sour cream. Dessert.