A forgotten recipe, a stew that fits all restrictions

My sister, who has a gift for assembling tricky dinner parties, called me for advice the other day.

“So, these are the guests coming this Saturday: One person keeps kosher, another is vegetarian and a third can’t eat any cheese. Help,” she implored.

I sat down and diagrammed the various food groups in interlocking circles to look for subsets, as with a junior high math problem.

“I think you’ll have to feed them split peas and weak tea,” I suggested.

“Aargh. Maybe I should just tell everyone to bring their own food.”

“You’ll have to go vegan.”

“Maybe I should cook Indian.”

“That’s a good idea.”

“But I don’t want to.”

“Why? Because you’ll smell like Indian food for the next week?”

“Exactly. What about some kind of vegetarian lasagna made with spinach and eggplant and …”

“… soy cheese?”

“Ick. No. What about your vegetable stew?” she asked.

“I don’t have a vegetable stew.”

“You do. You gave me the recipe a long time ago. People said it didn’t taste vegetarian.”

That rang a bell. I remembered asking myself what would happen if I browned every vegetable in sight and combined them in a caramelized onion base. Would the results taste at all meaty?

They did. I made this stew a few times, published it in the newspaper in Denver where I worked, had three children and completely forgot about it.

But on my sister’s prompting, I looked through my old clips and resuscitated the recipe. (Here it is)

A bowlful tastes good with some crusty bread and even better with polenta and braised greens.

And — onion allergies aside — it’s suitable for all diets.

The recipe: Vegetarian Stew from John Kessler 4-6 servings, depending on rest of meal

Hands on: 1 hour Total time: 2 hours

Per serving (based on 4): 637 calories (percent of calories from fat, 42), 10 grams protein, 80 grams carbohydrates, 11 grams fiber, 29 grams fat (4 grams saturated), no cholesterol, 795 milligrams sodium.