Books: Healthy Hedonist Holidays Cookbook

This new cookbook offers holiday meals from many traditions, and includes offerings for everyone from the strictest vegan to the most devout meat eater.

A unique collection of healthy recipes and menus catering to diverse "flexitarian" palates is being published just in time for the upcoming holiday season. Myra Kornfeld, author, chef and teacher, believes that holiday meals should be richly nourishing as well as an indulgent celebrations of life. The Healthy Hedonist Holidays: A Year of Multi-Cultural, Vegetarian-Friendly Holiday Feasts serves up fifteen healthy and festive menus and an international smörgåsbord of naturally satisfying recipes.

Kornfeld's book offers a rich variety of tempting creations for strict vegans, more flexible vegetarians, omnivores, and hosts looking for healthful, yet enticing holiday alternatives. The author invites all to visit her website and learn more at www.MyraKornfeld.com. Along with the naturally healthy choices in this new culinary release, the author encourages chefs with eclectic morsels of holiday origins and customs to try something deliciously different this Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and beyond.

The Healthy Hedonist Holidays entices culinary adventurers to expand their holiday dinner-party horizons and use their kitchens as a means of transport to different worlds. "Even if you are not Chinese, how celebratory it is to have a Chinese New Year's feast, and what an opportunity to learn about the festival," Kornfeld relates. "You may not be Jewish, but what fun it is to have a Latke Party."

Covering many special occasions for feasting - from the breaking of the Ramadan fast to the Fourth of July - this versatile culinary collection presents menus composed of vibrant, flavorful dishes. Starters, salads, soups, sides, and splashes compliment a vegetarian main course and either a fish or a poultry entree. Kornfeld's mouthwatering selections make the best use of whole grains, high-quality fats, natural sugars, and an abundance of fresh, seasonal produce. Following are tempting menu selections:

1. A Thanksgiving harvest feast inspired by Southwestern and Native-American flavors. For those who eat turkey, this rendition is maple sugar-brined and served with pumpkin seed mole gravy. For those who pass on the bird, a "three sisters" casserole--corn, beans, and squash between layers of corn polenta--takes center plate to plenty of irresistible trimmings.
2. A sumptuous Christmas Eve supper in the meatless Polish-Ukrainian tradition, featuring homemade pierogi stuffed with a trio of fillings--sauerkraut and cabbage; dilled potato cheese; and Swiss chard with rosemary and lemon. Follow this with an Italian-inspired afternoon feast, featuring rustic Tuscan ribollita soup and squash-portobello lasagna on Christmas Day.
3. A refreshingly light and luscious menu for the ritual Passover Seder, with a rich, garlicky spinach-based matzo ball soup and a baked fish loaf studded with asparagus and flavored with Moroccan herbs and spices in place of the customary gefilte fish.

Kornfeld provides a suggested timeline for every menu, along with a handy repertoire of preparation tips and trusted techniques. Interesting highlights about the origins of international holiday traditions and culinary customs is included. The author offers excellent recommendations for pairing interesting dishes with each other and the appropriate starter, wine, or dessert.

For everyone from the strict vegetarian to the health conscious chef looking to bring some variety to the holiday table, The Healthy Hedonist Holidays has menus to suit the occasion and the crowd. Myra Kornfeld's new book will keep chefs well stocked with new culinary ideas for many holidays to come.

Myra Kornfeld left a career as a fashion designer for her love affair with cooking and natural foods. She teaches cooking classes at Sur la Table, the Institute of Culinary Education, and the Natural Gourmet Cooking School, all in New York City, as well as instructing at Classic Thyme in New Jersey. A veteran restaurant chef and consultant, she specializes in cooking parties and corporate team-building events. Kornfeld is the author of The Voluptuous Vegan and The Healthy Hedonist, and has contributed to Natural Health, Vegetarian Times, and Organic Style, among other publications.

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