Breezy and Beautiful, Bountiful Brunch (Vegetarian)

I'm convinced that serving brunch should be as fun and relaxing for you as it is for your guests.  I don't mind working up a big sweat in the kitchen for a dinner party, but on Sunday morning, things should stay easy.  So my brunch plan has the following requirements: (1) I can prep almost everything in advance, so that on Sunday morning I can wake up and throw it all together without a hassle.  (2) Everything can be served at room temperature, so there's no rush to eat, people can be late, and chatting among my guests and myself can go on as long as we like.  (3) Everything is light, so we can eat lots of different things and still not feel like we need to go right back to bed.  (4) The spread is colorful and looks delicious.  (5) Finally, everything is vegetarian, but appealing to non-vegetarians as well.

Additionally, no power implements (blender, food processor, mixer) are required for any of these.  The recipes and quantities given here can be expected to comfortably feed up to eight people.

Here's what I'll be making:
Spiced cheddar and nut quickbread
Olive oil crust rustic vegetable galette
Beet and orange salad
Quinoa and black bean salad
Chocolate-covered cashew butter sandwich cookies

Each of the "steps" in this instructable takes less than an hour (inactive cooking/baking time not included) and they can all be done between one and three (or even four) days before brunch time.  I assume you will pick and choose from my recipes and they are presented with ingredient lists individually, but if you want to do the whole shebang, a comprehensive shopping list follows the end of the instructable.  Most of these recipes willingly accommodate substitutions and additions.

Step 1 Baking Prep: Quick Bread and Galette Crust

This step covers the spiced cheddar-walnut quick bread and the dough for the olive oil crust.

The quick bread requires the following ingredients:

DRY
 1.5 cups of flour (I used one cup of stone ground whole wheat and half a cup of white AP)
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
spices (I recommend experimenting here, but I used 1 full tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp cloves and some fresh-shaved nutmeg)

WET
just 2 tbsp brown sugar
half a 15 oz. can of pureed pumpkin or other squash, or 3/4 of a cup if you're steaming it yourself
3/4 cup finely grated cheddar (use a microplane if you have one)
2 eggs
generous 1/2 cup of light coconut milk, way easier to deal with than whole (sub vegetable oil if you don't have coconut milk, but I highly recommend it for superior texture and no gross oily residue)

ADDITIONS
coarsely chopped toasted walnuts, up to 1 cup (toast by spreading them on a baking sheet in the oven while it preheats; check often, remove when they get fragrant)
toasted pumpkin seeds (they puff up and go "pop" when toasted) and other seeds if you have them, like sunflower (toast) and poppy (don't toast), up to 1/2 a cup

PROCEDURE
Preheat the oven to 350. Prep a loaf pan by lining with a parchment paper sling.  In my experience, this is hands-down the best way to go - no greasing, and no losing the bottom third of your loaf when you turn it out.

Mix the dry and wet ingredients separately (put the wet in a larger bowl), and then dump the dry over the wet and stir until just barely combined.  Add the nuts and company and fold them in gently, then pour the batter into your pan and stick it in the oven.

My loaf was done after 45 minutes.  The top should spring back if you press it, and a knife should come out mostly clean.  Let it cool for a few minutes in the pan, then run a knife between the loaf ends and the pan, lift out the loaf in your parchment sling, and let it breathe on a cooling rack (or wooden cutting board or towel on the counter) until it's totally cool, at which point you can wrap it plastic and stash it.

The quick bread recipe was (quite liberally) adapted from one in a book called Savory Baking.

The galette crust requires the following ingredients, and you can put it together in a couple of minutes after you put the bread in the oven and before you put away the flour.

1 cup AP flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
(or 2 cups white whole wheat, a personal favorite of mine which I am out of at the moment)
1/4 cup of good olive oil (none of that "light" crap)
1/2 cup of cold water
dried herbs (I had marjoram and dill on hand)

Mix everything together with a fork, and knead it until smooth and malleable - this takes only a few turns, and you can do it in the mixing bowl, no need to turn it out.  Cut it in half, flatten each half into a nice disc, wrap them in plastic and stick 'em in the fridge.

The olive oil crust recipe, not at all adapted, comes from the wonderful blog chocolate and zucchini.

Comments

[jessyratfink]

Everything looks wonderful! Great work. :D

I make a similar black bean salad, but with bulghur! It's so good.