Vegetarian

(suitable for Vegans)

My aunt and uncle lived next door to me in childhood, and I grew up in my aunt’s kitchen as if it were my own. Her Sephardic cooking was very different than the Ashkenazic cooking of the rest of the family, but I thought nothing of this because I ate it so often. Somehow all these different flavor profiles worked just fine together, with little to no distinction being made. I wish more of the world worked together just as easily.

This is a combination of several Sephardi stuffed vegetable recipes, made possible by the advent of a fake meat that actually stands up to real cooking and has the texture of real meat. Normally it is not possible to mix milk and meat products in the same dish, so two varieties of stuffed vegetable recipes have been developed in Jewish cuisine: dairy-based and meat based. Here I use both feta and the fake meat to combine both flavors, which is a novel experience for the Jewish cook, at least at this point in time. I know the instructions look long, but this is actually an easy recipe that comes together pretty quickly, at least in terms of prep time. (It has a long baking time, however.) Don't be put off by the wall of text.