It’s fall, the leaves are on the ground, there are pumpkins on the table (and my local vegetable farm has blogged that the seasons are so screwed up due to climate change that it is no longer predictable which veggies show up when) and so, stew and hearty soup season is upon us.

“If I was to become a vegetarian, what kind of stew would we eat?” was a question kid[1] (the only one still at home) put to me. Good question. I have vague ideas about lentils and celery root and beans and tahin, but nothing as concrete as my beef stew recipe (1 chunk of cow, 1 bottle of beer, 6 onions, 1 potato and seasoning). It bears investigating.

Since kid[0] left the house – and they were the principled vegetarian here – we’ve relapsed to flexitarian habits, 1 meat, 6 vegetarian dinners a week with an accidentally-vegan thrown in with some regularity.

As an odd coincidence, both SMBC and my (paper!) paper NRC published something about eating invasive species this week. Household consensus is that if the cook cuts themself while making dinner, it’s still vegetarian.

I’ll leave you with a concrete recipe (if you come over this evening, this is what’s for dinner).

  • 1 pumpkin
  • 6 carrots
  • 2 potatoes
  • 2 bouillion cubes
  • 1 tablespoon curry powder, the nasty yellowish stuff from the supermarket
  • 2 tablespoons dried parsley or chives

Put all but the parsley in a big pot. Add water to just about cover the veggies. Boil softly for 20-25 minutes. Staafmix the heck out of it (um .. puree? I have not used this particular kitchen utensil in an English-speaking kitchen, so I wouldn’t know what verb to use for “apply a staafmixer until smooth”). Stir in the parsley.

Serve with fresh-baked bread.