I’ve hosted Thanksgiving dinner almost every year since moving to California in 2004. I love it–I seldom host anyone, much less a big group, and
my mom and I (and sometimes other folks!)
love cooking together. Over the years, we made it tradition to use the opportunity to explore different cuisines, cooking methods, ingredients, styles…we take inspiration from all over. Last year we tried some Mexican recipes that weren’t entirely Americanized. We’ve done Italian with fresh pasta and gnocchi. There’s been Indian, Mediterranean, Japanese, “small plates around the world”…
This year I wanted to try to make some Spanish food. I’ve got research to do (especially on paella; I have ideas but…), but even some cursory reading up on tapas showed me there is a surprising number of simple vegetable-based things that won’t require much or any veganizing, which is awesome.
So for dinner tonight I picked out a couple things that are simple, but come together for a really nice weeknight dinner: espinacas con garbanzos (spinach chickpeas, which seems like a real “duh” in terms of things I’d like) and a Spanish tortilla (potatoes and onion with an omelet-like batter made of chickpea flour), plus just some avocado on the side because I was too goddamn tired to make a whole salad thing or chilled soup or whatever.