The Delectable Alligator Pear
Dear Miss Beedit,
As a rabbit in the bayou, normally I forage for grasses, leaves, bark, twigs, nuts, and berries, but I’m getting tired of salad. I have access to a kitchen and the market. Do you have any suggestions for delicious vegetarian meals that are easy to make?
Respectfully,
Sugar N. Spice
Dear Sugar N. Spice,
Thank you for your inquiry. A perennial problem among herbivores is indeed this: sometimes no matter what you conjure up for dinner, you feel like you’re eating salad.
Although, as a rabbit, this might not sit well with your gustatorial makeup, I’m going to recommend you try a couple of cooked things. Different textures can really create a sense of diversity in one’s diet!
These recipes feature the smooth, rich, sublime avocado, also known as the alligator pear. Possibly exotic for the bayou, but oh, so delicious, the avocado has a non-aggressive flavor, with a faintly nutty aftertaste. But oh, the texture! Rich, buttery, and smooth, you can use a nice ripe avocado in place of traditional fats to excellent effect.
Fettuccine Guacamole
Domesticated bunnies probably eat food that has some gluten filler in it, so the wheat in the pasta ought to be okay for you. Try to use fresh pasta—its texture goes really well with the avocado. Add some crunchy walnuts to round off the flavors and textures.
1 avocado
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 lemon
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup walnuts, ground or chopped
1 12–16 oz package fresh fettuccine
Put the avocado, garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil in a food processor. Process until smooth.
Boil 2 quarts of water in a pasta pot. Add about a teaspoon of salt to the water.
While the water is heating, gently toast the ground walnuts in a pan.
Boil the pasta for about 3 minutes, until tender. This is fresh pasta, so it shouldn’t take long.
Drain the pasta, and put it into a large bowl or back into the pot. Add the avocado mixture until all of the noodles are coated.
Place the pasta in bowls and top with the lemon zest and ground walnuts.
Kale Salad with Avocado, Lemon, and Sunflower Seeds
Here’s one that will keep your bunny cheeks working happily for hours. Yes, it’s salad-like, but again that decadent avocado somehow takes you beyond mere roughage, into a world of richness and wonder.
About 4 large kale leaves (enough for 4 loose cups of chopped leaves)
1 ripe avocado
1 lemon
1/3 cup sunflower seeds, raw, no shell
Salt and pepper
Remove the stems from the kale leaves. You can usually just do this with your hands. Then chop the kale into 1/2-inch pieces.
Remove the avocado seed and peel, and cut the avocado into 1/2-inch cubes. Place in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Squeeze the lemon on the avocado, and mash it with a fork. Add salt.
Add the kale leaves to the mixing bowl and toss with the avocado. You can let this refrigerate for a while—up to 2 hours.
When ready to serve, sprinkle the salad with raw sunflower seeds. The kale will still be crisp, but it will have a very rich texture mixed with the avocado and lemon.
Croutons are nice with this too.
Croutons
Seedy whole-grain baguette, sliced
Olive oil
Sea salt
Garlic, if desired
Brush baguette slices with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Gently toast in a cast-iron pan on top of the stove. Serve warm croutons nestled alongside your kale/avocado salad.
Once a Bayou bait shop owner serving the best leeches and pie, these days Miss RMarie Beedit can be found in the St. Louis Cemetery, looking for night crawlers and shiny pennies.