Christmas dinner for vegetarian - no nuts or mushrooms!!

[hopelessbusiness]

Just that really. I'm trying to find a nice recipe/ready made thing that is special enough for Christmas dinner but has no nuts or mushrooms!! Does such a thing exist?

If you are new to cooking vege meals, Easy Cheesy Vegetarian is a brilliant resource. About half of what we eat is based on her recipes.

@SusannaSpider not bemused at all! I do quite a few veggie meals but they're everyday things, and won't really go with the whole 'roasties and cauliflower cheese' shebang. Have tried a few supermarkets but everything contains the dreaded nuts/mushrooms...hence my plea for help!

M&S do a really nice caramelised onion and feta tart. I had that with cauliflower cheese and all the other veges last year. It was very good. DH scoffed the other one in the two-pack pretty quickly.

Highly recommend Bosh! recipes, lots of vege/vegan friendly recipes that are quite hearty and ‘special’ enough.

What about seitan? It’s a meat alternative made from washed flour (lots of supermarket meat alternatives are seitan based) and it can be really tasty and flavoured in all sorts of ways. Provided there are no gluten intolerances it might be worth a try!

What about a pie that could be made the day before? Lancashire cheese and onion pie is delicious - and keeps for days so could I be enjoyed as a meal by others afterwards too. This recipe is good...just use shop bought shortcrust to really simplify things:
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/my_mothers_cheese_and_42949/amp

Pieminister Heidi pie is also lovely (no nuts and no mushrooms) and Sainsbury’s sell individual ones.

I'd be happy with cheese sauce to go with the vegetables and stuffing etc

Sarah Browns red dragon pie is delicious, not terribly festive looking, but fool proof and tastes wonderful. No mushrooms or nuts! You could always stick a sprig of holly on the top.

(Sarah browns books and recipes are fantastic for new vegetarians btw , easy recipes, simple to follow, don’t require obscure ingredients.)

I’m a vegetarian. I’d think of doing: stuffed butternut squash or something in pastry (eg ratatouille & goats cheese or similar).

Cauliflower cheese can work as a veggie main & everyone else side (not v exciting but tasty)

I’d also suggest looking at a make ahead dish or what supermarkets have as a main eg Sainsbury’s are doing a goats cheese & veg pastry thing (freezer section): just because there is so much going on at Xmas that it’s easier ; & IME veggie dishes are less sensitive to reheating vs meat

Anna Jones’s double greens and filo pie. It is absolutely delicious. Make the whole recipe rather than scaling it down (it’s no more work) as it keeps a day or two and would also be excellent with cold cuts for the meat-eaters.

Sainsbury's Festive Cheese Stacks
Mixed vegetables and spiced dried fruits topped with melting cheese.

On reading reviews: maybe not!!! Higgidy do some lovely pies/tarts (butternut squash one maybe) - or you can make your own? I love pastry, it’s a huge treat in my book

DD made a shallot Tarte Tatin as her veggie contribution to the Christmas meal in her student house.

If you happen to live in South London or Surrey get a vegan Wellington from Coughlan’s bakery chain. They are the shit.

DS's (16) favourite thing to have with a roast is Linda McCs pulled pork burger. He's actually quite annoyed* thay the relative who is catering Christmas day has decided he can have a quorn roast as its "better". In his view the burger is better, and he's the only veggie so the only person who's opinion matters imo.
Hes spectacularly fussy so nut roast/lentil bake/anything with goats cheese or mushrooms would be out anyway.

*annoyed probably isn't the right word. But upset isn't either. He just wishes they'd actually asked him instead of deciding for him.

Lidl butternut squash and cranberry Wellington. Delicious.

You can get some really good veggie or vegan sausages. They go well with a roast dinner

I used to be a veggie and found that things in pastry/tarts with cheese etc don't go that well with a roast dinner

Roasted butternut squash?

Cauliflower cheese? I'm just happy with that or just the veggies with nice gravy and more roasties and an extra large yorkie.

Baby led weaning does a great lentil and cheese loaf which is nice cold for the next day.

Or cauli cheese with garlic-y breadcrumb topping?

Whole baked squash with beer, cream and broken up pretzels! Get a small squash/pumpkin for an individual serving or a bigger one if you have a couple of vegetarians. Delicata or onion squash would be perfect.

Vegetable pie of some description? M&S must do some or Pieminister brand?

I make vegi Dd a pie with shop bought pastry. I microwave sweet potato, cut up some goats cheese in cubes, wilt some spinach. Mix together. Season with some pepper and chilli flakes. Shove the filling into the pie and bake for about 20 mins. Dead easy.

I often cook for a nut free, non pastry eating veggie and it does rule out quite a lot of the typical veggie Christmas mains so feel your pain at dodging mushrooms too.
How about this cranberry and lentil bake I think the cranberries give it a nice festive feel.

@SusannaSpider not bemused at all!

Apologies, just being bad tempered, I've read too many, "horror, I've got to feed a veggie", threads. Sympathies on the mushroom front, companies seem obsessed with adding mushrooms to anything vegetarian.

Eggplant lasagne. Replace the pasta sheets with roasted slices of eggplant. Layer sauce, ricotta, mozzarella, basil, etc. Do it Italian American style and skip the béchamel sauce. Here’s a recipe to follow: www.wellplated.com/eggplant-lasagna/. Omit the mushrooms in that recipe, of course. :)

@hopelessbusiness be careful with the eggplant lasagna though. Non-meat eaters love it too. Make sure you make one big enough for your daughter to have multiple servings!

spinach and ricotta canelloni!