Help! Vegetarian coming for Christmas dinner

[Allaboutthegirliguess]

So we planned to have a quiet Christmas this year, but my son is now coming with his vegetarian girlfriend.

Can anyone help with what we can make her please.
We will be having a roast, meat, and our potatoes are cooked in goose fat.
Ideally I need something that wont create an issue as we are cooking our meal!
So maybe can be done before or done in the airfyer.

Hoping someone can come up with an idea
Tia

Vegetarian Christmas meal from Cook? Their food is very good.

Get a Nut Roast / veg tart from M&S. Put some potatoes aside & do them in olive oil or butter.

Quorn roast, roasties from the frozen section. Lots of nice veg and onion gravy? I am veggie and would not be saddened by that 😂

Ask your son what she likes to eat or you ask her what she fancies, there is no point in making a nut roast or whatever and she doesn't like it, Also do her potatoes in the airfryer with just vegetables oil. Has she not eaten at your house before?

Ask her? Personally as a veggie and as my family is not I just do the potatoes separately and have all the veg.
I've not been vegetarian for long and have had a vegetarian alternative alongside the meal but I'm happy without, particularly as I can't eat some nuts so that rules out a lot of festive mains anyway.

Have some extra potatoes cooked in vegetable oil (or just do them all in oil as it won't make much difference) and do some veggie gravy. You could buy a ready made nice veggie pie to have instead of meat and she can have the same sides as the rest of you.

My grandad is veggie and loves the Quorn roast. It’s dead easy to cook in the oven and I guess you could also probably do air fryer too?

We do goose fat roasties usually but tend to either do one tray goose fat one tray vegetable oil (and obviously give the vegetarian the vegetable oil ones) or sometimes we just buy frozen roasties and chuck a few in the air fryer!

The Richmond vegan sausages are quite tasty, so we usually do a couple of those for ‘pigs without blankets’ for him.

Obviously can have all the other veggies that you’ll be doing anyway.

Ordinary red Bisto is also vegetarian if you have that in and can make a mug of that for her to use (assuming you normally do a meat juices proper gravy)

It seems overwhelming but genuinely isn’t that much extra work if you plan ahead :)

I agree , ask her. Dh won’t eat Quorn for example. But plenty of stuff to buy if you don’t want to make something. Xmas dinner is really easy as all the veg sides are fine. Either do your potatoes in sunflower oil or do her some separate ones. If she does like nut roast and you want to make one you can definitely prep the night before and keep in a loaf tin in the fridge. At a push you could cook it the night before and then heat up a slice of it in the air fryer or microwave.

Just ask her what she would like. It sounds like this is a new girlfriend and you don't know her very well and haven't cooked for her much before. In which case, surely its best to ask her so you don't cook something she's not keen on? If I was the girlfriend, I'd rather be asked and give some guidance rather than have someone guess what I wanted.

I make a large leeks mornay (in cheese sauce) - works well as a main for a veggie and also a good side for poultry.

Oh this sounds delicious 😋

A vegetarian needn't spoil your quiet Christmas 😁. Good veggie stuff with a roast is always made or bought in advance anyway.

We always have this nut roast, made by me in advance, but usually with a different gravy - red wine & onion for Christmas probably but brown bisto is pretty nice. Then it's not a huge faff to stick a few of your parboiled potatoes in some hot sunflower oil instead of goose fat surely?

One of my DC is vegetarian. I always do potatoes in oil anyway so just add a Quorn roast or veggie sausages or similar which just goes in the oven.

It is entirely possible to make everything but the turkey/other meat, gravy and pigs in blankets vegetarian.

You want to avoid making too much extra work for whoever is cooking the meal, so I would ditch roasting the potatoes in goose fat. Potatoes cooked in light olive oil taste just as good as those cooked in goose fat. DD is vegetarian and makes the best roast potatoes.

I would find out likes and dislikes before deciding the protein element of your guest's meal. A lot of vegetarians dislike fake meat, for example. There are loads of ready made options in all the supermarkets, and even more ideas online. Just google vegetarian Christmas food recipes.

Another option is to buy a Christmas edition of a vegetarian food magazine. You will find loads of inspiration there.

there are lots of recipes for a vegetarian turkey replacement on you tube, we usually take one of those and make it in advance and freeze it. same with vegetarian gravy. I usually make stuffing with celery and onions and freeze this for everybody, The rest of the vegetables are communal.

Ask her what she usually has for Christmas lunch. She’s not from another planet. Plenty of vegetarians hate meat alternatives, either morally or for the fact they taste like cardboard. It doesn’t have to be a drama, just have an adult conversation.

i like cooking so I’d prepare a veggie wellington in advance (and have some myself), and skip the goose fat potatoes. Recipes I’ve done before include butternut squash or beetroot with mushrooms, goats cheese, walnuts, cranberries, spinach… can make in advance (or buy one).

In December most supermarkets do a version of nutroast. You could ask your son's girlfriend does she have a preference.

Sainsbury’s do a really good fake steak which DD has. It’s called Juicy Marbles. Other than that she eats all the veg with a vegetarian gravy.
it’s easy to do a veg starter and pudding for everyone.

This. Plus if you don't want to cook separately, just make all the sides vegetarian eg olive oil roast potatoes.

We’re a vegetarian household and realised many years ago that our ideal Christmas dinner doesn’t need some form of ‘centrepiece’ because what we actually enjoy is the various side dishes. We always have roast potatoes, borlotti beans braised in cream and cider, homemade coleslaw, roast carrots and parsnips, usually a vegetable gratin etc. Just do her some non-goose fat roast potatoes, and pretty much everything else can be communal. I’d avoid fake meat.

And cook your roast potatoes in a vegetable oil rather than goose fat. No one will notice!

Mushrooms, onion, and chestnuts (I buy precooked chestnuts) finely chopped, some panko breadcrumbs, fresh sage, and a wee handful of sage and onion stuffing mix. Bind with beaten egg. Ready roll puff pastry, rolled out, spread mushroom pate on it, wrap the mixture in the pastry. Oven cook, or would maybe work in an airfryer. Super easy and can be made in advance and frozen (raw) to cook on the day.

I love the sound of leeks in mornay sauce. DH has been vegetarian for years and at first we tried all manner of nut roasts. The Clive brand is good and the M and S one very good. But now he just prefers what we call The Sides Extravaganza! So all the sides plus roasted butternut squash. I sometimes stuff butternut squash with a mixture of rice, blue cheese, walnuts and a drizzle f honey.

As a veggie, I dislike fake meat. ( though I will shut up and eat it).
I will eat literally anything else though. And any veggie.Doesn't have to be christmassy