To ask advice on easy Xmas menu plan including 2 vegetarians

[Ssssurvey]

I have searched online but am struggling. I want a vegetarian starter suitable for all, an easyish add on for the main (all veg and potatoes will be easily vegetarian and veg/onion gravy) and will ensure a vegetarian friendly dessert. Any ideas so that I am not hugely going out of my way to make the main appetising.

Baked camenbert with French bread for starter.
Or melon and mixed berries.

My dad has gone vegetarian and happily Aldi are doing some nice mains,DD has chosen a veg Wellington,they come 2 portions in a pack in several flavours.
We are still deciding starters and will probably go for mushroom pate or stuffed mushrooms,(soup is the obvious one but I wouldn't feel hungry after that.)

Tomato and buffalo mozzarella salad drizzled with pesto

Things just need slicing and it’s nice and light before big roast and it’s xmas colours with the red and green 😃

gobster, I don't think pesto is vegetarian. I don't know why, but I don't think it is! You can buy vegetarian pesto though..........

Pesto is vegetarian but not vegan afaik.

OK, I have googled it! I think the problem with typical pesto is that it contains calf rennet.
I know you can buy vegetarian pesto, as my daughter will have some in her Christmas stocking. Not guaranteeing what it will taste like though!

We're having the mushroom and cranberry Wellington from Tesco..road tested it and it's delish! £3.50 in the freezer section.

Sacla do a vegetarian pesto, it tastes exactly like normal Sacla pesto (ie nothing like as nice as fresh pesto, but perfectly edible).

I’d go with soup - either parsnip and apple, chestnut, cauliflower cheese, or something else rich and velvety.

The meat eater in our house has a slab of nut roast as a kind of “stuffing plus”. He has stuffing too. And meat. And all the potatoes and veg sides. Actually he eats a fuck of a lot!

For pudding I would just have Christmas pud (every one I’ve bought and all the recipes I’ve seen are vegetarian), or you can make/buy vegetarian mince for mince pies (uses vegetarian suet). Or Christmas cake, Yule log, stollen and trifle are all vegetarian.

Tesco Finest fresh basil pesto sauce is vegetarian so as long as you buy one where the cheese is vegetarian it would be fine

Garlic mushrooms with slices of French stick.
Vegetable pâté with bread roll.
Caponata, aubergine purée and either pea and endame or haricots blanc purée, serve a small spoon of each on a dessert size plate with French baton or Hovis toast.

My dp is having the quorn 'chicken roast instead of Turkey. All trimmings will be veggie.

For the main l’d go to M&S or Sainsbury’s and choose from their range.

Starter wise I think you can’t go wrong with a nice mozzarella, tomato salad, perhaps with some pine nuts or grated carrot.... nice drizzle of oil. Yum. You don’t want anything too heavy for a starter do you?
Mozzarella definitely has to be served at room temperature not straight from the fridge.
Merry Christmas!

Hello, be careful with pesto. The only supermarket one I've found to be veggie is the sacla organic one. Any they say Parmesan aren't suitable. You can buy vegetarian hard cheese at the usual cheese chiller if you want to use that in anything.

I'm veggie and I usually have soup then linda McCartney sausage rolls with the rest of the dinner cos they are my fave but probably not fancy enough for guests. I think a nice veggie wellington would go down nicely.

What are you doing as a starter for the meat eaters?

You can't have Christmas without a baked Camembert! Make that your starter, maybe have a few other bits and pieces out as well. Can you just buy a nut roast as an alternative main? You can get Quorn 'roast' be quorn is a bit sad IMO. Alternatively you could do a roast cauliflower.

Veggie starter for all or a tapas style starter with loads of non meat options. When I was vegetarian Sainsbury used to do an amazing nut roast or I made a mushroom Wellington with a port and cranberry sauce. Just make sure trimmings have no meat ingredients (so no goose fat roasted veg and gravy is veggie).

Easy nut roast recipe.
Finely chop and fry an onion,
Whilst that's frying empty a bag of mixed nuts into a blender with one slice of bread.
Sort of squash /stir it all together with a squirt of tomato puree. If dry add a dash of apple juice.

Put in a loaf tin in fridge (can be done up to 2 days before) loosely cover with foil and cook for 40 mins at 180

Buy a quorn roast for the main. Just make sure the meat can't drip on it. Easy!

M and S

Quorn roast is actually lovely. My DH is the only veggie in our house, but often our children choose quorn roast over meat. Baked Camembert is lovely too.

Waitrose fresh pesto is also vegetarian. Sainsbury’s basics Italian hard cheese is an excellent Parmesan substitute.

Not all Camembert is vegetarian, especially French ones.

Most puddings are vegetarian, aren't they? Careful on jellies and set things that might have gelatin in them, but otherwise you should be OK

For my vegetarian friend I normally make grilled haloumi and cauliflower or nut burgers (Aldi), sometimes chickpea burgers (homemade). She also eats fish so salmon too.
A salad would seem like an offense to me when everyone else has warm food.

We always have the Cheddar and Vegetable Roast from the Food Aid Cook bookat Christmas. It tastes like a much nicer stuffing and goes really well with roast potatoes, brussell sprouts, etc