Ideas for my first vegetarian / pescetarian Christmas Day menu

[lovelychops]

Gave up meat this year and it's the first year I'm cooking and we're not going to any other relations. Really looking forward to cooking our Christmas meal - but not sure what to have!
We eat fish so technically pescetarian (is that spelt wrong?) but would be happy eating something veggie.
However I'm not a fan of nut roasts or mushrooms... Any ideas?
I want to do traditional veg, potatoes and nice veg gravy but not sure what will be the 'big thing' on our plates.
Thanks!

Was going to suggest mushroom wellington, which is what we had when we were veggie, but you don't like mushrooms so have no clue.

The portugese have cod on christmas day.

Why are you veggie? if its for welfare reasons, why do you still eat fish - people forget that the poor feckers basically "drown" when they are fished out of the sea and left to die.

We love Linda McCartney rosemary and red onion sausages here. I'm not veggie anymore, they're just yum! Have also had a quorn 'roast' joint before and that was nice. Much tastier than tarts and nut roasts!

I always have salmon en croute. Yum!

LEM I'm veggie because I don't like meat, rather than welfare reasons. Although when I was young it was for animal rights and I abstained and from fish too for many years.

Eat fish if you want to, OP: it is entirely your choice. Personally though, the idea of fish on Christmas day feels wrong to me.

How about stuffed peppers? Or some sort of vegetable pie?

My sil makes parsnip roulade and says its a family favourite. Not dire what recipe she follows though.

Dire? Meant sure!

Thinking fish is the way to go, I've never made salmon en croute - is it difficult?
Also, how will I get my roasties all lovely without all the juices?

Why not do some monkfish or some other really expensive fish dish? Sea bass? Sea bream?

parsnip roulade sounds amazing though, enough to make me go veggie again (almost)

Ooo I do like monkfish! Good idea

Could you buy some goosefat for the tatties?

Goose fat, controversial!

I did a whole salmon with some kind of nut stuffing one year. I'll see if I can find the recipe.

I usually do some sort of pie - last year's was good - I'll see if I can find it.....

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1799642/individual-christmas-pies
here - I did this mix but in one puff pastry pie. It was really nice

Long thinish Swordfish steak strips, tenderised slightly - then spread with cranberry sauce - rolled up into little roulade shapes - line them up to cover the bottom of a baking dish - spread a little more cranberry sauce on top of each roulade - now pipe with mashed sweet potato that has been laced with goats cheese - bake in a moderate oven until cooked through & the sweet potato piping is browned & crispy on top

Think that's what we will probably have this year - it's lovely & goes well with the rest of the Xmas trimmings

& if you don't already know - olive oil makes the best roast spuds :)

Tommy those pies look amazing, thanks for the link!

Like the sound of the stuffed salmon too.

Thank you!

Rockin, your recipe sounds delicious. Although last time I had swordfish it was very tough.

I used to do roasties in olive oil and meat juices !

I shouldn't be tough, that sounds odd, I'm used to it being meaty, but melt in the mouth - but if you tenderise it a bit it definitely won't be :)

If you want the meaty flavour with your roasts, then caramelise some onions in olive oil & a bit of dark soy sauce, then toss your potatoes in it should do the trick

Though we prefer them with just olive oil with a touch of salt & white pepper & sunflower seeds

The Delia Smith roulade (I think it's the parsnips one ) is yummy but it's got a cheese souffle inner bit which you might not want to be faffing about with while doing everything else.

It's really nice for Boxing Day with a strong flavoured salad.

We have a Quorn Roast because it sort of 'goes' and the best bit is all the side dishes.

Brie and Broccoli in a flakey pastry? Make up in advance, seal the edges well then they can go in when the roast potatoes (without the goose fat ) are cooking.

I always do a home made pasta (100g of flour to 1 egg) and a wild mushroom sauce but if mushrooms don't do it for you, you could always do something else sauce-wise.

quorn roast
linda roast
redwood celebration roast
tival frying sausage or garlic kievs