I need some very savoury side dishes for Christmas dinner!

[BornToFolk]

Just planning the Christmas dinner.

I'm making this Parsnip, Cranberry and Chestnut Loaf for Christmas dinner. It's lovely and very special but the over-riding flavour is quite sweet. I'm also making spiced red cabbage and carrots at DS's request, again quite sweet.

So I need a couple of very savoury side dishes to balance out all the sweet flavours! Any ideas? I was planning on the usual roast potatoes and may do a veggie version of pigs in blankets (though I'm not keen on fake bacon...)

Ooh that sounds lovely. I was going to suggest sprouts roasted with chestnuts but that might be chestnut overload

Sprouts with bacon is lovely, fried in a bit of butter. Pretty savoury too.

Cauliflower cheese? Not traditional but cheese is a little salty.

Hmm I guess you are veggie so my sprouts with bacon is not what you want!

No but it certainly does tick the "savoury" box!

I was thinking of something with cheese and I love cauliflower. Will add that to the list of possibilities, thanks!

I love crispy kale with pine nuts, mashed carrot and swede and braised red cabbage.

little veggie sausages with veggie bacon wrapped round them
Brussels sprouts cut in half, fried both sides in butter then cooked in cream
Cauli cheese
Roasted fennel
Roasted cauliflower with spices
Celeriac dauphinoise or celeriac fondant
Creamed spinach
Cheese and spinach soufflé
Green bean flan

Sorry, just read your post properly and see you're not keen on veggie bacon

I don't think there's many meals that can't be improved by the addition of cauliflower cheese

you can do a broccoli cheese, might be nice to have a bit of green?

Celery, apple and lemon stuffing?

oooh, I love these ideas!

I don't normally make a stuffing as it seems a bit of overkill with nut roast, as it can be quite similar but I think some nice crunchy savoury stuffing would be lovely.

Am also now craving cauliflower cheese. Nom.

I love "mustardy greens" - savoy cabbage, or kale / cavolo nero / spinach / purple sprouting broccoli (anything really) boiled or steamed (still with a bite) and then chuck some butter, seasoning, and english mustard in, stir around, delicious.

You could use some blue cheese in your cauliflower chese sauce- that would be nice, or ... some people put halved hard-boiled eggs into it too.

Thanks for this, I think I'm going to have to make one of these loaves for my freezer, so that if I have baby there will be something nice to whip out. It sounds delicious!