Best veggie Christmas dinner?

[ApplestheHare]

First year of being veggie (eat fish so pescatarian I think) - what are your best and/or go to Christmas dinners?

[thenightsky]

@PerditaNitt

I get the ready made marks and spencer ricotta stacks (they are absolutely delicious). Appreciate it is a little lazy compared to all of the lovely ideas on this post

I've just found an M&S voucher that's about to run out, so thanks for the recommendation. M&S yummy Xmas food here I come...

[PerditaNitt]

Agree with the suggestion for the BBC good food veggie Christmas magazine. I made quite a bit from there last year and there are lots of lovely year round recipes

[PerditaNitt]

I get the ready made marks and spencer ricotta stacks (they are absolutely delicious). Appreciate it is a little lazy compared to all of the lovely ideas on this post

[Graphista]

Well...I’m getting worried I may be having pasta for Xmas dinner! Tried to start getting in bits this week and supermarket seem poorly organised.

Was very lucky to get a Xmas week delivery slot - release 7am had booked by 7.08am and when I finished my placemarking shop all slots from now until then and for all currently available dates after (admittedly only 6 days). I’m reliant on deliveries being housebound and I’m getting worried.

How’s everyone else doing?

[FurrySlipperBoots]

Cheesy roast potatoes with a crispy green salad, Shloer to drink. Sounds boring but it's lush!

[cudbywestrangers]

Jamie Oliver has a really good gravy on his website: www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/vegan-gravy/

I make it ahead and freeze. And serve it for everyone so no-one has to mess around making meat gravy just when food is ready to be served. And whoever said that nut roast is like stuffing, I use it as an excuse not to make/ serve another stuffing. My family don't seem to mind having roast instead of sage and onion... and it helps avoid a whole week of nut roast for every meal!

[MashedSweetSpud]

Quorn roast for me.

I used to get a dry mix called Chicken Supreme, later renamed Chicken Style Bake but the fat content was high and microwaved leftovers tasted like damp socks.

[Scout2016]

I agree about the vegan trend. Celebrating vegetables is a nice idea but I actually have fairly pedestrian tastes and I'm not very enthusiastic about vegetables. I just feel strongly about not eating meat or fish.
I look at some fancy restaurant menus and I'll be honest, the amount of faffing and mucking about that's gone on with the ingredients puts me off.
And just having the sides takes me back to all the times I'd go out for sunday dinner and there would be no veggie option other than not having the meat. Which makes me cross.

[Graphista]

Actually if anyone has a nut roast recipe with not too many fancy ingredients in I'd appreciate a link.

Even the bbc good food one has 17 different ingredients! Surely there's a simpler one?

[JingsMahBucket]

[quote SusannaSpider]I had hoped people would have moved on from nut roast, I've been veggie on and off since the 80s and nut roast was all that was ever offered as a veggie roast.
Equally annoying is the huge rise in fake meat being the only option when dining out or buying in. It's invariably over processed, very salty tasting and not very healthy.
I'm tempted by this, this year -
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/squash-winter-herb-crispy-butter-bean-pie[/quote]
This recipe looks delicious, thank you. What does nut roast even taste like? I’ve always seen it trotted out but it never looked appetizing to me and it seemed like an expensive waste of nuts.

[Highfalutinlootin]

All the fake meats are not very healthy, and I've always found it odd to be a vegetarian by doing everything you can to pretend you're still eating meat. Celebrate vegetables! Just make all the normal sides and skip the roast:

Yorkshire pudding
Brussels sprouts
Potatoes or yams

Can do fun sides like spinach and cheese souffle, onion gruyere tart, etc.

[Graphista]

@JessicaJoans you've saved my Xmas thank you!

I'm alone for Xmas this year so the quorn roast is really too much, my Tesco that I get delivery from don't sell quorn fillets or nut cutlets which would be my 2nd choice

In addition for some bizarre reason they've made it so all the veggie mains can ONLY be delivered between 20-23 Dec! Only one of those days is suitable for me for delivery and as they've restricted it this way I'm expecting difficulty getting slots and difficulty getting specific items! I'd love to know which genius came up with that nonsense!

So I'm planning on getting mostly frozen stuff (potatoes, parsnips, yorkies) in my next couple weeks deliveries (need to clear down freezer of leftovers/batch cooking - I always blooming forget to remove from freezer & defrost!) plus stuffing mix, cranberry sauce etc

They don't even do a dried nut roast version I could have made my own cutlets with!

I was stumped for the main part of main meal but they sell a portioned version of veggie haggis so I'll get that and freeze in the portions and set a reminder on Alexa for day before to defrost.

Nothing wrong with a nut roast (nut cutlet is very similar) and goes well with other roast trimmings.

A wellington would be a bit much for one person and I can't really be bothered cooking something so involved when it's just me

Although - quorn roast aficionados - could I cook that slice and refreeze?

It's actually getting harder to get nice veggie food these days. I think it's mainly because of the ethical vegan trend.

I totally agree!

and while I'm willing and happy to eat vegan I can't eat all the vegan products as some upset my system not sure what ingredient is triggering that. It's also making it harder to get my favourite veggie products.

Can't get quorn bacon (chilled) anywhere around here, sausages are mostly vegan now and the deli slices are very limited now too.

[Scout2016]

I like the quorn roast and it goes a long way so I get sandwiches on boxing day too.
I am a big No to nut roast. It's not awful but to my mind it's just like having more -albeit different- stuffing.
Would a turkey fan swap their turkey for more stuffing? I think not.
I do veggie sausages with it too. Linda McCartney's which are odd and avoided the rest of the year but nice with bread and cranberry sauces.

[Nackajory]

For me it's all about the gravy. You can make it in advance and freeze it or just keep it in the fridge for a couple of days depending when you've got time to make it. Sautee onions, celery, turnips, carrots, mushrooms, add stock and wine and soy sauce. Strain it & thicken to taste. Perfect with a nut roast , roast potatoes & all your favourite veg.
Not roast- combine walnuts, hazel nuts, almonds & cashews with onion & breadcrumbs. Add some marmite & stock to the mix, cook on the hob till it's all soft & squidgy them cool, mix in a beaten egg and bake on a medium heat until golden brown. You can make it ahead and freeze.

[wejammin]

We're vegan but DH is allergic to some nuts, so at Christmas we have all the veggies, stuffing, (vegan) cheesy leeks, roasted cauliflower steaks with garlic and herbs, veggie sausages, onion gravy, bread sauce, and we're stuffed!
I also make a mushroom pate every Christmas which you could have as a starter if you can be bothered, the best one I ever made is a recipe called 'faux gras' by David Lebovitz but it has walnuts in it so not good for us.

[reytgud]

I’ve cooked this for veggie/meat-eating friends before and it went down well with everyone:

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/festive-squash-jalousie

[Magicsprinkles]

Bookmarking this! It all sounds yummy, and I never know what to cook n😊🥗

[Honeyroar]

Nut roast is good, I usually buy it, it’s cheaper than buying all the ingredients. Aldi have a good range of veggie tarts, pies, nut roasts etc. TBH, I still enjoy all the veg, potatoes and bisto I don’t worry too much about what goes with it!

[FamilyOfAliens]

[quote Leah2005]@FamilyOfAliens ooh I'd forgotten that - mum bought me one last year and I'm still using it now.[/quote]
I’ve been buying it every year since it came out! This year’s one has some amazing recipes - it seems to get better every year.

[DuesToTheDirt]

We like a vegetarian borek, aka snake pie as it's made in a spiral. Several recipes around, ours has carrots, feta, lentils, spices...

[Leah2005]

@FamilyOfAliens ooh I'd forgotten that - mum bought me one last year and I'm still using it now.

[FamilyOfAliens]

I’ve just bought the BBC Good Food Vegetarian Christmas magazine and it’s packed full of amazing recipes, some vegan but most vegetarian.

It’s great to have so many vegetarian recipes all in one place. DH cooked one of the (non-Christmas) recipes for dinner tonight and it was fab.

[StillWeRise]

[quote OchonAgusOchonO]@ApplestheHare - you could always go with "the only meat I eat is fish". Mind you, if your diet is newfangled, you'll probably be told that fish isn't meat .

It's actually getting harder to get nice veggie food these days. I think it's mainly because of the ethical vegan trend. So no dairy and egg, which I can live with but would prefer to have. It's the fake meat catering for the new vegans who want the taste is meat without the meat that I can't stand. And then you have the occasional backwater where they insist vegetarians eat fish.[/quote]
this is so true about the vegan options- often there are only vegan options, and I often find these are nutritionally poor- there is no real protein content, or as you say it's fake meat which I dislike.
NB I know that vegans at home eat properly, it's just cafes/restaurants who seem to think jackfruit is something you can base a meal around.

[Rachellow]

There's a few in the family with severe nut allergy so we do a gorgeous mushroom wellington with all the normal trimmings of xmas dinner but my dad (occasional meat eater) insists on having cocktail sausages too. Or we'll have some beautful fish think we've had monkfish, salmon the past 2 years

[Indecisivelurcher]

We had a kind of veggie strudel last year, was yum. Think bil followed a hairy bikers recipe.