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?

I like quorn roast, too. When I lived in the US, I had Tofurky roast one year with stuffing inside. Was lush! Savoury pies feel wintery and stodgy.

Pine nut roast with a herb stuffing, wine sauce - all Rose Elliott - our family tradition for over thirty years! Never fails to delight the family and friends!

Sorry OchonAgusOchon. Tbh I started off saying pescatarian but nobody knew what I meant so now I say 'veggie but eat fish'. We live in a quiet part of the the world and I'm already too cosmopolitan without pushing my 'newfangled' ideas 😂

@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.

OchonAgusOchonO that would blow their minds. We're definitely in a backwater. A nice one, but one where not eating all the meat all the time is seen as very odd. I agree, some of the newer meat substitutes are just grim. Overall though I think it's easier to find veggie food than it used to be. I first went true veggie 18 years ago (have eaten meat in between then and now) and I think there are a lot more options for people, often because of access to recipes online. I'm sure all I cooked myself then was pasta and cheese.

Ochon I totally agree wrt finding good veggie options - I dislike the vegan fake meat trend. It’s nothing more than a fad and give it a few years and it will be back to the Atkins meat only nonsense and there won’t be a decent veggie option.

I'm going to make a homity pie and have that in place of meat plus all the veg, potatoes etc that everyone else eats.

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

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

[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.

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.

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

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

[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.

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!

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

@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.

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.

[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.

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?

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.