What are you prepping/cooking for vegan guests over Christmas?

[HelloVeritas]

Need some inspiration as we have 3 vegan guests staying over Christmas. I’d love to prepare some lovely dishes ahead of time to stock up the freezer.

I think I’ll be fine for Christmas dinner but stuck for other meal ideas and snacks.

Please help!

Mixed household here. We normally try to eat much the same foods but one with meat and the other vegan rather than eating completely separate meals. So is there something that the omnis are having that could be adapted for the vegans?

Curry is usually a good one for making meat or meat free - same base sauce and add meat to one, and lentils/tofu etc as the protein for the vegan option

Generally Chinese/Thai/Indian etc food has lots of good options

Also, Elmlea plant cream/ Flora plant cream both behave like normal cream in cooking/making desserts etc

But they're full of shite.
I wouldn't want to eat that.

Our vegans only come for Christmas and Boxing day. Boxing day we do a buffet anyway, so it's mixed. They're relaxed that we don't eat UPF for health reasons.

I’m vegan and go big for Christmas food! If you have the main meal sorted, what other meals are you planning to serve? Below I’ve out suggestions for what we’ll be having excluding main meal

Breakfast - gingerbread porridge or cinnamon toast

Sweet snacks
Nomo do a celebrations/heroes/quality street style box that you can order online.
Hotel chocolat’s “nut milk” range
Fruits (grapes, clementines, pomegranate)
Dates (you can fancy them up by stuffing with raspberry chia jam or peanut butter and coating with dark chocolate!)
Mince pies - Waitrose have a standard variety that are vegan (green box) they also have a panettone, but by luck our green grocer has a fancier vegan panettone this year! So check local shops too!

Savoury snacks
literally nearly all nuts and crisps are fine!

Cheese board
tempting though it may seem, the violife vegan cheese selection is NOT the answer. If you are thinking how to include vegans in a cheese board, I would get them a vegan Boursin (or violife herb cream cheese), cracker selection, grapes, good hummus and then either make an interesting dip (we are having an edamame spread) or buy an artisan nut-based vegan cheese if you live near an establishment that can help with that.

Perhaps not for you, but for others looking for an alternative to whipped cream for vegans, we have found aquafaba whipped with icing sugar the best solution.

This nut roast is amazing - it’s got that specialness needed for Christmas and it freezes well too. https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/vegan-nut-roast.html
From the same website, I like this recipe for mushroom bourguignon https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/mushroom-bourguignon.html

Walnut and aubergine stew https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/recipe/fesenjan?srsltid=AfmBOopStcze98i6Ah2xFPK9bIzrEjGysMD-SZS5mKq2saFmPDRwbwHf

No, I wouldn't eat that as it's very nutrient poor, but it's less UPF.

Nearly all crisps are not fine. Many contain milk powder.

For Christmas Day Hairy Bikers vegan wellington. Christmas pudding made using vegan butter and flax seeds instead of eggs. Vegan custard. Vegan sausage rolls using mushrooms and lentils as the filling. Nigella’s vegan chocolate cake and a vegan gingerbread Bundt cake and vegan chocolate cookies.

There are loads that don’t contain milk powder. Skips, Pom Bears (ready salted and the cheese flavour, which is very unusual, as most cheese flavours do have milk in them) and Ready Salted Pringles are all milk free. Walkers Max Paprika and I believe Steak flavour are also milk free. And Aldi’s do a brand of Pringle style crisps that several flavours of are milk free.

I cater for vegans with a lot of accidentally vegan stuff, mixed in with officially vegan stuff. Some products will be marked as vegetarian only, but when you check the ingredients it’ll be free from animal products and there will be a little waning that says ‘May contain A, B or C’. That’s because they’re made in a factory that handles animal products too and they can’t guarantee that there is no cross contamination (like they’d need to if it was a nut allergy for example) but some vegans are ok with this, so if yours are, it opens up loads more stuff for you to choose from.

Sainsburys are doing a vegan Chocolate Torte this year and Jude’s ice cream from Ocado or Waitrose is apparently very nice.

They’ve also got packets of vegan pigs and stuffing balls. I’ve found nice stuffing quite difficult to track down (mine aren’t huge fans of the vegan version) and have had to fall back on Paxo without the butter, but they love Paxo, so that’s fine. Bisto gravy with the red lid. Remember not to honey coat any carrots. You can make vegan yorkies.

Always a nice nut roast with cranberries in, last year the turkey eaters said they preferred the nut roast 😐.

bisto red gravy is vegan last I checked- add a tsp of marmite to make it richer.

lots of veg and roast potatoes. Perfect.

Waitrose apparently have a great vegan dessert selection this year too….

Sounds amazing!! Can we come to yours? 😂

For Xmas dinner we’re doing a butternut squash and mushroom wreath, and a beetroot and red onion tarte tatin as mains. Desserts are gingerbread cheesecake, a raspberry trifle and a vegan Xmas pudding, all homemade.

Other meals we’ll be serving on other days as we have family visiting for 10 days are curries like chickpea and spinach, mushroom and potato, cauliflower and spinach. Also a tofu and bean chilli and a mushroom lasagne, tacos, pizza.

We’ll have party/buffet food on a couple of evenings, some of which I’ll make and some I’ll buy.

Snacks will be crisps and veg with different dips like red pepper and walnuts, salsa, cashew and celery, guacamole. Selection of nuts. Vegan chocolates, cookies, cake, mince pies, fudge (all homemade), vegan cheese with crackers. Air fried garlic and herb chickpeas. Lots of fruit.

This is quick, foolproof and keeps for a while https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/chocolate-vegan-fudge.html

Do you know what their likes/dislikes are already? If not, just have an open discussion with them.

I’m a lifelong veggie who simply happens to eat vegan most of the time. I loathe and detest the zillion fake meats which have appeared since veganism become more popular and I’ve yet to find a vegan cheese I’d buy twice. Your vegan friends may be the same or they may be the type who enjoy the meat like foods. Asking first is a lot less stressful than trying to second guess for both you and them!

If you are planning on a “roast” Christmas lunch then I concur with PP - this is where the traditional nut roast/wellington/pie comes into its own with vegan gravy (buy it ready made and freeze it) and then shared veggies. Dense fillings usually freeze well for advanced prep. Some Christmas puddings are also incidentally vegan and you can offer vegan vanilla ice cream alongside whipped cream for guests to choose from. I posted links to some recipes on previous threads like this one:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/christmas/5418786-vegetarian-christmas-what-are-you-having?reply=147488649

The raised pie in that link includes Gruyere but it can be left out without losing the great flavours.

If you serve pates there are some good veggie and vegan pates based on mushrooms, nuts, beans etc along with dips for crudites, small vegan pasties and rolls can be frozen ahead for buffets.

I never aspired to be Martha Stewart - I use a mix of home made and ready made. Its not a time of the year where I give a hoot about “processed” v “purity” unless someone has an allergy, its the one time of the year where I have been known to buy ready prepared veg. There is still plenty of time to spend in the kitchen to slug a glass of wine in peace prepare essentials.

This is gorgeous
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNRNa8uYc/

Thanks everyone- some lovely ideas. I’ll definitely attempt some of these recipes. They’ll be here for 6 nights, so want to stock up the freezer and prep ahead. They’re not huge fans of the fake meats, but some great UPF ideas!

Why aren’t the vegans helping with cooking while they are there? They can sort their own meals out

Can I dive in here? I'm hosting a buffet and would appreciate any vegan ideas for simple snacks or finger food that are nice cold or room temperature (and look like I've made some effort lol).

I am vegan and have been for a decade.

You said nearly all crisps are fine. They are not nearly all fine as lots contain milk powder and there can be other non vegan ingredients.. Of course there are crisps which are suitable for vegans, but to say that nearly all crisps are fine is totally inaccurate.

Some more ideas that haven’t been mentioned:

• soup + bread (you can make the soup feel v luxurious with a tin of coconut milk added in, I love doing roast butternut squash, tomato, & carrot; to make even nicer toast some seeds to go on top)
• sushi rice, smashed cucumbers, kimchi, marinaded tofu, vegan dumplings, seaweed etc
• BLT type sandwiches with fried slices of smoked tempeh instead of bacon (you can buy decent vegan mayo these days)
• Chocolate mousse made by melting dark chocolate then blending with silken tofu, vanilla, and maple syrup (just pop into fridge to set)

@SwirlyGates Vegan puff pastry (just roll do one) might be your friend here! Both for savoury things - “cheese” and marmite pinwheels - and sweet like little tarts? You can easily make vegan frangipane which is delicious and feels very festive!

All those carrots you’ve been eating have clearly done sod all for your eyesight because I’m a different poster.

I only quoted you to contextualise my comment to the OP that there were loads of crisps that were indeed free of animal products.