Questions for the vegans - vegan guest over for christmas

[SparkyUK]

My vegan sister is over from the states for Christmas hols. I'd love to make sure she had something proper for christmas rather than just picking around our omnivore food. What are you all cooking?

Also, are there any special vegan treats (like vegan cheese that is actuallly tastey) that I can have waiting for her?

Lastly, she doesn't normally eat meat substitute stuff, but I was thinking of making a cottage pie type thing for the whole family till I saw that quorn isn't vegan. What brand should I look out for?

Thanks in advance for any tips or ideas!

no ideas, just sympathy. i have a vegan chum who makes a delicious chickpea and bread soup, if that's any use.

oh. sage and onion stuffing must be vegan.

A chum of mine is vegan and he buys a 'celebration dinner' to take with him - like a ready meal. TBH I think it looks vile, but he likes it.
What abut a nut roast? They can be really tasty for non-veggies too and could maybe double up as a kind of stuffing?

Good idea about the stuffing - maybe I can glam that up so that it is special for her, but also something teh whole family will enjoy. I'd be absolutely up for making a special thing for her though - I'm just not at all versed in the world of vegan christmas so don't really know where to start.

You can easily make cottage pie with lentils rather than some kind of meat substitute, and she would probably prefer that. Any kind of lentil would do - red lentils (they tend to dissolve on cooking), brown, green, puy etc. If you want to be lazy you can even get them pre-cooked in a tin or vacuum pack and just add them at the last minute.

Some kind of nut roast or lentil bake makes a kind of centrepiece to a vegan meal - you'll find lots of recipes online, or again, if you want to take the easy route, wholefood shops often have packs of lentil/nut roast mixes. I usually have that kind of thing with a sun-dried tomato gravy - fry a chopped onion in olive oil, add half a dozen sun-dried tomatoes (the kind you get in jars with olive oil and capers etc - lidl do some really good ones), add some vegan stock powder and water, simmer for about 15 minutes, then whizz with a blender - makes a really tasty vegan sauce.

Stuffing should be OK but if you're using a packet, check the ingredients for things like whey powder - it can get into all sorts of things.

Lots of standard festive things can be made vegan-friendly, like roast potatoes or parsnips cooked in olive oil.

Thanks exexpat - my sister is always railing against whey powder (she gets really annoyed that they put it in things where the things could just as easily go without). It's one of those ingrediants that doesn't sound like meat or dairy on first glance so thanks for the reminder to look out for it.