our first xmas as vegetarians.help with quorn free ideas please!

[liveinazoo]

dd2 became veggie injune,we werent big meat eaters and followed suit in july
so,i have 3dcs 8 and underand a stroppy teen to cater for and ive no idea where to start

theyhave always enjoyed mixtures of roasted root veg withvarious herbs at xmas but what to go with it?

ds allergic to quorn and dd1 hates pastry

any ideas be much appreciated as wehave always had food traditions at xmas and id like to just revamp and then go with this years ideas as a template for future xmases

The best and easiest dish you can make is chestnut stuffing without the sausage meat. You just fry up onions,celery and garlic and whatever other veg. you like' with veg. stock, then add a jar of unsweetened chestnut puree and some bashed whole chestnuts or walnuts and then put in a nice dish to bake for half an hour or so. then it can be frozen till the day you need it.

I'm really sad and predictable. I always make a basic nut roast with a layer of cranberry sauce in the middle. It's what I like and it goes well with other stuff that you might be having.

We had a veggie Christmas one year, just because we fancied not having meat that year. we did roast butternut squash, with a wild rice filling. having the halved, filled, butternet squash on a plate gives you a centrepiece for your table.

Have at look at the Veg Society website www.vegsoc.org/christmas

We normally have some kind of nut roast with pastry, lashings of veggie gravy with red wine in it, something with porchini mushrooms, stuffing, crispy pots with rosemary, yorshire puds and lots of sauces to smother things in.

I make a nut roast, but also veggie stuffing. Still have the christmas trads like bread sauce and cranberry sauce, and I make cauliflower cheese too. This year I am having a go at making this as it looks yummy!

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/69605/parsnip-cranberry-and-chestnut-loaf

I cooked 2 vegan christmasses - but one will be no use as it has pastry.

1 year I made a chestnut and mushroom pie with a rich red wine gravy filling and the pie top was a festive looking pastry lattice.

The next year I made a mushroom in red wine gravy steamed suet pud. Using veggie suet, and adding parsley and a few other herbs to the mix, I made it along the same lines as a suet steak and kidney pud, but used roughly chopped field mushrooms, lots of parlsley, I think I fried the mushrooms in seasoned flour before adding stock and wine and loits of black pepper etc to make a thick rich sauce and then sealed it all in the pudding and steamed it. It was FAB.

I make this for my veggie friends

I leave out the artichokes as they are grim and it works just as well

really nice with herby roast potatoes and minted peas so still feels like a special meal

Nut roast is nice, also stuffing.

We do nut and mushroom wellingtons, have done an aduki and chestnut loaf from one of Sarah Brown's books. Both fillings would taste nice without the pastry (though I'd recommend with for everyone else).

We always have a veggie Christmas lunch - normally this means loads of different veg (at least 8) plus stuffing. That's plenty of food, so we don't normally bother faffing around with a nut roast or anything. Let's face it, the roast potatoes are the best part anyway!

If you want a centrepiece, then I'd second the stuffed squash idea.

Otherwise I'm happy to just have loads of roasted vege, veggie stuffing, green vege etc and chestnuts with the sprouts plus port gravy - all of that means you don't really need anything else anyway.

Delia Smith's parsnip christmas roulade or Sarah Brown's cashew nut loaf, both easily googleable. I am an ex veggie, but still have one or preferably both of these every festive season, they are awesome.

Mushroom, lentil and chestnut loaf with either a mushroom sauce or red wine "gravy".
Roast potatoes, sprouts or other green veg.

We are having x2 christmas's this year, one vegetarian.

We will be doing basically lots of veggies and no main dish but usually works well:

Cauliflower cheese
Roast potatoes
Mashed sweet potato
Roast parsnips, carrots and red onion
Red cabbage
Broccoli, peas, runner beans
Yorkshire puddings

Then a huge cherry and chocolate trifle!

loving lots of the ideas here especially chocolate and cherry trifle

I've done a steamed leek and chestnut pudding for Christmas dinner. Very nice & goes well with roast potatoes etc.

OOh mrshels that sounds nice have you frozen it? Could you give the recipe please ? TIA

Sure I'll PM you but I need to get the recipe from my brother so won't be immediate!

Thank you

Has anyone by any chance got the Sarah Browns chestnut and adouki loaf recipe, I need is for Xmas day and can't find my cookbook!

There is a nut roast in the Leon fast vegetarian cookbook that's decent