Stuffing as vegetarian sausage roll filling and what main?

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So I'm planning an easy as possible Christmas dinner. I have two under 5s and having ILs over.
I want to make vegetarian sausage rolls, mil doesn't trust meat ones! Do u think a good quality stuffing mix would work as a filling?

Also any tips for an easy but impressive vegetarian main? Happy to buy ready made if nice but not quiche. TIA

I don't think stuffing on it's own would work. Years ago I used to buy Sosmix for health food store. It's dried, you add water leave it so swell and use it like ordinary sausage meat. It tastes good to.

I have done this using Linda McCartney sausages both on their own with pastry around or as a stuffing mix with onion, sage & bread crumbs then rolled in pastry both have been delicious.

Yes the Linda McCartney sausages work as they are fatty and unctuous. If you are only catering for one or two veggies, personally I'd buy something like a nut roast as it goes well with the traditional Christmas Dinner accompaniments.

For a yummy veggie sausage roll I use a pack of stuffing mixed with white sauce and a pepper, leek and mushrooms softened in butter (drain the butter away), add some dried herbs and wholegrain mustard (optional) and wrap in puff pastry.

Everyone complements them, even meat eaters!

I used to make a veggie stuffing roll for the table - used it as the stuffing as well as the veggie course iyswim?

Was just a made up veggie stuffing.... finely chopped onions, mushrooms, sage, leeks etc, cooked until dry. Then add breadcrumbs and egg to bind.

Then get a big bit of puff pastry. Do a line of stuffing down the middle, cover with blanched and very well dried bits of savoy cabbage, add a layer of cream cheese then another of cabbage, then finish with stuffing. Bring the pastry over, egg wash and bake. Loverly.

I make delia's vegetarian sausage rolls, they're cheese, onion and breadcrumbs but absolutely delicious and always vanish quickly.

Main course, I'd make a mushroom wellington or nut roast.

Much better to get a nut roast mix or similar and use that as a stuffing for a pastry that non-veggies can have too. That way the vegetarians get some protein rather than just more carbs. We'll be doing something with chestnuts this year I think.

Thanks so much for all of your wonderful suggestions. Unfortunately I forgot to mention that one of the guests has a nut allergy so that rules out nut roast :(

I have a friend who is allergic to nuts - but she's find on seeds. So she can eat a nutloaf as long is it is made with sunflower seeds - and these go rather nicely crunchy when in a mushroom nut loaf type thing.

I second Delia's cheese "sausage rolls" - they are yummy.

I use chestnut & red wine risotto as a filling for a filo tart for the veggies - still quite carby but a bit more interesting than stuffing & fine with my nut allergy.

How about a casserole with tomatoes, red wine, carrots, celery, onions and chestnuts? It's a bit more festive and different. If you google you'll find plenty of veggie chestnut casserole recipes. You can also make it a few days in advance or in a slow cooker.

I usually use Granose Lincolnshire Sausage mix, it's nut free.

Good Food magazine normally has lots of suggestions for veggie dishes

I do a home-made take on vegetarian sausage rolls which always go down well with meat-eaters and vegetarians: they are actually mushroom, cheese and onion rolls.

Chop one small onion, brown it, then add a large pack of mushrooms, finely chopped, sauteed with some veggie stock powder and mixed herbs, then as it cools add a handful or so of grated cheese (preferably a 50:50 mix of cheddar and mozzarella) and a handful of breadcrumbs and mix well, before using it as the filling for some ready-made puff pastry.

I'm noting all these sausage roll recipes as it's something I can't buy where I am. Any trip back to the UK and the first thing I do is devour a packet of Quorn sausage rolls and a packet of Quorn scotch eggs. and then I start on the ginger biscuits and fig rolls :)

I have now totally outed myself to any friends or relatives on here.

Baroness - I invented my version while living in Japan, well outside the vegetarian convenience food zone. But actually I much prefer mine to Quorn anyway...

These are amazingly good. They're not 'pretending' to be meat but are delicious in their own right.

Also Glamorgan sausage rolls here or here are seriously good!

Try making a chestnut stuffing - very christmassy and should be sufficiently moist. Or you could mix caramelised onions, a good strong cheese and a little dried sage and a pinch of English mustard powder with some breadcrumbs and egg to bind into a sausagemeat texture and use that for the filling. Packet stuffing would be dry and crap, though. Basically a bread pie.

Exexpat could you get cheese easily in Japan or did you have to live on tofu and eggs? < nosey>

Yes, you can get cheese and milk everywhere in Japan - there are loads of dairy farms in Hokkaido, pizza is hugely popular, and Starbucks has taken over the cities with its milky coffees (and green-tea lattes).

Most home-produced supermarket cheese is very bland and processed, but as Japan is a very foodie place, you can also get all sorts of obscure French cheeses if you go to the right places and have the money...

But I'm not actually a particularly keen cheese-eater, so was very happy with the huge variety of tofu styles.

I really want to visit Japan. It seems so different from everywhere else, if that makes sense.

Thanks again everyone.

I'd love to visit Japan too, I've wanted to for years. I hope one day it will happen.

New Years Eve 2024 ..Happy New Year x
No it wouldn't taste nice ,.one easy way of doing it is to buy a dried soya vegetarian sausage mix from a health food one ( Sosmix or burger mix made by Granose here in the UK were excellent ) ..I'm actually just about to make some right now it's 31 st Dec 2024 lol ...11years after your post! I will add everything from chopped chestnut mushrooms ,red onions to a few black beans into the mid & add some smoked paprika and some nice herbs ..The vege sausage mix makes an excellent alternative to beef Wellington,just make a basic mushroom pate mixture to spread on the pastry & pay the sausage mix on rolled out bought puff pastry & roll up like a giant sausage roll.As there's a fair about it vegetable suet fat in vegetarian sausage mix then you can throw in chopped onion eff raw..the fat in the mid still cook it ..
.I.make stunning burgers using just black beans / chickpeas or one of those 3 bean salad in a tin drained ..mush them up & that's the time to get the Paxo stuffing out to combine with beans & any flavours you fancy .( I love cumin or red onion weed & paprika ) .not joking with some good REAL mango chutney on a nice fun with homemade coleslaw it's gorgeous