Vegetarian Xmas dinner ideas please!

[PinkyDink]

I need help, what should I could for my SIL, niece and nephew for Xmas dinner?

Can't be anything with nuts (so no nut roast please!) as niece has a nut allergy and preferably something easy(ish) or can be made in advance.

Roasted vegetable tartlet- very easy using puff pastry. Bit dull for them though perhaps.

Some kind of vegetable terrine that could be sliced up like a roast to make it a bit more special? [no recipe though]

Delia does a yummy choux pastry mushroom thingy which is dead easy and v tasty. No good at links but its on her website.

ooh ooh just remembered this which was in the magazine last month www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/12804/melty-mushroom-wellingtons

I always have a quorn roast...linda mcCartney does one too. Look in veggie section in supermarket.

DH has had home made macaroni cheese for Christmas Dinner for last 26 years.

whatever you decide upon (i like the idea of a nice mushroom tartlet), please please still serve them the normal veg etc. roast veg done in sunflower oil, use bisto gravy granules (the beef flavour is veggie, or just use the normal powder) using the water from the boiled veg as gravy.

I cringe every time a completely different meal is offered just because people think we veggies are aliens!

(and give them stuffing too: Paxo is veggie!)

Thanks notamumyetbutoneday, we have only one vegetarian (a PG SIL, so no nuts/some types of cheese) coming for Christmas dinner, that recipe makes 4 Wellingtons, but you can freeze the rest.....

yes we like all the veg we just don't want the meat.

paxo all the way!! Do your spuds in veg oil, no lard, and do a seperate gravy, we aren't fussy, so long as it's not got animal fat in it!!

The nut prob does make it more difficult tho. I like the Quorn roasts ( you can bake it night before and reheat slices) but some people don't like meat substitutes.

See personally I hate it when the vegetarian option is something you just wouldn't have on a christmas dinner ever usually. In morrisons magazine the other day it had various recipe ideas including bacon latticed turkey crown, glazed ham etc, then came the veggie offering - it said "Vegetarians often get a bum deal at christmas, but not any more with our festive suggestion... open lasagne with mushrooms!" Who the hell wants lasagne for christmas dinner? It literally was two big brown mushrooms with a couple of sheets of lasagne draped over, and some white sauce. Piss poor.

Yes I'm veggie but I don't want to see anything containing aubergines, courgettes, mushrooms, peppers etc with traditional winter christmas farty veg!

If you can't do a nut roast, do a quorn roast, or at the very least toad in the hole made with veggie sausages, which would go nicely. (Check the quorn/veg sausages are nut free though)

I hear this is very good: chestnut and red wine pate en croute.

SIL does like Quorn......
I think I may email her some options and see what she thinks. I don't want to make her something that she doesn't really want, so far she has just requested lots of sprouts!!!

Wierd,I bloody hate the things, though DH, PIL and my Mo love em, so they were already on the menu

Unlike you, James, I'd rather see something that wasn't imitating a meat-based Christmas dinner. Like burritoes or pasta or something like that. Though not that lasagne you decsribe...

James, i am in agreement.

Nothing worse than being offered a goats cheese bake, or some slimey msuhrooms/aubergines, that are NEVER cooked nicely anyhow. (talking more about dining out here).
I reg go for sunday lunch to a near pub, and they do a veggie roast, it's the smae but just without the meat, and i never miss the meat.
They even make me a veggie gravy!!
Ooh, how about doing a some Yorkshire puddings too?

cyteen that sounds lovely. it's xmassy!!

I do have to do a starter for her (and poss the DC) as my Mom is making her gorgeous pate, which we'll all have. SIL isn't a massive fish fan, so smoked salmon or any sort of seafood is out.........

As is a goats cheese and cranberry tart that was my first thought (but then that would be too much pastry anyway, should I do the mushroom wellington).

Aaargh

yes, this year's chrismtas Good Food magazine had this open lasagne thing for the veggies: i thought it looked like a starter!

they did a suggested menu andthe meat menu had shedloads of food on it and the veggie menu was just a random starter, this lasagne nibble thing ans a crap pudding. i was SO angry

I normally don't bother with the meat substitute anyway, because i have sooo much veg and mashed potato and stuffing (ooh, yes, definitely yorkshire puddings!)

for a starter, why don't you just make a huge batch of soup?
use Marigold Swiss Boullion Powder as your stock.

serve your mum's pate as an aside or afters.

My Dad makes us button mushroom and roasted chestnut pie, with cranberry jam. The cranberries and chestnut make it incredibly Christmassy, and it's such a change from nut roasts! It's also really gorgeous.

I'll also be the voice of dissent and say I'm not keen on the same meal just with the meat switched for nut roast or such, but I think that's just me.

I think it depends what kind of veggie you are to be honest, some don't like/want meat and don't like to be reminded of it with quorn etc (my sister is like this, she'll probably have a nut roast) and some do like meat but don't want to eat it (like me, for the last 17 years) so quorn and other meat substitutes feel more appropriate to go with a roast dinner than something veg or pasta based.

If your guests like quorn, then it's an easy enough thing for you to do, and I've heard you can do things like make quorn wellington (if you can be arsed!)

I agree totally that it must be something that goes with all the rest of the vege. It must NOT be quorn though!

There's another thread around with various ideas on it. Halved and roasted butternut squash for e.g - which is what I think I might do. Jamie Oliver has a good recipe for stuffed squash too and it would go well with all the vege.

I made the melty mushroom wellingtons notamumyetbutoneday mentioned and they were delicious. also, you can cook the mushrooms and spinach in advance and stick it in the fridge, then all you have to do to get them ready for the oven is roll out the ready made pastry and stack the bits on top of each other. I've been veggie for ages and loved them and so did DH, who still eats meat. Would go brilliantly with traditional roast dinner instead of the meat.

I have a goats cheese and caramelised red onion tart with a veggie apricot stuffing and all the veg and veggie gravy.

sweetkitty , I make a mean Goats cheese and caramelised onion tart (modest!), would goats cheese be OK if baked?Actually, I'd rather that than Turkey/Capon anyway!
I need something I can make ahead.

I think I will give SIL some options and then she can pick and I can prep it all as far as possible. I don't want her to not have something special, bad enough missing out on CHristmas booze! Would hate her to feel that I'd not made an effort.

there is a recipe on here in the veggie section for the quorn raost as a wellington with stuffing and pastry around it-that is good woth the gravy and veg.

delia's parsnip and stuffing roulade isalso good and she is making it tomorrow on her new christmas programme apparanetly.