Vegan Christmas menu inspiration
sneak peak: inspiration for your vegan Christmas menu, featuring my recipes, other people's recipes, and shop-bought items
I'M BACK BABY!!! (Even though it's not a #bloggythursday.) And I'm back with some vegan Christmas food inspiration for all your menu planning needs. There are a LOT of options here, so unless you are planning on feeding the 500 then I recommend you pick and choose. BRING ON ALL THE FESTIVE FOOD.
Nibbly bits
Crostini with olive tapenade and sundried tomatoes
How to: spoon 1 tsp of olive tapenade onto a mini crostini and top with one sundried cherry tomato or half a big sundried tomato; make sure there is enough non-tapenadey space around the edge so people can pick them up!
Waitrose mini caramelised onion and tomato tarte tatins
Linda McCartney sausage rolls ('beef', mushroom and spinach, or mini 'pork' and apple)
Crudités and dips (carrots, cucumber, peppers, celery, apple; houmous, guacamole etc.)
Twiglets, vegetable crisps, kettle chips etc.
The main event
Stuffed squash
How to: Jamie Oliver recipe or Minimalist Baker recipe
Mushroom wellington
How to: Bosh recipe
Waitrose root en croute
Nut roast
How to: Tesco recipe with pomegranate! YUM
Linda McCartney stuff ('turkey' and cranberry plaits, 'beef' roast with red wine and shallot glaze, 'turkey' roast with apple and pomegranate glaze)
Trimmings
THE BEST STUFFING EVER, separate blog post to come with Granny's recipe
Pigs in blankets (Waitrose vegan cocktails and streaky slices, Sainsbury's shroompups in blankets)
Rosemary and bay roasties, parsnips and onions (Aunt Bessie's roasties are vegan if you don't have enough pans/trays/space/time)
How to - potatoes: follow this BBC Good Food article (oil for vegan obviously) for the potatoes, then when they go in the oven add a few fresh rosemary sprigs and dried bay leaves
How to - parsnips and onions: follow the above article for the parsnips (quartered lengthways) but instead of putting 100ml of oil in the roasting tray, drizzle a few tbsp over the parsnips and put them in a separate tray; the onions (top layer removed, cut into wedges - generally cut into six is good) can go in this tray too as they don't need the oil; add a few fresh rosemary sprigs and dried bay leaves when the whole lot goes in the oven; roast everything until it's all your desired combination of soft, crunchy, caramelised etc.
Mustard and maple carrots
How to: (for approx 500g carrots) cut the carrots lengthways into quarters, mix together 2 tbsp oil with 1 tbsp each grainy mustard and maple syrup, toss the carrots through, roast in the oven at 200C (180C fan) for about 25-30 mins, prod with a fork to test
Lime and basil peas
How to: steam your peas as normal then drizzle some lime juice, shred some fresh basil, stir through
Ginger and chilli tenderstem broccoli
How to: steam your broccoli as normal; mix together some finely chopped ginger, de-seeded finely chopped chilli (one should do but depends how hot they/how much broc you're doing/what your spice tolerance is), 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar, 1 tbsp oil; drizzle over the broccoli then toss
Garlic and nutmeg buttered spinach
How to: BBC Good Food recipe, can swap the oil for vegan butter if you're feeling luxurious
Creamy roasted cauliflower
How to: Waitrose recipe
Maple roasted sprouts with vegan bacon (Waitrose streaky pieces) (only if you are catering for people who absolutely insist on having sprouts, otherwise why would you put yourself through that)
How to: (for approx 500g sprouts) put the sprouts (trimmed and halved) on a baking tray, drizzle with 1-2 tbsp oil and 2 tbsp maple syrup, scatter streaky pieces in amongst the sprouts, roast at 200C (180C fan) for approx. 30 mins or until the sprouts are how you like them
Red cabbage with apple (as above with the sprouts: why)
How to: Delia recipe
Gravy
How to: Minimalist Baker recipe, River Cottage recipe, or shop-bought e.g. Tideford
Cranberry sauce (shop-bought is easiest, there is plenty other stuff that needs your attention in the kitchen so don't make life too difficult for yourself!)
Mint sauce (again, shop-bought is easiest)
Bread sauce
How to: Nigella recipe, just use vegan butter and milk (oat is probably your best bet) and vegan cream if you want to add that too
Pudding
Mince pies
How to: this Mary Berry recipe suggests adding dried apricots to the jarred mincemeat, rolling orange zest into the pastry, and topping with grated marzipan instead of a pastry lid; roll out Jus Rol shortcrust pastry (not the 'all butter' range) to about 3mm thick, sprinkling orange zest as you go if you like, stamp out enough larger circles to fill your muffin tray, place in each hole and prick the base with a fork, spoon in some mincemeat from a jar (with added apricot if you want), add a (smaller circle) pastry lid and crimp to seal OR top with grated marzipan, bake at 200C (180C fan) until golden brown (12-15 mins), allow to cool slightly then dust with icing sugar
Christmas pudding with brandy butter
How to: 'Stir-up Sunday' has passed but you can still buy Christmas pudding in the supermarkets and it's usually vegan as most use vegetable suet; for the brandy butter, use this BBC Good Food recipe with vegan butter (and I would go unsalted, rather than salted...) - I like Pure Dairy Free Sunflower Spread and have heard great things about Naturli as well
Fruity aquafaba pavlova
How to: my Imogen Molly recipe here! Swap out summer fruits for Christmassy ones like orange, spiced stewed apple, redcurrants etc.
Chocolate orange fridge cake (marketed as child-friendly but actually everyone-friendly I think we can all agree)
How to: I usually just throw together unspecified amounts of golden syrup, melted dark chocolate, vegan butter or coconut oil, crushed up biscuits (digestives or gingernuts), dried fruit, and orange zest, and it comes out a treat; if you want a recipe with actual amounts, these look good: This Vibrant World, BBC Good Food, BBC Good Food again, Vegan Society (although for that one I would double all the ingredient amounts)
Drinks
Mulled wine and/or mulled gin cocktail
How to: Jamie Oliver recipe for mulled wine, and loads of recipes for hot gin using Sipsmith in this Stylist article
Champagne/prosecco (it's Christmas! push the boat out)
Shloer and other soft drinks (best to provide a non-fizzy option too because fizzy is not for everyone)
Happy menu planning, and merry Christmas!
I'M BACK BABY!!! (Even though it's not a #bloggythursday.) And I'm back with some vegan Christmas food inspiration for all your menu planning needs. There are a LOT of options here, so unless you are planning on feeding the 500 then I recommend you pick and choose. BRING ON ALL THE FESTIVE FOOD.
Nibbly bits
Crostini with olive tapenade and sundried tomatoes
How to: spoon 1 tsp of olive tapenade onto a mini crostini and top with one sundried cherry tomato or half a big sundried tomato; make sure there is enough non-tapenadey space around the edge so people can pick them up!
Waitrose mini caramelised onion and tomato tarte tatins
Linda McCartney sausage rolls ('beef', mushroom and spinach, or mini 'pork' and apple)
Crudités and dips (carrots, cucumber, peppers, celery, apple; houmous, guacamole etc.)
Twiglets, vegetable crisps, kettle chips etc.
The main event
Stuffed squash
How to: Jamie Oliver recipe or Minimalist Baker recipe
Mushroom wellington
How to: Bosh recipe
Waitrose root en croute
Nut roast
How to: Tesco recipe with pomegranate! YUM
Linda McCartney stuff ('turkey' and cranberry plaits, 'beef' roast with red wine and shallot glaze, 'turkey' roast with apple and pomegranate glaze)
Trimmings
THE BEST STUFFING EVER, separate blog post to come with Granny's recipe
Pigs in blankets (Waitrose vegan cocktails and streaky slices, Sainsbury's shroompups in blankets)
Rosemary and bay roasties, parsnips and onions (Aunt Bessie's roasties are vegan if you don't have enough pans/trays/space/time)
How to - potatoes: follow this BBC Good Food article (oil for vegan obviously) for the potatoes, then when they go in the oven add a few fresh rosemary sprigs and dried bay leaves
How to - parsnips and onions: follow the above article for the parsnips (quartered lengthways) but instead of putting 100ml of oil in the roasting tray, drizzle a few tbsp over the parsnips and put them in a separate tray; the onions (top layer removed, cut into wedges - generally cut into six is good) can go in this tray too as they don't need the oil; add a few fresh rosemary sprigs and dried bay leaves when the whole lot goes in the oven; roast everything until it's all your desired combination of soft, crunchy, caramelised etc.
Mustard and maple carrots
How to: (for approx 500g carrots) cut the carrots lengthways into quarters, mix together 2 tbsp oil with 1 tbsp each grainy mustard and maple syrup, toss the carrots through, roast in the oven at 200C (180C fan) for about 25-30 mins, prod with a fork to test
Lime and basil peas
How to: steam your peas as normal then drizzle some lime juice, shred some fresh basil, stir through
Ginger and chilli tenderstem broccoli
How to: steam your broccoli as normal; mix together some finely chopped ginger, de-seeded finely chopped chilli (one should do but depends how hot they/how much broc you're doing/what your spice tolerance is), 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar, 1 tbsp oil; drizzle over the broccoli then toss
Garlic and nutmeg buttered spinach
How to: BBC Good Food recipe, can swap the oil for vegan butter if you're feeling luxurious
Creamy roasted cauliflower
How to: Waitrose recipe
Maple roasted sprouts with vegan bacon (Waitrose streaky pieces) (only if you are catering for people who absolutely insist on having sprouts, otherwise why would you put yourself through that)
How to: (for approx 500g sprouts) put the sprouts (trimmed and halved) on a baking tray, drizzle with 1-2 tbsp oil and 2 tbsp maple syrup, scatter streaky pieces in amongst the sprouts, roast at 200C (180C fan) for approx. 30 mins or until the sprouts are how you like them
Red cabbage with apple (as above with the sprouts: why)
How to: Delia recipe
Gravy
How to: Minimalist Baker recipe, River Cottage recipe, or shop-bought e.g. Tideford
Cranberry sauce (shop-bought is easiest, there is plenty other stuff that needs your attention in the kitchen so don't make life too difficult for yourself!)
Mint sauce (again, shop-bought is easiest)
Bread sauce
How to: Nigella recipe, just use vegan butter and milk (oat is probably your best bet) and vegan cream if you want to add that too
Pudding
Mince pies
How to: this Mary Berry recipe suggests adding dried apricots to the jarred mincemeat, rolling orange zest into the pastry, and topping with grated marzipan instead of a pastry lid; roll out Jus Rol shortcrust pastry (not the 'all butter' range) to about 3mm thick, sprinkling orange zest as you go if you like, stamp out enough larger circles to fill your muffin tray, place in each hole and prick the base with a fork, spoon in some mincemeat from a jar (with added apricot if you want), add a (smaller circle) pastry lid and crimp to seal OR top with grated marzipan, bake at 200C (180C fan) until golden brown (12-15 mins), allow to cool slightly then dust with icing sugar
Christmas pudding with brandy butter
How to: 'Stir-up Sunday' has passed but you can still buy Christmas pudding in the supermarkets and it's usually vegan as most use vegetable suet; for the brandy butter, use this BBC Good Food recipe with vegan butter (and I would go unsalted, rather than salted...) - I like Pure Dairy Free Sunflower Spread and have heard great things about Naturli as well
Fruity aquafaba pavlova
How to: my Imogen Molly recipe here! Swap out summer fruits for Christmassy ones like orange, spiced stewed apple, redcurrants etc.
Chocolate orange fridge cake (marketed as child-friendly but actually everyone-friendly I think we can all agree)
How to: I usually just throw together unspecified amounts of golden syrup, melted dark chocolate, vegan butter or coconut oil, crushed up biscuits (digestives or gingernuts), dried fruit, and orange zest, and it comes out a treat; if you want a recipe with actual amounts, these look good: This Vibrant World, BBC Good Food, BBC Good Food again, Vegan Society (although for that one I would double all the ingredient amounts)
Drinks
Mulled wine and/or mulled gin cocktail
How to: Jamie Oliver recipe for mulled wine, and loads of recipes for hot gin using Sipsmith in this Stylist article
Champagne/prosecco (it's Christmas! push the boat out)
Shloer and other soft drinks (best to provide a non-fizzy option too because fizzy is not for everyone)
Happy menu planning, and merry Christmas!
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