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We are doing our usual Christmas dinner but my daughter (aged 14) is now a confirmed vegetarian (last year she was dipping in and out a bit). We'll be doing a traditional dinner and we wanted to get something for her to eat rather than just have everything but meat (which is what she normally does on our normal Sunday meals).
Happy to make from scratch or just buy something ready-made (but haven't found anything yet). She loves cheese (she often has feta oven-baked in oil and herbs like you get in Greece as a starter) and most of the Quorn products and she likes the Richmond veggie sausages.
So - creative ideas, simple ideas, bloody obvious ideas - anything most welcome, thank you!
My daughter said she just wanted a roast dinner without the meat. I did try offering to make something! I'll do yorkshires and cauliflower cheese so she has plenty of choice.
This is good:
https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/incredible-nut-roast/
It's lovely with the salsa rossa but also good with veggie gravy and all the usual Christmas stuff. This is a good veggie gravy recipe - https://www.veganrecipeclub.org.uk/recipes/rose-elliots-gravy/
Have a look at Aldi and Lidil veggie ready made Mrs b likes them
Nut Wellington and mushroom sauce is what I'm having, looks a bit special and contains plenty of pastry!! goes nicely with xmas dinner trimmings too.
I've been a veggie for decades, always love Christmas dinner. If you do decide to cook a meat substitute, I'm looking forward this year to the 'This' roast chicken and stuffing thing. Their food is really nice, loads nicer (to me) than most other stuff in the market.
[Img] https://images.app.goo.gl/roNm7w8msXWrkGHy9 [/img]
Obviously all your normal rules apply around gravy, don't put goose fat on her spuds, don't put bacon in her sprouts etc - all these have happened to me over the years!).
My sister is vegetarian, her husband is most definitely not so last year she had macaroni cheese and then all the usual Christmas veg. We all had an amazing beef wellington. For a veggie, she can cook some bloody good meat!
Macaroni cheese was a really easy dish to just cook on the side of everything else that was going on.
Vegan household here. Normally we'll have a homity pie, potatoes, broccoli, vegan cheeze, onion, maybie slightly mustardy in a pastry. Then all the veggies stuffing and gravy.
That of one of the roast-a-like things from the supermarket, or better still from vegan shop as, if anything like round here, they're struggling a bit.
Agree add cauli cheese and other veg and you don't need the centre piece... but if she wants... pastry based stuff works well. Beetroot wellington, with squash, mushrooms or feta for moisture. Something like https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/spiced-squash-feta-beetroot-wellington
or https://realfood.tesco.com/step-by-step/how-to-make-beetroot-wellington.html
These parcels are nice but a bit of a faff to make, depends if you make a few and freeze some https://simply-veggie.blogspot.com/2011/07/morroccan-veggie-parcels.html?m=1
Half a sweet potato ( in its skin) and roast in the oven until cooked. Meanwhile sauté some onions, celery and mushrooms and a bit of garlic and thyme . Remove sweet potato from skin and mix in a bowl with the veg and some feta . Return to the skins and bake until golden.
Something simple but actually pretty tasty, would be a whole roast celeriac. Can flavour it with all sorts of things and can also be taken to the table whole and carved like a joint of meat.
No Beef Wellington from Sainsbury's for the veggie/vegan mob here. They also do a Not Turkey Crown.
The 'girl called Jack' chestnut and red wine casserole is excellent. We then mix that with the usual roast potatoes and sprouts etc.
We're vegetarians. We will have a full traditional roast dinner, but with a Quorn fillet instead of the turkey.
My daughter said she just wanted a roast dinner without the meat. I did try offering to make something! I’ll do yorkshires and cauliflower cheese so she has plenty of choice.
Yeah that's what she normally does do - I just wanted to do something for her. Her go-to is Yorkshire's and Dauphinoise potatoes (which we are doing obviously) - all washed down with loads of Madeira sauce.
Nut loaf (Rose Elliott's recipe) wrapped in puff pastry for us this year.
To be honest any decent veggie loaf wrapped in pastry. Pastry for the win.
We will have a full traditional roast dinner, but with a Quorn fillet instead of the turkey.
She has those lots - mainly in fried rice - but finds them a bit bland by themselves. Do you do anything with them?
I could do one wrapped in pastry with some feta? That sounds quite nice actually...
As long as the feta isn’t made with animal rennet.
Which bit of the quorn is the fillet taken from?
Vegans and vegis here. We'll be knocking up a couple of mushroom wellingtons. Pretty easy and can be done the day before and fridged, then only need warming up in the oven on the big day.
As long as the feta isn’t made with animal rennet.
She's not quite militant about it just yet - she is only 14 after all.
Madam does a nut roast in pastry that is stonking. Add roast veg and gravy and it's truly fit for the birthday of the lhord.
We are happy clappy and road kill only meat eaters but I will chose her nut roast every time
It's also fantastic cold and on a picnic
Brother in law made a really nice mushroom wellington for my niece and me last year. I've been a bit crap recently and had a few bits of meat. Think I'll just have normal Christmas dinner this year and start veggie again after ....
Other tasty and mainstream veggie food is tofu strips rolled in flour seasoning then pan fried til chrispy, yom yom. Can be very chicken like if that's your bag, sweet chilli type dressing. Would be a beautiful boxing day supper. Served in a bun with pickles and feta, bloody lush. Or a hot chili dressing.
Vegetarians generally cook in a similar way to omnivores.
They are less likely to have excess fat, so do take that into account.
Florets of cauliflower and broccoli marinate in mango chutney overnight.
Then add to a batter mix and fry for ~6 mins.
Serve with anything.
^? I’m not looking for dietary advice, just Christmas dinner grub.
I’m not entirely sure you understood the joke.
Nut Wellington for our vegetarian household - being in pastry makes it a more special dish over basic nut roast. All the usual roast dinner stuff to go with it.
Goes down well with non veggies too
Vegetarian Haggis (it's seasonal) and Parsnip Molly Parkin
https://www.dominthekitchen.com/2011/04/parsnips-molly-parkin-a-random-recipe.html
Vegetarian Haggis is delicious. It's available from Waitrose (of course) and sometimes other supermarkets. We have a vegetarian guest this year, and we're all having it as it's so tasty.
Parsnip Molly Parkin goes well with it, and should be eaten by everybody as often s possible.
Veggie Haggis sounds nice - I'll mebbe get some for New Year's Dinner
@johndoh I roast The fillets in olive oil with a bit of seasoning.
We also have field mushrooms filled with pesto, cranberry and goats cheese. Roasted for about 20 minutes at the same time as the fillets.
I’m not entirely sure you understood the joke.
Sorry, never seen IT Crowd. Not one episode ever!
Whatever is her favourite meal and what would she consider special/luxury meal for her.
It doesn't need to fit into the confines of what a meat eater would eat so may have no bearing on what they feel is a 'traditional' Christmas lunch.
I make a chestnut & mushroom wellington - lovely and rich with cream, sherry and tarragon.
Roast and Stuffed Butternut squash - I don't know how to cook it but MrsWCA does. Basically you cut a Butternut squash in have, scrape out the seeds and fill the whole with pine nuts, stilton and other stuff and roast it. She did one for a veggie friend once and I had the other half with my steak. It was bloody gorgeous. Savoury with the blue cheese but slightly sweet flesh with enough texture to actually feel like you are eating something. If I wasn't a glutton, it definitely would have been a main course and can look quite decorative when brought to the table.
I just have the nice bits of a trad roast i.e. the veg. I sometimes have veggie sausages.
I sometimes have veggie sausages.
Yeah we have got some of those for her
Yeah that’s what she normally does do – I just wanted to do something for her. Her go-to is Yorkshire’s and Dauphinoise potatoes (which we are doing obviously) – all washed down with loads of Madeira sauce.
Oh I get that, absolutely. Just that I went round the houses with my daughter but in the end she was happier with just the sides.
P.s she knows about gelatine and rennet!
I did a full Christmas dinner a couple of weeks back for my Mom’s birthday. Jnr is veggie so I made a stuffing for the turkey using locally gathered sweet chestnuts and chopped up veggie sausage, cooked separately in a baking tray. It took me about fifteen minutes to knock it up using fresh sage and thyme from the garden, baked in the oven for about an hour.
It was lovely with the turkey and Jnr said it was delicious on its own.
Toad in the Hole using her veggie 'sausages'? As you are already making Yorkshires it's minimal hassle.
Our household's been vegetarian for decades - for Christmas dinner Mrs Tyred and I like to have something generally involving filo or puff pastry, goat's cheese, roast sweet potato and slow-cooked red onion in whatever format I can be bothered assembling. Hard to go wrong really.
The kids demand super-luxe macaroni cheese, they're simple creatures.
Just been to Aldi and none of the veggie options looked that promising (she isn't into nuts or mushrooms which seem to be the staple) so I ended up getting a couple of those little fondue pots and we'll get some crusty bread and tapenade so she can have a bit of a dipping session.
I've made this recently - it's easier than a nut roast or wellington and if she likes cheese will be a hit. You can make it as small or large as you like and I just use puff pastry instead of filo to make life easier. You can also use whatever cheese you want (I use gorgonzola and mozzarella, which is in some of the older Delia recipe books).
Nut roast! The celebration nut roast recipe from 'The vegan health plan' by Amanda Sweet.
And mushroom and chestnut pie. For example - https://www.vegansociety.com/resources/recipes/special-occasions/chestnut-and-mushroom-pie
I am asked to make these even when we are not hosting Christmas
edit
she isn’t into nuts or mushrooms which seem to be the staple
Oh. That's pesky. If she's into cheese then some of the suggestions in the thread look great!
timmys
Full MemberToad in the Hole using her veggie ‘sausages’? As you are already making Yorkshires it’s minimal hassle.
Came here to say this. In fact, I wonder if I can wangle that at our house too 😀
On sausages, my go-to is Cauldron. Others may be 'better' in so far as being a closer analogue to pork, but I always come back to the Cauldron.
I assume you don't need to be schooled on the basics like not covering vegetables in lardy run-off from the turkey or what have you.
Generally, left to my own devices I'd just skip the "meat" part of the dinner or chuck a burger under the grill, it's not like we won't be eating leftovers until 2024 anyway. Having been veggie my adult life I don't really feel the need for a meal to have a centrepiece. If I were to have anything it'd be a Quorn roast, but that's largely to appease my partner who feels like I'm being short-changed otherwise. I argued that it's pointless for one person, it's really tasty when fresh but kinda naff when cold and the remainder will sit in the fridge "for sandwiches" for a fortnight before being binned. But apparently The Sister wants some this year so it looks like that's what we're doing.
This may just be me, but I am so very bored of the stock answer to the problem of "vegetarian" at a traditionally carnivorous gathering being either cheese or mushrooms. I can't eat the former and am no great lover of the latter. Truth be told I'd be more than happy with my own bodyweight in uncontaminated spuds and Yorkies and a bucket of onion gravy. I'm half-tempted to have a punt at a home-made nut roast this year.