Vegetarian Christmas dinner
KnoEndoRidin
Posts: 1 Member
This will be my first Christmas as a vegetarian who is (mostly) responsible for Christmas dinner. (I was a vegetarian many years ago but wasn't responsible for the cooking). Any recommendations for a main vegetarian dish for Christmas dinner? It will be our traditional meal otherwise - roast potatoes, stuffing, lots and lots of vegetables and gravy. I'm looking for something that my non-veg family will enjoy and be wowed by. Ideas and recipes welcome . thanks.
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Replies
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Eggplant lasagna with hummus instead of cheese
Vegetable Wellington
Veggie quiche (use flax for eggs and plant based milk if needed)
Veggie Mexican casserole with beans
I like this veggies lasagna -
https://jz-eats.com/vegan-lasagna/
It uses:
cashews,
hummus,
a few cups of marinara sauce,
zucchini,
eggplants,
mushrooms,
onion, and
lasagna noodles
tofu,
nutritional yeast
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I suspect your going to hear soy that looks like a turkey cutlet. Is there a specific reason why you won't accommodate your family with a traditional dinner considering the significance of this one, when generally omnivores do go to great lengths to try and accommodate vegetarians and vegans, just curious.
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I have a recipe for a delicious mushroom-asparagus risotto that I can share if you’re interested.1
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KnoEndoRidin wrote: »This will be my first Christmas as a vegetarian who is (mostly) responsible for Christmas dinner. (I was a vegetarian many years ago but wasn't responsible for the cooking). Any recommendations for a main vegetarian dish for Christmas dinner? It will be our traditional meal otherwise - roast potatoes, stuffing, lots and lots of vegetables and gravy. I'm looking for something that my non-veg family will enjoy and be wowed by. Ideas and recipes welcome . thanks.
For a side, I love Cowboy Caviar. Just beans, veggies, corn, and seasoning.
For a main dish, what about Sheet-Pan Mushroom Parmigiana or Vegetarian Stuffed Shells. Both would make a decent main dish.
I'd go with the Stuffed Shells. It can have tons of flavor and its easy to make in bulk.3 -
I have done this. I made a roast turkey for my omnivorous relatives, and a variety of sides that included something that was (for me) a vegetarian main. But that's just me, and was partly from the fact that my (late) husband was an omni, and our other relatives had always been very conscientious about ensuring that holiday meals had some nice vegetarian foods for me. If you don't want to do that, or your family has been enthusiastic about trying a vegetarian holiday meal, that's fine of course.
I like the vegetable Wellington idea. Something that's a little grand visually would be good. Most brands of commercial frozen puff pastry or filo are vegetarian/vegan (read the ingredients), and wrapping things in those makes them seem kind of grand. It almost doesn't matter what's inside, as long as it tastes good. Putting some pastry shapes (leaves or stars or Christmas trees) on the outside of the main wrap is extra nice. Something like this has a bit of presence, and a little drama when you cut into it. Dishing up something casserole-ish isn't quite the same festive effect, IMO.
Beyond that, a generous-sized stuffed Winter squash could be good, if your family aren't squash haters. A whole roasted cauliflower with an interesting sauce/coating can be a bit dramatic. If you're ovo-lacto, or even lacto, cheese is a good ingredient to use in the sauce/coating.
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I've done this one for Christmas, in case you like the sound of it: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/moroccan-spiced-pie
It takes time but it was spectacular. I used a springform pan so it kept its shape and was easy to release.1 -
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Lentil loaf, dairy free stuffed shells ( Kite hill ricotta) dairy free lasagna, hemp nut meatballs, minestrone as side, vegan sheppards pie, whole roasted stuffed cabbage, risotto stuffed peppers3
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You may want to include meat if your family in non vegetarian. You don’t have to eat it and your family will appreciate it. In my experience non vegetarians are less than thrilled when the attend a major dinner and there’s no turkey, ham, etc.
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I would stick with whatever is traditional in your family and maybe make a vegetarian main for yourself or just load up on vegetarian sides. I do that for my vegetarian step-mother (I do Christmas dinner when I'm in town, which is most of the time)...she is the only vegetarian in the family, and honestly, I'd be a little irked if she made Christmas dinner and it was all just vegetarian when nobody else in the family is doing that. I mean that's fine for the random Sunday dinner or whatever, but not for a major holiday...just my opinion of course. Thanksgiving and Christmas are the only two days of the year that I consume certain foods, and I'd definitely be irked if I wasn't having my traditional fare.2
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cwolfman13 wrote: »I would stick with whatever is traditional in your family and maybe make a vegetarian main for yourself or just load up on vegetarian sides. I do that for my vegetarian step-mother (I do Christmas dinner when I'm in town, which is most of the time)...she is the only vegetarian in the family, and honestly, I'd be a little irked if she made Christmas dinner and it was all just vegetarian when nobody else in the family is doing that. I mean that's fine for the random Sunday dinner or whatever, but not for a major holiday...just my opinion of course. Thanksgiving and Christmas are the only two days of the year that I consume certain foods, and I'd definitely be irked if I wasn't having my traditional fare.
Lol, my sister in law went vegitarian and hosted Thanksgiving 2 years ago with no turkey, needless to say it didn't go over well. Holidays is not the time to push certain dietary agendas on people.1 -
I think it's clear that I'm with the "make a festive meat for the fam" camp, even though vegetarian myself. Holidays, to me, are not a manifesto. Ideally, IMO, they're a hug made of family traditions.
However, OP hasn't said anything about the context. If my family were flexitarians and not so tied to tradition, maybe were even saying "make a vegetarian feast, that would be fun!", that's a whole different thing. Some families I've known would be all in on an idea like that.
Seems she has been picked, or at least volunteered/was accepted to make the family dinner. We don't know more than that. I don't want to assume she's being *that* vegetarian.3 -
tomcustombuilder wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »I would stick with whatever is traditional in your family and maybe make a vegetarian main for yourself or just load up on vegetarian sides. I do that for my vegetarian step-mother (I do Christmas dinner when I'm in town, which is most of the time)...she is the only vegetarian in the family, and honestly, I'd be a little irked if she made Christmas dinner and it was all just vegetarian when nobody else in the family is doing that. I mean that's fine for the random Sunday dinner or whatever, but not for a major holiday...just my opinion of course. Thanksgiving and Christmas are the only two days of the year that I consume certain foods, and I'd definitely be irked if I wasn't having my traditional fare.
Lol, my sister in law went vegitarian and hosted Thanksgiving 2 years ago with no turkey, needless to say it didn't go over well. Holidays is not the time to push certain dietary agendas on people.
I have an aunt who years ago made lasagna for Christmas dinner...not vegetarian, just regular lasagna. That didn't go over well either. I thought my grandfather (her dad) was going to lose his *kitten*.0 -
Shepherd's Pie.
Filling based on eggplant and mushroom. Mashed potato crust. Last time I did this I also added a pastry crust just to be decadent. Mollie Katzen's recipe is a good starting point. I made this every Thanksgiving for decades and streamlined and improved the recipe. The texture of the eggplant can seem like there's actually meat in there. I've had people ask because they don't eat meat and thought it was in there.
I also used to make a "pumpkin pie" that was not for dessert. It had lots of garlic and onions as well as millet. Kind of an eggless quiche. It can be a main dish. I made this one for over a decade for Thanksgiving as well. For many years we had a potluck for Thanksgiving that a different household would host each year. It was fun. Typically what would happen is: I would show up and put my dishes on the main dish area. I would go take off my coat and put it away. I would go back and move my pie OFF of the dessert table and back to the main meal table. Anyone eating that thinking it was dessert would be in for a big surprise.
I was a vegetarian for 30 years. I stopped going to family events that were during food-focused holidays. I would plead and beg to please do NOT do anything special for me because there's always more than enough food. Yet the hosts would always want to make something extra. It made me feel guilty. They were already making "all the other things," and it's a lot of work! Worst was when it actually wasn't very good. I hate to waste food. I would disagree with the suggestions to go ahead and make meaty dishes for your guests.
This type of holiday is supposed to be about getting together and sharing joy and, presumably, family & friends. While there's a feast involved, the holiday is not about the food. If it is just about food to someone, I think they need to reassess their values. I would not expect a Muslim or Jew to make me bacon if I were invited to a holiday meal at their home. I would not expect a Hindu to make me a brisket. I would not expect a vegetarian to make any meat on my behalf even now that I include some animals in my diet. I claim that bacon is a vegetable, but I'm only joking. Garlic however IS a vegetable....
As a vegetarian at a family meal, there was usually one or two things I would decline eating (turkey and/or brisket). Everything else was fair game. All of the people who did eat meat also ate "all the other things." So if you skip the meat, whatever kind of meat is traditional for you, it's only ONE thing that's missing. If someone gets all knotted up about it, then they just volunteered to host next year.
If you have a guest who's doing the Carnivore Diet, then there's gonna be trouble because there really isn't anything for them to eat. Ask them to bring a salami.
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Lentil loaf, dairy free stuffed shells ( Kite hill ricotta) dairy free lasagna, hemp nut meatballs, minestrone as side, vegan sheppards pie, whole roasted stuffed cabbage, risotto stuffed peppers
As much as I love lentils, most meaty relatives are not going to love lentil loaf for a holiday meal. The shells or lasagna might be more 'recognizable' to non-veggie relatives.
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My family has done vegetarian holidays for years. As we've gotten older and more spread out, it just doesn't make sense to do huge dinners, so we've streamlined. My sister is a vegetarian and my father is all but vegetarian, so it doesn't make sense to do entire turkeys or hams for the remaining 1 or 2 of us. No one likes white meat, so roasting just a turkey breast is worse than no turkey at all, lol.
Our go-to main dish is a vegetable tart. We make it on a cookie sheet, but it would be really pretty in a round pizza pan. I prefer a flaky crust with puff pastry or rolled out crescent rolls, but we've also used the pre-made pizza dough from the store. Then we roast whatever veggies we want on it. This Thanksgiving was butternut squash, radishes, brussel sprouts, red onions, fresh thyme, and some of the fancy colored carrots. I brushed the crust with olive oil and sliced garlic, arranged the vegetables so they were pretty and sprinkled gruyere cheese on top. Baked until the crust was done and dinner was ready.
If you want something a bit more impressive, Google "Vegducken". It's a zucchini inside an eggplant inside a butternut squash that you tie up like a roast. It's memorable and a great presentation, but pretty labor intensive. But the recipe is worth perusing, even if you don't end up making it!8 -
My family has done vegetarian holidays for years. As we've gotten older and more spread out, it just doesn't make sense to do huge dinners, so we've streamlined. My sister is a vegetarian and my father is all but vegetarian, so it doesn't make sense to do entire turkeys or hams for the remaining 1 or 2 of us. No one likes white meat, so roasting just a turkey breast is worse than no turkey at all, lol.
Our go-to main dish is a vegetable tart. We make it on a cookie sheet, but it would be really pretty in a round pizza pan. I prefer a flaky crust with puff pastry or rolled out crescent rolls, but we've also used the pre-made pizza dough from the store. Then we roast whatever veggies we want on it. This Thanksgiving was butternut squash, radishes, brussel sprouts, red onions, fresh thyme, and some of the fancy colored carrots. I brushed the crust with olive oil and sliced garlic, arranged the vegetables so they were pretty and sprinkled gruyere cheese on top. Baked until the crust was done and dinner was ready.
If you want something a bit more impressive, Google "Vegducken". It's a zucchini inside an eggplant inside a butternut squash that you tie up like a roast. It's memorable and a great presentation, but pretty labor intensive. But the recipe is worth perusing, even if you don't end up making it!
Oh, man: I've never heard of that. That looks very fun (and tasty with the right recipe). Thank you. Now I want to try it, probably just for me?
I looked at a couple of recipes, and honestly I think it doesn't sound all that daunting labor-wise for someone who'd consider the veggie Wellington, pot-pie type things, etc. It's just a little odder prep, not that much more total effort.
No criticism intended here, @COGypsy, and maybe I'm mis-remembering, but I'm thinking you may've mentioned being someone who prefers no or simple cooking (which is what I do most days, TBH). I think for someone who finds cooking slightly more elaborate things fun, this isn't extreme.
Thank you for pointing this out - look interesting/good!0 -
My family has done vegetarian holidays for years. As we've gotten older and more spread out, it just doesn't make sense to do huge dinners, so we've streamlined. My sister is a vegetarian and my father is all but vegetarian, so it doesn't make sense to do entire turkeys or hams for the remaining 1 or 2 of us. No one likes white meat, so roasting just a turkey breast is worse than no turkey at all, lol.
Our go-to main dish is a vegetable tart. We make it on a cookie sheet, but it would be really pretty in a round pizza pan. I prefer a flaky crust with puff pastry or rolled out crescent rolls, but we've also used the pre-made pizza dough from the store. Then we roast whatever veggies we want on it. This Thanksgiving was butternut squash, radishes, brussel sprouts, red onions, fresh thyme, and some of the fancy colored carrots. I brushed the crust with olive oil and sliced garlic, arranged the vegetables so they were pretty and sprinkled gruyere cheese on top. Baked until the crust was done and dinner was ready.
If you want something a bit more impressive, Google "Vegducken". It's a zucchini inside an eggplant inside a butternut squash that you tie up like a roast. It's memorable and a great presentation, but pretty labor intensive. But the recipe is worth perusing, even if you don't end up making it!
Oh, man: I've never heard of that. That looks very fun (and tasty with the right recipe). Thank you. Now I want to try it, probably just for me?
I looked at a couple of recipes, and honestly I think it doesn't sound all that daunting labor-wise for someone who'd consider the veggie Wellington, pot-pie type things, etc. It's just a little odder prep, not that much more total effort.
No criticism intended here, @COGypsy, and maybe I'm mis-remembering, but I'm thinking you may've mentioned being someone who prefers no or simple cooking (which is what I do most days, TBH). I think for someone who finds cooking slightly more elaborate things fun, this isn't extreme.
Thank you for pointing this out - look interesting/good!
As I recall - the labor was not so much in the cooking, but the actual assembly of the vegetables that had to be cut in half in order to "stuff" inside each other and then getting the butcher tie around it all without squishing out the filling and it all coming apart again was where the challenge really was. It ended up being pretty entertaining and an excellent family bonding opportunity.
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My family is all omnivores, but we're Polish and the traditional Wigilia (Christmas dinner) is a meatless affair. The stars of the show are mushroom potato soup and, of course, pierogi!6
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My family has done vegetarian holidays for years. As we've gotten older and more spread out, it just doesn't make sense to do huge dinners, so we've streamlined. My sister is a vegetarian and my father is all but vegetarian, so it doesn't make sense to do entire turkeys or hams for the remaining 1 or 2 of us. No one likes white meat, so roasting just a turkey breast is worse than no turkey at all, lol.
Our go-to main dish is a vegetable tart. We make it on a cookie sheet, but it would be really pretty in a round pizza pan. I prefer a flaky crust with puff pastry or rolled out crescent rolls, but we've also used the pre-made pizza dough from the store. Then we roast whatever veggies we want on it. This Thanksgiving was butternut squash, radishes, brussel sprouts, red onions, fresh thyme, and some of the fancy colored carrots. I brushed the crust with olive oil and sliced garlic, arranged the vegetables so they were pretty and sprinkled gruyere cheese on top. Baked until the crust was done and dinner was ready.
If you want something a bit more impressive, Google "Vegducken". It's a zucchini inside an eggplant inside a butternut squash that you tie up like a roast. It's memorable and a great presentation, but pretty labor intensive. But the recipe is worth perusing, even if you don't end up making it!
I'm very much a meat eater! But that veggie tart sounds so good! And I bet you could make it really pretty! I'm doing that!
One Xmas when my granddaughter was vegetarian, we had a soup dinner, potato soup for the veggie girl, stew and chili, cornbread, homemade overnight rolls. Everyone was so relieved when they didn't see ANOTHER turkey they had to get through on the table. Big hit. I haven't made a turkey dinner since then.
It's a new tradition.
(Not part of the question, but my grandkids were just getting interested in cooking that Christmas, so we/they made an apple tart for dessert with a few cranberries on top for Xmas cheer while their parents were out shopping. The kids were thrilled when everyone loved it! Yeah! No pumpkin or pecan pie in sight. They were all tired of pies)2 -
Corina1143 wrote: »My family has done vegetarian holidays for years. As we've gotten older and more spread out, it just doesn't make sense to do huge dinners, so we've streamlined. My sister is a vegetarian and my father is all but vegetarian, so it doesn't make sense to do entire turkeys or hams for the remaining 1 or 2 of us. No one likes white meat, so roasting just a turkey breast is worse than no turkey at all, lol.
Our go-to main dish is a vegetable tart. We make it on a cookie sheet, but it would be really pretty in a round pizza pan. I prefer a flaky crust with puff pastry or rolled out crescent rolls, but we've also used the pre-made pizza dough from the store. Then we roast whatever veggies we want on it. This Thanksgiving was butternut squash, radishes, brussel sprouts, red onions, fresh thyme, and some of the fancy colored carrots. I brushed the crust with olive oil and sliced garlic, arranged the vegetables so they were pretty and sprinkled gruyere cheese on top. Baked until the crust was done and dinner was ready.
If you want something a bit more impressive, Google "Vegducken". It's a zucchini inside an eggplant inside a butternut squash that you tie up like a roast. It's memorable and a great presentation, but pretty labor intensive. But the recipe is worth perusing, even if you don't end up making it!
I'm very much a meat eater! But that veggie tart sounds so good! And I bet you could make it really pretty! I'm doing that!
One Xmas when my granddaughter was vegetarian, we had a soup dinner, potato soup for the veggie girl, stew and chili, cornbread, homemade overnight rolls. Everyone was so relieved when they didn't see ANOTHER turkey they had to get through on the table. Big hit. I haven't made a turkey dinner since then.
It's a new tradition.
(Not part of the question, but my grandkids were just getting interested in cooking that Christmas, so we/they made an apple tart for dessert with a few cranberries on top for Xmas cheer while their parents were out shopping. The kids were thrilled when everyone loved it! Yeah! No pumpkin or pecan pie in sight. They were all tired of pies)
It’s really good! I drizzled it with basaltic glaze this year and it was even better! The other good thing about it is that it’s good hot out of the oven AND after it’s been sitting, so great for buffets and potlucks (or super slow eaters like me, lol)0 -
Mushroom Wellington:
https://www.iga.com.au/recipes/christmas/mushroom-wellington/?utm_source=edm&utm_medium=43605&utm_campaign=Wk50_Recipes
Stuffed pumpkins can be a show stopper:
http://www.ruscuisine.com/recipes/vegetable-dishes/other/n--88/0 -
How interesting that this recipe has a URL from Australia. An Australian woman was charged with three counts of murder in November. The charges allege that she served beef wellington with mushrooms to to lunch guests in July. Three of the guests died and another was hospitalized and recovered after two months and a liver transplant. The people who died had symptoms of poisoning with death cap mushrooms (Amanita phalloides). The woman charged was the daughter-in-law of two of the victims.
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2023/11/woman-charged-with-murder-in-mushroom-poisoning-case/
TL:DR
Amanita phalloides grows where I live. It is not native here, but it got introduced at some point. It looks a lot like the paddy straw mushroom (Volvariella volvacea) which is edible and delicious. Every few years we read about some Asian immigrants who go mushroom hunting, find a mushroom that looks like a paddy straw mushroom, bring it home, and get poisoned. Rumor has it Amanita phalloides is also delicious, but only once. It's always important to be 100% sure of the identification of any wild mushroom you eat. There are old mushroom hunters, and there are bold mushroom hunters. There are no old, bold mushroom hunters. Some people suggest leaving some of the mushrooms you harvest whole so if you do feel ill, you can have a sample for an expert to see if maybe you ate something you shouldn't have.1 -
I think it's clear that I'm with the "make a festive meat for the fam" camp, even though vegetarian myself. Holidays, to me, are not a manifesto. Ideally, IMO, they're a hug made of family traditions.
However, OP hasn't said anything about the context. If my family were flexitarians and not so tied to tradition, maybe were even saying "make a vegetarian feast, that would be fun!", that's a whole different thing. Some families I've known would be all in on an idea like that.
Seems she has been picked, or at least volunteered/was accepted to make the family dinner. We don't know more than that. I don't want to assume she's being *that* vegetarian.
If the context was the bolded, pick some suggestions here.
If not, and Christmas is all about tradition, do a traditional meat for the meat eaters.
I'm a flexible and inventive cook, except for three days a year. (Who's going to guess the third holiday???
) 0 -
If you can find it try having some vegetarian haggis. It is delicious with all the usual roast dinner accompaniments, although it doesn't look pretty.
It's easy to get here in the UK, might be tricky elsewhere.1 -
Oh yes, there's quite a few veggie and vegan haggis recipes on the net. They're are often made with beans that takes the place of the cooked ground offal content:
https://www.google.com/search?q=vegetarian+haggis&client=firefox-b-d&sca_esv=591746769&tbm=vid&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiZguX48peDAxWl3mEKHS1yBLoQ_AUoA3oECAIQBQ&biw=1174&bih=598&dpr=10 -
Pozole is a big holiday food for my family. Here is one vegetarian options but I'm sure you can find many online. Happy holidays!
https://www.mexicanplease.com/vegetarian-pozole-verde/1
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