As a lifelong Vegetarian (and Vegan for the past year – check out my post all about here) one of the questions I regularly get asked is: “what do you eat on Christmas day!?” So, I thought I would write this short little blog, as an intro to Vegan Christmas food for those that are curious, and perhaps even interested in trying something different sometime! This doesn’t have to be exclusively be eaten on Christmas day of course, everything in the blog would make a delicious Sunday (or any-other-day-of-the-week) roast too!
The “roast” portion of the meal is a nut roast, which is something that you can buy pre-made (lots of companies do them) or you can have a go making yourself. My auntie always makes ours and it has layers of different nuts and flavours, and is totally delicious. As well as this my mum also makes some little “nutty bites” (which I guess would be comparable to little balls of stuffing?). Growing up I wasn’t a fan of the nut roast for some ridiculous reason (and thinking about how much nut roast I missed out on eating when I was younger makes me a little sad), but in recent years the thought of my aunties homemade roast at Christmas is my most looked forward to part of Christmas, after spending 7+ days chilling out and seeing family & friends from home.
We had quite an amazing selection of sides this year which included: roasted crispy potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, beetroot, brussel sprouts with chestsnuts & garlic, “cheesy” leeks (made by me, more info a little later in the post) and something my family affectionately calls “tarmac”. Tarmac is made with red onion, dates, and red wine (I think). The tarmac tastes a little like red onion chutney, but with a slightly sweeter flavour. I used to be a very fussy eater, so I’ve actually only tried this in recent years, it’s got quite a strong flavour, but was lovely to have a little taste of with the nut roast.
The dish in the picture above was really simple to make (with a liiittle bit of guidance from my housemate who is a culinary genius, but don’t tell her I told you that). I prepared the bulk of it on Christmas eve with: chopped leeks, diced white onion, a carton of soya cream, crushed garlic, oil and seasoning. After everything was cooked, I put it in an over proof dish, ready to be heated again on Christmas day.
When I tasted it, it was delicious and creamy, but not cheesy (duh – I hadn’t put any cheese flavour in it yet), so before heating in the over for 10 mins on Christmas day before we sat down for lunch, I topped the dish with one of my favourite Vegan cheeses: Sainsbury’s “Deliciously FreeFrom Grated Cheddar-Style”, which is coconut based, and actually melts (!!) & a sprinkling of nutritonal yeast, which is a crispy/cheesy flavoured seasoning! Creamy, cheesy leeks the perfect side dish for Christmas dinner, and best of all, it was 100% Vegan! I think my mum and auntie (pictured below looking very festive) were excited to try some…
As you can probably tell, I’m a huge leek fan, they’re just such a delicious vegetable and can go with pretty much anything. If you like leeks as much as me, you might enjoy this Gnocchi, Leek & Avocado bake ‘Lu-Easy meal’ recipe!
So there you have it, what a Vegan Christmas meal looks like in my household! Is there anything we missed out that you usually have? I know there’s a heated internet debate about whether Yorkshire Puddings should be included…
Lx
A great post here, I bet loads of your readers will just be jealous they weren’t invited to join us for Christmas.