Christmas Veggie Alternatives

If you are a vegetarian, Christmas food might at times seem very uninspiring (to say the least) and a nut roast probably doesn’t quite hit the spot. Every vegetarian knows that a vegetarian Christmas meal or snack doesn’t have to be bland and boring so here are a few hopefully stimulating vegetarian recipes for Christmas. 

Squash and Chestnut Crackers

This recipe involves only a few ingredients and takes around 30 minutes. It includes the use of puff pastry, but is a great filling alternative for meat on a Christmas dinner.

It goes roughly as followed:

1. Caramelise the onions and tenderise squash in a frying pan.
2. Add mushrooms and masala paste, add chestnuts, prunes, sage, and breadcrumbs.
3. Stir in cheese once cooled.
4. Prepare your puff pastry into a Christmas cracker shape.
5. Insert the filling, glaze, chill.
6. Once it has chilled, bake for 30-40 minutes.

If you want more details – the recipe can be found here. This is quick and easy and can be prepared on Christmas Eve to leave extra chilling time and then cooked the next day.

Veggie Wellington

This next recipe is slightly more substantial and it’s perfect for Christmas dinner. This veggie Wellington combines Beetroot, blue cheese, and kale to produce a rich and colourful dish.

It goes as follows:

1. Fry a chopped onion for about 10 minutes, then add garlic, kale, and 150ml of vegetable stock. Cover, wait for the kale to cook down and remove the lid and cook for an extra five minutes.
2. Add pine nuts and season, transfer to a bowl and leave to cool. Whilst this is happening, prepare your puff pastry by rolling and cutting it into four equal rectangles X2 and chill.
3. Combine beetroot and stilton into the mixture from earlier, finally spoon the mixture onto four of the rectangles so that they are quite full with a 1cm border.
4. Cover with the other four rectangles, glaze with egg, chill for 30 minutes and bake for 40 minutes at 150-200C.

Once it is cooked, you can have it with gravy and serve it with other veggies. A more detailed tutorial can be found here.

Feta, Pistachio, and Clementine salad

This Feta, Pistachio, and Clementine salad is quick and easy and can be used as a tasty side dish. There are only really two main steps involved.

1. Mix feta with yogurt and a teaspoon of salt, place in a sieve over a bowl for about 3 hours and then leave to chill overnight.
2. The next day, roll the mixture in balls about the same size as golf balls and then roll them through a mixture of chilli flakes and Za’ atar and chill for 30 minutes.
3. Prepare the dressing by mixing some olive oil with honey, vinegar and seasoning, then toss with sliced shallots, rocket, peeled and sliced clementines, and chopped mint.
4. Lay the feta balls on top and sprinkle pistachio and pomegranate seeds over the top to finish.

This can be prepared quickly if the correct preparation is undertaken, but for more details click here for the full recipe.

This is not an exhaustive list of vegetarian festive food but hopefully, this provides a quick snapshot of the range of possibilities for vegetarians at Christmas.