Annette and Graham

All the family come for vegan Christmas dinner - that's eight of us altogether! We are not religious, and we see Christmas as a time to be with family and friends, and enjoy some treats and nice food.

On Christmas Eve we usually have a simple meal - as Annette has been busy preparing for Christmas Day! - either pasta or sausages and mash, with red wine, followed by something chocolatey!

Christmas Day

We have party nibbles, nuts, crisps and drinks before lunch.

Christmas Day lunch -
We have a three-course lunch, usually from Rose Elliott's vegetarian Christmas recipe book, with wine and 'champagne'.
This year we had:
Starter: cherry tomatoes with horseradish cream
Main course: chestnut and red wine pate en croute
Pudding: Christmas pudding.

In the evening, we have more party food and drinks...

Boxing Day -

We usually go for a run in our village, and then all our running friends come back to our house for mince pies and coffee.













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jill

I do have an old-fashioned family Christmas in the country, but I really prefer the New Year as a festival...

My Christmas is all vegan and I try to use as much local produce as possible

Christmas Day

We drink Co-op. 'sherry' (the one with the blue label!) and nibble pistachio nuts while we open our presents!

Christmas dinner -
a selection of delicious roasted root vegetables (big whole onions, celeriac, whole beetroots, and sweet halved parsnips with whole carrots in maple syrup)
Dad's special ultra-crunchy roast potatoes with Maldon sea salt
butter bean mash
sprouts and chestnuts with lots of melting sunflower margarine and freshly ground black pepper
baked sage, onion and apple stuffing 'loaf' with a crispy crust
gravy with extra yeast extract
cranberry sauce
traditional bread sauce

followed by individual vegan Co-op. Christmas puddings with s. cream

after dinner - lots of mixed nuts which we sit cracking with the family's ancient nut-crackers, clementines, luxury crisps, and sharing our gift chocolates ...

and in the evening -
'instant' chestnut soup with some wholemeal toast triangles
warm mulled wine

New Year's Eve - plenty of sparkling party lambrusco!
New Year's Day -
a big fried vegan breakfast! - for the omnivorous

vegan sausages, 'rashers', fried mushrooms, tinned tomatoes, fried bread, and some baked beans, all washed down with orange juice


later in the day - Rose's sloe gin, for medicinal purposes!





bread sauce
s. milk, 1 onion, 2 cloves, bread, some nutmeg

'instant' chestnut soup
2 tins of chestnut puree, dried thyme, some s. milk, some water, some olive oil, Co-op. 'sherry', some freshly-ground black pepper
some s. cream
(serves 4-8, depending on the size of the servings!)

Spoon all the puree into a saucepan and heat it up, adding some water and as much 'sherry' as you like (I like quite a lot). Stir until combined, smooth, and as thick as you like it. Add the thyme and cook. Mill the black pepper over the soup, and keep stirring. Pour into bowls. Stir in some s. cream to create a whirl on the surface of each bowl of soup.

mulled wine
vegan red wine
juice of 1 clementine
1 clementine, cut in two halves
brown sugar
some cinnamon


sloe gin

a bottle of gin
sloes
sugar




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Raisa and David

We have a traditional, Christian family Christmas - all organic and Fair Trade and vegetarian (90% vegan)

Christmas Day -
late dinner for 8 - it all takes a long time to prepare!

'mock goose' from a Victorian recipe
split pea bake
stuffed baked red peppers
roast potatoes
mashed potatoes
crispy Sosmix 'fritters'
vegetarian cocktail sausages wrapped in vegan 'rashers'
David's red cabbage with apple
mixed vegetables: peas, carrots, Uncle Don's green beans
stuffing balls
Maria's real gravy

follwed by Maria's real, steamed, home-made Christmas pudding flamed with Dutch gin and served with s. cream

followed by the presents round the Christmas tree!
and in the evening -
Raisa's Christmas log cake
Rachael's mince pies
and our little boy's special Christmas biscuits


'mock goose'
the 'goose'

1/2 lb butter beans, mashed
4 1/2 oz ground almonds or grated plain tofu (or half of each)
margarine
some yeast extract

the stuffing
4 oz wholemeal breadcrumbs
3 oz finely chopped and fried onion
1/2 oz margarine
sage
a spoonful of water
(or use a nice vegan stuffing mix instead!)
some sunflower oil

Mix the stuffing together and pile it into a baking dish. Mix the 'goose' ingredients together and spoon the mixture over the stuffing, pressing it down firmly and smoothing the surface. Bake in the oven at Gas mark 6 or 200 degrees for 30 minutes or until cooked and golden. Baste with hot sunflower oil a couple of times during baking. Carve into portions and serve hot, but also delicious cold.


split pea bake

red cabbage

1/2 red cabbage, cut into slices
2 red onions, peeled and chopped
1 leek, chopped
1/2 red apple (optional)
some red wine
dried mixed herbs
olive oil

Saute the leek and onion in the olive oil in a pan, add the cabbage, herbs and apple and saute for a few minutes. Put a lid on the pan and let the ingredients cook in their own juices for about 10 minutes or till tender or till the rest of the food is ready!

Christmas log cake

[this is a basic sponge cake mix, but baked in a log cake tin]

4 oz vegan margarine
1 heaped tbsp of cane syrup
3 oz demerara sugar
1/2 lb organic self-raising flour (half white, half wholemeal)
1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
5 fl oz warm water

vegan 'butter' icing:
half margarine and half unrefined icing sugar - make as much icing as you want! (I use 200g of each)

Melt the margarine, syrup and sugar together. Add the flour. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in 5 fl oz of warm water and stir this into the mixture. Beat this mixture well. Grease, flour and warm the log cake tin. Pour the mixture into the log cake tin and bake in a preheated oven at Gas mark 6 or 200 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove cake from the oven and leave to cool. Remove the cake from the tin and place on your serving plate. Make as much icing as you want, but it must be thick, and spread it over the log cake with a palette knife. Allow the icing to set, add a Christmassy cake decoration, and serve with a fanfare.




mince pies

(makes 12)
4 oz wholemeal self-raising flour
4 oz margarine
Meridian 'mincemeat'
some sunflower oil
a little water

Combine the flour, the margarine and the water and make the pastry. Roll it out flat and cut out 12 'rounds' and 12 smaller 'rounds'. Oil a bun tray and line each hollow with a 'round' to create the pies. Spoon on the 'mincemeat'. Place a small 'round' on top of each pie as the lid. Crimp the edge of each lid with a fork and pierce each lid with fork holes. Bake in a preheated oven at gas mark 6 or 200 degrees for about 15 minutes. Eat hot or cold, and with or without s. cream!




Christmas biscuits

4 1/2 oz vegan margarine
2 oz sugar
6 oz organic self-raising flour (half white, half wholemeal)
some s. milk
some icing sugar and some water
[you can add chopped glace cherries, chocolate pieces, or cinnamon to the biscuit mix if you want more fancy biscuits!]

Combine the margarine, sugar and flour together to make a breadcrumb-like mixture. Add some s. milk to make a dough. Roll this out flat and cut into shapes using Christmas biscuit-shapes. Place the biscuits on greased baking tray and bake in a preheated oven at Gas mark 6 or 200 degrees for 15-20 minutes.
Remove biscuits from the oven and place on a rack to cool. Make as much icing as you want, by combining icing sugar and water to make a quite runny white icing. Trickle it over the biscuits, allow the icing to set, place on a fancy plate, and serve.


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Festive feast

A gourmet vegan recipe from the Vegan Society's 'Soundbites' video/booklet, reproduced here with the kind permission of the Vegan Society. It is a rich combination of chestnut pate, mushroom ragout and pastry...

Serves 6
Preparation 35 minutes plus soaking
Cooking 40 minutes

Chestnut pâté
115g/4oz dried chestnuts
1.5 litres/2½pt water (enough to cover the chestnuts by 2 inches)
3floz vegetable oil
170g/6oz onions, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
115g/4oz fresh breadcrumbs
55g/2oz ground hazelnuts
1tsp sage
1tsp thyme
1tsp parsley
1floz soy sauce
1/2floz vegan brandy
salt, pepper
s. cream

Puff pastry
455g/1lb puff pastry
sprinkling of flour for rolling pastry
sesame seeds

Mushroom ragout
455g/1lb mushrooms
285ml/1/2pt vegan red wine

Chestnut pâté
1. Soak chestnuts in water overnight
2. Place in pot and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until tender
3. Remove liquid
4. Sauté onions and garlic in oil until soft
5. Stir in herbs, season and add soya sauce and brandy
6. Bring to boil
7. Stir in breadcrumbs, hazelnuts and chestnuts (saving 12 whole chestnuts)
8. Cook for 5 minutes
9. Remove from heat and allow to cool
10. Blend to rough purée
11. Add s. cream to taste
12. Work into rectangular block

Mushroom ragout
Place mushrooms in pan with the wine and simmer until most of the liquid is gone

Feast
1. Pre-heat oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6
2. Sprinkle surface with flour and roll out puff pastry into a rough rectangle, saving some of the pastry to cut out leaves for decoration
3. Place mushroom ragout on centre of pastry
4. Place chestnut pâté on top
5. Place row of whole chestnuts onto the pâté
6. Fold pastry over, cutting off the extra edges, seal by brushing edges with s. milk, decorate with pastry leaves and sprinkle with sesame seeds, place on well-oiled tray
7. Put in oven for 40 minutes (30 minutes in a fan-assisted oven)
8. Slice and serve on bed of mixed leaves


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Jo and Justin

Christmas Day - baked beans on toast!

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*** you can buy vegan 'turkey' or 'beef' roasts, 'rashers', sausages, crispy breadcrumbed schnitzels, etc - or try grilled puffball, sauteed beefsteak fungus, sauteed 'hen of the woods' fungus - or nut roast - or big flat mushrooms piled up with onions and garlicky breadcrumbs - or individual stuffed gem squashes - or filo pastry 'Christmas crackers' - or whole slabs of tofu with a crunchy herby or nut crust - or English 'mock duck'.