Christmas food ideas: Main dishes and sides

Perth seems to have decided that this Summer will be a Summer of storms. After the lightning display on my birthday, and subsequent storm last Tuesday, last night became a repeat but even larger-scale effort: 44mm of rain over the course of the night (the heaviest Summer rainfall in 60 years, apparently) and power cuts across the state. I feel fortunate that we weren't affected unduly, especially as the storm seemed to be right above us at one point. What's more I managed to fall asleep in the midst of it and sleep until morning, which is almost unheard of (I tend to wake up intermittently)! I much prefer storms to weeks and months without rain, but hope the damage isn't too severe for those who were affected.

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Leaving storms aside, this post is really about Christmas dinner options. You see, although I haven't eaten red meat for about 12 years, up until this year I still ate poultry on occasion. As a result, this will be my first Christmas without turkey. Rather than finding this off-putting, I have become quite excited about the many, many vegetarian and vegan options available as alternatives. It helps that my Mum is supportive of this stance too - no doubt thanks to her own mostly vegetarian tendencies.

I was going to modify and trial some Christmas dinner recipes for this post, and share the results. But I realised that doing so would really be re-inventing the wheel. There are some wonderful recipes out there already, and for most of them I don't want to make any substitutions or changes.

Given this, I'm doing a recipe round-up instead. This feels like cheating, but I hope that when you see the recipes below, you'll realise why I don't think modifications (never mind new dishes) are required. Not all recipes are vegan - I've indicated those that are - but all are vegetarian.

Vegetarian and Vegan Christmas Dinner Ideas

Recipe collections

The 12 days of (vegetarian) Christmas at The Vegetarian Society

A very vegetarian Christmas at Taste.com.au

A traditional (vegetarian) Christmas at Veggie Num Num

A cruelty free festive feast at Animals Australia Unleashed

Nut (and other) roasts

Johanna from Green Gourmet Giraffe really covers all the bases in the nut roast category, and you can see her collection of nut roast recipes here. I've picked out a few below, but there are many more options on her site.

'Cheese' and walnut nut roast at Green Gourmet Giraffe (vegan)

Luxury five nut roast at the UK Good Food Channel

Mrs Myrtleberry's nut roast at Veganise This (vegan)

Nut roast extraordinaire at Diet, Dessert and Dogs (vegan and gluten-free)

Nut roast parcels at Green Gourmet Giraffe

Parsnip, cranberry and chesnut roast  at Green Gourmet Giraffe

Pine nut and carrot roast at the UK Good Food Channel

Purple nut roast at Green Gourmet Giraffe (vegan)

Seitan 'turkey' roast with orange, date and almond stuffing at The Tropical Vegan (vegan)

Tofurkey at Yisblog and Where's The Beef? (vegan)

Other main meal options

Harvest Root Vegetable Pie at Daily Garnish (vegan)

Honey lime tofu with strawberry peach salsa at Peas and Thank You (vegan)

Maple roasted tofu and vegetables at Vegan Dad (vegan)

Roasted squash, cranberry, walnut and mango puff pastry parcels at Cooking for Vegans (vegan)

Sweet potato and leek roulade with Christmas stuffing at Taste.com.au

Side dishes

Cinnamon, sweet potato and chickpea salad at Oh She Glows (vegan)

Ginger orange glazed carrots at Fat Free Vegan (vegan)

Herbed quinoa salad at Bake Bike Blog (vegan)

Mandarin and maple spiced quinoa with cranberries, apricots and almonds at Oh She Glows (vegan)

Peach, lime and chilli salad at Taste.com.au (vegan)

Strawberry roasted chickpea salad with cinnamon dijon vinaigrette at Peas and Thank You (vegan)

Clearly, my challenge will be in having too many options! 

Do you have favourite vegetarian or vegan Christmas meals?

 

Other Christmas food posts:
Cranberry rolls

Christmas ice cream and jazzed up fruit

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