Vegan Christmas Dinner

It'll be my five year "veganniversary" on January 1st, but this year was only the second fully vegan Christmas dinner I've shared an experience of with others.  My parents have been vegetarian for over 20 years now, or technically "pescatarian" (they still eat fish) and before two years ago, I gratefully tucked into to my (always delicious) vegan Christmas feast alone, as they went with swordfish, tuna, or some other  seabody.  Last year though, for the first time, and with only the gentlest of pressure from me (honestly), the three of us went fully vegan for Christmas dinner.  What we had was so incomparably yummy that it was unanimously decided to have exactly the same meal again this year.  I think that counts as having become a tradition.

So allow me to indulge in some standard-issue vegan smugness (you can't stop me, it's my blog) as I share with you the recipes and some pictures of what we ate.

For main course was Chestnut Cottage Pie, the recipe taken from The Vegan Cookbook - Tony & Yvonne Bishop-Weston.  It has an implausible, extravagant number of ingredients that combine into a magnificent, flavoursome whole:

• 125g dried chestnuts
• 1.2 litres vegetable stock
• 750g potatoes, chopped
• 1 sweet potato, chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 6 tomatoes, chopped
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 125g cauliflower, chopped
• 1 green pepper, deseeded and chopped
• 1 small courgette, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped dates
• 1 tablespoon yeast extract
• 6 sprigs of rosemary, leaves only, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons sweetened soya milk
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 1 heaped teaspoon cornflour
• 1 teaspoon carob powder
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon blackstrap molasses
• 1 dessertspoon tomato puree
• 2 dessertspoons orange juice
• Salt and pepper

For the stock:

• 500g mixed vegetables, excluding potatoes, parsnips or other starchy root vegetables, chopped
• 1 garlic clove
• 6 peppercorns
• 1 bouquet garni
• 1.2 litres water

1.  Place all the ingredients in a large saucepan.  Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 30 minutes, skimming when necessary.

2.  Strain the stock, cool the refrigerate it.  It will keep for up to a week in the refrigerator, or up to 3 months in the freezer.

My Dad made this, unsupervised, so how closely he followed the recipe is a matter of opinion.  I like to think he was meticulous.  Anyway, here is the recipe copied exactly from the source:

RECIPE

1.  Cover the dried chestnuts with the stock and soak overnight, or boil them in the stock for 1 hour.

2.  Place the potatoes and sweet potato in a pan of water, bring to the boil, then simmer until soft - about 25 minutes.

3.  Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a pan and add the tomatoes, all the remaining vegetables, the dates, yeast extract and rosemary.  Add this mixture to the chestnuts and their liquid, much of which the chestnuts will have absorbed, and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

4.  Preheat the oven to 180C.  Drain the potatoes and mash them with the soya milk.  Stir in the parsley, plus some salt and pepper.

5.  Place the cornflour and carob powder in a small bowl, add the vinegar, molasses, tomato puree and orange juice and mix into a paste.  Add the paste to the chestnut mixture, then stir over a low heat until the liquid thickens.

6.  Divide the chestnut mixture equally between six 12cm pie dishes.  Place a layer of mashed potato on top.  Bake for about 20 minutes, until lightly browned.

Delicious, nutritious, and not all malicious.  No animals were harmed in the making of this pie.  It will give you, by my count, 10 of your "5 a day" (assuming chestnuts count as one) so if you want to, you can eat nothing but crisps on Boxing Day and still come out on top.  

And now for dessert.   This was Banana Nut Pie from The Yoga Cookbook - Vegetarian Food for Body and Mind - Recipes from the Sivananda Vedanta Centres  This has fewer ingredients but that's alright, it's not a competition.

For the pie shell:

200g rolled oats

175g wholewheat flower

1 tablespoon date syrup

150ml oil

200g sunflower seeds

water for mixing

For the filling:

200g cashew nuts

150g pitted dates

1 litre water

2 tbsp arrowroot

1 tsp grated orange rind

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 bananas, plus slices decoration

200g chopped walnuts

RECIPE

1.  Preheat the oven to 200C.  Oil a 23cm loose-bottomed round flan tin.  To make the pie shell, mix all the ingredients together, adding a little water to bind them.

2.  Spread the mixture in the greased tin, using your hand to spread the mix evenly around the base and sides of the tin.  Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until golden.  Allow the pie shell to cool completely before removing from the tin.

3.  To make the filling, put all the ingredients, except the bananas and chopped walnuts, in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth.  Transfer the mixture to a pan and cook over a low heat until it thickens.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

4.  Slice the two bananas into the pie shell.  Pour the cooled filling on top and decorate with banana slices and the chopped nuts.  Chill until set.

My Mum made this, also unsupervised.  I was not involved in the creation of this Christmas dinner in any way except the eating of it.  It was entirely vegan, and entirely delicious.  I couldn't recommend either course highly enough.  If you're considering going vegan for your Christmas dinner, or already have and need some help enticing your more carnivorous relatives to the table, here are two excellent suggestions.

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