13 christmases and counting ... (Vegetarian Christmas Dinner)

Member Name: Andwynn

Product:	Vegetarian Christmas Dinner
Date:	26/11/00 (273 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap, quick, yummy

Disadvantages: very fake-meat, some veggies mightn't like it

Every year since i turned veggie 13 years ago, my parents have made an effort to make pretty much all side dishes with christmas dinner be vegetarian, and so the only thing I miss out on is the turkey itself(which I was never all that keen on - I never understood why anyone would want turkey when chicken was cheaper and tasted better, but that is another story) - this was basically limited to not cooking the roast potatoes in with the turkey fat, and making sure that the stuffing didn't contain suet or animal fat and some of it was cooked away from the bird. To fill the obvious hole in my plate we've tried various things. My personal favourite was always the Sainsburys quorn and vegetable chicken-style or steak-style pie. Obviously this won't suit veggies who are doing it because they don't like the taste of meat! But last year, horror of horror, my mum _forgot_ to buy me anything!And worse, it wasn't just me this time, my little brother has also joined me on the veggie-wagon. And if matters could be made anyworse, we didn't realise until only an hour or two before lunch was due. So ... grabbed some left over puff pastry (ready-made obv - not that much of a masocist yet) from making mince pies the previous night and line some mince-pie tins, then chopped some mushrooms and veggie sausages that weren't used at breakfast into a pan with a litle melted butter ... saute with an onion and a handful of random veg taken from the cooker ... crumble in some fake-bacon ... add a little water and leave to simmer. After a few minutes, thicken with vegetable gravy powder (I like the Sainsburys one, but green-bisto works, too), spoon into the pies, add a lid, then bake above the turkey (not where it will be dripped on!).After that little emergency, my brother said it was the best Christmas lunch he's had :-)

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