Tame the meat-eaters... :-) (Vegetarian Christmas Dinner)

Member Name: tairrie

Product:	Vegetarian Christmas Dinner
Date:	22/12/00 (2166 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: non-boring veggie food, convinced the meat-eaters in my family

Disadvantages: ?

I have been a vegetarian for five years and I managed to tame the meat-eaters in my family. At first they started moping when I said I would cook a vegetarian Christmas Dinner. But my mum couldn't be bothered to cook the traditional goose (Germany) and so she gave in. I made a nut roast in puff pastry with vegetarian gravy, sprouts, carrots, cranberry sauce etc.

They were all quite happy with that and this year they even asked me to make a nut roast.

It's funny that people always seem to think vegetarians do nothing but nibble on carrots and have quorn and tofu day in day out. Actually there are many interesting meat-free recipes (check out some of the vegetarian sites on the internet for example). I'll probably have to add that I'm ovo-lacto (that is I eat dairy products and eggs), I would find it very hard to go vegan.

Because it's rather tiresome to be a veggie over here I sometimes even eat fish and on rare occasions chicken (like if you're in a restaurant and don't want to be the spoilsport of the day complaining that they don't have ANYTHING vegetarian and don't want a salad either). It must be even worse in France, my friend tells me...

Anyhow, here goes my recipe for a veggie xmas dinner:

Veggie Christmas Dinner

Menu:

Starter Mangetout Salad with Walnuts
Main Course Nutroast in Puff Pastry, Lemony
Sprouts, Glazed Carrots, Vegetarian Gravy,
Cranberry Sauce
Dessert Christmas Pudding, Brandy Butter

Mangetout Salad with Walnuts

preparation: 20 mins, serves 8
2 Oranges
2 Grapefruit
125 g mangetouts
75g rucola salad
some lettuce
1 cucumber
40 g chopped walnuts

dressing:
2 tblsp walnut
oil
2 tblsp salad oil
2 tblsp vinegar
2 tblsp sweet bavarian mustard (or ordinary
mustard)
1 teaspoon sweet chili sauce


1 Peel oranges and grapefruit and remove white
skins. Filet fruit and remove seeds. Pour boiling
water over mangetouts and leave for 2 minutes,
take them out and dip them in ice water. Dry them
off with a kitchen towel. Mix fruit, mangetout,
rucola, lettuce, cucumber and nuts in a bowl.

2 Dressing: Mix all ingredients with a whisk.

3 Pour dressing over salad and mix well.


Nutroast in Puff Pastry

serves: 8

450g frozen puff pastry
1 egg, beaten

for the nutroast:
2 big onions
50g butter
500g Brasil nuts, finely ground
250g fresh bread crumbs
1/2 teasp. dried thyme
3 tblsp lemon juice
2 eggs
some nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon to taste
salt and black pepper

for the filling:
250g fresh bread crumbs
25g parsley, chopped
some lemon peel
1 tblsp lemon juice
1 teasp of each dried thyme and marjoran
1 tblsp grated onion
75g butter

1 Preheat oven to 200 celsius.

2 For the nutroast, cook onions in the butter
for 10 minutes until soft (not brown!)

3 Take off the cooker and add the remaining
nutroast ingredients. Add salt and pepper to
taste.

4 Prepare the filling by mixing all ingredients

until you get a soft doughlike mass. season.

5 With a rolling pin roll out the pastry to make
a 30 x 35 cm rectangle.

6 Shape the filling into a 25cm long roll and
place in the middle of the pastry. Put the
nutroast mass on top of that until the filling is
covered.

7 Now take the edges of the pastry and fold
them up so that the nutroast mixture is
covered, press edges together, then turn
nutroast around and place on a damp baking
tray ("seam" down). Make some crosswise
cuts on top of the pastry.

8 Make one or two steamholes into the roast
and decorate with rests of pastry or brush
some egg on top. Bake for 30 mins until crisp.


Lemony Sprouts

cooked sprouts some almonds, peeled and
very thinly sliced juice and grated peel of 1
lemon

1 Heat frying pan and roast almonds in a bit of
butter, add lemon juice and peel and then add
cooked sprouts.

Glazed Carrots

1 kg carrots, peeled and sliced or cut into julienne
25g butter
salt and black pepper
2 tablesp. sugar or light brown cane sugar
some chopped parsley to garnish

1 Put carrots in a saucepan and cover with cold
water. Bring to a boil.

2 Put a lid on the pan but leave a gap. Simmer for
8-15 minutes until just soft.

3 Strain carrots and put them back into pan and
add butter. Add salt and pepper to taste. Now
cook at low heat until
the butter has melted, shake
the pan so that the butter gets everywhere.

4 Add sugar and stir carefully until sugar is
melted and the carrots become shiny. Garnish wih
parsley and serve.

Vegetarian Gravy

1 chopped onion
2 tablespoons cooking oil
2 tablespoons flour
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 l dark vegetable stock
1 teasp. marmite (yeast extract)
1-2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
salt and black pepper

1 Fry onion in a medium sized saucepan for five
minutes, add
2 Add garlic, cook for 1-2 minutes, then add
vegetable stock. Bring to a boil and let simmer for
10 minutes.

3 Strain into a clean saucepan, add yeast extract,
soy sauce, salt and pepper and mix well.

Christmas Pudding with brandy butter

250g soft butter or margarine
175g light brown cane sugar
2 eggs, beaten
100g whole wheat flour
1/2 teasp. each salt, nutmeg, ginger
1 1/2 teasp. mixed spice
50g ground almonds
75g grated carrots
100g each dried currants, sultanas, raisins and
chopped candied peel
50g blanched almonds, chopped
100g fresh bread crumbs
peel and juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon treacle or molasses
approx. 4 tablesp. water or water with rum
butter to grease mould

4 tablesp. brandy to flambé

some holly leaves (or twigs) to decorate

serve with brandy butter (see below)

1 Grease a pud
ding mould (approx. 2 - 2 1/2 pints)
and prepare a saucepan the mould fits into.

2 Cream butter and sugar using an electric whisk,
add eggs one by one.

3 Sift flour and spices on top of the mixture.

4 Add remaining ingredients and add enough
water (or water-rum-mixture) to make a soft batter.

5 Pour into pudding mould and cover with folded,
greased baking paper and al foil and tie some yarn
around.

6 Set mould into saucepan with just enough water
that it reaches halfway to the rim of the mould.

7 Bring water to a boil, put a lid on the saucepan
and steam pudding for 4 hrs at medium heat. Check
the water level in the pan from time to time and add
boiling water if necessary.

8 Take pudding out of the saucepan and let it cool,
then store in a coll, dry place. Steam again for 3 hrs
before serving, then remove foil, turn pudding out
onto a serving plate, decorate with holly, flambé
with brandy and serve with brandy butter.

Brandy Butter

100g butter
100g light brown cane sugar
2 tablespoons brandy


1 Cream Butter and sugar and slowly add brandy.

2 Put mixture on a serving plate (or in a small bowl)
and refrigerate.


Guten Appetit! (as we germs say...) ;-)

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