Vegetarian xmas dish

[Jewell]

My girlfriend is coming round for christmas lunch and is vegetarian. Has anyone got any good ideas that I could make her as a meat substitue for her main meal? She wants something more exciting this year than her usual nut roast.

[BBWCHATT]

http://www.ivillage.co.uk/food/partyfood/Chris tmas/articles/0,,164360_167390,00.html#mush

This link has a whole Christmas Dinner menu and recipes to make them - like this one:

Mushroom Wellington
Makes 2

This dish is time-consuming, but you can prepare it up to the baking stage and freeze it weeks in advance. Before serving, remove the wellington from the freezer and, after thawing, glaze the pastry with beaten egg and put it in a hot oven to bake for 45 minutes at 220C/425F/gas mark 7 until puffed and golden.

600g puff pastry
50ml sunflower oil
675g chopped onions
450g whole chestnut mushrooms
2 tbsp fresh tarragon
4 garlic cloves, crushed
4 tbsp soya sauce or tamari, or replace one with marsala or sherry
320g broken cashew pieces
320g ground almonds
175g fine freshly made breadcrumbs, white or wholemeal
1 egg, beaten for glazing
salt and pepper to taste

Roll out the pastry into two rectangles, 23x30.5cm each, cover and place in the fridge.
To make the filling, heat the oil in a large pan and fry the onion with half the crushed garlic for at least 20 minutes or until it turns a deep golden colour. This is crucial, as pale onions will give an insipid mix. Remove onions from the pan and set aside, then add the mushrooms to the same pan with the rest of the garlic and half the tarragon and cook on afairly high heat.
Halfway through cooking, add the soya sauce or tamari and the alcohol, if you are using it. Continue until the mushrooms are cooked through; there should be no white centre left when you cut one open. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside, reserving all the mushroom liquor (the intensely flavoured liquid given out by the mushrooms).
In a food processor or blen

[BBWCHATT]

(It cut this off.)
In a food processor or blender, blend the cashews with the reserved mushroom liquor to a fine, smooth pur�e, adding a little water or even more of whichever alcohol you are using, until you have a smooth, sweet paste or pate.

[Jugglering]

And ???? That sounds absolutely gorgeous BBW but you can't just leave us hanging there ! What do we do with the pastry ?

[BBWCHATT]

Sorry Jugglering - I didn't realize it did that - at the bottom it just says "Article continues below" but it doesn't!!! Look at the link for yourself. My guess would be - put the mushroom mixture in the puff pastry - close it up and bake it according to the puff pastry package.

http://www.ivillage.co.uk/food/partyfood/Chris tmas/articles/0,,164360_167390,00.html#continu e

[BBWCHATT]

http://www.vegsoc.org/info/xmas.html

http://www.uktvfood.co.uk/index.cfm?uktv=recip es.moretopten&iID=536321

http://www.veganfamily.co.uk/yule.html

You can also look at my Post for "Butternut Squash Recipes for the Nice People" in Food & Drink from Friday - many of them would work for vegetarians - there is even a Risotto one there.

[BBWCHATT]

Vegetable Plait

1 Pre rolled Puff Pastry rectangle (Jus Rol, thawed)
1 Courgette, diced
1 Onion, diced
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, sliced or minced
1 Red Pepper
1 Yellow Pepper
1 vegetable Stock Cube (oxo)
Splash of water
Olive Oil
Sprinkle of mixed herbs
Fry all the vegetables in olive oil until soft, you can use any of your favorites, crumble the stock cube and a splash of water to make a saucy kind of coating for the vegetables. Cool Slightly. Place in the middle of the puff pastry rectangle, and make diagonal slits on each side of the pastry, then fold over the vegetables , like a plait and brush with milk. Press down the top and bottom of the pastry. Bake in the oven approx Gas mark 7 until cooked and brown. Serve with salad, cous cous and new potatoes with mint!



Vegetable Fritters

1 cup of gram (chick pea) flour
1 cup of water
a little salt
a teaspoon of chopped coriander
sunflower oil for shallow frying
2 cups of vegetables of your choice broken or chopped into desired size - for example brocolli or cauliflour florets, celery chunks, onion rings etc.
Beat the flour and water together with the salt and coriander until a smooth batter is formed. Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Dip the vegetables in the batter and then fry for about 5 minutes turning once. Nice served with oven chips or rice and a big green salad and vegan mayo.

[BBWCHATT]

Chick Pea Curry

1 - 2 Tablespoons of olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped or crushed
1 apple, peeled and finely chopped
1 green pepper, finely chopped
2 - 3 teaspoons of curry powder
1-2 tins of cooked chick peas (or soak dried ones overnight and cook)
1 can of tomatoes
handful of raisins (optional)
2 tablespoons of desiccated coconut (optional)
some frozen peas
salt
Fry the onion, garlic and apple in the olive oil for a few minutes. Add the curry powder and stir for a minute or two. Add the tomatoes (chop them if needed) and green pepper. If you like really sweet tasting curry, then add the raisins and coconut. Cook for about 15 minutes at simmering level and then add your chick peas and cook for a further 10 minutes. Shortly before the end of cooking time put some frozen peas in, as these will go mushy if overcooked. Add salt to taste. We like this best with white basmati rice, and lots of little toppings.
Ideas for toppings are chopped fresh tomato, cucumber, sliced banana (yes this does work!), sunflower seeds, avocado, in fact anything you fancy! My kids love these all put in small separate bowls so they can help themselves.

[mike_jln]

http://www.recipenet.org/health/articles/chris tmas_dinner_veg.htm

[BBWCHATT]

Jewell - if you aren't too busy, could you please let us know if we helped you find what you were looking for or if we need to continue to try to help you?
BBWCHATT