Vegan christmas dinner recipe!

How to have a vegan christmas dinner...

by Leah Ludlow

Despite popular belief, vegans eat more than tree bark and lentils at Christmas. As a girl who'll never use veganism as an excuse to get healthy, it's my duty to let the rest of you in on my delicious, pastry-ish/sugary/creamy/boozy/chocolatey vegan yuletide fayre, adapted from the Vegan Family and Rose Eliot cookery books!

Vegan Christmas 'turkey' pastry recipe

Cut a 500g packet of Jus Rol puff pastry in half.

Roll out both sides.

Fry a chopped onion in 5 tablespoons of either vegetable oil, olive oil (so healthy and full of good fats not bad ones) or vegan margarine (like Pure, found in all British supermarkets so no excuse!).

Add a few tblsp of plain flour and mix.

Quickly add 300-500ml soya milk, stirring all the time until creamy.

Shove in some vegan white wine (from Marks and Spencers or Co-Op if you're British). Add some vegan turkey pieces (like Redwoods).

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Place mixture on one pastry half leaving a border.

Spoon some cranberry sauce sparingly over mixture.

Shove the other pastry bit on top and fold edges over, pressing down with a fork to seal.

Make holes in top and cook at 200oc for 20 minutes.

Make a side-dish of vegan caramelised veg

Chop up (1/2 per person) carrots, red onions, parsnips, courgettes, and a squash. Nice wintery vegetables!

Cover in olive oil and a dash of agave nectar. If you haven't, add a sprinkle of cane sugar.

Roast for 1 hour at 150oc, moving around a bit every 15 minutes.

... And a side-dish of vegan roast potatoes!

I'm not going to hold your hand and tell you how to make roast potatoes, but make some anyway.

About 1/2 hour before the roast potatoes are done, add a couple of vegan sausages to the pan, turning occasionally.

Lastly... vegan mushroom red wine gravy

Chop up about half a cupful of brown mushrooms and a small onion.

Sautee in vegan butter until soft.

Add 2 tablespoons of plain flour and stir.

Add 350-500ml vegetable stock, stirring.

Bring to the boil, seasoning with black pepper, 1tsp yeast extract and a splash of vegan red wine.

Simmer and stir until thick.

Now shove it all on a plate.

Vegan Christmas chocolate log recipe

Because too much food is never enough on Christmas

Mix 1 1/2 cups plain flour, 1/3 cup cocoa powder, 1 cup of sugar and a tsp of baking soda together.

Add a drop of vanilla extract, 2 tblsp vinegar, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 1/2 cup orange juice and 1/2 cup soya milk.

Mix, and cook in a loaf tin for about 30 minutes at 200oc.

Cut off a corner and stick it to the top using chocolate icing so it's branch-like (1/2 cup vegan butter, 1 1/2 cups sifted icing sugar, 2 tblsp sifted cocoa, tsp vanilla extract, all beaten together)

Smother cake in rest of icing, making barkish lines with a fork.

Merry Mooky Christmas!

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