A Christmas Dinner
We had our traditional Christmas dinner for Thanksgiving, in the hope that this post would be early enough for anyone looking for ideas for Christmas dinner on Christmas this year. After an exciting Christmas morning, you might not want to spend all day cooking. Here’s a dinner that can largely be made ahead, if you can find the time during the busy pre-Christmas rush.
Christmas Dinner Menu
Sun-dried Tomato Bread
Nut Cheeze Ball
Seitan Roast
Roasted Vegetables with Sweet and White Potatoes
Spinach with Pinenuts
Cranberry Relish
Fruit and Nut Cake
You might want to start with a appetizer earlier in the day to have a little space while you make the final preparations, and to keep your family from getting a sugar high from Christmas cookies…
Nut Cheeze Ball
Nut Cheeze Ball
1 c. slivered almonds
1/4 c. pinenuts
1/2 t. salt
1 t. sugar
4 ounces extra firm or firm tofu
1 t. red wine vinegar
1 t. lemon juice
1 t. onion powder
2 scallions, minced
1/4 c. walnuts, chopped
Process the walnuts in a food processor briefly to make small walnut crumbs. You still want them to look like walnuts. Put on a plate or bowl and set aside. You don’t need to clean the processor bowl.
Process almonds and pinenuts with salt and sugar. Process about 2 minutes until it is a paste.
Drain tofu and press out water. Add to nut paste with vinegar, lemon juice, and onion powder. Blend another two minutes until mixture resembles hummus. Add chives and process briefly, so there are still flecks of green in the mix. Form into a ball or two and roll in chopped walnuts. Refrigerate until 1 hour before serving, then let the balls come to room temperature.
Serve with crackers, bread, or a mix of raw vegetables.
Adapted from Vegan Cheese Ball in My Vegan Cookbook.
Nutritional information- not guaranteed to be accurate:
per serving 150 calories/6.3 g protein (16%)/13 g fat (78%)
Creamy Cucumber Salad
Creamy Cucumber Salad
2 medium cucumbers
12 ounces silken tofu
2 T. lemon juice
2 T. rice or red wine vinegar
1/2 t. salt
6 T. minced mint leaves
Chop or slice cucumber. Set aside. Put in a blender the tofu, lemon juice, vinegar, salt, and mint leaves, and blend until smooth and creamy. Mix with the cucumber and refrigerate, covered, until ready to serve, or you can take it out and bring it to room temperature for an hour before serving.
Adapted from Cucumber Raita in The Voluptuous Vegan: More Than 200 Sinfully Delicious Recipes for Meatless, Eggless, and Dairy-Free Meals by Myra Kornfeld, George Minot, and Sheila Hamanaka.
Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:
per serving – 66 calories/6.7 g protein/2.7 g fat
Seitan Roast and Roasted Vegetables with Sweet and White Potatoes
Seitan is a recent discovery, not something I grew up with. It comes from Japanese and Chinese cuisine, hence the unfortunate name for the west. I like the packaged seitan i buy at the health food store, and I like every recipe i’ve tried to make it myself… it’s amazingly easy, and less expensive than the already made seitan. I’m still trying different things to make it better, and this was one experiment that was quite tasty, though I think it can still be improved… This roast is quite moist, which makes it easier to cut with a fork.
Seitan is not something i cook very often, so i just make notes and when I’m ready to make it again, i read them, and all the Google articles I can stand, and then make the latest version. Lately i’ve been trying baking options, but you can also boil it. This roast combines a little of both techniques.
You need wheat gluten, which, ironically, i find in the gluten-free section of the health food store, with all the special flours. Basically, you just mix the gluten with an equal amount of liquid, knead for a couple of minutes, and cook. But you can add a lot of flavor in both the mixing and the cooking stage.
Seitan Roast
Makes 4 servings
Preparation about 45 minutes
Freezes well
Can be made ahead, but it’s better if you just make the roast and refrigerate it in the broth, then take it out bake it and immediately serve it
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 1/2 c. vegetable stock or water
2 T. tamari
2 t. vegan Worcestershire sauce
2 t. Liquid Smoke
¼ c. nutritional yeast
¼ or more t. ground black pepper
1 t. dried oregano
1 t. dried sage
1 c. wheat gluten
3 T. whole wheat flour
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Put the onion and garlic in a medium pan with ½ c. of the water, and sauté. When they are tender, and the water is about half absorbed, put it in a food processor and process. This is going into the actual roast as well as the cooking broth, so it needs to be fairly smooth.
Mix in the rest of the water, tamari, Worcestershire sauce, and Liquid Smoke. Set aside.
Mix the wheat gluten, flour, nutritional yeast, pepper, and herbs. Add 1 ¼ cup of the broth mixture and stir until it is absorbed or mostly absorbed. Knead about 2 minutes or 120 times.
Put the roast in a casserole and pour the rest of the broth over it. Bake about 1 hour, or until the broth is absorbed.
You can bring the roast to the table on a platter and slice it there, or slice it in the kitchen before you serve it.
Adapted from a recipe from Mountain Rose Herbs, and from Faux Ham in La Dolce Vegan by Sarah Kramer.
Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:
Per serving – 182 calories/27.9 g protein (61%)/.8 g fat (4%)
Roasted Vegetables with Sweet and White Potatoes
Makes 4 servings
Preparation about 30 minutes
Doesn’t freeze well
Can be made ahead as far as slicing the vegetables and putting them in the broth in the refrigerator until ready to bake
1 large potato
1 medium sweet potato
2 carrots
1 onion
2 zucchini
1 red pepper
1 t. dried thyme
1 t. dried rosemary
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 packets low fat vegan bouillon such as Savory Choice
1 c. water
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
You want this to look nice for a festive occasion, so slice the veggies attractively. Cut the potato in half and then into fairly thin slices. You can cut the sweet potato the same way or vary it by cutting it into chunks, but not too thick so the veggies will all be done at the same time. Slice the onion thinly. Slice the zucchini into ¼ inch slices. Cut the top off the red pepper and pull the green stem off, then pull out the seeds and membrane in the rest of the pepper. Slice the pepper into ¼ inch slices.
Place all the vegetables in a large baking pan or casserole. Sprinkle with the herbs. Mix the bouillon and garlic into the water and pour over the vegetables and stir. Be sure they are well coated.
Bake 45 to 60 minutes, stirring about every 10 minutes, until veggies can be easily pierced with a fork. Drain the broth and reserve for soup.
Adapted from Roasted Root Vegetables in La Dolce Vegan by Sarah Kramer.
Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:
Per serving – 196 calories/4.6 g protein (11.7%)/.6 g fat (3 %)
Spinach with Toasted Pinenuts
4 servings
preparation 10 minutes
2 bunches spinach, well washed, or 6 c. frozen (1 lb.)
1/4 c. pinenuts
Cook spinach in a little water and drain. Toast pinenuts in a dry skillet over a medium flame about 3 minutes, until browned but not burnt, watching carefully. Sprinly over spinach and serve immediately.
Nutritional information for the whole meal – not guaranteed to be accurate:
Per serving – 1284 calories/60.2 g protein (18.7%)/30.2 g fat (21.1%)
