One of the best parts of preparing for a wonderful Christmas experience is choosing your dishes for the big supper on Christmas Day, Christmas Eve, the day after (Boxing Day), New Year's and beyond.
Lunches—or brunches—are another consideration, and you usually want these to be special, because this time of the year is special.
Then there's cheerful visits from friends, family, and neighbors filled with hot appetizers and hors d'oeuvre, cheese ball and crackers, sausage rolls and pickles.
Preparing for the Christmas holiday can be joyful when you give yourself the time to savor it. I want you to take a few minutes now to explore these 10 choices we've prepared for you.
Each recipe is tested, tested, and tested, so that you can have confidence in your results.
You'll find solutions for every occasion here, and the best thing is that they are all vegetarian, so you can check healthy off your list as well!
1. Tartine’s Wild Mushroom Tart
This Wild Mushroom Tart brings a beautiful bakery experience to your home.
Aside from its simple, buttery pastry, you have mushrooms and shallots cooked in butter, salt, pepper, fresh lemon juice, nutmeg, fresh thyme, egg yolks, and crème fraîche or heavy cream.
Everything flows together so well. Everything smells so good when it's cooking. It tastes like the beautiful harmonious section of a classical symphony. It is perfect for a vegetarian main on a festive occasion.
>>Click here to get the RECIPE
2. Vegetarian Sausage Rolls
To me, the revelation of this vegetarian sausage roll recipe was like traveling back in time to the happy days of childhood, when my mom would serve fancy appetizers, hot out of the oven, to guests on special occasions.
You may share a similar memory. But now you’re committed to a healthier diet, and at first you thought that meant bidding farewell to your beloved sausage rolls.
But what if you had a recipe for vegetarian sausage rolls that tasted just like meat, but was loaded with healthy, non-controversial ingredients you’d feel good about eating?
This recipe for vegetarian sausage rolls—made with soaked almonds, walnuts, onions, garlic, lemon, parsley, oats and spices—involves zero cooking to prepare.
>>Click here to get the RECIPE
3. Warm Spinach Salad with Spiced Apples and Pecans
Spinach is both a superfood and a nutritional paradox. It’s one of the most popular leafy greens—high in vitamins K, A, E, and C and minerals iron, calcium, and magnesium—and yet it can be very difficult to digest, particularly if consumed raw.
Uncooked spinach contains oxalic acid, which is counter-indicated for kidney stones, which is commonly composed of calcium oxalate. This acid can also be irritating for folks with sensitive digestive systems.
With this warm spinach salad recipe, we’ve pulled out all the stops to make sure that you have a flavorful and enjoyable dish, without any of the negative downsides.
It’s perfect for the fall and winter seasons, and could be an addition to your next Thanksgiving or holiday dinner table.
>>Click here to get the RECIPE
4. Quinoa Lentil Loaf
This Quinoa Lentil Loaf is considered a complete vegetarian protein, with all the essential amino acids.
It's packed with mouth-watering savory nutrition, and enhanced by just a touch of sweetness from raisins, maple syrup, and organic ketchup.
Maybe it is a good time to surprise yourself or someone special this holiday season with this foolproof hearty vegetarian classic that’s made with ingredients you likely already have in your pantry or refrigerator.
This recipe calls for common brown or green lentils, quinoa, carrots, celery, garlic, onion, and green bell pepper, tomato paste, tomato ketchup, mustard, soy sauce, and Italian herbs. The chopped pecans or walnuts also make for fantastic texture and additional protein.
>>Click here to get the RECIPE
5. Grandma’s Sweet Zucchini With Parmesan
My grandmother’s recipe for sweet zucchini with parmesan is a sautéed side dish I grew up loving as a child, since my mom made it regularly.
I asked my adult self: “Why did I love it so much?”
I came up with four answers to my own question.
- The first is the parmesan cheese. It was rare in our house to have occasion for this salty and tangy cheese, and it goes really well with zucchini recipes.
- There’s ketchup in this zucchini side dish recipe, and it’s amazing!
- Then, for good measure, grandma added a pinch of sugar to make the zucchini sweet and yummy. She probably thought (as I do) that it’s just fine to add raw sugar to such a bland vegetable.
- The fourth reason I think I loved zucchini with parmesan SO MUCH is that it is a flavorful vegetarian dish
Now, I’m pretty confident that you are going to love this too!
>>Click here to get the RECIPE
6. Perfect Eggless Lemon Bars
Get the incredible satisfaction and delight of a lemon bar without all the eggs and egg yolks of the classic versions.
You may even be wondering if your pursuit makes any sense at all? Since the lemon part is the most important part of the bar, is it even possible to have something good without the eggs?
Now you can guess what I am likely to say next, cause I’ve got the recipe right here, and this dessert is worthy of the perfection I promised you.
>>Click here to get the RECIPE
7. Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie
This vegetarian shepherd’s pie recipe is a combination of winter vegetables in a red wine-style gravy, topped with a layer of mashed potatoes, and baked in the oven until golden brown.
Shepherd's pie is a hearty option for a vegetarian holiday dinner main course. The ingredients are common enough to please everyone.
This is a relatively easy dish to make. It can be assembled a day or two in advance of a large gathering, stored in the fridge, then baked just before serving.
>>Click here to get the RECIPE
8. Pistachio and Apricot Pastries (Chandrakala) In Rose Syrup
Chandrakala is a fancy deep-fried sweet native I discovered during a recent visit to Northern India.
After trying chandrakala, I was in that rare blissful state that arises when you find something that is perfect for you, and for that moment. I made it my mission to learn more about it. I also thought to myself, one day I will make it. I will enjoy as many as I want, and I won’t have to go to India to have it again.
Well friends, that day has arrived! After three iterations of pastry, three types of fillings tested, and many hours of creative fun, I finally discovered the magic formula for chandrakala. I am so pleased to share it with you.
>>Click here to get the RECIPE
9. Asparagus Pasta With Lemon Garlic Butter Sauce
Asparagus is one of the first vegetables to emerge from the ground in Spring, but resourceful farmers have found ways to make it available during the holidays as well.
When I created this recipe I thought of families getting together and having something really special. After all, it isn’t every day you get to eat asparagus lathered in butter right?
When you combine the chewiness of the pasta with the crunch of the asparagus, and enrobe it with tangy, salty, lemon butter sauce, this dish just works.
>>Click here to get the RECIPE
10. Quick Vegetable Hash Skillet Dinner
Historically, hash came about as a tasty way to repurpose dinner leftovers for the next day’s dinner—and holidays dinners almost always entail leftovers! Corned beef hash and roast beef hash are among the most popular variations of this dish.
If you’ve got leftovers that would work in a hash, then by all means add them to your recipe. (Or, if you’re cooking potatoes and you feel like hash in the next couple of days, cook extra and it will speed up the process.)
However, these days hash has gone gourmet, and leftovers are no longer a requirement.
Being of the vegetarian persuasion these days, I have reinvented hash into a vegetable hash skillet dinner that I hope you will love as much as we do!
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