Veggie Alternatives To Serve This Christmas

It’s hard being a vegetarian sometimes – particularly around Christmas, when every surface of the house is suddenly laden with pigs in blankets, turkey and gravy. Spoons sit poised, ready to be plunged into steaming dishes of stuffing. Then you’re suddenly confronted with an anemic slab of quorn or some kind of unidentifiable pea protein, which should only be approached with deep skepticism. It’s disappointing – but it doesn’t have to be this way.

Vegetarian alternatives are becoming increasingly popular, increasingly tasty, and increasingly necessary for our planet’s survival. A study from last month shows that reducing our meat intake, or even our portion size, can kickstart a positive shift in our food system, helping to tackle climate change. 

Another piece of research, meanwhile, suggests that if every country adopted sustainable eating habits (according to their country’s guidelines) then the global greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by 30 percent. That statistic alone should make a vegetarian diet, or even a flexitarian diet, worth considering. So, here are a few meat alternatives to try this Christmas.

Vegetarian Christmas Recipe Ideas

Nut Roast

The origins of the nut roast can be traced back to 1908 when Florence George included some ‘nut cutlet’ recipes in her book on vegetarian cookery. Since then, it has earned its place on the Christmas table and we think this year, it deserves to stay. 

Getty Images

The humble nut roast is packed full of flavour with nuts, grains, vegetables and seasonings. It’s healthy, cheap, and can be adapted to your own taste preferences – do you really love mushrooms? Add them in. Hate chestnuts? Leave them out. The nut roast is quite an undertaking to make but it will pay off in the end and likely last you all week. With this festive centerpiece, your meat-eating counterparts are sure to be envious of your plate.

Tofu Ham

Glazed tofu ham is the nut roast’s cool, younger sibling. You might have seen it on TikTok, clove-studded and orange-glazed, or maybe you found the original recipe in Isa Moskowitz’s book, The Superfun Times Holiday Cookbook. Chef Moskowitz describes the recipe as ‘sweet and smoky and elegant in a ’70s kind of way, with notes of orange and maple’ – it’s certainly a dish worth salivating over. 

To make it, first you need to marinate the tofu in a mixture of soy sauce, maple syrup, sugar and spices for 24 hours, allowing the flavour to seep in. Then you bake it for one hour and whisk together the ingredients for the glaze, including whiskey, orange, chilli flakes, and apricot jam. Pour the glaze over the baked tofu and bake for a little longer to achieve the perfect shine.

Getty Images

Mushroom Wellington

Bob Andrew, chef at Riverford, prefers to serve up a veggie wellington at Christmas. ‘Nut roasts are fine but can be a bit heavy and gruelling,’ says Bob, ‘so we’d recommend a veggie wellington with plenty of dark lentils and deeply savoury mushrooms. You can make it in advance and bake it on the day while still leaving plenty of space in the oven for your roasties, carrots, parsnips and sprouts. Enjoy it as part of a veggie feast or flank it with the traditional sides of pigs in blankets and stuffing, the choice is yours. Now all you have to worry about is the gravy!’

Hasselback Butternut Squash

Hasselback butternut squash is the king of honeyed layers, toasted to perfection with thyme and chilli – you won’t even realise you’re eating a vegetable. It’s also easy to make in a rush, so you’ll soon be laughing at the people struggling to roast the perfect turkey while you whip up a perfect, golden batch of these in under 30 minutes.

Making the butternut squash is simple: just lie the two halves on a baking tray and make cuts down the side, with half a centimetre between each one. Rub it with salt, oil and spices and leave it to roast in the oven for 30 minutes. When it comes to the toppings, anything goes – pomegranate and tahini or feta pair well with this dish but you can add whatever you like on top.

Suddenly, turkey doesn’t seem so exciting.