Your favorite fancy Vegetarian/Vegan main dish?

[ChocolateMouse]

Well... That hasn't been my experience. These ones have expressed a preference and gratitude for it. All the veg*ns I keep close enough to me to attend (which I think between them and the lactose free is maybe 4-5 people, so not a lot but still like 1/5th of the people that show up) are excited for what seems like "real" holiday food instead of just a pile of side dishes. (Additionally, none of them are appalled at us serving meat, they just chose to abstain from it. Mostly it seems like a personally-grossed-out by eating this formerly living thing... thing. Or an ecological issue.)

I sometimes hear things like "Holidays are a bummer cause I never have anything to eat but sides and desserts" and "last year they put cream in the mashed potatoes and pork in the bean casserole and cooked the carrots with the turkey, so I just spent the night eating bread, salad and cranberries". Stuff like that. Not verbatim but you get the idea. Like before I mentioned my sister who flipped out because she had real, actual, fancy "holiday food" like mom used to make and how she never even got that at home during the holidays cause her family (son and now ex husband) weren't vegetarian. And she usually bought herself some sort of tofurkey loaf and just ate it and felt left out because it wasn't very good. And now she's a single mom with no time on her hands so it's the same.

I could just never bring myself to ask them to show up for an event themed around fancy food and generosity and NOT produce something high quality. It's very... visceral. I feel bad for them and I love them and I want them to have the same sort of loving holiday experience the others get.

I was very disappointed with what I made last year even. It was OK, but it wasn't up to standard and as good as the meat entree and most of the leftovers didn't even get eaten cause we were disappointed in it. So I'm throwing darts at the wall this year to see what sticks and feels good.

Partner and I have decided to test the wellington loaf sometime in the next month before serving it at Yule so we can make sure we have our altered recipe down pat.

 

[PirateGirl]

As a vegetarian I will say yes, there needs to be a protein. My go-to proteins are nuts, dairy (which I know is out in this scenario), beans (usually black beans or chick peas), quinoa, and avocado (when I can find it in season). I guess I don't think of yams/sweet potatoes as a dessert typically, but that's just me, so the yams plus walnut ticked my boxes Mexican food galore!

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Yeah, I think the wellington checks all of the right boxes for that reason.

A bunch of nuts plus mushrooms and green beans which are moderate to high protein levels (for vegetables) should check that nutritional box. Which means it's a dish that - in a meal plan- could replace a slab of meat. Not a one-to-one by any means, but it's acceptable. Especially since we favor spinach-based salads.

The mushrooms nuts and onions, simmered in wine is going to be very rich and flavorful, and the beans in the center a nice change in flavor and texture that still goes well. A light layer of mustard like in most wellingtons will be a nice snap that goes well with those flavors, especially since mushrooms are already part of the classic wellington.

The wellingtons "wrap" is easy to not only make golden and appetizing but also extremely delicate and fancy with cut shapes and sculpted dough. Then the slices have those very beautiful layers inside too. It'll look amazing both whole and on plates.

Incredible ease of use. Not only does my local grocery stock vegan puff pastry super cheap, and I can make the filling in advance... But it should slice cleanly and serve on plates without extra dishes or utensils needed. Which with how crowded it's gonna be is 10/10.

I'm very hyped up for this idea...!

 

[Conan]

Yeah, I think the wellington checks all of the right boxes for that reason.

A bunch of nuts plus mushrooms and green beans which are moderate to high protein levels (for vegetables) should check that nutritional box. Which means it's a dish that - in a meal plan- could replace a slab of meat. Not a one-to-one by any means, but it's acceptable. Especially since we favor spinach-based salads.

The mushrooms nuts and onions, simmered in wine is going to be very rich and flavorful, and the beans in the center a nice change in flavor and texture that still goes well. A light layer of mustard like in most wellingtons will be a nice snap that goes well with those flavors, especially since mushrooms are already part of the classic wellington.

The wellingtons "wrap" is easy to not only make golden and appetizing but also extremely delicate and fancy with cut shapes and sculpted dough. Then the slices have those very beautiful layers inside too. It'll look amazing both whole and on plates.

Incredible ease of use. Not only does my local grocery stock vegan puff pastry super cheap, and I can make the filling in advance... But it should slice cleanly and serve on plates without extra dishes or utensils needed. Which with how crowded it's gonna be is 10/10.

I'm very hyped up for this idea...!

Whatever you do decide on, take lots of pics. I'm not a vegetarian, but I would love to see what you come up with. The Wellington does sound like a presentation win, especially since you can make festive shapes with the dough.

I still think something veggie/fruit based served in that insane roasted pie pumpkin would be both beautiful, and delicious.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I'll get pictures ASAP. Not sure when I'm gonna make my test run because I'm leaving the country for a week shortly. Might not be til I get back.

 

[Loopeend]

It's not a centerpiece; but a lovely soup.

It's an adaption of an really, really, old Dutch/French fancy people soup from the middle ages; made of chicken. But the chicken can be left out. The ingredients sound weird and silly; but they look amazing ánd taste fine! I'm lactose intolerant so the cream it is made with; I do it with almond milk.

- Mushrooms (the "usual ones").
- Almondmilk
- Vegetable broth
- Parsly (curled or flat)
- Thyme
- Bayleaf
- Leaf celery, Chives and Chervil if you can get it
- Pistachios
- Pomgranate

Tie the parsley (and other fresh greens and thyme) together and cook them in the vegetable broth together with the bayleaf. Dice the mushrooms really, really fine. The smallest you can do. Let that also simmer in the broth. You want this soup to have a greenish shine to it; so get as many parsly you can. Go all out. Cook a whole bundle. Don't be shy with the thyme and bayleaves either; the tastes from this soup comes from these herbs.
Remove parsley, bayleaves, thyme, and the other greens.
Add almondmilk. cup on cup must do, 1 cup alomd milk on every cup broth; you want it to to turn creamy white and feel in your mouth creamy; almondmilk does not do that as fast as cream; so set the bar higher then you are used to with dairy based creams. Way higher. Maybe this might turn out to be more almondmilk-soup then anything else. It needs to be silky; with a green shine.
Put on plates and add some pistachios and pomgrenate. Maybe some left-over fresh parsly or chives as decoration. Done.

It sounds silly; but the ingredients really go well together! As for taste! And the red and green also looks really good! It's called "Soup for the queen" and it a good light soup to start with.

I only have the next old picture (with chicken);

 

[ChocolateMouse]

That sounds really good. Not what I was looking for here but thank you anyhow.

 

[Loopeend]

That sounds really good. Not what I was looking for here but thank you anyhow.

I know, Sorry. But I thought other people might read this post and would like some other special vegan lactose recipes that are fancy on a feast!

 

[Kusanar]

I know you are looking to provide this amazing meal for your friends and loved ones and I totally understand that. Maybe not this year, but maybe next year, you could express your feelings about serving them "substandard" food and ask them if they have suggestions. If they eat that way all of the time, they KNOW what food combinations are really good, they are also used to balancing things nutritionally. It could be something fun to do to get all of your heads together to plan something absolutely amazing for next Yule.

That said, I was following this because I'm very much a "give me a chunk of meat and I'm happy" person, so I was watching to see if anything that looked good was shared and I would have very few suggestions as most things I eat are meat and/or dairy heavy.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Haha, I actually DID do that this year, and they all kind of shrugged and were like "Yeah I don't have a lot of ideas for holiday stuff that meets that standard. Everything I eat for myself at the holidays is good tasting but not fancy. Maybe curry? Oh but that will spill..."
As previously mentioned, my vegetarian sister usually buys a pre-made fake meat holiday loaf or my friends end up being sad that they eat poorly over the holidays. Most of them go home to their non veg*n families over the holidays because none of them have the resources to prepare holidays for their families by themselves and don't wanna be alone. I'm lucky in my age group to own a house for example, most the people I know live in small rental units 1-2 bedrooms.

Please feel free to follow just to see if there's anything tasty you see! Now that I'm back from my vacation, I am looking to make the wellington sometime in the next couple weeks to try it out.