Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Vegan Christmas Dinner






Here's our Christmas dinner! It's been tradition now for about ten years. The dishes are (clockwise from top):
- Yam Puree
- Roasted Turnip Puree (known as rutabaga to most)
- cranberry sauce on the side
- Spiced Mushroom Potato Phyllo Pie
- "All-Dressed" Squash (also in lower photo to show full squash with dressing)
- Mushroom Gravy
- salad of romaine lettuce, cucumber, green onions, and pomegranate seeds
- Roasted Carrots and Parsnip (this year I also added fennel bulb)
- Lemon-Herb Tofu

With the exception of the tofu which is from Vive le Vegan!, all recipes in bold are from The Everyday Vegan.

For dessert we had an ice-cream pie using a Wholly Wholesome Graham Cracker Crust and Easy Caramel Sauce from Vive le Vegan! I also bought the Wholly Wholesome Ready-to-Bake Apple Pie, which was fabulous with lots of apples and a light, flaky crust (not thick and heavy as some store-bought pies can be).

The entire meal was so full of flavor it was hard to stop eating! We all had seconds, and some thirds, and there was still enough for leftovers (yay!). We only make this meal once a year, since it is a good amount of planning, prep, and cooking, but wow it is worth it and we look forward to it every year.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I got Veve le Vegan for Chrismtas and can't wait to start having a go at the recipes, the tofu is on my mental list of ones to try asap!

I'm also going to buy The Everyday Vegan with some Christmas money I got and I think that both books are going to be wonderful additions to my steadily growing Vegan cookbook library!

Your meal looks wonderful!

Dreena said...

Thanks Anna! The tofu is really easy to make, by the way, and it gives plain tofu so much flavor, the marinade really gets through the tofu during baking. Hope you enjoy... :)

Harmonia said...

Do you just put the Rutabaga in a blender to puree it? Stupid question, perhaps, but I was curious.

Dreena said...

Hi Harmonia! Not at all a stupid question... I actually use an immersion blender. I use this gadget for SO much of my cooking. A food processor would work well too. A blender might need more liquid to get the pureed consistency. With the immersion blender, I use some olive oil which gives just enough liquid to get it smooth, and you have a little more control getting through the chunky spots with an immersion blender.

I love this rutabega dish. Growing up, we just boiled rutabega, but I bake it whole until it is cooked through, and this roasting concentrates the flavor so much more. Then, I puree it with olive oil, and a bit of salt and cinnamon... mmmm, I just love it. I only make it at Christmas and I don't know why, because I really enjoy it! :)

Bookphilia said...

Wow, that all sounds delicious! Of all those recipes I've only made the Lemon Herb Tofu (one of my favourite ways to eat tofu).

My new hubby and I had planned to make a huge meal but the vagaries of moving into our new house left us scrambling to order in...sad. But next year!

Harmonia said...

Thank you for all of this info and for the suggestions!!!