Have yourself a merry veggie Christmas

Photograph Anthony Blake

If you’re planning a vegetarian or vegan Christmas this year, or have veggie guests coming, these cooking tips from HOT reporter Maresa Bossano of Moose’s Kitchen will help you make a delicious Xmas feast.

Nut roast gets an undeserved bad press, probably due to most people being served packaged shop-bought versions, which are often powdery and bulked out with cheap ingredients. A good nut roast is one of the simplest things to make. Just grind nuts in a blender, I normally use brazil nuts, cashews, almonds or a mixture of all three. Then make some breadcrumbs in the blender too. I normally use double the amount of nuts to bread then add a pinch of salt and a little cold water and stir til the mixture comes together, but is not too wet. You can also use a variety of other ingredients to add interest, such as onions, mushrooms (fry them both in olive oil before adding to the nut mix), herbs, and spices. Press into a greased loaf tin or a round loose bottomed cake tin and bake in a hot oven for about half an hour. At Christmas, I often make a stuffing as well, out of breadcrumbs with chopped fresh herbs, like parsley and sage, dried cranberries and orange. You can press this into the middle or top of the nut loaf mixture.

Veggies I usually cook the same vegetables as you would have with any traditional Xmas dinner, e.g. Brussels sprouts, roast potatoes, parsnips, mashed swede, and red cabbage & apple, but also have others that are grown more locally like cavolo nero (black kale) from Hankham Organics and squashes from Pannel Organic . The main thing to be aware of when catering for vegans, is to use olive or vegetable oil instead of butter for cooking, and not to use any honey. I like to use lots of herbs when cooking my veggies too, to add more flavour, such as roast squash and carrot puree with fennel seed and parsnips with rosemary. There’s no need to add any milk or cream when making mashes and purees, just use olive oil and a little of the cooking water.

Gravy is also really easy to make vegan. I normally use soy sauce, miso (my favourite is Source Foods) and yeast flakes to give a nice rich flavour.  These are available from shops like Trinity Wholefoods, Judges or Plenty, and also often add some wine, or port and a bit of cranberry sauce. Just saute some chopped onions in olive oil, then add a little plain flour and stir through evenly, add vegetable stock a little at a time, then add your other ingredients, a tablespoon or two of each.  Taste to make sure you balance the saltiness and sweetness.

I hope you enjoy trying these out – if you have any other queries about vegan cooking you can contact me via my Facebook www.facebook.com/lovefoodcafe or Twitter @lovefoodcafe

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