For the past few years, I have been hosting our family’s Christmas dinner, so by now I’ve kind of mastered how to make an easy vegan Christmas dinner last minute.
Everything you need should be available at the regular supermarket, so no crazy ingredients!
The recipes are perfectly suitable to make ahead of time, to ensure a stress-free Christmas day.
Cooking Schedule
The secret to a stress-free Christmas dinner is a good Christmas Playlist and preparing as much as you can ahead of time. Here’s how I did it:
| 24-12 hours to go | 6-2 hours to go | 60-30 Minutes to go | Just before serving |
| Roast garlic (Soup) | Make wellington filling | Bake wellington | Re-Heat soup |
| Make soup* | Make gravy | Bake duchess potatoes | Re-Heat gravy |
| Make trifle | Make red cabbage | Re-Heat cabbage | |
| Boil potatoes | Assemble Main |
* If you don’t have enough space in your fridge to cool your soup overnight (kept mine on the balcony), you can also make the soup 6-2 hours ahead.
First Course
Creamy Vegan Roasted Garlic Soup
If you’ve ever roasted full garlic bulbs in the oven, you’re probably already convinced. It is incredibly easy to do and makes for a wonderfully fragrant garlic taste, that’s not too overwhelming. Plus squeezing the softened garlic out of the bulb is so satisfying!
Creamy Vegan Roasted Garlic Soup
Ingredients
- 4 Bulbs Garlic
- 1 Onion
- 3 Potatoes
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1/2 Cup White Wine
- 6 Cups Vegetable Broth
- 1/2 Cup Vegan Cream Whipping cream or non-dairy cooking cream
- 1 tbsp Nutritional Yeast
- 1/2 tsp Caraway optional
To Taste
- Salt
- Pepper
- Sugar
- White Wine or Apple Cider Vinegar
Instructions
Roast Garlic
- Pre-heat oven to 200°C / 390°F
- Cut about 1,5cm or half an inch off the tip of your garlic bulbs. Don't throw out the tips, you can use them later!
- Put the bulbs cut side up on a piece of tin foil and drizzle with olive oil.
- Roast in the oven for about 30-60 minutes or until the garlic is soft and lightly browned.
- Let cool.
Soup
- Cut the onions and fry in oil together with the cut-off garlic tops until just browned and fragrant.
- Add caraway and fry for a few seconds
- De-glaze with the white wine, then add the broth.
- Peel and cut the potatoes into small chunks and cook in the broth until tender. (About 20-35 minutes)
- Squeeze the roasted garlic right out of the bulbs and into your broth (this is so satisfying!)
- Add the vegan cream and blend
- Season with salt, pepper, nutritional yeast, sugar, and vinegar to taste.
- Garnish with a dollop of whipped cream and some parsley.
Notes
For the latter just cook them along with the soup, they should get soft enough to blend into a smooth cream along with the rest of the soup!
Main Course
Mushroom Walnut Wellington
with Gravy, Duchess Potatoes,
and Braised Red Cabbage with Apples
This is the perfect dish to impress your non-vegan friends and family. It’s hearty and satisfying without any vegan substitute products, so no “why do vegans want to eat fake meat” discussions at your dinner table.
I’ve simplified the Duchess potatoes as they are usually piped into pretty little rosettes before baking. If you have the time to do it, definitely go for it but it’s just as tasty just baked in a dish.
The braised red cabbage is an Austrian classic for the holidays. It’s sweet and tangy and the perfect addition to the Umami the gravy brings.
Festive Vegan Walnut Mushroom Wellington
Ingredients
- 1 Puff pastry
- 1 can White Beans 250g
- 250 g Mushrooms
- 2-3 Carrots
- 1 Onion
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 1/2 cup Vegetable Broth
- 2 tbsp Ground Flax Seeds
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 tbsp Tomato paste
- 1/2 tbsp Dijon Mustard
To Taste
- Salt
- Pepper
- Rosemary
- Thyme
- Smoked Paprika
Instructions
Flax "Egg"
- Combine vegetable broth and ground flax seeds, mix and let sit.
- Thaw puff pastry if using frozen.
Filling
- Dice onions and garlic, fry in olive oil until lightly browned
- Finely chop or grate mushrooms and carrots (I used a food processor) and add to the pan
- Fry until mushrooms have lost their moisture and add the drained, mashed beans (keep the bean liquid if you're making the vegan duchess potatoes as a side!)
- Add tomato paste, mustard and flax egg / broth mixture.
- Season to taste, then set aside to cool down.
Assembly
- Pre-heat oven to 200°C / 390°F
- Add filling to your puff pastry, and shape like a log, wrap it in the dough and carefully flip so it's seam side down on the baking tray
- Cut the top of the dough with a sharp knife to create vents and brush with aquafaba
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown
- Let cool for 10-15 minutes before serving to get a more even slice.
Easy Vegan “Duchess” Potatoes
Ingredients
- 800 g Floury Potatoes
- ½ cup Vegan Cream
- ½ cup Aquafaba Draining liquid from can of beans or chickpeas
- Salt
- Pepper
- Nutmeg
Instructions
- Peel and cut potatoes into cubes
- Boil in salted water until tender (20-30 minutes)
- Drain and let cool for a few minutes
- Pre-heat oven to 200°C / 390°F
- Using a potato masher, ricer or fork, mash potatoes. Add rest of ingredients and fold under until fully combined
- Either pipe into small humps or rosettes on your baking tray or add to a oven safe dish.
- Bake until golden brown (depending on your method: 25-40 minutes)
Easy, Hearty Vegan Gravy
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 Onion
- 2 cloves Garlic
- ½ tbsp Tomato Paste
- ½ Cup Red Wine
- 1½ Cups Vegetable Broth
- 3-4 tbsp Soy Sauce
- 1-2 tbsp Maple Syrup
- 2 tbsp Vegan Butter
- 2 tbsp Flour
- 1 Bay leave
- 3-5 Juniper Seeds
- Worcestershire Sauce or Maggi to taste
- White Wine or Appe Cider Vinegar to taste
- Salt, Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cut onion and garlic and fry in olive oil until fragrant
- Add tomato paste and de-glaze with red wine
- Add vegan butter and let melt, then add flour to make a roux. Stir until you've made a paste
- Add in broth, soy sauce, maple syrup, juniper seeds, bay leaf and simmer for about 10 minutes
- Season with salt, pepper, worcestershire sauce and vinegar
- Filter through a sieve to get rid of any solids
- Either serve right away or add a sheet of cling film directly to the surface of the gravy to keep a film from forming and re-heat when needed.
Festive Braised Red Cabbage (Austrian Rotkraut)
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 Onion
- 1 Apple
- 1 head Red Cabbage
- 3 tbsp Sugar
- Red Wine
- 3-4 Cloves
- 3-4 Juniper Berries
- 1 Bayleaf
- Salt
- Pepper
Instructions
- Cut onions into strips, peel apple and dice. Slice cabbage.
- Fry onions and apples until slightly softened, add cabbage and stir.
- Add red wine, juniper berries, bay leaf, cloves and sugar.
- Cover and let simmer until tender, around 45-60 minutes.
- Season with salt and pepper.
Dessert
Speculoos Trifle
This is truly the easiest vegan dessert. It’s best prepared the day before and you can modify it however you like. Not a fan of Speculoos? Use gingerbread or any other cookie. Vanilla isn’t your thing? You can use any other pudding you like. Don’t want to use alcohol? It’s absolutely optional! Have some fruit preserves leftover? Just throw ’em in! It’s almost impossible to f*ck this dish up.
Easy Vegan Speculoos Trifle
Ingredients
- 1 packet Vanilla Pudding Powder
- 3-5 tbsp Sugar
- 500 ml Non-Dairy Milk of Choice
- 100 ml Vegan Cream
- 170 g Vegan Speculoos Cookies
- Fruit preserves (optional)
- Cointreau or Rum (optional)
Instructions
- Prepare pudding according to the instructions on the packet, cover with cling film to prevent a film from forming and let cool competely.
- Whip vegan cream to stiff peaks and gently fold under the pudding.
- Prepare 4 glasses and add 2-3 crumbled speculoos cookies on the bottom. If you like you can add a tablespoon of fruit preserves (I used blueberry compote) and/or liqueur (I used Cointreau).
- Spoon or pipe your cream pudding mixture over it, then add another layer of crumbled cookies and alternate the layers until all the cream is evenly distributed.
- Garnish with some crumbled up cookies and cool for several hours before serving.
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