Anyone going veggie this Christmas?

[SteveF]

We had a Sunday roast a few weeks back and the joint wasn't really that nice, so I ended up just eating the rest of the meal and enjoyed it just as much.

So do you actually need a centre piece? Would having the same meal without the meat work?

 

[Salar]

Probably nut roast with all the veg, or a variation on cauliflower cheese and later on a vegetarian curry.

 

[Time Waster]

My other half invited the outlaws over the Xmas. Seems our years of freeloading somewhere every Xmas has gone! So we were talking of what to cook. I suggested trying a multi-bird roast. She countered quite enthusiastically with vegetarian. We're settling for turkey, a crown not the whole bird. So boring but better than vegetarian IMHO.

Don't like Xmas day, food's dull, traditions overrated, programming on TV holds no interest to me and you often have no escape from family. So I join in with the festivities trying not to look bored and wear my watch out checking the time so much. Just what is the etiquette about leaving family in Xmas day?

BTW I am possibly the only person who physically loses weight over Xmas. It's the food you see. One big meal then nobody feels like eating again. I need 5 meals and snacks a day. I'm a big lump (still bottom half of my ideal BMI range) who has a high BMR. I need to eat about 3500-4500 calories a day.

Sorry rant over.

I so hope The other half doesn't read this thread. A veggie Xmas would possibly leave me in a bad state. I do want to try a good nut roast once in my life. Even Zefferellis restaurant in Ambleside doesn't do veggie food that interests me. It's a veggie only restaurant that's very good but missing something in its meals, but necessarily meat I might add.

 

[User482]

So far we've had:

Nut loaf - aka meatloaf without the meat.
Veggie sausasages - aka sausages without the meat.
Vegan wellington - beef wellington without the beef.
Several iterations of roast dinner without the roast.
And roast cauliflower - which is, admittedly, not based on a meat dish.

None of the suggestions have any seasoning to speak of. There's half a world out there of cuisines based on mainly vegetarian dishes with interesting combinations of herbs, spices and seasoning. Where are the dhals, the stir-fries, the bhiriyanis? Even, for heaven's sakes, the pestos, the hummouses or the grilled cheeses?

It's enough to make a carnivore continue eating meat!

The problem, I think, is trying to fit a vegetarian in with a meat-based meal. Most of the suggestions are a simple substitution, swapping the meat for something else but keeping the roast potatoes and veg. I've had some success with making wild mushroom and chestnut tarts, but tend to agree that a good curry would work better.

 

[srw]

The problem, I think, is trying to fit a vegetarian in with a meat-based meal. Most of the suggestions are a simple substitution, swapping the meat for something else but keeping the roast potatoes and veg. I've had some success with making wild mushroom and chestnut tarts, but tend to agree that a good curry would work better.

Whatever your reason for eating vegetarian food (and it seems that discussion of those reasons is now not allowed, which came as a surprise to me) that's no reason to eat bad food. Or food which is pretending to be something else.

 

[Paulus]

Duck is..well, it's actually a sort of fish...but that's close enough...

It is if you prefix it with "Bombay"

 

[srw]

Not quite - just haven't found the right seasoning for the roast cauli yet

Za'attar? Toasted cumin seeds? I had a sage and chestnut butter with partridge ravioli in a restaurant recently - that combination might well also work with cauliflower.

Aye - but I'm spoiled. Your dhals, stir-fries and biryanis are ... often on my table. Your pestos and grilled cheeses ... naaah.

Irani veggie recipes? Or Turkish? Imam Bayildi (trans - "the imam fainted").

Imam Bayildi. Mmmmmmm......

Has anyone mentioned Aubergines???

Yes (see above).