Christmas Eve

This post will be short and sweet - we have millions of presents to wrap before tomorrow and are hoping to have a tiny moment together with mulled wine and without the children who are now - finally - asleep.

While this post clearly comes a bit late in the day and most of you are knee-deep in celebrations and have prepared or begun to prepare or at least done the shopping for the meal you will share with your Christmas people tomorrow, I nevertheless wanted this to be a Christmas post. I wanted to share a suggestion for a celebratory Christmas meal with a nod to the traditional formula with a festive centrepiece and accoutrements. Really the recipe that shines in the context of this meal is the stuffing. Given that I often feel that at Thanksgiving and Christmas the parts of the traditional meal that are tricky to serve to plant-based folks are the stuffing and gravy, here it goes, have a look below for how to make both in the plant-based way. 

As you would expect, coming from this blog, this recipe is nothing if not simple(ish), and with a recycling of previous posts and recipes, is relatively easy to put together. 

So, like the proverbial puppy, these recipes are not just for Christmas - give them a shot and add your own twist.

Stuffing:

Ingredients: (serves two adults and one toddler)

• 200g wholewheat loaf
• 1 large carrot
• 1 large leek (onion)
• 1 stalk of celery
• 3 tbsp low-salt bouillon, or 1 tbsp regular
• 1 cup (250ml) water
• 1 tsp dried herbs (such as thyme, rosemary and sage)
• 1 bay leaf
• salt and pepper to taste

Method:

• Slice bread into 2cm (1") slices and then into roughly 2cm (1") cubes. Arrange on a baking tray and then place into a preheated oven @130C for 20 min or until completely dry, but not toasted (charred)
• Slice and dice the carrot, leek and celery and place, along with the bouillon, herbs, bay leaf and water into a large pot. Bring the boil, reduce heat, cover and cook for 10 min.
• Turn oven temperature up to 180C
• Add dried bread to the veg mix and stir well to combine
• Place the mixture into an oven dish and bake @180C for 30 min stirring every 10 min.
• Season with salt and pepper to taste

Gravy:

Ingredients:

• 2 large portobello mushrooms
• 1 medium leak (white onion)
• 1 medium carrot
• 1 celery stalk
• 2 tbsp low-salt bouillon
• 2 cup (250ml) water
• 1 tsp dried herbs (such as thyme, rosemary and sage
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp arrowroot

Method:

• Finely dice all veg and place in a medium pot along with the dried herbs, bouillon and water. Bring to the boil, cover, lower temp and simmer for 20 min.
• Whisk the arrowroot with the soy sauce into a smooth paste and add to the veg pot for the last 5 minutes of cooking
• Blend the mixture until smooth and season with salt and pepper to taste