Onto the big meal! For the appetizer posts click here and here.
There is no way to really make this meal look pretty, unfortunately. Most traditional roast dinners are a bunch of veg, potatoes and meat smushed together on a plate and covered with gravy.
Because we were hosting non-vegetarians and because my mom is a traditionalist at heart, we went with the traditional roast dinner, just subbing out the meat for a nut loaf that I made (and this is NOT your average blah nut loaf, I promise!).
That way my mom could have all her sides, her cranberry sauce, her gravy, and our guests could see that Christmas Day doesn’t have to be so different just because you’re vegetarian.
So let’s break this down step by step.
- I served mashed potatoes which don’t really need a recipe – they were vegan and were simply Yukon potatoes boiled, mashed together with half a stick of Earth Balance vegan butter and some almond milk till creamy. Easy! You can throw garlic in there for garlic mashed potatoes but pretty much every other dish I was serving had garlic in it, so I thought I’d give us all a break with the potatoes!
- I served Dijon sherry marinated roasted vegetables on the side – see below for the recipe
- the main dish was a mushroom hazelnut leek loaf from Green Kitchen Stories – delicious, and I found the recipe here. I followed it word for word and it was perfect. I just used a little less rosemary as I found that a bit strong when I made a ‘test’ loaf before Christmas
- the gravy was from Angela – I just omitted half a tablespoon of the molasses as the molasses flavour was too strong on my test run, and it got too thick as well, so I doubled the quantity of vegetable stock. Otherwise it was thick and creamy – perfect! Click here for Angela’s recipe.
- the naturally-sweetened cranberry sauce served on the side was posted yesterday
So on to the recipe!
Dijon Sherry Marinated Roasted Vegetables
INGREDIENTS:
Vegetables of choice (I used baby carrots, halved lengthwise, parsnips, asparagus and Brussels sprouts)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 tbsp sherry
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper
1 1/2 tsp garlic
DIRECTIONS:
1. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl, then add veggies and toss to thoroughly coat.
2. You can let veggies marinade for a couple of hours if you have the time. If not, just roast at 400 F until cooked.
Don’t forget to come back tomorrow, as my mom is going to share her chocolate cheesecake recipe (well, I may have hijacked the recipe a bit to ‘healthify’ it…!). You know you want some:
Ooof! I will definitely be back for some cheesecake lovin’ 😀
This may sound nuts, and maybe I’m delusional, but IS THERE SNOW FALLING ON YOUR PAGE!?
Haha yes – it’s a WordPress setting that allows ‘snow’ to fall on your blog until Jan 6th (the date that everyone’s decorations must come down according to tradition). Do you like it? It’s a bit of a mind trip, right?
Your Christmas table setting is gorgeous!! I love the greenery. 🙂 Your meal looks wonderful too! As does that cheesecake – I’ll definitely be back 😀
Thanks so much Alexandra, that’s so sweet!
that dessert looks amazing and poo-poo on anyone who says roasts aren’t pretty! they definitely are!
Love it, thank you!
mmmmm! I love mashed potatoes…..omg, I love them too much!
Your table looked gorgeous! I love the outdoors feel, so friggin rad!!
xxoo
Thanks love! Yeah, I hit up Gardenworks and went nuts buying sprigs of pine from them lol :). Mashed potatoes are soooo comfort food, eh?
Ooohhh that looks so good! haha, it IS hard to make holiday dinners look pretty 😛 I love showing people how yummy and “normal” vegan meals can be. The gravy in your pic looks so smooth and perfect…I kinda want Christmas dinner all over again 😀
Ha I know, why is it so difficult to make something so yummy look good? I wouldn’t mind a Christmas dinner repeat either Char 😉
Your roasted veggies look delish!
Thank you Sarah!