We are in the midst of Advent season and therefore also the pre-Christmas period. Slowly but surely you can (or have to?) start thinking about Christmas dinner. Therefore, today we present to you our best recipes for a vegan Christmas. From super simple and quick (potato salad with sausages anyone?) to special celebratory meals with roasts and a variety of side dishes, we have it all covered. In addition to the recipes, we also have a few tips ready on how you can master the shopping and cooking preparations for Christmas as stress-free as possible.
Here is an overview of the content:
- Vegan Starters for the Christmas Menu
- Vegan Main Courses for the Christmas Menu
- Vegan Side Dishes for the Christmas Menu
- Vegan Desserts for the Christmas Menu
- Special Recipes for Vegan Christmas (Raclette & Fondue anyone?)
- Vegan Drinks for the Christmas Days
- Vegan Sweets for the Christmas Days
- Tips on Planning, Grocery Shopping & Preparation
Vegan Starters for the Christmas Menu
Vegan Chestnut Soup with Mushrooms and Croutons
A creamy soup made from chestnuts, refined with fried mushrooms and small, crunchy pumpernickel bread cubes.
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Beetroot Carpaccio with Apple and Walnut
A light starter made from regional, seasonal ingredients. Thinly cut slices of beetroot are refined with marinated apple balls, lamb’s lettuce and walnuts.
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Vegan Porcini Mushroom Soup with Thyme Croutons
Simple to prepare, but all the fuller in flavour. And porcini mushrooms really are not on the table every day.
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Parsnip Soup with Ginger & Coconut Milk
This soup has the wonderful taste of parsnip, but with the addition of ginger, coconut milk and cilantro (if you like it) it gets a slightly Asian touch. So you can dream of your next vacation right at the Christmas table.
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Beet Soup with Orange and Walnut Crunch
Beetroot, orange and walnut. It couldn’t get much more wintry. Not much more delicious either. A great colorful starter for your Christmas menu.
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Beet Tartare with Miner’s Lettuce
And beetroot again. The winter all-rounder can also be prepared as a fine tartare with a aromatic Postelein salad. Tastes amazing and looks even better.
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Vegan Waldorf Salad
A great classic salad that is unfortunately made far too rarely. So why not start the Christmas menu with it? The ingredients (celery, apple, walnut) are in season after all.
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Vegan Main Courses for the Christmas Menu
Vegan Lentil Loaf
The most popular recipe on C&CC doesn’t need many words. While we are writing these words, we sit drooling in front of the laptop because the image of the roast lentil smiles so nicely at us.
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Vegan Beet Wellington
Our new lentil roast challenger. A little more work, but also more taste. A roast made from beetroot, lentils and nuts. Wrapped in a mushroom and chestnut duxelles. In puff pastry. So much flavour!
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Vegan Rouladen in Gravy
These roulades are not only a classic for our vegan Christmas days, but have also been very popular with you for a long time. Andi even sneaked them successfully in on his grandparents plate on a Christmas Eve. 😉
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Quick Mushroom Goulash
Creamy, warming and extremely tasty despite the short preparation time. So how about this mushroom goulash for Christmas?
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Baked Celeriac with Mashed Potatoes and Creamy Cognac Pepper Sauce
Celeriac can without much preparation actually be cooked whole in the oven and eaten with the skin(!). Baked celery is basically something like the vegan roast straight from the field.
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Vegan Bigos – Polish Kraut Stew
The stew made from white cabbage, sauerkraut, mushrooms and (for us of course vegan) sausages is one of the traditional Christmas dinners in Poland. We can understand very well why!
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Vegan Potato Salad with Sausages
The most popular food among Germans on Christmas Eve is neither goose nor roast. Because, according to surveys, sausages with potato salad end up on the plate most often. Here’s the down-to-earth Christmas dinner in our vegan version.
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Vegan Side Dishes for the Christmas Menu
Vegan Red Cabbage with Apple
Probably the most popular side dish for roasts, roulades and other hearty dishes. We pimp the red cabbage with apple, red wine, canned cranberries and a few spices.
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Vegan Bread Dumplings (Semmelknödel)
Of course, dumplings should not be missing on a good festive plate. We’ll show you how you can easily prepare bread dumplings without an egg.
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Easy Vegan Gravy (without Alcohol)
Nobody will identify this incredibly intense gravy as vegan in a blind test. We swear! The fact that only 7 very common ingredients are required for preparation makes it even better.
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Vegan Spaetzle
Bigos, goulash or roasts do not necessarily have to be served with dumplings. Spaetzle are also very easy to prepare plant based and are a great side dish that is probably not on your plate every day.
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Vegan Potato Gratin Versions with Roasted Vegetables
Behind this recipe there are two great side dishes for a Christmas dinner. Both potato gratin and oven-baked vegetables go well with almost every holiday meal and can be cooked together in the oven.
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Hasselback Potatoes
Ever heard of these Swedish accordion potatoes? Crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. A great alternative way of preparing potatoes that make a big impression.
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Oven Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Vegan Bacon
Yes, Brussels sprouts don’t have to be completely cooked to death. We roast them vigorously in the oven and serve them with a few small vegan bacon cubes made from soy granules.
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Vegan Desserts for the Christmas Menu
Vegan Baked Apple Tiramisu in a Glass
A tiramisu variation or just a damn tasty trifle? It doesn’t matter, because this delicious combination of apple, cream, spices, speculoos and caramelized almonds is 100 % winter.
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Vegane Chocolate Mousse with Orange
Light and airy, chocolaty, vegan and damn tasty. This chocolate mousse has the potential to become your new favourite dessert. It basically consists of only 2 ingredients and is therefore super quick to prepare.
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Vegan Puff Pastry Apple Strudel with Vanilla Sauce
We can’t think of many things, that are better than a warm apple strudel. The filling is easy to prepare and a scoop of ice cream can be added instead of vanilla sauce. This is how you stay relaxed at Christmas.
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Easy Vegan Plum Crumble
This crumble works with plums, apples and many other types of fruit. Add a little ice cream or whipped cream (vegan, of course) and the delicious Christmas menu windup is ready.
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Special Recipes for Vegan Christmas
Vegan Raclette
Probably the ultimate Christmas dinner for anyone who doesn’t serve a classic menu. In addition, a great way to satisfy omnivores, vegetarians and vegans alike.
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Vegan Cheese Fondue
If you are looking for a change from raclette, you should try vegan cheese fondue. At least as sociable and tasty. The fondue is also easy to prepare. Cheers to Switzerland!
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Vegan Drinks for the Christmas Days
Mulled Gin with Orange and Apple
Would you like a drink after Christmas dinner? This mulled gin with orange and apple is a great alternative to conventional mulled wine. We even like it much more.
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Winter Gin and Tonic with Orange, Cinnamon and Star Anise
Or would you prefer to end the Christmas Eve with a cool drink? Gin and tonic can also be spiced up with a few winter spices.
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Vegan Sweets for the Christmas Days
Burnt Sugar Almonds
Who would have thought that the winter market classic can be easily made by yourself. We definitely eat a portion or two around the holidays.
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Vegan Christmas Stollen (German Christmas Cake)
For many, Stollen belongs to December just like the namaste to the yoga class. 😉 It can be prepared several weeks in advance. Here is our vegan version.
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Tips on Planing, Grocery Shopping & Preparation
We have already cooked several Christmas menus ourselves and have learned a lot over the years. The preparations are now pretty routine, even if the dishes actually change every year. However, the procedure always remains the same.
The first step is planning your meal. What do you want to eat at Christmas this year? Which ingredients do we need for this? And how much of them do we need? When you have worked through these questions, you will probably have a shopping list with all the ingredients you need. It’s a very good start.
It can still end in stress if you only go out grocery shopping right before Christmas and try to work through this long list in one go. The shops are then overcrowded, people stressed and maybe one or the other ingredient is even sold out.
It would therefore be better if you think about beforehand which ingredients can be stored without any problems. You can then buy these a few days in advance and save yourself important time and nerves at Christmas. Depending on the planned menu, you may be able to complete individual work steps or entire dishes before the 24th of December.
That brings us to the third important aspect for a relaxed Christmas dinner after planning and grocery shopping: the preparation. So think carefully about what is easy to prepare and what can really only be made à la minute.
Sauces, soups, casseroles and stews can usually be pre-cooked well and simply warmed up or finished just in time. Desserts can also often be prepared beforehand. Sometimes they even have to. For example, to solidify in the fridge or freezer.
But even with other dishes, individual work steps can be carried out hours or days before the actual meal, without having to accept a loss of quality. Sure, vegetables should be cut as fresh as possible and lettuce should be plucked as freshly as possible. The associated dressing can usually be mixed beforehand in a screw-top jar and placed in the refrigerator. Then simply shake it up again before serving. Done.
Our last tip: take yourself enough time to cook. For example, an elaborate 3-course menu with several side dishes isn’t cooked in 1 or 2 hours. We often started cooking the food for Christmas Eve at noon. That just became an integral part of the Christmas routine. Anyone in the family who feels like it comes to the kitchen, where there is chopping and sizzling going on in a relaxed way. Nice music is playing in the background. Perhaps there is also a first glass of wine or a few cookies as a snack.
And even if you are the only person in your family with cooking skills, you may still be able to give away one or two work steps. After all, you don’t need to pass a master’s examination to wash or peel vegetables or cut them up for soups. And children (or anti-cooks) are often quite proud afterwards when they could play a part in contributing to the Christmas dinner.
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