Coming up with new vegan Christmas mains recipes always feels a little bit odd to me. After all, the majority of meat eaters eat turkey year after year. I don’t know whether it’s something in my subconscious trying to tell the world that vegan food isn’t limited, but I feel the need to work on a new one each year. This year, I’m sharing this cranberry and quinoa Christmas bake recipe.
Much like last year, I wanted to make this year’s recipe something that was easy to make in a smaller batch, and in individual servings. As much as I like to make enough that the meat eaters can sample some if they want to, a whole nut roast isn’t ideal if you’re the only vegan at the table. With recipes like these you can edit them to make in bulk or a single serving, there’s nothing to say you have to cook them all together, so instead of reheating Christmas leftovers for the next few days, you can actually eat it fresh. Or you could even freeze them for further down the line.
Nutritional Information
Each bake provides 4.5g of fibre and 5.5g of protein. In terms of vitamins and minerals, each bake contains 2mg of iron, 35% of the RDA of vitamin K and 15% of the RDA of folate, as well as 10% of the recommended daily amount of each of the following:
- Vitamin C
- B6
- B3
- B2
This information is for one bake, but a standard sized serving would be two bakes.
Ingredients Choices
This dish contains multiple options to make this your own or switch out ingredients if you’re avoiding certain allergens.
If you’re avoiding soy, you can switch out the tamari for something like coconut aminos. The walnuts can be substituted for mixed seeds, or another nut like pecans.
I opted to use a mix of quinoa and lentils, but you can switch out one and use just quinoa or lentils if you’d like to make that easier. However, you can also use a microwavable pouch of mixed grains to make those initial steps easier.
Personally, I wouldn’t recommend switching the base vegetables, but if you really want/ need to, the celeriac can be swapped for any other starchy root vegetable, like parsnips or butternut squash.
Suggested Recipe: The Best Vegan Roast Potatoes
How to store and does it reheat?
If you’re making these in advance, or you have leftovers, store them in the fridge. Likewise, if you’ve prepped your bakes but haven’t cooked them yet, store them in the fridge.
To reheat them and preserve the texture, wrap them in some foil and reheat for roughly 15 minutes in the oven or until hot all the way through. Alternatively, if you’re in a hurry, you can microwave them, but they won’t necessarily hold their shape if you cook them this way.
Cranberry and Quinoa Christmas Bake Recipe
An easy small batch vegan Christmas main dish with seasonal vegetables, cranberries, walnuts and grains.
This recipe is gluten free, dairy free and vegan. It does contain nuts and soy.
Cranberry and Quinoa Christmas Bake Recipe
Ingredients
- 400 g celeriac cubed
- 250 g cooked quinoa and lentils
- 125 g shiitake mushrooms thinly sliced
- ¼ cup red wine
- 1 tbsp tamari
- ⅓ cup walnuts
- ¼ cup GF breadcrumbs
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 50 g dried cranberries
Instructions
-
Preheat oven to 190c
-
Boil celeriac for 20 minutes until slightly softened but not fully cooked.
-
Add mushrooms to a large frying pan on low to high heat for 1-2 minutes, then add one tbsp of tamari and cook for 2-3 minutes until it crisps up slightly. Add the red wine and cook for 1-2 minutes until all of the mushrooms have turned red and adsorbed a large amount of the wine. Then stir in the cooked lentils and quinoa, which will absorb the majority of the remaining red wine.
-
Add cooked celeriac to a food processor along with the ingredients from the mushroom pan, the walnuts and breadcrumbs. Allow to cool for a few minutes, then shape into six burger shaped patties.
-
Cook in the centre of the oven for 25 minutes.
-
Allow to rest and cool for 10-15 minutes before serving.
Serve and enjoy!
Do you like the idea of these smaller serving dishes as your vegan main or do you prefer something larger like a nut roast?
Until tomorrow,
Sophie
Nutritional information comes from Cronometer.
its great recipe