I would like to show you that is possible to have a wonderful and delicious vegan Christmas menu.
WORDS Lita Santos
Be brave and try something new this year, go for it and cook my menu for your family dinner. For the first course, there is a beetroot cream soup, second avocado-mango tartar on a rocket salad bed and for the main course eggplant stuffed with red lentils and eggplant pulp, for dessert caramelized apple with Christmas spices. May I suggest starting with a light sparkling aperitif and a nice and smooth red wine to accompany the dinner. This is a light, delicious and healthy menu that will satisfy you and your family. Merry Christmas!
Red Lentils
Wash the lentils and drain them in a sieve. Chop the onion, garlic and cut the carrots into small cubes. Put the oil in a cooking pot, add the onions first, then the garlic and carrots and last the lentils, and cover them with water.
Put the spices in and let everything cook for 20 minutes, at the end add salt and pepper and a bit of lemon juice.
Ingredients for 4 people
- 250 g Red lentils
- 1 Red onion
- 4-5 Garlic cloves
- 2 Carrots
- Sunflower or olive oil
- Lemon juice
Spices
- ½ tsp Coriander
- 1 tsp Cumin
- ½ tsp Paprika
- ¼ tsp Turmeric
- 1 tsp Provence herbs
- Salt and pepper
Avocado-mango Tartar
Cut the avocado and mango into very small cubes and add a little lemon juice to prevent the avocado from oxidation. Wash the rocket salad and spread it on the plate.
For the dressing, sauté the garlic in olive oil and let it cool down. Add the orange juice and olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix it and merge half of it with the tartar and save the rest for the rocket salad.
Press the avocado-mango mix into a cup to form a cake and arrange it in the middle of the plate. Spread the rest of the dressing onto the rocket salad and decorate the dish with pomegranate seeds to suit your taste.
Ingredients for four people
- 3 avocados
- 1 mango
- Juice of ½ an orange
- Rocket salad
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 garlic clove
- Salt and pepper
- 1 Pomegranate (decoration)
Beetroot Cream Soup
Chop the onion, garlic, and ginger then cut the beetroot and the potatoes into cubes.
Put sunflower oil in a cooking pot, first fry the onions, then add the garlic and ginger. Add the beetroot, potatoes, bio broth and cover with water. Let it cook until the beetroot and potatoes are tender. Wait to let everything cool down before putting the soup into a blender. Reheat the soup, then add the coconut milk, salt and pepper and cook for 5 minutes.
Ingredients for four people
- 4 middle-size beetroots
- 3 small potatoes
- 1 red onion
- 3 Garlic cloves
- 1 small piece of ginger
- 1 tsp Bio broth
- Coconut milk
- Salt and pepper
Eggplant
Half the eggplant lengthwise and scoop the pulp out with a spoon leaving about 2cm. Cut the pulp into small pieces and put them aside.
Brush the inside of the eggplant with Italian tomato sauce and put it in the oven for 15 minutes at 160°C. Now put the eggplant pulp in a small pot with oil and stir fry for 5 minutes, then add the tomato sauce.
Take the eggplant out of the oven and fill the halves with red lentils and put the eggplant pulp on top. Place the filled halves back in the oven and bake them for another 15 minutes.
Ingredients for four people
- 2 middle-sized eggplants
- Italian tomato sauce (bio can or self-made)
Caramelised Apple
Cut the apple into small cubes, put them in a cooking pot and add little water. Add the spices letting them cook until the apples are soft and let them cool down, then remove the star anise and the cloves. Now crush the cookies into small pieces.
First, put a layer of cookies, then a layer of apple and lastly a layer of yoghurt into the dessert glasses. You can decorate your dessert with almonds and a cherry or raspberry. Put the desserts in the fridge for at least two hours.
Ingredients for four people
- 4 Apples
- Vegan dry cookies
- Vanilla yoghurt
- ¼ tsp Cardamom
- ¼ tsp Cinnamon
- 1 Star anise
- 3 Cloves
- Water
- Almond, Cherry or raspberry (decoration)
Christmas Spice Cake
Put all the dry ingredients and the spices into a bowl and mix it well, then blend the milk with the plum jam, add to the bowl and mix it briefly*.
Heat the oven to 200°C Grease the baking tin with coconut oil, dust it with flour, then pour the batter into the tin and bake for 25 minutes. While the cake is in the oven you can melt the chocolate**.
Take the cake out of the oven, add the plum jam and the chocolate couverture when the cake is still warm and let it cool down and solidify.
*Tip: If the batter is mixed for too long, the cake can become tough and rubbery.
**Put the Chocolate in a pot and warm the pot in a water bath.
Ingredients
- 350g wheat flour mixed with whole-grain flour
- 100g brown sugar
- 1 small pack of baking powder
- 30g baking cacao
- 100ml oat or soy milk
- 50g plum jam
- For the couverture 100g plum jam, 150g dark chocolate
Spices
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp cardamom
- ¼ tsp ginger powder
- ½ tsp anise powder
- ½ tsp cloves powder
- ¼ tsp nutmeg powder
- A pinch of salt
- Coconut oil
Lalitana Vegan Kitchen
Lita cooks for Events, for private Celebrations and she offers Cooking Courses and Live Cooking Shows.
+351 914 061 143
Instagram: @lalitanavegankitchen
