An early vegan Christmas

15 December 2014

Mum and her new husband are in Melbourne at the moment, so yesterday we celebrated an early Christmas together. While, in my less sane moments, I dream of cooking up a Christmas feast for a dozen plus people, cooking a fancy dinner for just four was quite enough effort. The photos aren't brilliant as I took them in a hurry so that people could start eating, but they give an idea of what was on the table.

Christmas dinner



The centerpice dish was a Seitan Roulade, from Food Craft Lab, the sister site of veganbaking.net, run by the same guy. This was quite a success. Mine wasn't quite as well rolled as it should have been, but put flat and viewed from above, it looked pretty good. If you want to try this, it's a bit of effort, but worth it. If you want to try this, I found that kneading for the full 5 minutes, as I did on my test run, gave a slightly tough result, probably because it gets a little extra "kneading" in the sheet forming process. The second time, I kneaded for only 3.5 minutes, and that had a better texture. Also, the glaze may need a bit more water, and easily makes enough for two roulades, probably enough for three.

Seitan Roulade


This was accompanied by Gracious Vegan Gravy, also from Food Craft Lab. This is not a quick gravy, but it is seriously good. I recommend making it a day or two before so you one less thing to worry about.

Gracious Vegan Gravy


Side dishes were roast potatoes - baked with olive oil, fresh rosemary (absolutely do not use the stuff out of a tube for this - it tastes bitter when roasted), garlic powder, and freshly ground salt and pepper

Baked potatoes with rosemary


Roast butternut pumpkin, purple carrot and sweet potato, with olive oil, salt and pepper. I swear the stuff in the middle is not burnt! It's just dark purple carrot...

Roast pumpkin, purple carrot and sweet potato


Stir fried Bok Choi - made as per Veganomicon p. 113 and sprinkled with sesame seeds on top.

Stir fried bok choi


I thought I had over-catered, but before long, all that was left was a little roulade and gravy, along with some overly full and lethargic humans.
 

There was also dessert, but dessert deserves a post of its own.
Update: Desert post now up

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