One of my favourite aspects of Christmas is the food. It’s all about indulgence! From the little snack bowls of nuts and chocolates that my mum puts out in the living room, to the big meal on the day, you’ll always find me snacking…
As someone who avoids meat and dairy generally, I have to add that Christmas food is just as fun for me as anyone else. If you also don’t eat meat, or have a restricted diet, there’s always the same conversation around “what do you eat?”, but actually it’s quite easy to enjoy so many Christmas recipes.
Here are my favourites for the festive season – they’re all delicious and all cater to a lot of diet types. Be sure to share these with your family and friends over the holidays!
Cranberry Porridge
Porridge makes for the perfect breakfast during the colder weather – full of nutrients, and oh so warm, it’s something I crave. That might have something to do with growing up with Ready Brek in the winter months – I loved going to school feeling warm and happy, with energy lasting through ’til lunch.
My cranberry porridge uses the wintry berries, cinnamon, and apple for a nice festive touch.
As an added option, you can make this recipe the night before, and save it in a jar for the morning, à la overnight oats. Saves time, effort, and energy!
Root Veg & Gravy Pie
As one of my oldest recipes on the blog, I’m really happy to say I’ve been using it for four years now! My winter vegetable pie has been my main meal every Christmas since 2014. In fact it’s become a feature on my mum’s plate too, after she sneaked a bite one Christmas. Who could resist it!
I like to swap out Christmas meat for this buttery shortcrust pie recipe, and also make up a simple veggie stuffing mix. The pie itself is filled with gravy and seasonal veggies, which you can bake on the day, or prepare on Christmas Eve and then quickly reheat on the day.
Iced Ginger Cookies
While I love to cook, I’m not much of a baker. I’m able to follow a recipe – I even measure out ingredients beforehand, to make things easier and more efficient – but it’s just not as fun.
Thank goodness then that my vegan iced ginger cookies is one of the simplest recipes to follow, and I can assure you that they always go down a treat. Like mini gingerbread men, they are full of sugar and spice and all things nice!
My recipe is inspired by a non-iced version from Deliciously Ella, so if you’re a fan of her food you’ll be sure to like these.
Stollen Bites
In 2015, I was delighted to have Kezia Hall share her recipe for healthy stollen bites on Curiously Conscious.
Kezia has gone from strength to strength – from food blogger to food coach – in that time, showing how we can be healthy and still enjoy indulgences along the way.
Her recipe takes inspiration from traditional German Christmas cake and uses coconut oil, dates, almonds, and lots of festive flavours. This recipe makes 14-16 pieces, depending on how big you cut them, making for a great sharing dessert.
Leftover Fruit Crumble
My leftover fruit crumble is something I like to make from Autumn onwards. It’s possibly the most wholesome dessert, both in its warmth and stodginess. While I like to make it using pretty much any fruit – apples, peaches, apricots, pears, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries – the starchier, less watery ones will make for a thicker consistency. If you’re using a lot of high water content fruits, I’d recommend stewing them and adding cornstarch to thicken them up (pro tip: mix cornstarch with cold water before adding to your mix).
At Christmastime, I’d recommend adding dried fruits that you may have leftover from other bakes, like raisins, sultanas, glacé cherries, or orange peel. Why not sprinkle in a bit of ground cinnamon in the crumble too?
Christmas Tea
Finally, if you’ve eaten your way through all of that, sit back, relax, and digest well with a big cup of Christmas tea. I usually get mine from the English Tea Shop or Yogi Tea, depending on which I stumble across first. Both use a mix of Christmassy ingredients – cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, orange peel – to create that classic scent that defines the festive season.
This technically isn’t a recipe, more of a recommendation… Other teas I like around this time include golden milk (using turmeric tea) and peppermint tea, something my mum is well-stocked on. So good for ending an day of indulgent eating!
