Vegetarian Christmas dinner: recipes, part 3

Fresh artichoke with pesto dip

1 artichoke for about 4 people

Artichoke

• 1 fresh artichoke
• a little lemon juice

Pesto dip

• 1 dessertspoon green pesto
• 1 dessertspoon full-fat (soya) yoghurt
• 1 dessertspoon (plant-based) mayonnaise
• freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Cut off the stem level with the flower. Cook the artichoke, covered, in boiling water with a little lemon juice for 30 to 40 minutes. It is done when the leaves come away easily. Drain it well.
2. Mix the pesto, yoghurt and mayonnaise and season with pepper.
3. How to eat it: place the artichoke on a nice dish in the middle of the table, with an empty dish for the used leaves.
4. Pull off the leaves one by one. Dip the base of each leaf in the dip and scrape off the soft part with your teeth.
5. When all the leaves are gone, pull out the hairy centre (the choke) and discard it. What remains is the heart. Cut it into pieces and dip them in the sauce.

The artichoke and the dip can be made an hour in advance.

Cauliflower soup with blue cheese

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients

• about 300 grams cauliflower
• 1 potato
• 750 ml vegetable stock
• 50 grams blue cheese, for example Fourme d'Ambert or Bleu d'Auvergne
• about 1 tablespoon lime juice
• freshly ground pepper
• breadsticks

Method

1. Cut the cauliflower into florets. Peel and dice the potato.
2. Bring the stock to the boil in a large pan. Cook the cauliflower and potato in it for about 15 minutes until tender. Blend the soup with a stick blender.
3. Cut the cheese into small cubes.
4. Bring the soup back to the boil. Stir in the cheese until it has melted. Season with lime juice and pepper.
5. Serve with breadsticks.

Can be made a day in advance. Reheat on the day.

Vegan: leave out the cheese and stir in 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast and a splash of oat cream.

Vegetable stew

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients

• 1 aubergine (250 grams)
• 1 courgette (250 grams)
• 1 large red pepper (250 grams)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 tin of peeled tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 5 sprigs of fresh thyme
• oil
• salt and pepper

Method

1. Cut the aubergine, courgette and pepper into cubes of about the same size. Chop the tomatoes.
2. Heat a little oil in a heavy-based pan. Fry the aubergine for a few minutes until half cooked.
3. Add the courgette and pepper and fry for a few more minutes. Crush the garlic over the vegetables and fry briefly. Fry the paprika with them for a moment too.
4. Add the tomatoes with their juice and three whole sprigs of thyme. Bring to the boil.
5. Let the vegetables stew over low heat for about 30 minutes until meltingly soft.
6. Remove the thyme sprigs. Chop the leaves of the other two sprigs. Season the stew with the fresh thyme, salt and pepper.

Can be made a day in advance. Reheat on the day.

Potatoes au gratin

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients

• 800 grams potatoes
• 1 clove of garlic
• 100 ml cream
• 100 ml full-fat milk
• a few sprigs of fresh thyme
• 50 grams grated mature cheese
• butter
• salt and pepper

Method

1. Peel the potatoes and slice them very thinly.
2. Halve the garlic. Rub a shallow baking dish with it and grease the dish with butter. Then chop the garlic finely.
3. Heat the cream and milk with the garlic. Chop the thyme. Season the milk with salt, pepper and thyme.
4. Arrange the potatoes in the dish. Pour the hot milk over them and sprinkle with the cheese.
5. Bake for about 60 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 °C until golden and tender. If they brown too quickly, cover the dish with aluminium foil.

Can be made an hour in advance.

Vegan: use oat cream, plant-based milk, plant-based margarine and plant-based cheese.

Leaf salad with raspberries

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients

• 150 grams mixed leaves, such as lamb's lettuce, rocket, oak leaf lettuce and fresh spinach
• 50 grams toasted unsalted walnuts
• 15 fresh raspberries

Walnut dressing

• 4 tablespoons walnut oil
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons honey or agave syrup
• 1 teaspoon (honey) mustard
• 7 fresh raspberries, crushed

Method

1. Wash and dry the leaves carefully. Mix them in a bowl.
2. Garnish with the walnuts and raspberries.
3. Mix all the dressing ingredients. Pour the dressing over the salad just before serving.

The dressing can be made a day in advance and kept in the fridge.

Pears stuffed with amaretti

Serves 4 to 8

Ingredients

• 100 grams Italian amaretti biscuits
• 25 grams dark chocolate
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• ½ orange
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 egg white
• 4 small pears
• 150 ml dry white wine

Method

1. Crumble the amaretti, for example in a food processor. Finely grate the chocolate and the zest of the half orange.
2. Mix the crumbs with the chocolate, sugar, orange zest and cinnamon.
3. Beat the egg white lightly. Stir it into the crumb mixture and knead with your hands until it holds together.
4. Halve the pears and remove the cores. Place them cut side up in a baking dish. Fill the hollows generously with the amaretti mixture.
5. Pour the wine into the dish around the pears. Bake for 20 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 °C until the pears are warm and the filling is crisp. Spoon some of the liquid over the pears now and then.
6. Serve one or two pear halves per person. Delicious with (plant-based) crème fraîche or whipped cream.

The filling can be made a day in advance and kept in the fridge. Fill and bake the pears on the day.

Vegan: amaretti usually contain egg white. Use crumbled plant-based ginger biscuits and 2 tablespoons of aquafaba instead of egg white.