Individual Luxury Festive Roasts Vegan Holiday Recipe
October is one of my favorite months. And I know many others who adore this gorgeous month. The colors, the smells, and the excitement of the impending holiday season seem to puts a spark in our soul. This year has been rough on all of us and it’s heartwarming to have something joyful to look forward to. The music, the decorations, the movies, the get-togethers, the gifts, and of course the delicious food. Oh, the yummy food.
The holidays wouldn’t be as delightful without the mouthwatering flavors of the season. While some like to stick to their traditional holiday meals and desserts, others like to venture out and experiment with different recipes to add some diversity and unique tastes to the table. As a vegan, I look for festive plant-based recipes that my whole family will enjoy and the Viva Deliciously Vegan Christmas Guide offers a variety of them.
Vegan doesn’t mean boring or bland. The recipes in the Vegan Christmas Guide are refined to reflect the essence of and incorporate the scrumptious flavors of the holiday season. One of their recipes is the Individual Luxury Festive Roasts and I’m sharing it below. Enjoy this delicious recipe!
Individual Luxury Festive Roasts
- 3 tbsp Olive oil or oil of your choice, plus extra for frying
- 1 large Onion, chopped finely
- 2 medium Tomatoes, roughly chopped
- ½ tsp Allspice or nutmeg
- 30 g Wholemeal flour (or GF flour or 1tbsp corn flour or arrowroot)
- 140 ml Vegan stock
- 2-3 tbsp Soy or tamari sauce
- 250 g mixed unsalted nuts of choice
- 85 g Wholemeal breadcrumbs
- 8 sundried tomatoes from a jar, chopped roughly with scissors
- 1 tsp Dried mixed herbs
- 1 bunch Parsley chopped or food processed
- 2 tbsp Flax meal (ground flaxseed) mixed with 4 tbsp of warm water – this makes a flax egg
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 200 g Fresh or frozen (defrosted) cranberries
- 2 tbsp Soft light brown sugar
- Decoration Pine nuts or flaked almonds to scatter on top with fresh rosemary sprigs or sage leaves (optional)
Fry the onion in oil until tender. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes.
Add the flour and cook it into the mixture for a minute and stir in the stock, stirring constantly to avoid lumps. Remove from the heat.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F)
Food process the nuts by pulsing gradually – avoid making a paste. Add the nuts to the onion and tomato mixture, together with all the other ingredients. Mix very thoroughly and divide into 4, 6 or 8 portions, depending on the size of your containers.
Oil individual containers – mini loaf tins for cutting rings (7cm- 3 inches in diameter and 1cm or ½ inch deep). Otherwise try muffin tins, mini casserole dishes or ramekins.
Place your containers on a non-stick baking tray (or line one with parchment). Spoon the mixture into each container and press down with the back of the spoon.
Bake for 20 – 30 minutes, checking after 20 that the nuts are getting too brown – if they are, cover the containers with baking paper or tin foil.
Test the loaf with a sharp knife or skewer to check if they are cooked in the middle.
Cook the sugar and the cranberries in a pan over a medium heat for 3 – 4 minutes.
Top each individual roast with the cranberry sauce and serve hot with all the trimmings.
Some of our family members and friends have food restrictions, allergies, and sensitivities, so we are careful to provide a healthy variety of scrumptious dishes so they can celebrate the holiday season with us. A lot of my family members are vegan or include a lot of plant-based dishes in their day-to-day meals. Vegan recipes have come a long way over the last few years even. Vegan chefs have stepped up their game and created holiday-inspired recipes like the Festive Loaves so non-meat eaters can enjoy a merry and tasty Christmas. Vegan recipes are easy to prepare, kind to the environment, compassionate to animals, filled with health-promoting ingredients, and taste divine! I hope you will give some vegan recipes a try this holiday season.