I wish you a veggie christmas

Do you think a christmas dinner is always unhealthy? Do you find it difficult to think of vegetarian or even vegan dishes for your christmas menu?
I’ve got you covered! I’m sharing the recipes of my healthy, vegetarian 3-course christmas dinner with you. This dinner looks festive, tastes great and is both healthy as animal friendly!

Starter: Beet Tartare
For 4 appetizers, cut 300 grams (2 cups) of cooked beets in small cubes. Mix in a bowl with 2 tablespoons pickles, 4 tablespoons parsley and 1 red onion, all finely chopped. Stir in 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste. Use a round mould and spoon the mixture onto 4 plates. Decorate the red beet tartare with samphire and goat cheese balls. Replace the goat cheese balls by a few cubes of avocado to make this beet tartare suitable for vegans.

Main: Red Beet Risotto
More beets, I know. They’re just so tasty and the red color is great in christmas dishes! This recipe is for four servings. Cut 1 red onion in small pieces, mix it with 2 cloves of garlic and 300 grams (10 ounce) red beets, both finely chopped. Heat a tablespoon olive oil in a frying pan and fry the mixture together with 250 grams (9 ounce) risotto rice and 4 table spoons of balsamic vinegar for a couple of minutes. Bit by bit, add 800 ml (3 cups) of vegetable broth, this should take about 20 minutes. Optionally you can stir in 4 tablespoons of cream cheese, the dish will then no longer be vegan of course. Turn off the heat and leave to stand for a couple of minutes with a lid on the pan. You can sprinkle the risotto with parmesan cheese if the dish doesn’t need to be vegan.

Dessert: Star Cake
This dessert will be the star of your meal. Literally! I have to admit that this dish is not very healthy, although with around 300 calories per serving, it’s not a calorie bomb either. Because you already spent enough time in the kitchen at christmas, I choose the easy version for this dessert. I used a store bought vanilla cake and made the chocolate cake with a baking mix. But if you have the time and you feel adventurous, feel free to make both the cakes from scratch! You can check my tutorial video or use the recipe below.
I cut the vanilla cake in slice and cut a star out every slice with a cookie cutter. Then I made the batter for the chocolate cake.
As I said, I used a baking mix and just added butter, eggs and 4 tablespoons of cocoa powder.  I spread a thin layer of chocolate batter in the greased cake pan and lined the cut out stars on it. Then I filled the cake pan with the remaining chocolate batter. I baked it at 155ºC (310ºF) for 50 minutes.