Three course vegetarian Christmas dinner

Are you a vegetarian or are you having a vegetarian friend over for dinner at Christmas? If you’re used to traditional Christmas dishes it might seem difficult to think of a festive vegetarian meal for the holidays. But trust me: you can make a very delicious three course Christmas dinner that is completely vegetarian!
On this page you’ll find my starter, main course and dessert for your Christmas dinner, all vegetarian!
From each course I also made a video, you’ll see them below the recipe. You can find all my food videos on my YouTube channel.

Starter
This savory pie in the Christmas colors green, red and white is very easy to make. All you need is three ingredients to get your guests in the Christmas spirit with this vegetarian starter! This dish is gluten free and you can make it vegan by replacing the ricotta cheese with soy yogurt mixed with vegan mayonnaise.

Vegetarian Christmas pie
Ingredients (4 people):

1 jar grilled peppers (465 grams/350grams)

1 bag fresh spinach (400 grams)

4 tbs ricotta cheese

Warm a skillet on medium heat, add some olive oil. Fry the spinach. Cut the grilled peppers in pieces. Place a cooking ring on a plate and put 1/4 of the spinach in. Use a spoon to lightly press it together. Add 1/4 of the grilled pepper pieces. Remove the cooking ring and repeat with 3 other plates. Put a scoop of ricotta cheese on top of each dish.

Main dish

This stuffed butternut squash is so colorful! Here you’ll also find the Christmas colors in the dish. Besides vegetarian, it’s also suitable for vegans if you skip the parmesan cheese at the end. You can replace the bulgur with quinoa to make this dish gluten free.

Stuffed butternut squash with bulgur
Ingredients (4 people):

2 butternut squashes

300 grams bulgur
600 ml vegetable broth
400 grams kale
6 tbs dried cranberries
optional: parmesan cheese

Cut both butternut squash in half lengthwise and remove the pits. Put them in an oven tray, spray with olive oil and bake for 45 minutes.
Put the bulgur together with the vegetable broth in a pan and let simmer on medium fire for 10 minutes. Add the kale, fry for 10 more minutes while stiring occasionally.

Put the bulgur in the butternut squash.

Optionally you can sprinkle it with parmesan cheese before serving.

Dessert

I’m going to be honest with you guys. I wanted to make red velvet cupcakes. I’ve never made red velvet cake before and it turns out that it’s not that easy to make. I hope I’m not the only one who messed up with this recipe! My cupcakes tasted great but they where nowhere near red! They were a light shade of pink. I’m just going to call them pink velvet Christmas cupcakes, but you should just add more food coloring if you want them to be red. I used 1 tablespoon and I guess you’ll definitely need 2 spoons of red food coloring. I do like my twist to the traditional white chocolate layer as I went for an easy meringue topping. No need to put them in the oven for hours, you’ll only need 10 minutes for my version!

‘Pink’ velvet meringue cupcakes
Ingredients (for 10 cupcakes)
170 grams (3/4 cups) white sugar
125 grams butter
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
150 grams (1 1/4 cups) self-rising flour
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
125 ml (1/2 cup) buttermilk
2 tablespoons red food coloring

4 egg whites
100 grams (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
100 grams (3/4 cup) powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a large bowl, mix together sugar, butter, and the egg. Add the food coloring and vinegar to the buttermilk in another bowl. Add the baking soda to the flour in a third bowl. Add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the sugar mixture. Mix well. Stir 1 teaspoon vanilla into batter. Pour the batter into 10 muffin tins.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until done. Remove from oven, and cool on wire racks.Use an electric mixer on high speed to beat the egg whites until loose and foamy, this will take about 2 minutes. With the motor running, gradually add the granulated sugar and beat until stiff. Shiny peaks will form, this will take about 5 minutes. Gradually add powdered sugar and beat for another 2 minutes. Don’t worry if the meringue will loose volume when you add the powdered sugar, it will regain it’s stiffness after mixing.
Spoon the meringue over over the cupcakes, swirling decoratively. I used 1 heaping tablespoon of meringue per cupcake. Use a kitchen torch to toast the meringue.