Traditionally the main meal for a festive lunch will be turkey with bacon-wrapped sausages and all the trimmings. But don’t despair if you’ve got a veggie to feed, because health food shops are a good source when it comes to offering a wide variety of meat alternatives, plus all the major supermarkets now have meat free sections. You can also log onto http://www.vegsoc.org  for lots of Vegetarian ideas. Here are some Vegetarian recipe ideas for you to try and a couple of Vegetarian restaurants to visit.

Recipe Ideas

If you fancy yourself as bit of a Jamie Oliver, try one of these Vegetarian recipe ideas

Butternut Squash & Watercress Cannelloni - www.watercress.co.uk 

Serves 6

Prep: 20mins. Cooking: 25-30 mins

Ingredients you will need:

15ml/1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

675g/11/2lb butternut squash, washed and deseeded

5ml/1 tsp dried sage

150ml/1/4pt dry white wine

200ml/7floz vegetable stock

2 (85g) bag watercress, roughly chopped

25g/1oz toasted pinenuts

100g/4oz gorgonzola cheese, crumbled

1 (300g) pack fresh lasagne sheets

1 (680g) jar passata with basil

50g/2oz freshly grated parmesan cheese

15ml/1tbsp pine nuts

1. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan; add the onion and sauté over a medium heat for 6 mins or until pale golden. Meanwhile, cut the unpeeled butternut squash into 3-4cm cubes. Add the garlic and squash to the pan and cook for 1 min.
2. Add sage, wine and stock. Season well with salt and pepper. Cover the pan and simmer for 20mins or until the squash is tender. Drain off any excess liquid and reserve. Use a fork to lightly mash the squash; stir in the watercress, gorgonzola and half the parmesan cheese the pine nuts. Set aside.
3. Preheat the oven to 200c/fan 180C/gas Mark 6. Lay the lasagne sheets out on the work surface and divide the squash mixture evenly placing it in a line at the end of each sheet of lasagne. Now roll up each sheet of lasagne to make a neat cannelloni roll then place seam side down in a greased ovenproof dish.
4. When all the rolls are in the dish, pour over the passata, scatter over the remaining cheese and pinenuts. Bake for 25-30mins or until golden and the pasta is tender. Serve hot with a watercress salad.

Tofu nut roast with Swiss chard and goat’s cheese served with soya creamed sprouts    www.provamel.co.uk 

Serves: 4

Prep: 1hr 20 mins. Cooking: 40 mins

Ingredients you will need for the soya nut roast:

2 small red onions, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 sticks finely chopped celery

160g cashew nuts

160g hazelnuts

160g cooked sprouts

200g Provamel tofu blocks

80g dried cranberries

100g breadcrumbs

1 x medium egg

20 fresh sage leaves, shredded

6 sprigs of thyme, stalks removed

Handful of chopped flat leaf parsley

Zest and juice of one lemon

300g rainbow chard or spinach

100g goat’s cheese

1 tbsp sunflower oil

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Butter, for greasing the tin

 Ingredients you will need for the creamed sprouts:

400g sprouts

120g ready-to-use chestnuts, roughly chopped

Knob of butter

2 tbsp Provamel soya cream

Salt and pepper

Oven temperature: 190 ºC/375ºF/Gas Mark 5

-       1. Preheat the oven.

-       2. Add the hazelnut and cashew nuts to a frying pan with 1 tbsp of sunflower oil and toast over a moderate heat, shaking the pan to brown the nuts all over.

-       3. Add the nuts to a food processor along with the chestnuts and tofu; pulse until mixture is broken up into smaller pieces but still leaving some chunky bits behind.

4.In a frying pan sauté the onion, garlic and celery along with the herbs until soft and just  beginning to take on colour.

-       5. In a mixing bowl add the nut and tofu mix along with the onion, celery and garlic mix and combine with the breadcrumbs, cranberries and the juice and zest of the lemon, salt and pepper and the egg.

-       6. In another pan wilt the Swiss chard and dress the leaves with a tbsp of extra virgin olive oil.

7. Grease and line a 1lb loaf tin, add half the mixture to the tin packing the mix down with the back of a spoon, layer in the chard and slice or crumble the goats cheese.  Add the remaining mixture to the tin and pack down.

-       8. Place the tin in the oven and cook for 30-40 mins until brown on the outside and cooked through. 

9. While the nut roast is cooking prepare the sprouts, by firstly trimming them, next simmer gently in salted water for 8 -10 mins.

-       10. Drain and add to a food processor along with the soya cream and a knob of butter and pulse several times until you have a rough creamy puree.

11. Slice the nut roast and serve with the creamed sprouts.

Tip/Serving Suggestion:

Serve with cranberry and port sauce and some roasted sweet potatoes for a complete roast dinner.  As an alternative to using a loaf tin, make individual roasts in small pudding moulds, cook for half the time of the loaf.

Ready Meals

Don’t worry if you’re not good in the kitchen, these ready meals will taste just as good:

Goodlife, The Root Vegetable Roast, £2.00 

The Root Vegetable Roast is a great alternative to traditional roast meat. Root vegetables are mixed with red onion marmalade and chunky nuts, finished off with a fruity Cumberland sauce.

Available in Sainsburys nationwide.  www.goodlife.co.uk 

Taste the Difference Mushroom & Nut Roast with Spinach & Ricotta Sauce, £3.00

This hand-pressed loaf is made using cashew nuts and almonds. It’s slow roasted with butter and fresh thyme, with added fresh mushrooms, served with creamy spinach and ricotta cheese sauce.

www.sainsburys.co.uk

Delicious Desserts

Ditch the diet for a day and try one of these delicious desserts -

Baked Rice Pudding with Brown Sugared Plums.  www.lactofree.co.uk

This nostalgic rice pudding recipe provides the goodness of calcium as well as providing one of your 5-a-day fruit and veg portions. It is low in fat and although sugar is added, some of the sweetness comes from the sugars naturally present in the plums. If you or anyone is lactose-intolerant, use Lactofree instead of whole milk.

Serves 4

Ingredients you will need:

1 teaspoon sunflower oil

85g ‘round’ pudding- rice washed

40g caster sugar

750ml Lactofree or Semi-Skimmed milk

1 vanilla pod split (optional)

For the topping

450g plums washed halved and stoned

30g demerara sugar

1. Pre heat oven to 160/c Gas 3. Use the oil to grease a shallow oven proof dish.

2. Place the rice, sugar, Lactofree and vanilla pod in the dish and stir to combine.

3. Place in the oven until the rice pudding is golden, creamy and cooked (approx 2 / 2 ½ hours).

4. Remove from the oven and increase the oven temp to 200c/ Gas mark 6. Lay the halved plums over the surface of the rice pudding (cut side up) and scatter over the demerara sugar.

5. Return to the oven for a further 10/15 minutes or until the plums are tender and bubbling hot.

Vanilla Custard
This homemade custard is has less than 10% sugar and surprisingly considering its rich and creamy taste, it contains only 2.1g saturated fat per serving.

Serves 4-6

3 medium egg yolks
40g/ 1 ½ oz caster sugar
2tsp cornflour
600ml/ 1 pint Lactofree/ semi-skimmed milk
10ml/2tsp vanilla extract

1. In a bowl, whisk together the yolks, sugar and cornflour.
2. Place the lacto free in a pan and bring to the boil. Pour over the egg yolk mixture, stirring well.
3. Pour the mixture into a clean pan and bring slowly to the boil, stirring all the time. Reduce heat and gently simmer for 1 minute or until thickened.
4. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.

Snack

With so many movies to watch you’re going to need some snacks.

Kettle Chips Red Onion Chutney £1.59 for 150g bag 

Tuck into a packet or two of these Kettle Chips, they’ve even introduced a flavour just for Christmas Red Onion Chutney. Red Onion Chutney is suitable for vegetarians, vegans and coeliacs.

 Cupcakes £1.65/£1.40

These Vanilla cup cakes are made with a raspberry sauce centre and topped with off with fondant icing.

They are suitable for vegetarians and have no animal derivatives; it does contain eggs and dairy.

www.costa.co.uk

Hamper Heaven

Save yourself some time and have your food delivered to you by Fruit for Thought. Fruit for Thought offer 100% organic, totally vegetarian all British Hampers - with free same day delivery to London office addresses! They offer a variety of different hampers including: Office Fruit Boxes, Fruity Extras, Dairy, Nuts dried fruits and snacks.

And to encourage you to eat more fruit they have launched their ‘Eat More Fruit’ campaign. You can have a 25 piece mixed fruit box for only £9.50, delivered free of charge to your London office.

Keep up to date on any special offers through Twitter@Fruit4Thought.

www.fruitforthought.co.uk

Restaurants

If you have vegetarian guests and want to take them out for a meal, these restaurants are very veggie-friendly.

Saf Restaurant & Bar in Shoreditch.

They offer two lovely festive Menu options, option 1 includes 3 courses of Starter, Main and Dessert and option 2 has 5 courses, a Starter, Greens, the Main course, the Dessert and a Finale.

152-154 Curtain Road - Shoreditch London EC2A 3AT. 020 76130007 - www.safrestaurant.co.uk

Tibits

Tibits officially declared itself a “Turkey Free Zone”  this year and will be serving their individual version of a vegetarian roast dinner. They are taking bookings for a two-course set menu for £12.50 and a three-course set menu for £16.  Celebrity diners include Stella McCartney, Alan Davies, Leona Lewis and Lisa Snowden, so if you are out shopping in central London, pop in. Try a freshly-squeezed Christmas juice with mandarins, dates and cinnamon or to really warm your cockles, have a hot glass of mulled wine. Customers can get a badge too, with their donations going to The Wildwood Trust – a bird conservation charity based in Kent.

12-14 Heddon Street, London W1B 4DA - off Regent Street.  0207 758 4110 - www.tibits.co.uk