Christmas Salads

It is so difficult to believe that I am writing about Christmas again. The year has been long and fast all at the same time. What do you do for Christmas? If you have been following my blog for a long time you will see that I have been through many phases at Christmas. It was only last year that I decided to really embrace Christmas. To be honest, for me as an adult Christmas has often been quite lonely and, when I could, I chose to work on Christmas day. It feels good now, embracing it and making sure I do something special.

A few years ago, I made a Mexican Themed Christmas which was a lot of fun. This year it is unclear what I will be doing on the 25th so I have decided to revert to what we did when I was growing up and make some salads, so I am prepared for whatever eventuates. In fact, I will make the two salads I share with you in this blog today as they are my favourites at the moment. I have nut roast balls and a lovely chilli sauce bottled up (recipe share next week, don’t miss out). I will make cashew cheese and crackers and carrot lox and then along with these salads I will be all set for possible visitors, or if I get invited somewhere else.

Here are also some Christmas recipes from other years and below this week’s recipe are some Christmas gift ideas if you are still looking for that special something for your loved ones. I will be back next week with the chilli sauce recipe but in case you don’t read next week’s blog or newsletter I wish you a very happy holiday season and take this opportunity to thank you for reading and hopefully cooking from my blog this year.

Traditional Christmas Recipes

2 more Christmas salads

More delicious Christmas fare including Vegan Trifle

Nut roast Wellington with Cranberry Sauce

Red Christmas Salad

Ingredients

1 pomegranate (seeds removed from skin) or if can’t get then 1 punnet of strawberries or cubed watermelon

400g cherry tomatoes quartered

1 cup of cooked Madagascar beans or kidney beans

1 red onion finely sliced

2 garlic cloves minced

Splash of olive oil

½ cup pitted and chopped Kalamata olives

½ cup of roasted nuts of your choice

½ cup of parsley leaves

2 tsp pomegranate molasses

Juice of ½ to 1 lemon

¼ cup olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Mix the pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, ¼ cup olive oil and salt and pepper together.
Place the splash of olive oil in a frying pan and heat for a minute or so then add the red onion and a couple of pinches of salt and cook for 3 minutes, then add the garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes.
Place the onion and dressing in a bowl and gently fold in all the other ingredients.

Note if you don’t eat this salad on the day of making the tomatoes will lose their juice and the salad will become more marinated and liquidy. If you prefer this not to happen only dress the salad just before eating.

Green Christmas Salad

Ingredients

1 large head of lettuce

2 bunches of asparagus (woody end snapped off)

1 bunch broccolini (each floret cut in half lengthways)

3 slices stale sour dough bread toasted and then cubed

¼ cup pine nuts toasted in a frying pan until they brown a little

1 cucumber deseeded and sliced

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

Eggy Dressing

½ cup malt free soy milk

½ tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes

½ to 1 tsp black salt

Pinch turmeric

Cracked black pepper

¾ cup sunflower oil

Juice of ½ lemon

Method

To make the dressing, place all the ingredients in a blender and blend until emulsified.
Place the olive oil and salt and pepper in a mixing bowl. Add the asparagus and broccolini and coat each piece with the oil. There won’t be much oil.
Chargrill the broccolini and asparagus.
Place the lettuce, chargrilled veg, cucumber, bread cubes and pine nuts in a salad bowl. Serve the dressing on the side.

The eggy dressing is inspired by the wonderful Nadia of The Vegan Italian

# If you make this recipe please share on facebook or instagram to #veetsvegancookingschool