Traditional Christmas Meals made Vegan 

• Place sweet potatoes in a large pot and fill with water until they’re just covered. Bring to a boil over high heat. Then reduce to medium-high heat and cook for 15-20 minutes or until they slide off a knife very easily.

• Once cooked, drain and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Use a masher or fork to mash until smooth (see photo). Add coconut oil and season with salt and pepper to taste. Depending on the sweetness of sweet potatoes, add a bit of maple syrup to taste (optional). Loosely cover and set aside.
• While potatoes are cooking, preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 C) and lightly grease a 9×13-inch (or similar size) baking dish (or more baking dishes, as needed, if altering batch size).
• If adding (optional), add portobello mushrooms to a shallow dish or large Ziplock bag. Top with balsamic vinegar, oil (optional), salt, pepper, and garlic. Toss to combine and let marinate for 5 minutes.
• Next heat a large pot over medium heat. Once hot, add oil, onions, and garlic and sauté until lightly browned and caramelised – about 4-5 minutes.
• Add a pinch each salt and pepper. Then add lentils, vegetable broth, and thyme and stir. Bring to a low boil. Then reduce heat to simmer. Continue cooking until lentils are tender (20-30 minutes).
• (If adding mushrooms) while lentils cook, heat a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add a dash of oil and the mushrooms with their marinade. Spread into an even layer and cook on one side for 2-3 minutes. Then carefully flip and cook on other side for 2-3 minutes. Then remove from heat and set aside.
• In the last 10 minutes of cooking the lentils, add the frozen veggies, stir, and cover to meld the flavours together. Drain off any extra vegetable stock (there shouldn’t be much). Taste and adjust flavour as needed, adding more salt and pepper for overall flavour.
• Transfer the lentil mixture to your oven-safe baking dish and top with portobello mushrooms (optional) then mashed sweet potatoes. Smooth down with a spoon or fork and season with another crack of pepper and a little sea salt (and more thyme if desired).
• Set on a baking sheet to catch any overflow and bake for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are lightly browned on top and the edges are bubbling.
• Let cool briefly before serving. The longer it sits, the more it will thicken. Let cool completely before covering, and then store in the fridge up to 4-5 days or in the freezer up to 1 month. Reheats well in the microwave or in the oven.

Notes

• In a large mixing bowl, prepare flax egg by mixing flax and water and letting rest for 5 minutes.
• Add softened butter, molasses, almond butter, brown sugar, salt, spices, baking soda and beat on low with a mixer, or vigorously whisk.
• Add gluten free baking mix to the wet ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon. Stir until well combined. Your dough should hold its shape when pressed, but not feel dry. I found that 1.5 cups (amount as original recipe is written // adjust if altering batch size) was about the perfect amount, but this will depend on your blend.
• Cover and chill dough for at least one hour (preferably overnight).
• Once chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees (176 C). Carefully roll out dough to a little thicker than 1/8 inch between two sheets of plastic wrap or parchment/wax paper, generously sprinkling the bottom layer and the top of the dough with white or brown rice flour before rolling. You don’t want it too thin or they’ll be too crisp.

• Remove top sheet and, working quickly, dip your cookie cutters in rice flour and cut out shapes. Next, lift the plastic wrap (with all of the dough) and place it on a baking sheet or large plate and freeze for 5 minutes to let them firm up. This will make them easier to transfer to your baking sheet for baking.
• Next, use a lightly floured spatula to carefully transfer the cookies to a baking sheet, working quickly. Leave 2 inches for spreading.
• Bake for 8-10 minutes or until they appear only slightly browned on the edges. They’ll continue firming up as they sit on the pan. Let rest on the pan for 2-3 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
• Once cooled, decorate with frosting or sprinkle with powdered sugar. I think a perfect, simple frosting option is piping on a mix of 2 cups icing sugar, 1 Tbsp melted butter, and 1-2 Tbsp almond milk (amounts as original recipe is written // adjust if altering batch size). Just make sure it’s on the thicker side so it doesn’t run.
• Store covered at room temperature for several days. Freeze for longer term storage. The batch should make between 25-35 cookies, depending on the size of your cookie cutter / or if you decide not to cut them and roll them into balls.

Notes

If you don’t want to cut them out into shapes (as it is a bit onerous with the dough being so tender), after chilling, simply roll 1 Tbsp amounts of dough into balls, freeze for 5 minutes, then bake for 10-12 minutes.

• You ideally need to prepare the mincemeat the day before you bake the vegan mince pies. Start by placing the currants, raisins, sultanas, cranberries, mixed peel, soft brown sugar, almonds, coconut oil, grated bramley apple, spices and orange zest and juice in a large saucepan.
• Heat gently, stirring, until the coconut oil has melted then simmer very gently, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes.
• Remove from the heat, allow to cool a little then stir in the booze of your choice. Ladle it into two large, or four regular sized sterilised jars and set aside until completely cold (overnight is best).
• To make the coconut oil pastry, place the flour, icing sugar, salt and orange zest in a food processor and pulse to combine.
• Add the cold, diced coconut oil and blend until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Make sure that no lumps of coconut oil remain; you may need to blend it in two batches if your food processor isn’t very big.
• Add the cold vodka and 2 Tbsp water and blend again until the pastry starts to come together. You can add a drop more water if needed. Bring the pastry together with your hands.
• Roll the pastry out thinly on a lightly floured surface and use an approx 10-11cm cutter to cut out rounds (I cut round the base of a small tart tin with a sharp knife as I don’t have a cutter big enough). It may be easier to roll out a quarter of the pastry at a time rather than all of it in one go. (If the pastry is too soft then you can pop it in the fridge for 15 minutes to firm up a little but don’t let it get too cold or it will be hard to roll out.)
• Line a 12 cup muffin tray with strips of baking parchment – this makes it easy to get the baked vegan mince pies out of the tin. Gently press the pastry rounds into the prepared tin.
• Fill each one with a heaped spoonful of the mincemeat – be generous but don’t fill them right to the top as it will bubble up as it cooks.
• Re-roll the pastry trimmings and use a cutter the same size as the cavities in your muffin tin to cut out six rounds. Use a star cutter to cut a star out of the centre of each round.
• Top each of the mince pies with either a star or a round. If you are topping them with a round then brush the edge of the pastry with water and press the top down firmly around the edge to seal.
• Place the tray of mince pies in the freezer for 20 minutes while you preheat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5.
• Brush the tops of the mince pies with a little non-dairy milk then bake for 25-30 minutes until golden and bubbling. Use the strips of baking parchment to lift them out of the tin onto a wire rack and leave to cool before eating. Don’t leave them to cool in the tin as any mincemeat that bubbles over will cement them in!

Notes