It’s Christmas! Well, nearly. Last weekend I travelled (oh yes) to Bristol to celebrate with my Dad and family, since he is leaving (on my birthday) for New Zealand over Christmas.
This was my first Christmas as a vegan, and it went exceedingly well. I’m lucky to have a step-mum who is very organised and accomodating, although she did not let me try and make my first nut roast in the morning while she was co-ordinating the turkey, two different pans of roasting potatoes (one in duck fat and one not!), various boiling pans, starters, guests and presents, so I had a fake roast from Linda McCartney’s range. Which has egg in. Sainsburys does not have the greatest range of vegan fake meats. I did not know this. Almost everything has egg in.
Next year I think I will make a nut roast, or similar Christmas appropriate meal, beforehand, and reheat it in the morning.
I spent most of the meal fielding questions about What I Eat, with my uncle deciding I must mostly eat potatoes and my second cousin saying something about my diet being boring. I showed them when I produced my desert, prepared the evening before as I know the recipe off by heart and we happened to stop by a whole foods store where I picked up oatly cream and my dad picked up their organic, free range turkey.
Chocolate Tarte!
Almost everyone had a sliver (they were, of course, saving themselves for the Christmas pud) and pronounced it ‘very nice’. That’s because it’s made with craploads of dark chocolate, mmm, yeah.
For the base:
2oz butter
4oz brown sugar (muscavado)
6oz dark chocolate, melted
8oz plain flour
Mix butter and sugar, add melted chocolate, add flour. Grease pan, roll out cookie dough, and squish it in. 180 degrees for 12 minutes.
For chocolatey bit:
Carton of soy/oat cream
Melted dark chocolate
Icing sugar/cinnamon to taste.
Mix all together. Pour into cooled base. Stick in fridge. Chill ’til edible.
Easiest, most delicious, desert in the world.
I think the way to do Christmas, if you are a visitor of family rather than a hoster of Christmas, is to make it as easy as possible for said family to accomodate you. Email them any specific food requirements beforehand (like cumin. My family don’t have cumin!) and don’t expect there to be any room in the oven on Christmas day, because turkeys are fat. Also, whip up your BEST vegan desert to waft under people’s noses right after the obligatory ‘You live on rice?’ comment. Mmm, yeah.
Merry Christmas!
Amelia
Travelling Vegan 