These Vegan (vegetarian) Christmas dinner recipes are a mix of holiday classics, easy cozy vegan main dishes, vegan side dishes and starters, along with some popular holiday condiments like vegan Worcestershire sauce (gf), sage and onion seasoning, vegan heavy cream, and our favorite holiday drink! Let's get to the list.
Sometimes, it's a challenge to know what to cook for Christmas if you don't eat meat/dairy (or your guests don't). I've been there, I know what it's like. So if you're in charge of the Christmas feast this year but don't know what to make, here's a few vegan/vegetarian Christmas dishes to try that everyone will love!
You probably already have your favorite veggie side dishes like glazed carrots, cauliflower and cheese sauce, sweet potatoes, and green bean casserole covered already. So here's a roundup of other fabulous Christmas recipes (many are gluten free as well!). I hope you'll find a few new favorites too!
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Vegan Appetizers/Starters
The BEST Vegan Sausage Rolls
If I could choose only one appetizer for a holiday party, these vegan sausage rolls are IT! They are sought after and loved by all eaters! Made with a meaty, savory filling of mushrooms and onions and rolled in tender, flaky puff pastry, they are baked to golden crispy perfection. It's everyone's favorite vegan starter for Christmas!
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Vegan Soup & Salad
Here's a few of our favorite, super flavorful and colorful holiday salads and soups. You can find more vegan starters on the blog.
Shaved Brussels Sprouts Crunch Salad
The most craveable crunchy flavorful Brussels sprouts salad ever! Made with pomegranates, pistachios, and toasted ramen noodles for extra crunch - this salad is a showstopper! Easy to make, this festive winter salad is tossed with the prettiest and most delicious, creamy pomegranate balsamic vinaigrette. Gluten Free
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Christmas Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing
A family favorite salad for Christmas dinner, this salad is packed with lots of crunchy veggies, pomegranate seeds and apples, candied nuts, and quinoa all tossed in a delicious honey mustard dressing.
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Easy Spicy Cauliflower Curry Soup
This vegan cauliflower rice and mushroom soup is our favorite to serve on Christmas Eve (buffet style). The there's tons of texture and the rich, creamy broth is exploding with savory flavor and just a kiss of heat! This flavorful soup will make your tastebuds sing. Perfect for holiday dinners! Gluten Free
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Vegan Side Dishes
When you first decide to follow a vegan lifestyle, sometimes the only options (especially when eating out) are the side dishes so they're important!
Show Stopping Whole Roasted Cauliflower!
Move over, turkey - there’s a new star on the dinner table! This gorgeous whole roasted cauliflower is perfection: tender and golden slathered with creamy tahini and spicy zhoug sauces. Then garnished with ruby red pomegranate jewels and crunchy pistachios. We're absolutely obsessed with this saucy creamy crunchy spicy sweet flavor bomb (and it's so pretty)!
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Easy & Elegant Duchess Potatoes
Duchess potatoes are an elegant, deceptively easy side dish for Christmas (or New Year's eve)! Creamy mashed potatoes piped into swirls then baked until crispy and golden on the outside and rich and fluffy on the inside. The texture combination is irresistible and addictive! A show-stopping, make-ahead, freezer-friendly potato recipe perfect for the holidays!
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Fluffy, Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Learn how surprisingly quick & easy it is to make mashed potatoes from scratch. Super fluffy, creamy and flavorful, they are dairy free, gluten free, and vegan. Simple enough for everyday, but fancy enough for holiday dinners!
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Buttery Vegan Stuffing Recipe
This savory vegan stuffing recipe (dressing recipe) is an essential side dish on our Christmas table. It's made with only a few simple ingredients, and takes under 20 minutes to get into the oven. Plus there's a few secrets that make this vegan stuffing recipe better than the rest . . .
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How to Make THE BEST Vegan Gravy!
Learn how to make full-flavored mushroom gravy without any drippings and no lumps! This vegan gravy is easy to make, is loaded with holiday flavor, and is make ahead friendly. It's incredible drizzled on everything from vegan turkey and mashed potatoes to homemade biscuits and fries! GF Option
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Easy, Festive Cranberry Sauce
This sweet and tangy homemade cranberry sauce is so much better than canned cranberries. Plus it's incredibly easy, stress free, and make ahead friendly! Grab a bag of fresh or frozen cranberries and let's get making the prettiest, low sugar cranberry sauce.
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Crispy Brussels Sprouts Recipe (2 ways)
Easy to make, super flavorful, crispy Brussels sprouts made two ways - oven roasted and deep fried. Perfect served as a vegan appetizer/starter, a side dish for the holidays or a quick and easy weeknight meal. Gluten FreePlus I've included Nana's famous vegan sauce for dipping!
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Soft Vegan Dinner Rolls
These soft, fluffy, buttery dinner rolls are absolutely incredible. They are melt-in-your mouth tender and ridiculously flavorful! The crusty version is a carby bread lovers dream come true served hot out of oven with butter, as a side for dinner, and they make THE BEST DANG hamburger buns ever!
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These soft and fluffy vegan dinner rolls are so easy to make using all purpose refrigerator dough. Make the bread dough up to 14 days in advance, then enjoy freshly baked dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, vegan pizza, pitas, and so much more in no time. It's a foolproof bread recipe perfect for beginners and seasoned pros alike.
Vegan Christmas Dinner (main dishes)
Some of our favorite main dishes for Christmas include savory vegan/vegetarian versions of turkey, Shepherd's pie, cabbage rolls, and pasta dishes. Here's a few of our current favorites:
Vegan Turkey for Thanksgiving or Christmas
This vegan turkey is made from shaved tofu perfectly seasoned with sage and onion seasoning. It takes only 15 minutes to make, and has all the flavors and textures you've come to expect from a traditional turkey dinner (but no turkey!). Super meaty, juicy, and tender but also some irresistibly crispy edges. Everyone in the family loves this shaved vegan holiday roast smothered in vegan turkey gravy. I think you will too!
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Vegan Lasagna with Béchamel Sauce
This vegan lasagna recipe is super luxurious! It's made with rich, red marinara sauce, thick creamy bechamel white sauce, meaty spinach and onion filling, and dairy free mozzarella cheese layered between tender lasagna noodles. Everyone LOVES this delicious vegan lasagna!
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How To Make Vegan Lasagna with a California Twist!
The most incredible vegan lasagna made with spicy Italian sausage, portobello mushrooms and roasted red peppers, dairy free 'goat' cheese sauce, and rich red marinara sauce. This is THE most requested vegan lasagna at our family holiday gatherings - for good reason!
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Easy Vegan Shepherd's Pie
This easy Vegan Shepherd's pie is a layer of hearty vegan mince topped with fluffy, garlic mashed potatoes baked to crispy golden perfection.An incredible vegan version of Gordon Ramsay's classic British Shepherd's pie recipe. Super flavorful, thick, rich, and oh so satisfying. Gluten free to boot!
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Quick and Creamy Vegan Mushroom Pasta
A simple, super flavorful, ultra creamy vegan mushroom pasta recipe. This luxurious vegan/vegetarian pasta meal comes together in under 30 minutes! It's a healthy, hearty, creamy vegan pasta recipe to serve during the week or as a side dish during the holidays - everyone LOVES it! Gluten Free Friendly
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Vegan Desserts
Who can resist a little something sweet after dinner? Here's a few of our favorite vegan Christmas desserts that are easy to make, can be made ahead, and the leftovers are delicious for breakfast!
Easy Apple Galette on Puff Pastry
Incredible vegan apple galette made with golden flaky puff pastry and an irresistible Dutch crumble topping. Faster and easier than apple pie, this vegan apple tart is simple enough for Sunday dinner or make it fancy with a scoop of dairy-free ice cream and a drizzle of vegan caramel sauce for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner.
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The Best Vegan Apple Crumble
This vegan apple crumble (crisp) recipe is super delicious and easy to make. It's a combination of cinnamon spiced apples topped with a double helping of crispy oat clusters. It's a long-time family favorite vegan dessert at Christmas.
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Best Vegan Monkey Bread (easy + indulgent)
This vegan monkey bread recipe is seriously delicious! It’s easy and fun to make from scratch using refrigerator dough. The soft and fluffy cinnamon bites are a cross between the gooey, sticky sweet center of a cinnamon roll and a vegan donut hole! Perfect for Sunday brunch or holiday dessert!
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Vegan Peanut Butter Cups
Ready in 20 minutes, these vegan peanut butter cups are super delicious and extra crunchy from peanuts and pretzel pieces. This vegan version of Reese's peanut butter cups is easy to make at home! (dairy free, gluten free)Be sure to hide one of two because these addictive, chocolate peanut butter cups are super popular at family get togethers and holiday gatherings!
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Vegan Christmas Cookies
Whether you need some cookies for a holiday cookie platter, teacher gift or to serve to family at friends at your Christmas dinner, here's a few of our favorite vegan Christmas cookies:
Easy Vegan Ginger Cookies (soft & chewy)
This soft gingerbread cookie recipe produces the chewiest, best tasting, vegan ginger cookies ever. For an extra special Christmas cookie, add a swirl of vegan cream cheese frosting on top. Yum!
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Soft Vegan Snickerdoodles
The best, soft vegan snickerdoodles you'll ever eat! The perfect, buttery cookie with crunchy cinnamon edges and soft and chewy middle. So easy to make in 25 minutes from start to finish and no chilling required!
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5 Minute Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting (Really Delicious!)
Creamy, tangy vegan cream cheese frosting made with 5 ingredients in just 5 minutes! This delicious tasting cream cheese frosting is perfectly spreadable, pipeable, and make-ahead friendly. Enjoy it on cookies, cupcakes, cakes, and more!
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Salted Caramel Millionaire Cookies
The most decadent vegan salted caramel and chocolate ganache shortbread cookies ever! Just like a millionaire shortbread bar, but deconstructed and vegan! These showstoppers are beyond indulgent - and everyone loves these vegan shortbread cookies!
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Favorite Holiday Cocktail
There are so many pretty and delicious festive drinks out there, and we like to try a new cocktail recipe (or two) every year. My sister and I LOVE this one from Half Baked Harvest!
The Spicy Sweet Grinch Cocktail.
Keeping things festive and fun with Half Baked Harvest's Spicy Sweet Grinch Cocktail.
It’s a touch of sweet and a little bit spicy...perfectly fitting for “the Grinch”.
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Vegan Pantry Items
Here's a few pantry items typically in Christmas recipes, but can be difficult to find in some areas. I've also included my recipe for the most luxurious vegan heavy cream in the recipe card below.
Vegan Worcestershire Sauce (GF)
Homemade vegan Worcestershire sauce has all the salty, sour, umami flavors with just a kiss of sweetness as the original Worcestershire, but no anchovies (and no gluten)! It's the perfect vegan alternative to Worcestershire sauce adding a ton of flavor to vegan Caesar salad, bloody Mary's, tofu marinades, and sauces like chili, Shepherd's pie, and vegan spaghetti. Gluten Free
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Sage & Onion Seasoning Blend
The perfect savory, sage and onion seasoning for holiday side dishes like vegan turkey, vegan stuffing, and crispy potatoes. Easy and inexpensive to make, this is the most reached for seasoning blend in our pantry at Christmas.
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Christmas Morning
We love to do a buffet on Christmas morning with fruit salad, sourdough, eggs, hash browns and all the trimmings!
Christmas Morning Scrambled Eggs
This simple vegan tofu scramble is a delicious vegan option to scrambled eggs for breakfast (or dinner)! It's very similar in both taste, color and texture to scrambled eggs. Learn how to make the best vegan tofu scramble ever! It's an easy, high protein and fiber, low carb and fat, inexpensive, gluten free, vegan scrambled egg!
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The Crispiest Potatoes (Air Fried)
These potatoes are SOOO DANG delicious. Ultra crispy and flavorful, easy to make (and make ahead) and everyone loves them!
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Christmas Morning Pancakes (easy + fluffy)!
Quick and easy, soft and fluffy, these vegan buttermilk pancakes are so delicious you won't believe they're vegan! First batch ready to devour in just 10 minutes - the kids love them with fresh fruit and syrup!
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Easy Delicious Banana Bread
This vegan banana bread is so easy to make and it's delicious too. Make it ahead ready for Christmas morning. It's a great loaf to have on hand so the family can just grab a slice to enjoy before breakfast. (One less thing for you to worry about amidst the chaos of Christmas morning.)
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Vegan Heavy Cream Alternative
This vegan heavy cream substitute is so thick, rich, and luxurious. Easy to make with only 2 ingredients, it's a staple in my vegan kitchen and an essential in dairy-free kitchens. Stir it into soups, sauces, and vegan desserts for extra creaminess. And it makes THE BEST, dairy-free cream for coffee and homemade vegan caramel sauce!
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INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups raw cashews, unsalted
- 2 ¼ cups cold filtered water
INSTRUCTIONS
- Place the cashews in a large bowl or container and cover with room temperature water. Let soak on the counter for 4-6 hours until plump and soft or cover and place in the the fridge overnight.
- Drain and rinse the cashews. Place the soaked cashews in a high-speed blender with 2 ¼ cups cold water and blend for several minutes until super creamy and all the nuts are completely blended. Scrape down the sides of the blender if needed.
- Transfer to a jar with a lid. Store in the fridge for 5-6 days - shake before using. Add more water as needed for desired consistency (1 tablespoonful at a time).
NOTES
- Store in the refrigerator in a jar or container for 5-6 days.
- Freeze for up to 6 months. I like to pour the heavy cream into ice cube trays and then once frozen, transfer to a freezer bag with a label. Add frozen to soups, stews or sauces for extra creaminess. Or defrost first then stir or blend* before using as a coffee creamer or in any recipe that calls for heavy cream. *Add a tablespoonful or two of water while blending if needed to correct consistency.
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