40 Incredible Vegetarian Christmas Dinner Recipes for Your Holiday Menu (2024)

FAQs

How much veg per person for Christmas dinner? ›

How much veg is too much? Whether it's parsnips, sprouts, braised cabbage or carrots, 80g of each per person will do the trick.

You likely will want to choose a main first, like a turkey, Christmas ham, casserole or other show-stopping dishes. Then, you can compliment your main with Christmas side dishes and holiday appetizers. And of course, you can't forget about sweet Christmas desserts and festive co*cktails to sip on throughout the night!

Traditional Christmas dinner features turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and vegetables. Other types of poultry, roast beef, or ham, are also used. Pumpkin or apple pie, raisin pudding, Christmas pudding, or fruitcake are staples for dessert.

Prep your veg the night before

If you've got lots of space in your fridge (unlikely), you could even pre-cook your potatoes and parsnips on Christmas Eve to save even more time.

Ready veg

Don't be peeling veg on Christmas Day – do it all the day before, advises Smith. “All other veg that you're going to boil or roast from raw can be peeled and prepped the day before, then stored in water in the fridge – parsnips, carrots etc,” he says.

Depending on where you're from, when it comes to Christmas, we're sure you've got enough classic recipes to fill a book. Across the U.S., everyone's got their favorites: prime rib, rolls, gingerbread cookies.

What is the most popular item on a Christmas dinner plate? ›

Roast potatoes and gravy are the most ubiquitous items on the Christmas dinner, with only around half opting for turkey.

The bread is broken by the head of the household and begins the meal, which consists of 12 courses including sauerkraut with gravy, pierogi, halupki made with mushrooms and rice, fish, dry fruit, beans , peas, honey and other dishes.

Roast turkey and ham are popular for Christmas dinner throughout the country, but depending on the region, so are tamales, roast goose with red cabbage, crawfish jambalaya, roast pork or “seven fishes” seafood salad.

In Southern and Central Italy, baked pasta is a must. In Northern Italy, Lasagne Bolognese and filled pasta like manicotti and ravioli are traditional Christmas fare. Next comes the main event, the meat. Roasted veal, baked chicken, sausages or braised beef are common Natale entrées worth celebrating.

As a general rule, you can plan for about 1/2 to 1 cup of vegetables per person for a side dish, and 2 to 3 cups per person for a main dish. For 25 people, you would need 12.5 to 25 cups of vegetables for a side dish, or 50 to 75 cups of vegetables for a main dish.

A serving of raw vegetables is one cup, while a serving of cooked or juiced vegetables is half a cup. “Vegetables naturally have water, so they shrink when you cook them. That's why it's a little bit less,” Rosemond says. Both men and women should aim for at least two and a half servings of vegetables a day.

A standard serve is about 75g (100–350kJ) or: ½ cup cooked green or orange vegetables (for example, broccoli, spinach, carrots or pumpkin) ½ cup cooked dried or canned beans, peas or lentils (preferably with no added salt) 1 cup green leafy or raw salad vegetables.

A five-pound bag of carrots will feed 20 as a side dish, with 1/2 cup carrots per serving. If feeding elderly (who eat smaller servings) or children, or if serving as part of a self-serve buffet with a selection of other dishes, then 5 lbs carrots can stretch to feed 25 people.