Roundup
Our 34 Best Holiday Recipes (That Also Happen to Be Vegan)
You know what? You can please everyone this holiday season!
Many holiday recipes contain dairy, eggs, or meat (or all of the above). But what if you're not eating milk or eggs, or entertaining guests that aren't, or simply want a short respite during the holidays before diving back in again?
Below are 34 of our best vegan holiday recipes—but with no sacrifice in flavor, heartiness, nor coziness—all smartly constructed, rigorously tested, enjoyed, and shared by members of the community. There's nary a sketchily retrofitted recipe in sight, just vegan dishes that happen to be.
1. Banana, Blueberry, and Pecan Pancakes
Cookbook author Anna Jones turns to these pancakes—hearty with oats, nuts, and fruit—when needing some space (but not too much) from sweets over the holiday season.
2. Pumpkin Christmas Bread
Christmas morning is not the time for an elaborate breakfast; it is time for opening gifts. Slathered with softened butter, fig jam, or softened cream cheese, this pumpkin loaf is the perfect fuel for opening gifts.
3. Pickled Prunes
Serve these sweet, sour, and spiced bites in the snacky hours before the big meal, with yogurt for breakfast, or over ice cream for dessert.
4. Mint Pistachio Pesto
Served alongside the Minted Pepper Salad below, this vegan pesto means you're halfway to a festive holiday board—just add crudités and bread.
5. Minted Pepper Salad
Look at the peppers, so cozily tucked in.
6. Vegan Pie Crust
Keep this one in your back pocket for when you're ready to make pie. The secret ingredient? Coconut oil.
7. Fig and Olive Tapenade
Serve this tapenade as part of a spread, or spread on the bottom of a tart shell for a base of great flavor.
8. Crispy Spice-Brined Pecans
Everyone loves edible gifts. And if you're looking to gift something really special this year, turn to community member AntoniaJames' spice-brined pecans. "At first glance," co-founders Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs write, "they appear raw and untouched, but one bite betrays that they're actually perfectly salted and spiced from within, and dried to a crisp."
9. Vegan Caesar Salad With Polenta Croutons
An endlessly riffable salad, starring a dairy (and anchovy!) free dressing.
10. Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pears and Pistachios
And endlessly riffable sprouts! Try this recipe with walnuts and cherries, pine nuts and figs, or almonds and cranberries.
11. Roasted Baby Turnips with Dijon-Shallot Vinaigrette and Tarragon
Cozy enough for pajama brunch, but elegant enough for a dinner party.
12. Roasted Cauliflower with Gremolata Bread Crumbs
Mix panko with herbs, lemon, and garlic for a versatile crispy-crunchy topping.
13. Chai Spice Snickerdoodles
Writer Priya Krishna thinks of these as her back-pocket cookies—just replace the whole milk with with oat, almond, or coconut.
14. Vegan Apple Crisp
For another wintry riff, try subbing the apples with pears and cranberries.
15. Vegan Chocolate Pie
Get lost in these swirls.
16. Vegan Chocolate Cake With Creamy Chocolate Filling
Psst, there's pumpkin in here.
17. Ovenly's Secretly Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
From the founders of Ovenly, come this "soft-bellied, chewy, caramelly-crisp-edged, rippled and ringed and puddled with melty chocolate, haunting, well-salted, incidentally vegan" cookie. Perfect for cookie swaps and packed lunches year-round.
18. Vegan Dark Chocolate Peppermint Truffles
Use half of the coconut milk can for these stunning edible gifts...
19. Frozen Vegan Coconut Chocolate Almond Bars
...and the other half for these stunning edible gifts!
20. Vegan Peanut Brittle
Once you learn how to brittle, it's hard not to brittle everything (nuts, seeds, chocolate, puffed grains).
21. Magic Shell
Watch as the pourable chocolate hardens into a thin shell over ice cream. Really, truly magical.
22. Almond Ice with Glazed Cherries
A perfectly wintry way to round out your dinner party menu.
23. Boozy Sour Cherries
Enjoy them on ice cream, and in cocktails, cookies, and truffles.
24. Orange Blossom Candied Cranberries
Blogger, CozyDelicious, says "these bright gems look beautiful in a glass bowl, and are so easy for your guests to pop in their mouths any time of day."
25. 2-Ingredient Toasted Marzipan Ice Cream
For this Genius-approved ice cream, all you need is marzipan and coconut milk! (And spoons.)
26. Roasted Cherry Sorbet
Recipe developer EmilyC writes that roasting cherries for this sorbet works two-fold: It intensifies the flavor and sweetness of even not-so-stellar cherries, and makes the simple syrup right there on the sheet pan.
27. Vegan Fool's Chocolate Gelato
Author Caroline Wright admits the grocery list for this recipe is "kind of crazy." But she also wants you to know it's "full of anti-inflammatory ingredients—maca, carob, and chicory—which all offer a wide array of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants."
28. Vegan Vanilla Bean Coconut Milk Ice Cream
"No one wants ice cream with ice crystals in it," says recipe developer Ashley McLaughlin. And so resulted this creamy, crystal-free ice cream base, thanks to arrowroot starch, liquid sweetener, and vodka.
29. Vegan Chocolate Sorbetto Cold Chocolate
We're not messing around.
30. Toasted Rice Chuhai
A stylish option for cocktail hour.
31. Vegan Egg Nog
Cookbook author Gena Hamshaw's version is made creamy with both cashew and coconut milk, and boozy with bourbon or rum.
32. Spiced Gløgg with Port Wine and Cointreau
Hot tip about this recipe, from our co-founders Amanda and Merrill: "Drink this soon after making, as it doesn't reheat well. But we doubt it will last that long anyhow. Cheers!"
33. Delicately Fragrant Mulled Cider
From recipe developer ody: "The recipe is a combination of ideas I found on the internet, inspiration from ingredients I happened to have on hand (the pear: a real winner), and memories of studding oranges with cloves as a child." Keep a pot of this going, all winter long, on your back burner or in a slow-cooker.
34. Hot Toddy with Dried Cherries and Lime
And lastly, another mug of cozies from Amanda: "It's a revitalizing antidote post-snow-shoveling, or post-holiday-anything. By the time you reach the bottom of the mug, the cherries are plumped up and boozy. Drink and treat in one—cheers!"
The Food52 Vegan Cookbook is here! With this book from Gena Hamshaw, anyone can learn how to eat more plants (and along the way, how to cook with and love cashew cheese, tofu, and nutritional yeast).
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