Be brave and try something new this year, go for it and cook my menu for your family dinner. For the first course, there is a beetroot cream soup, second avocado-mango tartar on a rocket salad bed and for the main course eggplant stuffed with red lentils and eggplant pulp, for dessert caramelized apple with Christmas spices. May I suggest starting with a light sparkling aperitif and a nice and smooth red wine to accompany the dinner. This is a light, delicious and healthy menu that will satisfy you and your family. Merry Christmas!

Red Lentils

Wash the lentils and drain them in a sieve. Chop the onion, garlic and cut the carrots into small cubes. Put the oil in a cooking pot, add the onions first, then the garlic and carrots and last the lentils, and cover them with water.

Put the spices in and let everything cook for 20 minutes, at the end add salt and pepper and a bit of lemon juice.

Ingredients for 4 people

• 250 g Red lentils
• 1 Red onion
• 4-5 Garlic cloves
• 2 Carrots
• Sunflower or olive oil
• Lemon juice

Spices:

• ½ tsp Coriander
• 1 tsp Cumin
• ½ tsp Paprika
• ¼ tsp Turmeric
• 1 tsp Provence herbs
• Salt and pepper

Eggplant

Half the eggplant lengthwise and scoop the pulp out with a spoon leaving about 2cm. Cut the pulp into small pieces and put them aside.

Brush the inside of the eggplant with Italian tomato sauce and put it in the oven for 15 minutes at 160°C. Now put the eggplant pulp in a small pot with oil and stir fry for 5 minutes, then add the tomato sauce.

Take the eggplant out of the oven and fill the halves with red lentils and put the eggplant pulp on top. Place the filled halves back in the oven and bake them for another 15 minutes.

Ingredients for four people:

• 2 middle-sized eggplants
• Italian tomato sauce (bio can or self-made)

Caramelized Apple

Cut the apple into small cubes, put them in a cooking pot and add little water. Add the spices letting them cook until the apples are soft and let them cool down, then remove the star anise and the cloves. Now crush the cookies into small pieces.

First, put a layer of cookies, then a layer of apple and lastly a layer of yoghurt into the dessert glasses. You can decorate your dessert with almonds and a cherry or raspberry. Put the desserts in the fridge for at least two hours.

Ingredients for four people:

• 4 Apples
• Vegan dry cookies
• Vanilla yoghurt
• ¼ tsp Cardamom
• ¼ tsp Cinnamon
• 1 Star anise
• 3 Cloves
• Water
• Almond, Cherry or raspberry (decoration)

Christmas Spice Cake

Put all the dry ingredients and the spices into a bowl and mix it well, then blend the milk with the plum jam, add to the bowl and mix it briefly*.

Heat the oven to 200°C Grease the baking tin with coconut oil, dust it with flour, then pour the batter into the tin and bake for 25 minutes. While the cake is in the oven you can melt the chocolate**.

Take the cake out of the oven, add the plum jam and the chocolate couverture when the cake is still warm and let it cool down and solidify.

*Tip: If the batter is mixed for too long, the cake can become tough and rubbery.

**Put the Chocolate in a pot and warm the pot in a water bath.

Ingredients:

• 350g wheat flour mixed with whole-grain flour
• 100g brown sugar
• 1 small pack of baking powder
• 30g baking cacao
• 100ml oat or soy milk
• 50g plum jam
• For the couverture 100g plum jam, 150g dark chocolate

Spices

• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp cardamom
• ¼ tsp ginger powder
• ½ tsp anise powder
• ½ tsp cloves powder
• ¼ tsp nutmeg powder
• A pinch of salt
• Coconut oil

This article was written for Tomorrow Algarve
https://tomorrowalgarve.com/dec-2022-a-vegan-christmas/