An Australian Vegetarian Christmas… what?
It was 40 degrees Celcius on Christmas Day in Perth, Australia. I woke up early to exchange presents with my brother and his partner and then we got ready to go to our respective Christmas lunches. I spent the day at my Nanna’s house with her, my aunt and uncle and cousin. Knowing that I don’t eat meat, am lactose intolerant and have been trying to cut all animal products out of my lifestyle, my Nanna very kindly called ahead a few weeks before Christmas to find out what she could make for me.
Above left is a salad platter with multi-bean salad, pasta salad and coleslaw made with Vegannaise. Above right is a sliced Vegie Delight roast from Sanitarium that my aunt and I shared, the alternative to the meats that were prepared for the others. It wasn’t anything flash, but it was really lovely to have a spread that catered for me as well, if you see the picture to the left, I certainly wasn’t missing out, with roast vegetables, the salads, baby beets, olives, cocktail onions and fresh vegetables as well. I was definitely full and it was so tasty that I ended up eating leftovers whilst having a Gossip Girl marathon most of the evening.
A few days later my brother and I had another family meal to attend, this time in the evening. Not as many options this time, with seafood featuring heavily, as well as ham, but I did get into the salad, roast vegetables, a grainy roll and I did actually sneak in a couple of oysters… I won’t go into the oyster thing now, but there is some debate currently about Vegans being able to eat oysters without ethical or environmental issues. I figured what the heck.
Dessert I did kind of miss out on this year because mince pies, Christmas pudding, and all of that featured pretty heavily. My Nanna had made meringues with strawberries and cream, so I ended up being content with strawberries, vegan sour cream and a sprinkling of sugar, plus a couple of dark chocolates to sweeten the end of the meal. Surprisingly not that much to drink at either meal, especially compared to the previous year, but I guess that can’t be too much of a bad thing.
I think next year I’m going to try and find some Veg*n orphans in Melbourne to share a Christmas dinner with, because I don’t think you should have to miss out just because you don’t consume animal products for whatever reason. Plus, who wants to slave over a hot oven in this kind of heat!
Comments
If you liked this, try these:
I love the idea of a vegan orphan Christmas dinner. Sign me up.