Thanksgiving is one meal. Christmas is four, spread across two or three days, with a few weeks of baking before any of it starts. That is the real planning problem, and it is why this page is organized by when you eat rather than by course.
Thirty-one recipes, all ours and all cooked in this kitchen. A few of them also sit on our Thanksgiving menu. Where that happens it is the same recipe and we say so, instead of dressing it up as a second one.
Start at the top. The cookies are the only part with a real deadline.
The Cookie Tin, Which Starts in Early December
This is the part most Christmas menus leave out, and the only part that has to happen weeks ahead. Nine recipes, and seven of them are sweetened by dates and dried fruit alone. The cinnamon cookies add a liquid sweetener on top of the dates, and the mini snickers take theirs from the chocolate you melt over them.
Four of the nine are baked and five are pressed and chilled. That split is what decides how far ahead you can work. The baked four behave like cookies and sit in a tin. The chilled five live in the refrigerator, so they want a shelf rather than a cupboard.
1. Whole Wheat Cinnamon Cookies
A tablespoon of cinnamon, a teaspoon of ginger and 3 tablespoons of carob, in a whole wheat dough with ground walnuts. 40 cookies in 25 minutes, which makes this the batch to bake if you are giving any away.
Carob instead of cocoa is what keeps them mellow next to that much spice. This is the closest thing on the site to a traditional spiced Christmas cookie.
2. Easy Oat Pumpkin Cookies
Cooked pumpkin, ground walnuts, oats and a cup and a half of dates. 35 to 40 cookies in 40 minutes.
Half a cup of orange juice is the only liquid in the whole thing, and it is what stops them tasting flat. Also on our Thanksgiving menu, unchanged.
3. Easy Oatmeal Walnut Cookies
Walnuts, dates, oats and shredded coconut, baked 10 to 12 minutes. 12 cookies, 17 minutes start to finish.
The dates are both the sweetener and the binder here, which is why there is no egg and no oil in them and nothing to replace.
4. Three-Ingredient Coconut Cookies
One ripe banana, three quarters of a cup of coconut shreds and a tablespoon of cocoa. That is the whole list. 6 cookies, 20 minutes.
The smallest batch on this page, and the one to make when a child wants to help. Nothing in it can go wrong.
5. Holiday Strawberry Bites
Strawberries and raspberries blended with cashews, almonds and soaked dates, rolled in ground cashews. 40 balls in 20 minutes, and no oven.
The biggest yield here for the least work. They keep in the refrigerator through the week, so this is the one to make on the 23rd and forget about.
6. Three-Ingredient Cranberry Snack Bites
Two cups of walnuts, three cups of dried cranberries and 3 tablespoons of sesame. 20 pieces in 10 minutes.
Three cups of cranberry to two of walnut is an unusual ratio, and it is why these come out tart instead of rich. Check the bag, though. Almost all dried cranberries are sweetened, so this is the one recipe in the section where sugar can arrive without you adding any.
7. Healthy Mini Vegan Snickers
Twenty dates, peanut butter, ground peanuts and melted dairy-free chocolate. Makes 20 in 15 minutes.
The date does the caramel and the nougat at the same time. The only added sugar is whatever is in the chocolate bar you buy, so that choice is the whole decision.
8. Cranberry Oatmeal Energy Bites
Oats, cashews, dried cranberries, coconut and three dates. Makes 9.
A smaller, softer version of number 6, with oats taking the place of half the nuts. Cheaper to make and easier to eat two of.
9. Raw Vegan Brownie Bites
Walnuts, five dates and cocoa. Eight bites in 10 minutes.
Blend the walnuts before the dates go in. The other way round, the dates coat the blades and nothing grinds.
Christmas Eve
The 24th wants to be lighter than the 25th, and it wants to be something you can leave on the stove while people arrive. Three soups and a bread, and all three soups get their creaminess from a whole food rather than cream.
10. Creamy Mushroom Soup
A pound of mushrooms with a cup of brown rice, carrots, celery and thyme. 40 minutes, serves 4.
The cream is a quarter cup of oats blended with a quarter cup of sunflower seeds and water, stirred in at the end. The rice is what turns it from a starter into a meal.
11. Creamy Parsnip and Cashew Soup
Seven ingredients: two parsnips, two potatoes, a carrot, an onion, half a cup of cashews, salt and pepper. 30 minutes.
Parsnips are sweet enough that this needs no sweetener and no stock. Seven ingredients, and two of them are salt and pepper.
12. Creamy Kale Potato Soup
Five potatoes, four cups of kale, celery root and a third of a cup of cashews. Serves 6, the largest of the three soups.
De-stem the kale properly. The stems stay tough long after the leaves have gone soft, and they are the difference between a smooth soup and a stringy one.
13. Spinach and Onion Whole Grain Bread
Two onions and three handfuls of spinach worked into a whole wheat yeast dough, finished with sesame. 50 minutes, 10 servings.
Green through the crumb, which is the point of it on a table. It goes with all three soups above and takes the oven while nothing else needs it.
Christmas Morning
The meal Thanksgiving does not have, and the one nobody plans. It has to be either made the night before or genuinely fast, because on the 25th the oven belongs to dinner.
14. Overnight Oats with Strawberries
Oats, plant milk, chia, five dates and thawed strawberries. Five minutes of work, all of it the night before.
Make one jar per person on Christmas Eve and the morning takes care of itself. Nothing here needs heat, a pan or your attention.
15. Whole Wheat Crepes
Ten crepes in 25 minutes, from whole wheat flour, water, one date, 2 tablespoons of ground flax and 3 of ground chia.
The flax and chia together are doing what eggs would, which is why these hold when you turn them. Cook them on a hot dry pan and the first one will still be the practice one.
16. Baked Oatmeal with Blueberries
Oats, plant milk, a banana, dates, cacao and a cup of frozen blueberries. 30 minutes, serves 4.
One dish, four people, no plating. Assemble it on Christmas Eve, refrigerate it, and put it in the oven while presents are happening.
17. Homemade Granola
Oats, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, coconut flakes and raisins, bound with half a cup of fresh orange juice. 25 minutes.
Orange juice does the job that oil does in every other granola, which is to carry the spice and let things crisp. Make it in early December and it also solves the problem of what to put in a jar for somebody.
18. Tofu Scramble with Roasted Peppers
Shredded tofu with roasted red peppers, tomatoes, onion and turmeric. 25 minutes, serves 2.
The savory option, for the people at the table who do not want a sweet breakfast. Turmeric is doing the color and the peppers are doing the flavor.
Christmas Dinner
Four centerpieces and five things to put around them. Pick one centerpiece, not two. The rest of the table is what makes it a dinner.
19. Vegan Chickpea Meatloaf
Three cups of chickpeas with chickpea flour and a quarter cup of ground flax, glazed with ketchup. 55 minutes and it serves 8 to 10, the largest yield of any main here.
It slices, which is the thing a centerpiece has to do. Also on our Thanksgiving menu, and it is the same recipe.
20. Baked Beans with Mushrooms
Eleven ounces of giant beans with 18 ounces of mushrooms, carrots, cumin and thyme. 40 minutes, serves 4.
More mushroom than bean by weight, which is what gives it the dark, savory depth people expect from a Christmas main. Not on the Thanksgiving page.
21. Bean and Leek Casserole
White kidney beans with four leeks, celery, carrot and tomato. 30 minutes, serves 4.
Four leeks is a lot of leek, and it is deliberate. They collapse to sweetness in a way onions do not, which is why this is the winter version of a bean bake.
22. Red Lentil and Quinoa Stuffed Squash
Red kuri or acorn squash filled with quinoa, red lentils, corn, peas and sun-dried tomato. 40 minutes, serves 2.
The one that looks like an occasion on the plate, and it scales by simply roasting more squash. Also on our Thanksgiving menu.
23. Oven Roasted Potatoes
Two and a half pounds of small gold potatoes with basil, dried onion, garlic powder and paprika. Six ingredients, 40 minutes, serves 8 to 10.
No oil, which means the seasoning has to go on dry and generously. This is the dish that makes the table look like Christmas.
24. Creamy Garlic Potatoes in a Skillet
Potatoes in a tahini, garlic, dill and lime sauce, cooked entirely on the stovetop. 30 minutes.
This one never needs the oven, which on Christmas Day is the only thing about it that matters. If you are already roasting a squash and a tray of potatoes, this is the third dish that fits.
25. Oil-Free Roasted Cauliflower
A pound of cauliflower with smoked paprika, turmeric, garlic powder and salt. Five ingredients, 30 minutes.
Smoked paprika is doing most of the work. It is the seasoning that most convincingly replaces the browning you would get from fat.
26. Peppers in Tomato Sauce
Eight red peppers and ten tomatoes cooked down over three cups of beans. 50 minutes, and it is a side that eats like a main.
The beans are the reason to put this on a Christmas table rather than a summer one. It also reheats better than anything else in this section.
27. Easy Vegan Cashew Cheese
Soaked cashews set with a teaspoon of agar agar, with nutritional yeast, cider vinegar and onion and garlic powder. 10 minutes of work, 8 servings.
The agar is what makes it slice instead of spread, and it is the one ingredient here you probably have to go and buy. The cashews need soaking at least 4 hours or overnight, so this is a dish you start the day before.
The Days After
Between Christmas and New Year nobody wants to cook another dinner, but people still eat all day. What that week actually needs is a pot of something and things to put on bread.
28. Bean and Lentil Soup
Three cups of beans and a cup of lentils with potato, pepper, tomato, cumin, coriander and paprika.
The pot to make on the 26th. Leftover roast potatoes, squash or cauliflower go straight in, which is why it sits down here and not up with the Christmas Eve soups.
29. Easy Hummus
Two and a half cups of chickpeas with tahini, lemon, garlic and a third of a cup of water. Seven ingredients, 10 minutes.
No oil, so the tahini carries the fat and the water does the texture. Make a double batch on the 26th and it disappears by the 28th.
30. Ten-Minute Bean Dip
A can of butter beans with tahini and two dates, seasoned with paprika, cumin, onion and garlic powder. Serves 3.
One can, one blender, ten minutes, nothing bought fresh. On the 27th that is the entire specification.
31. No Knead Einkorn Bread
Six ingredients: einkorn flour, yeast, warm water, a teaspoon of sugar, salt and sunflower seeds. About 85 minutes, most of it waiting.
No kneading, so the work is five minutes and the rest is the dough sitting there. Whatever is in the refrigerator goes on it.
When to Make Each Part
Almost nothing here has to happen on the 25th. Working backwards:
- Early December. The four baked cookies and the granola. These are the ones that sit in a tin and the ones you can give away.
- The week before. The five chilled cookie recipes, which want refrigerator space rather than time.
- Two days before. Put the cashew cheese cashews in to soak. It is the only dish on this page with an overnight step you cannot rush.
- Christmas Eve, daytime. One of the soups and the spinach bread. The soup is better the next day anyway.
- Christmas Eve, before bed. The overnight oats, or assemble the baked oatmeal so it only needs the oven.
- Christmas Day. One centerpiece, the roast potatoes, and the cauliflower. The skillet potatoes if you need a third dish, because they never touch the oven.
- The 26th. The bean and lentil soup, with whatever roast vegetables are left in it.
The Oven Is the Constraint
Taking the meat out of Christmas dinner does not solve the oven problem, it just moves it. A squash, a tray of potatoes and a cauliflower all want the same shelf at the same temperature at the same time.
The skillet potatoes, all three soups and the cashew cheese never go near the oven. Build the meal outward from whichever single dish has to be roasted, and the rest will fit around it.
If roasting without oil is the part you are unsure about, our guide to cooking without oil covers what actually replaces it on a hot tray.
