A vegetarian Christmas dinner is at its best when it stops apologising for the missing turkey and starts making the most of what meat-eaters never get: melting cheese, burnished pastry, a gravy thick with porcini. Below is a full menu built around two showstopping mains, a gravy worth the plate, every trimming made properly vegetarian, and a single-oven timing plan that actually lands at the same time as the meat.
Key takeaways
- The centrepiece: a mushroom and chestnut Wellington (40 min prep, 35 min bake) or, for no effort at all, a baked camembert studded with cranberries (5 min prep, 20 min bake).
- The hidden catch: several “vegetarian” staples are not. Parmesan, Grana Padano and Gorgonzola are made with calf rennet; Worcestershire sauce contains anchovies; traditional suet and gelatine are animal. Swaps are below.
- The gravy: dried porcini, miso and a knob of butter give a vegetarian gravy more savoury depth than most meat versions. The butter is the point — it is the one thing a vegan version cannot do.
- One veggie at a meat table: a single Wellington or a baked camembert feeds the vegetarian guest beautifully without you cooking two dinners.
- Strictly vegan instead? See our vegan Christmas dinner menu — no dairy, no eggs, no cheese.
The vegetarian Christmas menu at a glance
This is a menu for a relaxed sit-down at around two o’clock, the trimmings shared down the table. Everything here is designed to be cooked in one domestic oven, with as much as possible done the day before. Pick one main, or serve the baked camembert as a generous starter and the Wellington as the main if you are feeding a crowd.
- Centrepiece: Mushroom and chestnut Wellington or whole baked camembert with cranberries
- Gravy: Porcini and miso vegetarian gravy
- Trimmings: Roast potatoes in oil, honey-roast parsnips, sprouts with chestnuts, braised red cabbage, a cheese and sage stuffing, plus proper bread sauce
- To finish: Christmas pudding (check it is vegetarian — many use beef suet) with brandy butter
The showstopper
The centrepiece main: a mushroom and chestnut Wellington
The Wellington is the vegetarian main that silences the table. Earthy mushrooms, sweet chestnuts and a layer of melting cheese inside burnished, egg-glazed puff pastry, it cuts into neat slices and looks like the centrepiece it is. The egg wash and the cheese are not incidental — they are exactly what a vegetarian cook can use and a vegan one cannot, and they are what give this its colour and richness.
The single most useful thing to know: a Wellington can be fully assembled a day ahead, kept in the fridge, then glazed and baked on the day. That takes the only fiddly job off your Christmas morning entirely.
Mushroom and Chestnut Wellington
Serves 6 · Prep 40 min · Chill 30 min · Bake 35 min at 200°C fan
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil and a knob of butter
- 500g chestnut mushrooms, finely chopped
- 250g portobello mushrooms, finely chopped
- 2 banana shallots and 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 200g cooked chestnuts, roughly chopped
- 100g fresh white breadcrumbs
- 100g vegetarian mature cheddar or a vegetarian hard cheese, grated
- 2 tsp chopped thyme and 1 tbsp chopped sage
- 1 tsp vegetarian Worcestershire-style sauce (the original contains anchovies)
- 320g sheet of all-butter puff pastry
- 1 egg, beaten, to glaze
Method
- Heat the oil and butter and cook the shallots and garlic gently for 5 minutes until soft. Add all the mushrooms and cook over a high heat for 12 to 15 minutes, until the liquid has cooked off and the mixture is dark and dry. This dryness matters: a wet filling makes soggy pastry.
- Stir in the chestnuts, breadcrumbs, cheese, herbs and vegetarian Worcestershire-style sauce. Season well and leave to cool completely.
- Shape the cold mixture into a firm log on a sheet of baking paper. Roll the pastry out a little, sit the log along one edge, and roll it up, sealing the join underneath. Chill for 30 minutes (or overnight).
- Heat the oven to 200°C fan. Glaze all over with beaten egg and score the top lightly. Bake for 35 minutes, until deep golden and crisp.
- Rest for 10 minutes before slicing, so it holds together on the plate.
Make ahead: assemble fully, wrap and chill for up to 24 hours. Take it out 30 minutes before baking, glaze, then bake as above.
The no-effort alternative
The effortless centrepiece: a whole baked camembert
If the idea of pastry on Christmas morning makes your heart sink, this is the answer. A whole camembert, scored, studded with garlic and rosemary, topped with cranberry sauce and baked for twenty minutes until molten, is as much a centrepiece as anything wrapped in pastry. Serve it in the middle of the table with the trimmings around it and let everyone dip. It is also the cleverest way to feed one vegetarian at a meat table, since it needs nothing more than five minutes and a corner of the oven.
Whole Baked Camembert with Cranberries
Serves 4 to share · Prep 5 min · Bake 20 min at 180°C fan
Ingredients
- 1 whole camembert in its wooden box (most supermarket camembert is vegetarian — check the label)
- 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
- A few small sprigs of rosemary
- 2 tbsp cranberry sauce
- A handful of fresh or frozen cranberries (optional)
- A grind of black pepper and a drizzle of honey
- Toasted sourdough or crusty bread, to serve
Method
- Heat the oven to 180°C fan. Unwrap the cheese, then sit it back in the base of its wooden box (or a small baking dish) and score the top in a criss-cross.
- Push slivers of garlic and small sprigs of rosemary into the scored top. Spoon over the cranberry sauce, scatter the cranberries, add black pepper and a drizzle of honey.
- Bake for 20 minutes, until the centre is completely molten when you press it.
- Serve at once with toasted bread for dipping.
The gravy
The vegetarian gravy that makes the plate
Vegetarian gravy fails when it tastes thin and apologetic. It succeeds when you build savoury depth from somewhere other than meat juices: dried porcini, miso and a spoon of Marmite do exactly that, and a final knob of butter gives it the glossy body a meat gravy gets from fat. That butter is the vegetarian advantage. Make this ahead — gravy is one less thing to stir while the Wellington rests.
Porcini and Miso Vegetarian Gravy
Makes enough for 6 · Prep 10 min · Cook 25 min
Ingredients
- 15g dried porcini mushrooms
- 500ml boiling water
- 1 tbsp olive oil and 30g butter
- 2 onions, thinly sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- 1 tbsp brown miso paste
- 1 tsp Marmite or a vegetarian yeast extract
- 1 tbsp redcurrant jelly
- 500ml vegetable stock (check it is vegetarian; many “chicken” stock cubes are, but read the label)
- A splash of red wine (optional; see the note on wine below)
Method
- Soak the porcini in the boiling water for 15 minutes. Lift them out, chop, and keep the soaking liquid.
- Cook the onions in the oil and butter over a low heat for 12 to 15 minutes, until deep gold and soft. Add the garlic and chopped porcini for the last 2 minutes.
- Stir in the flour, then the miso, Marmite and redcurrant jelly. Pour in the porcini liquid (leaving any grit behind), the vegetable stock and the wine if using.
- Simmer for 10 minutes until it coats the back of a spoon. Strain for a smooth gravy or leave the onions in. Whisk in a final knob of butter to finish.
Make ahead: cool and chill for up to 3 days, or freeze for a month. Reheat gently, loosening with a little water.
The catch nobody warns you about
The hidden non-vegetarian ingredients on the Christmas table
This is the part most vegetarian Christmas guides skip, and it is the part that catches people out. Several festive staples that look entirely vegetarian are not, because the animal ingredient is invisible on the plate. The classic example: Parmesan is not vegetarian, because the rules of Parmigiano Reggiano require animal rennet. None of this matters to a vegan cook, who avoids all dairy and eggs anyway, but for a vegetarian table it is exactly the detail that goes wrong. Here is what to watch, and the swap for each.
| What looks vegetarian | Why it often isn’t | The vegetarian swap |
|---|---|---|
| Parmesan, Grana Padano, Gorgonzola, pecorino | By their protected (PDO) rules these are made with animal rennet, taken from the stomach lining of young calves or, for pecorino, lambs, so they can never be vegetarian. | Use a labelled vegetarian hard cheese, or a vegetarian Italian-style hard cheese. Most British cheese now uses microbial or vegetable rennet and is fine. |
| Worcestershire sauce | The traditional recipe is fermented with anchovies, so it smuggles fish into a meat-free dish. | Buy a vegetarian or vegan Worcestershire-style sauce, now widely stocked. |
| Suet (in mincemeat, suet pastry, some stuffing) | Traditional suet is beef fat. | Use vegetable suet, sold next to the beef version and identical in use. |
| Christmas pudding and mince pies | Many use beef suet, and some glazes use gelatine. | Choose a pudding and mincemeat labelled vegetarian, or make your own with vegetable suet. |
| Gelatine (in some desserts, sweets, glazes) | Gelatine is made from animal bones and skin. | Use agar-agar or pectin to set, and check sweets such as the cheeseboard chutneys and jellies. |
| Some wines, beers and ciders | Many are fined (clarified) using isinglass, from fish, or gelatine. | Look for “suitable for vegetarians” on the label, or use a vegetarian-fined wine. |
| Gravy and stuffing | Both can hide chicken or turkey stock and meat fat. | Make the porcini gravy above and a meat-free stuffing; check stock cubes are vegetarian. |
The label habit worth keeping
Recipes and brands change. Treat the list above as where to look rather than a permanent ruling, and read the label on cheese, stock, suet, the pudding and any wine. The reassuring half of the story is that most British cheese is now made with non-animal rennet, so a vegetarian cheeseboard is easier than it was a decade ago.
The egg wash and the melting cheese are not incidental. They are exactly what a vegetarian cook can use, and a vegan one cannot.
The supporting cast
The trimmings, made properly vegetarian
The trimmings are where a vegetarian Christmas dinner is quietly won or lost. Most are already vegetarian; the trick is keeping them that way and giving them enough character to stand without the meat.
Roast potatoes and parsnips
Roast potatoes are vegetarian as long as you roast them in oil rather than goose fat or beef dripping, which some pubs and recipes still use. A neutral oil at a high heat gives just as crisp a result. Honey-roast the parsnips for a sweet edge that earns its place next to the cheese.
Sprouts with chestnuts
Brussels sprouts are transformed by chestnuts and a little butter; skip the usual bacon and you lose nothing. Shred and stir-fry them if you have sprout-sceptics at the table.
Braised red cabbage
Red cabbage with apple, cinnamon and a splash of vinegar is entirely vegetarian, improves for being made days ahead, and adds the sharp note a rich plate needs.
Stuffing
A sage, onion and chestnut stuffing, bound with breadcrumbs and a beaten egg, is a proper vegetarian version. Add a little crumbled vegetarian cheese for richness. Avoid shop stuffing mixes that list suet or meat fat.
Two dinners, or one
Feeding one vegetarian at a meat table
You do not need to cook two Christmas dinners. The whole point of both mains above is that they give the vegetarian guest a genuine centrepiece without doubling your work. The baked camembert needs five minutes and a corner of the oven; a single Wellington can be assembled the day before and baked alongside the meat. Serve every trimming in the vegetarian version and the whole table eats the same sides, which is easier for you and kinder to the one person who would otherwise be handed a plate of vegetables.
Doing it well without spending more
A vegetarian centrepiece can cost a fraction of the meat one. A baked camembert feeds four to share for the price of one supermarket cheese; the Wellington’s main cost is mushrooms and a sheet of pastry. Vegetable suet costs the same as beef. Own-brand vegetarian cheddar melts as well as the named version in cooked dishes, so save the good cheese for the board. For the toast, an alcohol-free fizz or a sharp cloudy apple juice cuts the richness of the cheese as well as any wine, and means the driver and the non-drinkers are looked after as a matter of course.
Getting it on the table
The make-ahead and single-oven timing plan
One oven, one cook, everything ready at two o’clock. The plan below works backwards from sitting down and reconciles exactly with the recipe times above. The day before, make the gravy and the red cabbage, assemble the Wellington, and parboil the potatoes and parsnips, so Christmas morning is mostly reheating and roasting.
The day before
- Make the porcini gravy; cool and chill.
- Braise the red cabbage; cool and chill.
- Assemble the Wellington; wrap and chill (do not glaze yet).
- Parboil and rough up the potatoes and parsnips; chill, ready to roast.
Your questions answered
Vegetarian Christmas dinner: your questions answered
Is Parmesan vegetarian?
No. Parmesan, properly Parmigiano Reggiano, is a protected (PDO) cheese whose rules require animal rennet, taken from the stomach lining of calves, so it can never be vegetarian. The same is true of Grana Padano, Gorgonzola and pecorino. Use a labelled vegetarian hard cheese instead; most British cheeses now use non-animal rennet and are suitable.
What is the best vegetarian main for Christmas dinner?
For a showstopper, a mushroom and chestnut Wellington carves at the table like a roast and can be made ahead. For no effort at all, a whole baked camembert studded with cranberries is a centrepiece in twenty minutes. Both are above, with full recipes.
Is Worcestershire sauce vegetarian?
Traditional Worcestershire sauce is not, because it is fermented with anchovies. Vegetarian and vegan versions are now widely sold, and any recipe here that calls for it means the vegetarian kind.
Is this vegetarian gravy actually good?
Yes. Dried porcini, miso and a little Marmite give it more savoury depth than many meat gravies, and a final knob of butter gives it body. The full recipe is above, and it can be made up to three days ahead.
Are roast potatoes vegetarian?
Only if they are roasted in oil. Goose fat and beef dripping, still used in some recipes and pubs, are not vegetarian. Roasted in a neutral oil at a high heat, they crisp up just as well.
Can you make a vegetarian Christmas dinner ahead?
Most of it, yes. Make the gravy and red cabbage and assemble the Wellington the day before; parboil the potatoes and parsnips. On the day you are mainly glazing, roasting and reheating. The timing plan above lays it out.
How do you feed one vegetarian without cooking two dinners?
Give them a baked camembert or a single Wellington as their centrepiece, and serve every trimming in its vegetarian version so the whole table eats the same sides. No second dinner required.
What if our guest is vegan, not vegetarian?
The cheese and egg in this menu mean it is not vegan. For a strictly plant-based table, follow our vegan Christmas dinner menu instead, with a nut roast centrepiece and a dairy-free gravy.
More of the Christmas table
Planning the whole spread? See our vegan Christmas dinner menu for plant-based guests, how to cook the perfect turkey crown for the meat-eaters at the same table, and the proper bread sauce to go alongside. For the wider plan, our December Christmas to-do list keeps the countdown on track.
Written by Linda Garrould. Updated 15 June 2026. This is general food guidance; ingredients and brands change, so always check the label on cheese, stock, suet, puddings and wine.
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