I’m charged with coming up with a vegetarian main course for over the festive season. Whilst we eat a goodly number of veggie meals, none of our usual recipes seem quite right for a celebration. I’m also constrained by the requirement for this to be , broadly speaking, from a European tradition - so no east or south Asian dishes.
Any thoughts?
Do you make pasta? If so, one of my favorite recipes is the Port and Mushroom Lasagna from Fields of Greens. It’s an all day recipe. Looks like the recipe was copied online.
Also on the dough theme, my neighbors growing up always made Pierogis at Christmas time. The recipe.
Giant popovers, split open, napped with a mushroom/sherry/shallot/gruyere
cream sauce.
Oh, that sounds good!
If you are sticking with European, your best bet are dishes like this that don’t conjure up versions of the dish that would taste better with meat 
Individual spanakopitas? Or vegetarian baked pastas?
Er, meat?
Can you hide it somehow ?
Maultaschen, Ravioli, Lasagne…
No! What a terrible suggestion.
Sorry I just don’t get vegetarian, not my thing.
Tofurky and fake pate, Boca burgers, just awful.
Umm…you need to broaden your horizons. Vegetarians aren’t all about Tofurkey. Also, try being a little less judgmental and more accepting. Not everyone wants to eat dead, likely abused animal flesh.
A vegetarian wellington is perfect and feels festive, there are lots of recipes out there that are really complicated and time consuming but i like a more simple version like this where you get individual portions which feel special
http://deliciousdishesrecipes.com/vegetarian-portobello-wellingtons/
Baked stuffed sqash like an acorn squash, or red kuri, or whatever kind you like. Lots of variations out there but a mix of some veg with wild rice and nuts is great, a half of the squash is a generous serving usually.
Anything with truffles!
Another thought
The fantastic cauliflower cake from Ottolenghi would be great, i never did find or use nigella seeds and just omitted them
I know that vegetarian nut roasts are very popular in England, lot of recipes out there that range from simple to really complicated.
I eat meat but also enjoy a lot of vegetarian meals.
I think the biggest mistake people make when attempting to eat vegetarian meals is diving into the meat analogs, which taste nothing like the meat that they are used to and don’t particularly taste good to vegetarians either.
There are some awesome mushroom dishes out there and I just whipped up a sweet potato and black bean chili for a potluck tomorrow that is super tasty! It tastes nothing like a meat based chili, which I also like but has great flavor.
How about a “Rotolo di Spinach” the classic Italian rolled pasta dish?
The River Cafe (sorry for the Torygraph link but it does comes from their Blue book 
) recipe is pretty good and you could enrich it with added wild mushroom in addition to the porcini. Fresh wild mushrooms would add that touch of luxury if you can get them.
Its a good celebration dish because you can do all the prep in advance, wrap it in a cloth then hold it ion the fridge until it gets the final 20 minute cook in a water bath.
It slices nicely at the table and can be dressed with sage butter and good parmesan (make certain you get veggie as most parmesan has animal rennet) making for a grand presentation.
My big mistake when I made this was to use a tea towel with a blue stripe - I ended up with tie die Rotolo - it tasted OK but looked awful.
How about Robuchon’s famous tomato, pepper and basil tart? I made it once, it was quite time consuming, and very impressive and quite delicious. The problem: it won’t be easy to find great tomatoes in winter.
TARTE FRIANDE AUX TOMATES, POIVRONS ET BASILIC (recipe)
If not, there is another dish from Robuchon, with potatoes and truffles salad with lamb’s lettuce.
SALADE DE MÂCHE, POMMES DE TERRE ET TRUFFES (recipe)
If you need the full recipe, I have the book, can send you the page.
Broccoli or spinach soufflé. Not so time consuming but from my experience fairly unique for a dinner party. A nice salad to accompany. Possibly a light soup course to start.
I’ve made that cauliflower cake and was not at all impressed.
Mushrooms can be quite polarizing so I would want to know my guests well prior to serving a mushroom centric dish.
