This festive menu includes a stunning blueberry burrata caprese salad, a harissa spiced cauliflower, chickpea and purple sweet potato sheet pan dinner, a garden focaccia like no other, and chocolate ginger cookies studded with dried cherries. Try it as a non-traditional approach to serving a holiday meal or any other time you want to dazzle your friends or family with a plant powered meal. Here I share the idea and give you the option to buy the meal plan for just $4.99.
Sometimes creating vegetarian versions of traditional holiday foods doesn’t pan out or can leave one underwhelmed. I say, lean into the plant powered nature of a vegetarian meal and embrace new recipes. After all, the idea of a holiday meal is to bring friends and family together around enjoying a meal together, and I can assure you, serving these four recipes together at the table will be delightful and delicious. You can simply access the recipes through links below, but for $4.99, you can download a 7 page pdf that outlines everything you need to make it happen with ease.
What you’ll love about this holiday menu!
🍽️ It’s Vegetarian! If you’re pumped to eat more vegetables, a great way to start is by eating a vegetarian meal that focuses on a variety of vegetables (nine different veggies in this meal!)
🍽️ Organization: I’ve spent the time organizing the shopping list, including on-hand pantry items, with quantities, costs, and substitutions all in one easy to use grocery list, saving you hours. I’ve also spent the time creating the work flow for prepping and cooking all the recipes in a coordinated manner, down to the minute, so you can make a special meal with ease and confidence.
🍽️ Flavor: sometimes holiday meals can be comforting but a bit bland. Here I’ve included lots of flavors, from a blueberry vinaigrette, to harissa seasoned vegetables, to caramelized veggies and topping it off with gingery chocolate cookies studded with dried cherries.
🍽️ Serves 4: often holiday recipes feed a crowd and are huge! To minimize waste, and fit what I think is a more common trend of smaller gatherings, this meal plan serves 4. Feel free to double for 8 if you are entertaining a crowd (or triple it for twelve). The timing to prepare will increase, of course.
🍽️ Timing: this meal comes together in 3.5 hours (your active prep time is 1hr 20min) with about an hour spent prepping three components ahead of time (1-3 days ahead). It would be even shorter, but it includes a simple focaccia you let rise twice for 1 hour each time.
🍽️ Cost: the meal plan only costs $4.99. All four recipes are already available on my site, if you do not wish to purchase the plan. For $4.99 you can save yourself hours of time organizing ingredients, shopping and figuring out how to bring it all together at once, not to mention the creative energy required to come up with the original recipes that work well together to create something new and festive for your friends or family.
🍽️ Quick shop option: in each recipe card there is a link to purchase the ingredients from Instacart, if you like. Super convenient, super quick (I do earn a small affiliate fee if you use the link to shop in the recipe card)
The recipes for this menu
Click through below the bulleted list to access the four recipes as follows:
- Appetizer Salad: Burrata Caprese with Peaches, Arugula and Blueberry Vinaigrette
- Main: Whole Cauliflower Sheet Pan Dinner
- Side: Garden Focaccia
- Dessert: Chocolate Ginger Cookies with Dried Cherries
The cost of this meal
- Based on shopping at a basic grocery store, the cost of this meal that serves four is $60 ($15 per person). You can see how your costs compare in the pdf.
- I used Instacart and Wholefoods prices before the fees were added in. You may likely get the ingredients for less (or more if you shop at a smaller bodega in the city or farmer’s market).
- The pantry staples cost the least, including more expensive ones like cocoa powder, that you won’t use too much of.
- The most expensive ingredients for this meal tend to be the fresh herbs (not always, but basil often is), peaches (slightly out of season but a nice treat for a holiday meal if you can get them- the salad is fine without them), cauliflower (entire head), cherry tomatoes, sweet potatoes (not always- often the purple “Stokes” ones are more), dark chocolate, arugula, burrata and shiitake mushrooms.
- Remember that I offer substitutions for many of the ingredients in case you want to choose a less expensive option.
What’s included in the meal plan
If you are ambitious, you can simply access the four recipes above and make them together for a great meal, or purchase my meal plan pdf to save yourself from stressing over how to organize the meal prep to bring it all together and to save hours organizing the ingredients for all four recipes. My meal plan includes:
- One alphabetical grocery list organized by department, for all four recipes that includes quantities and substitutions all in one place.
- Meal cost by ingredients, based on how much you’ll likely have to buy as well as how much you’ll actually use (i.e. if you need to buy an entire bag of frozen blueberries but only need 1/4 cup for the vinaigrette recipe). This can help you further plan if you have any of the ingredients on hand already.
- Pantry essentials and their quantities so you know if you have enough on hand of the everyday items like spices and condiments.
- Meal prep details, down to the minute with step by step instructions of what to make when in order to have all four recipes ready to serve at once (3.5 hours total, with 1.5 hours active time).
- Make ahead prep details for 3 components (vinaigrette, yogurt topping, cookies) that can be prepared 1-3 days ahead of time.
- The equipment and serving dishes you will need to make and serve this meal!
Purchase vegetarian holiday meal plan
At the same time, you can get my FREEBIE – 15 Smoothie recipes that include vegetables as well as fruit in all the colors of the rainbow. They are based on yogurt (can sub plant-based), each with veg, fruits, healthy fats + superfood ingredients.
