Saturday 9 December 2017

Ideas for a Vegan Christmas Dinner for under £10

2018 edit: I've just scanned through the veg prices and most seem to be axactly the same, however currently, loose parsnips and the bag of potatoes are actually cheaper! (17p a parsnip roughly and £1.09 for a bag of potatoes).

Hello! Christmas is an expensive time, but equally we want to enjoy the time we have with our loved ones! I'm seeing lots of people posting about Christmas dinner at the moment, so I thought I'd share my little tips and finds which may help make a delicious meal on a budget (whilst hopefully being easy too! Who wants to cook all day?! Well, me sometimes, but only to then partake in the eating!) I'm trying to stick to one shop for ease, I dislike it when things like this make you go to 1000 shops for one meal! I haven't factored in staples of salt, pepper or oil.

The Veg!

Thought I'd start with the basics. Veg! The simplest advice I have is to only buy what you need. By this, I mean don't be lured in by the big bags of veg, like carrots, unless you actually use them all the time. The bags can occasionally seem cheaper, for example whenever I buy a single courgette, it ends up cheaper to buy a pack of three. However more often than not just buying the individual (or wonky) veg is cheaper. You can buy lots of veg loose such as carrots, parsnips, onions, sprouts and potatoes. For example, Tesco online suggest carrots are 6p each (so a family of 4 it'd be 24p), Parsnips are 20p each (say 60p for a family of 4) brown onions are 16p each (64p for a baked onion each), sprouts are alarmingly priced per sprout at 4p...(so let's say 6 sprouts on a plate each, 96p), potatoes are 33p each (say a potato each for roasties, so £1.32. In this instance it may be worth getting a £1.35 2.5kg bag). You could always just roast the onions, carrots and parsnips together, they just need a drizzle of oil.

So for veg I've estimated £3.79. If you add a cauliflower for £1 it's £4.60. If you like peas, add 80p for value frozen peas. If you don't want so much onion, you could fry the peas with one onion to make them tasty!

Sauces!

Sauces are always nice for a roast and the following are vegan: Tesco free from cheese sauce packet mix at 59p (salt and pepper makes this pretty good I think!), Colman's bread sauce mix for 80p, Tesco own brand gravy granules for 70p (the vegetable and onion flavours are on their vegan list). You'll need plant milk for the cheese and bread sauce, value soya works fine at 59p.

Extras!

Stuffing mixes are often vegan, including Tesco own brand sage and onion stuffing mix 170g for 40p. This is a nice little side to add a different flavour to your meal.

Pudding!

Annoyingly, Tesco don't have mince pies this year, but Asda have even marked theirs vegan! They're 97p.


So I've got: Carrots, parsnips, onions, sprouts, potatoes, cauliflower, peas, stuffing, cheese sauce, bread sauce, gravy and mince pies for £9.56 for 4 people.

There are a lot of roasts available this year, such as nut roasts and Linda McCartney roasts at £3.50, as well as currently an offer on a bag of cooked chestnuts for £1 to make your sprouts a bit more fancy, depending on what your budget will allow!

I'm not really writing this to follow step by step, however it's to just gives little ideas to either add something that's not too pricey (like a little cheese sauce!) or ways to cut costs (like using a stuffing mix for a nice flavoursome extra).

Little tip!

Holland and Barrett have lots of vegan roast items, such as VBites 'gammon style', Frys celebration roasts and Tofurky roasts! These are usually quite expensive, but I have seen a fair few reduced due to a short shelf life (literally selling for pence). These can be frozen ready for Christmas day, so I recommend popping into your local H&B whenever you walk past just to see what may be available at a large reduction.

Other ideas for future Christmas

Usually Christmas bits such as napkins and crackers are heavily reduced in January, so it may be worth buying some this January ready for next year. This should save you a good few pounds and you'll still get the alarmingly small photo frame and playing cards next year!

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