I already start thinking about my Xmas dinner in the summer or even earlier. When I see something that inspires me, I write it down and then it might end up in my Xmas dinner that year. I always like to create several recipes, that make a full Xmas dinner all together. There is something that I always include though and that is brussels sprouts. Cuz I just LOVE them. I often prepare some extra veggies as well, like green beans and broccoli. Just to get your greens in, even at Xmas time. If you are curious what I made last year, please CLICK HERE. Or to see what I made 3 years ago, CLICK HERE. I really like this year’s desert though. It looks so festive and it’s super easy to make. I also like that you can put it in the middle of the table and everyone can share, instead of everyone having their own portion. This whole Xmas dinner is enough for about 4-6 people. You can double the recipes when you need it to be more or add more dishes. Whatever you are gong to make, I want to wish you a very Happy Xmas!! I hope you will have a lovely time, with lots of love, laughter and happy moments!
STARTER
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Pea Spirulina Soup with Smoked Tempeh
Makes: 4-6 bowls.
soup
2,5 L vegetable stock (4 cubes)
400 gram split peas
1 leek (chopped)
1 onion (chopped)
2 carrots (finely chopped)
4 ribs of celery (chopped)
2 tsp spirulina
tempeh
100 gr tempeh (chopped)
1 tbs nutritional yeast
1 tbs sesame seed oil
1 tbs soy sauce
1/2 lime (juice)
1/2 tbs liquid smoke
1/8 tsp smoked garlic
1/8 tsp garlic powder
pinch of salt
extra
4-6 tbs cream (cashew, alpro or oatly)
-Marinate the tempeh: put all the ingredients (including the tempeh) in a container with lid and shake!
-Put the stock and the split peas in a pan and let it come to boil.
-Turn the heat to a medium and let it simmer for about 30 min (keep stirring it once in a while).
-In the meantime: fry the onion, leek, carrot and celery (in water or oil) for about 8-10 minutes on a medium fire.
-Take 2 cups of the soup and use it to blend the just fried veggies and the spirulina. Blend until smooth, before putting it all (back) in the pan.
-Let it simmer for another 5 min.
-In the meantime: fry the tempeh (in 1/2-1 tsp of oil if necessary).
-Serve the split pea soup with some cream and the tempeh on top.
MAIN & SIDES
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Leek Bacon Quiche.
Serves: 6-8
1 pastry sheet
1 onion (chopped)
2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
1 broccoli (finely chopped)
1 small courgette (chopped)
100 gr mushrooms (chopped)
1/2 leek (chopped)
100 gr bacon (Vivera)
filling
1,5 cup chickpea flour
1,5 cup oat milk
1 cup water
1 stock cube
4 tbs nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
topping
2 tomatoes (thinly sliced)
150 gr Sheese
-Preheat the oven at 200C.
-Fry the onion, garlic and broccoli all together for about 5 min.
-Add the courgette and the mushrooms and fry all together for 3-4 min.
-Add the leek and the bacon and fry all together for about 2 min. Let it cool down.
-In the meantime make the filling: put all the ingredients for the filling in the blender and blend until smooth.
-Line a baking tin with the pastry sheet and use a fork to prick some holes in the bottom.
-Put the vegetable mix in the baking tin and make sure everything is divided evenly.
-Pour the filling over the vegetables and make sure everything is covered.
-Divide the toppings over the top and put it in the oven for about 30-35 min.
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Garlic Hasselback Potatoes
Makes: 6
6 medium-big potatoes
3 small cloves of garlic (minced)
6 tbs butter (melted)
1-2 tbs fresh parsley (finely chopped)
1 tsp salt
pepper (to taste)
extra
2 wooden spoons of the same thickness
-Preheat the oven at 220C.
-Put 2 wooden spoons on a chopping board, with a potato in the middle.
-Very carefully slice the potato in thin slices. The spoons help you to not cut all the way thorough.
-To make the seasoning: put the melted butter, the garlic, the salt/pepper and the parsley.
-Divide half the seasoning over the potatoes, using a brush.
-Put the potatoes in the oven for about 25-30 min or whenever the slices are coming apart.
-Take them out of the oven and brush the rest of the oil over the potatoes. Make sure to spread the oil in between the slices. Gently! The potato is softer and its more delicate now.
-Put them back in the oven for another 5-8 min (or until golden/crispy).
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Courgette, Steak and Blue Cheese Pastries
Makes: 6
1 sheets of pastry (I used jus rol)
1 small courgette
1 steaks (Vivera)
50 gr (vegan) blue cheese (I used Sainsbury’s)
-Preheat the oven at 200C.
-Cut the steacks into 6 sticks.
-Cut the courgette in half. Then cut cut those chunks in half through the length and through the length again.
-Also cut the cheese into 6 sticks.
-Fry the courgette in a pan for about 5 min. In the last 2 minutes, also add the steak. Let it cool down.
-Cut the pastry sheet in 6 squares.
-Roll 1 piece of courgette, 1 piece of steack and 1 piece of cheese in 1 square. Close the sides and close properly with a fork (push the fork gently on the pastry edges).
-Put them on a baking tray with baking paper and put the tray in the oven for 15-18 min (or until golden).
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Potato, Cauliflower mash with Peppery Mushroom Gravy
Serves: 4-6
4 big potatoes (chopped)
1 cauliflower (chopped)
1/4 cup oat milk
1 tbs butter
3 tbs nutritional yeast
1/2-1 tsp salt
gravy
1/4 onion (finely chopped)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
300gr mushrooms (sliced)
1 tsp bouillon powder
1 cup water
2 tbs flour
2 tbs nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp ground black pepper (or to taste)
salt (to taste)
-Cook the potato and the cauliflower for about 10 min, or until soft.
-In the meantime: Fry the onion and the garlic in a little bit of water for about 3 min.
-Add the mushrooms and fry it all together until the mushrooms begin to get soft (about 2-3 min).
-Add the water and the bouillon powder and let it come to boil. Add the black pepper and the salt (to taste) and let it simmer for about 3 min.
-On a very low heat, add he flour and the nutritional yeast. Keep mixing it until it becomes tick (about 1-2 min). Keep stirring!
-Add 1 or a few tbs of water if you want it a bit more runny, until you have the consistency you prefer.
-When the potatoes and cauliflower are soft enough, use a colander to get rid of the water.
-Add the milk, butter, nutritional yeast and salt and mash it up.
-Serve together.
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Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Garlic
Serves: 4-6
500 gr brussels sprouts
1/2 tbs (avocado) oil
2 cloves of garlic (minced)
1/2 tsp salt
pepper (to taste)
-Preheat the oven at 220C.
-Mix the oil, garlic, salt and pepper together and divide this over the brussels sprouts.
-Put them in an oven dish and put them in the oven for about 10-12 min.
-Shake or mix the brussels sprouts and put them in the oven for another 10-12 min (or until they start to turn slightly brown).
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Camembert Cheese with Baguette
(inspired by the BOSH recipe)
Serves: 6-8
2 cups soaked cashews
2 cloves of garlic
4 tbs tapioca flour
4 tsp salt
5 tbs nutritional yeast
4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1,5 cup warm water
topping
1 tsp ground black pepper (or to taste)
1/2-1 tsp avocado oil
-Preheat the oven at 180C.
-Blend all the ingredients (except the toppings) in the blender until smooth.
-Put everything from the blender in a sauce pan and heat it for a few minutes, until it gets a bit thicker and stretchy. Keep stirring!
-Pour it in an oven dish (lined with baking paper) and put it in the oven for 20-22 min.
-Brush the avocado oil on top and divide the pepper. Put it back in the oven for another 5 min.
DESSERT
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Apple Pastry Xmas Tree with Ice Cream
Serves: 4-6
1 pastry sheet
1 small apple
1 tbs brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
ice cream (as much as you like!)
-Preheat the oven at 200C.
-Cut the apple in quarters and then slice them up in length.
-Put the apple in a bowl and mix in the sugar and cinnamon.
-Put the pastry sheet on a baking tray (lined with baking paper) and cut as showed in the picture here >>
-Fold one slice of apple per branch. You’ll have to cut the apple smaller moving upwards.
-Put the tray in the oven for about 18-20 min, or until golden brown.
-Let it cool down and decorate the tree with ice cream Christmas balls.
Do you already know what you are going to make for Christmas? Will you make any of these Xmas recipes? If you do, please let me know. You can do this by commenting down below or even better, by showing me on Instagram by tagging me with @freedomevermore. Thank you! X
I almost didn’t want to do anything for Halloween, because I’m not the biggest fan. But than I made a 2 layered pumpkin birthday cake for my lovely pig Oliver (it was his 2nd birthday!) and it was so delicious, that I had to make it into a recipe. Around this time of the year pumpkins are everywhere! Go into any supermarket and you will see big boxes with huge pumpkins everywhere and because I love pumpkins so much, I’m always tempted to buy one (or 2..), every time I step into a supermarket. Most people buy them to carve them and make them into pieces of art. Sometimes they don’t even realise what tasty things you can make with them and how delicious they are. So that is why I thought I will buy 1 of those pumpkins and I will show you 3 recipes you can make out of that 1 pumpkin. If you want to carve your pumpkin, you can still make 2 out of 3 recipes. As I said before, there will be the pumpkin cake (and only this recipe is worth buying a pumpkin), but I will also tell you how to roast the pumpkin seeds (sooo addictive) and how to make a big batch of the creamiest pumpkin soup ever (unless you carve your pumpkin, then you won’t have enough for soup). You can also follow my pumpkin soup recipe 
PUMPKIN CAKE 
ROASTED PUMPKIN SEEDS
PUMPKIN SOUP 
When I was a child, we went to my grandparents every Sunday. My grandma always had a big pan of vegetable soup ready for lunch and I always liked it a lot. I just love vegetables and I love soup. But one of the main reasons I loved it, is because in the soup she always put little meatballs, made by herself, out of mince meat. I was always happy to have a lot. Obviously I don’t like that anymore, but if there is a way to make the little balls vegan, then why not right? A while ago I saw a very nice Dutch blogger (@wateetjedanwel), making the little meatballs out of a vegan mince meat. The brand she used, we don’t have in the UK, but we do have something similar from ‘The Meatless Farm Co’. So I thought I give it a go. I experimented a little to make it taste like my grandma’s and I think I came pretty close. I love this soup so much. It’s just so good! It serves 6-8 people, but I ate the whole pan in 2,5 days, all by myself.. haha! If you can’t do this (and it’s very understandable if you can’t), you can freeze it too or share with your family and friends. It’s a great family recipe!
VE(GAN)RY DUTCH
NUTRITIONAL YEAST
good for you. It’s full of B vitamins, folic acid and zinc. It contains no artificial preservatives, colouring, flavouring or genetically-modified material and it has added vitamin B12. There is also one without B12, so pay attention to the one you get. I always get the one with added B12, because it’s always good to have some extra B12.
CHOCOLATE 
heart shaped and it says ‘luv’, what I love. It looks so attractive. It melts quite fast, so you can’t hold it in your hand too long, unless you have very cold hands, hehe.. the taste is very nice though. It melts very nicely in your mouth and it’s very soft and creamy. It’s sweet, but not too sweet and you can taste it’s made with good ingredients. It’s very filling, so just half of it is kind of enough. What makes it great to share! They sell it at 
Time for a cheat recipe! My favourite things to eat for lunch are probably salad or soup. Now why can’t we bring those 2 together? I must admit, that I sometimes literally pour a full portion of soup over my salad and eat it like that, but I might be a little bit of an extremist, haha! Though, I do want to give you this tip.. to use soup as a salad dressing. Not all soups are great for this, but the ‘Curried Sweet Potato’ soup from ‘Soupologie’ is perfect for this. One of the best things about this soup is that it contains 0,0 crap. All healthy and super delicious. It’s one of my favourite soups, so using it on my salad is the perfect combination. You can basically make any raw salad, but I’ll give you a yummy combination here, to give you some inspiration.
SOUP FOR SALAD
It looks so nice.. sushi on a belt! You sit at a table or at the bar and you can pick whatever you like. When I think about sushi, I always think about a sushi belt. Though, a lot of sushi restaurants don’t even have one. There is at least one known sushi restaurant that does have one and that is ‘Yo Sushi’. Funny name! A few years ago I went to Yo Sushi, but I only remember ordering some Avocado maki. I really wanted to go again as I love Japanese food. On my last birthday my boyfriend and I went to the premier of ’50 Shades Darker’ in Westfield and as there is a Yo Sushi in Westfield, I chose to go there. So that is what we did.
It was a Friday evening, so there were no tables available anymore. Not to worry, we took seats at bar. What was fine. I asked about the vegan options and they asked if I would like to see the vegan menu. Vegan menu? Yes please! On the vegan menu you can see what dishes are vegan. To see what it looks like (every dish has a picture) and what it costs, you have to look at the general menu. If you look at the pictures I took, you can see that every plate has a different colour. Every colour is a different price. You can get the dishes from the belt or you can order them. There is plenty of staff walking around, but in case there is nobody or they’re busy helping somebody else, they invented a button. If you push the button they can see you need them to come over. Super handy! The edamame beans are on the belt quite a lot, but the 
maki rolls for example, you have to order. They also have a ‘Tofu Katsu Curry’ (yes!) and you have to order that one too. Of course I did, because this was one of the reasons I wanted to go here. It was super delicious. My boyfriend ordered the ‘Miso Dumpling Ramen with Rice’ and that was very delicious too. I really love that he chooses to eat vegan whenever he’s with me. He’s amazing! Another favourite of mine, is the ‘Pumpkin Katsu’ and my boyfriend really liked the ‘Vegetable Gyoza’. In total there are 17 vegan dishes and I think that really deserves a compliment! I also really like that on the bar, in a lot of places, there are 2 little taps with still and sparkly water. So you order a glass and then you can fill it as many times as you like. Next to the tabs you can also help yourself to soy sauce, wasabi and ginger.
Yo Sushi is quite a fancy restaurant I think. The sushi belt makes it look really cool I guess. Though I also really dislike the belt at the same time. It’s just because you’re eating this yummy cruelty free food, but in the meantime there are all dead fish and cows passing by every second. It would have been amazing if all plates had vegan food on it. Maybe they should introduce vegan evenings?! Haha.. would be cool! The place itself is all very bright and quite colourful. There is a lot of silver, white and bright orange. I think Yo Sushi is very nice to go to with people who all like something different, because there are so many little dishes. I think you can always find something you like.
For this ‘What I eat in a Day’ I chose a random work day. I was a little late this day, so at home I only had about half a litre of water and an apple on the way. I did make some porridge at work around 9:00, with soy milk, blueberries, 1 tbs of peanut butter and cinnamon. Very yummy! Lately I’ve been eating porridge a little more often, because it just keeps me going for so much longer. What is handy on days I have activities planned in the morning. Like that day. When it’s around 11:00 I do get hungry again though and what I then do is eat an apple. Apples give me a full feeling for about half an hour and then make me very hungry. Perfect, because I like to be hungry for lunch.
The evening before, my amazing boyfriend made some delicious vegetable soup and I took it to work for lunch. I had it at 13:00, with some bread. It love dipping bread in soup. I can eat soup and bread every day, haha! Especially when my boyfriend makes it. Then in the afternoon I do eat some more fruit. I ate a banana and a pear. As the afternoon was a little busy I wasn’t thinking about food too much and before I knew it, it was dinner time.
Soup for lunch, soup for dinner, soup on hot days, soup on cold days.. soup is always a good idea. I must say, that this soup recipe is excellent for a chilly day. It’s nice and filling, full of good nutrition and super delicious. That’s why it’s my favourite soup! You only need 8 ingredients, and that includes water, pepper and salt. It’s a very easy soup to make! It’s also very easy to make a lot of, in one time (just double or triple the ingredients), for if you have people coming over for example. You can easily eat the soup on it’s own and call it a meal, but if you are very hungry it’s super delicious with some (toasted) bread too. Pumpkins are not really in season anymore, but you can also use a butternut squash. As a butternut squash is easy to get your hands on, you can make it any time.
PUMPI
It’s nice by itself, as a starter or a side.. Soup is always good! And I don’t think I only speak for myself if I say rich creamy soups are the best. Soup is perfect for a rainy autumn day or for when it’s snowing in the winter, but to be honest, I think soup is always a good idea! This soup makes me very very happy. I combined 2 of my favourite things: Sweet potatoes and coconut cream. Before I even made this recipe I knew it was going to be heavenly. And I was right. It’s so creamy, full of flavour, filling and very healthy. Does this sound good to you? Where are you waiting for?
serves: 2
-Preheat the oven to 200C.
COOKIES
MAC AND CHEESE
Planet Manel 