Move over, turkey and ham; increasingly Christmas in the West is also about nut roasts, lentil loaves, and Brussels sprouts.

Across the pond in the U.K., U.S. and Australia, festive tables are getting a plant-based glow-up with cookbooks such as Happy Vegan Christmas by Karoline Jönsson, The Veggie Christmas Cookbook by Heather Thomas, Plants Only Holidays by Gaz Oakley, and Vegan Holiday Feasts by Jackie Kearney. These gorgeous cookbooks don’t just give you recipes — they give you ammunition to combat that one uncle who insists, “It’s not Christmas without meat!”

The rise of vegan and vegetarian holiday cookbooks shows how traditions evolve. According to Cardiff chef Oakley, “Cooking with plants is peaceful cuisine, during one of the most peaceful times of the year, and I think our dinner tables should reflect that, too.”

Even the U.S., where Thanksgiving traditionally worships a massive bird, is turning to jackfruit “turkey” and pumpkin curry pies. Talk about stuffing traditions into a new mould.

These vegetarian cookbooks are all about transforming the season of excess into one of ethical indulgence and wellness. Swedish author Jönsson says she chose a vegan diet “simply because we don’t want to eat animals — not because we don’t like the flavour of meat”. She began to unearth both Swedish traditional plant-based dishes and invent some new ones for Christmas for her book.

For British cook Kearney, “there’s something very lovely about having plant-based showstoppers on the table and it definitely encourages more people to try plant-based alternatives”.

And why not? It’s delightfully ironic serving a mushroom Wellington to people wearing reindeer jumpers. Or creamy cashew-based cheese boards that make you say, “Brie who?”

Nut roast wreath | Photo Credit: Simon Smith & Tom Kon

It isn’t exclusionary

In India, Christmas has always been about tradition with regional twists. Each corner of the country celebrates with a festive spread that lets local ingredients shine. The Goan Christmas table might feature bebinca alongside roast chicken, while Kerala’s Syrian Christian homes lay out appam and stew. In the Northeast, sticky rice cakes and pork curry join the festivities, and Tamil Nadu’s feasts wouldn’t be complete without chicken biryani and plum cake soaked in rum.

Mumbai-based Thomas Zacharias, chef and founder of The Locavore, a platform championing local food and sustainability, says that at his Kerala home where his grandma governed the kitchen, “vegetarian or vegan dishes have been very much present on the Christmas lunch table by default given the typical diversity in Indian meals”. However, he finds that “in the drive for veganism and vegetarianism, it is unnecessary to look at meat alternatives as the primary draw of a festive repast”.

Before the vegan trend caught on, India’s own Tarla Dalal had drawn up over 200 Indian recipes and eggless versions of plum cakes for a vegetarian Christmas. Food bloggers offer traditional and inventive Christmas menus with Indian recipes from samosa pot pie to roasts made of sweet potatoes, cranberries and pecans, besides the traditional Anglo-Indian repast of potato and bandy coy (bhindi), dol mash (dal) from Chennai, or Devil’s chutney and junglee pulao from Kolkata.

Christmas pudding | Photo Credit: Simon Smith & Tom Kon

Hoihnu Hauzel, author of The Essential Northeast Cookbook, however, finds it difficult to comprehend a meatless Christmas. “Meat is considered a celebratory food for us, so it is difficult to imagine that a Christmas feast could be completely vegetarian or vegan.” She recalls in her hometown, “People waited the whole year for that big celebratory meal on Christmas and meat was an important part of it.” But a variety of regional greens, such as mustard leaves and bamboo shoots, do find their way into festive dishes with that Manipuri staple, pork.

Even as we adopt global trends like veganism, these regional twists remind us that Christmas in India is as much about celebrating our diverse culinary heritage as it is about spreading holiday cheer.

The Gurgaon-based journalist is the author of ‘Temple Tales’ and translator of ‘Hungry Humans’.