God Jul! Our Swedish Christmas

The Other Half often reminisces that the best Christmas we ever had was the one we spent whilst living in our campervan at Camping Het Amsterdamse Bos. You might think that with memories of defrosting the waste pipes with a hairdryer and cycling twenty-two kilometres in temperatures barely above freezing to buy a tie-down strap for the awning as it was so windy, the bar had been set fairly low. I can’t remember what we ate that Christmas, it was in a pre-vegan era, so most likely involved steak, frites and lashings of mustard and beer. We’ve both eaten more than enough traditional Christmas meals over the years and I’ve cooked many, most recently the Twilight Christmas Dinner and Dance meal for ninety guests, but I rarely cook that in that style at home. In fact, I can’t remember the last time we had a full English roast-type meal. At Christmas last year we had a hot spicy chilli and the previous (pre-vegan) year I did the traditional French seafood, maigret and bĂ»che de noel.

We are not ashamed to admit that we are great fans of Ikea. Most of our furniture is Ikea flat-pack – we’ve become quite expert at interpretation of the instructions now we’ve had so much practice. The selection and installation of a new kitchen had prompted a few trips to the blue and yellow mother ship in Bordeaux, so we seized the opportunity to grab a few Swedish delicacies from the Ikea Food Shop. It was then that I hit upon the idea of a themed country-based Christmas. This year we would have a Swedish Christmas, albeit a vegan version.

Like many northern European countries, Sweden has a high proportion of vegetarians and vegans within the population, 10% in 2014 (FOE, 2014). However, the traditional Christmas fayre is a smorgasbord featuring a great deal of fish, both herring in various forms and smoked salmon. Like many countries the main meal takes place on Christmas Eve, and the Christian festival has replaced the previous pagan mid-winter festival of Jul. With a few variations the main constituents of the Swedish Julbord are: snaps or vodka, herring and beetroot salad, pickled herring, Gravalax (smoked salmon) and mustard sauce, cucumber salad, Jansson’s temptation, meatballs with mashed potatoes and gravy, a centrepiece Christmas ham, Butter saffron cake, Glogg (mulled wine) and pepparkaker (ginger cookies).

There are few vegan Swedish Christmas recipes on the Internet, however, I did get some good inspiration from a couple of vegan bloggers. Many Swedes seem to stick to the meat and fish theme using meat substitutes such as seitan and tofu-based lookalikes. As we don’t like to eat much more than on a normal day I decided to keep it simple with a small starter, meatball main and a cake, and not to shy away from using bought ingredients. By the time the kitchen installation was finished we all needed a rest!

On one of our Ikea trips we picked up a bottle of Snaps, frozen cinnamon buns, some dill and sesame Knackbrod crackers, lingonberry jam and a tin of fabulous ginger thins biscuits. We started Christmas morning with cinnamon buns, hot from the oven and a glass of Glogg (mulled wine) – it was too early for Snaps! The previous day I’d made some vegan meatballs, following a recipe said to be virtually identical to the vegetarian meatballs now available in the Ikea restaurants. So, preparation was just a case of making a simple chilli tomato sauce, slicing up some potatoes for my vegan, dairy-free version of Jansson’s Temptation (use capers instead of anchovies and soya gratin cream) and popping everything else into the oven.

For the starter we had Knackbrod with a jar of vegan beetroot hummus (Alnatura brand) brought back from Germany. This was fabulous – I could eat it every day, and will be having a go at replicating the recipe soon. The list of ingredients were simply beetroot, sunflower seeds, soya cream and seasonings. The Ikea lingonberry jam and Dill and Mustard sauce were good, sweet and sharp contrasting accompaniments, but the Snaps proved too strong for us (it may be useful for cleaning drains…). The main dish comprised Jansson’s Temptation (to which, I only now realise, I forgot to add the capers), Swedish vegan meatballs on a bed of chilli tomato sauce, and some rotekraut (red sauerkraut), again a reminder of our German holiday.

I toyed with making a Butter Saffron Cake. There were plenty of vegan recipes on the Internet, but it seemed too similar to traditional English Lardy cake for our taste, so I moved very slightly further south in culinary inspiration here and substituted with our favourite Dutch Apfelkuchen, followed by coffee and ginger biscuits. It was a superb Christmas meal, and great fun to research the different culinary traditions of our European neighbours. Next year we’ll be picking another country’s Christmas cuisine to try in a new tradition that we have created.

Swedish Vegan Meatballs

3 cups of cooked green lentils (just under 2 cups dried)
¼ cup sautĂ©ed mushrooms
¼ cup diced onion
1 garlic clove minced
¼ cup fresh parsley
2 tsp dried thyme
½ tsp fennel seeds
½ tsp chilli flakes
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
1 cup breadcrumbs (French chapelure)
2 flax eggs
2 tbsp soya cream
1 tbsp soy or tamari sauce
1 tsp Dijon mustard

·         Prepare lentils and allow to cool; prepare flax eggs (2 tbsp ground flax, 6 tbsp water)

·         Process lentils and mushrooms for two minutes until like a thick paste

·         Transfer to a large bowl and add onion, garlic, herbs and spices and breadcrumbs

·         Whisk together flax eggs, soya cream, tamari and mustard

·         Add wet ingredients to dry and mix thoroughly

·         Form into meatball shapes, place on lined baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil before baking at 180c for 20–25 minutes



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