This recipe is in specific response to the letter I received from a vegetarian who asked if I could devise something that had stuffing, sauce and all the trimmings – so that he could feel as Christmassy as everyone else.
Delia Smith
How does one pick something equally exciting for vegetarians and meat-eaters on Christmas day? The Pepper Rage Principles state that we must try and find something equally exciting for meat eaters and vegetarians alike. Ideally, any sides and pairings will match equally well with both meals.
Christmas challenge accepted.
A roast turkey might look spectacular on the table but it’s a pretty stressful kitchen experience to cook perfectly in the heat of Christmas day. In our opinion it isn’t even the best way to cook turkey (dry breast anyone?).
Luckily, Tom Kerridge has worked out a solution to dry turkey woes: a turkey roll topped with pork scratchings, sourdough, cranberries and pistachios.
Delia Smith comes to the rescue for the vegetarians with her Cheese and Parsnip Roulade. (Note: we were using a recipe from her Christmas cookbook which uses Cheddar in place of Sage Derby cheese.)
We were pretty chuffed with this pairing. The roll form factor and the nut decoration make both feel equally exciting. Additionally, both go very well with all the usual trimmings!
Cheers Tom and Delia!
Cooking notes
Full recipes:
Tom’s Turkey Roll (BBC)
Delia’s Cheese and Parsnip Roulade (Delia Online)
Tips for reducing stress and saving oven space:
At Christmas – oven space is a premium and no-one needs any more stress.
We prepared the Cheese and Parsnip Roulade on Christmas Eve. On Christmas day we popped it back in the oven under the roast potatoes to warm back through. Worked like a charm.
Instead of an oven – we prepared the turkey roll in a water bath (with one of these babies) at 63°C for around 3 hours. Just make sure you wrap the cling film well. These precision cookers are a godsend as they make it very hard to screw things up; cooking becomes much less time sensitive and the temperature is a lot easier to keep accurate. In previous years we’ve also used the oven method from the original recipe, but the water bath variant is a lot more chill and we think the results are a bit better.
Warning: The Turkey Roll is not *exactly* a looker when you take off the plastic. Bear with it – it’s very pretty when it has the toppings on!