Proposal for the Christmas menu

Are you already planning your meals for the Christmas holidays or are you still undecided? If you are still looking for inspiration, I have two suggestions for you:

A very classic Icelandic Christmas menu , with appetizers, starter soup, meaty main course and a Christmas dessert with cinnamon.

And once a vegan alternative - with green barley salad, nut balls in mushroom sauce and vegan sorur. I love these vegan Sörur - we were actually supposed to have them for dessert on Christmas Eve, but someone caught the package with the finished Sörur in the fridge and thought they were delicious too. Now I have to look for an alternative...

Traditional Christmas dinner

An appetizer could be blueberry jam with Christmas spices , served on gingerbread hearts with blue cheese - ideally with Icelandic blue cheese like Ljótur (= ugly ). It sounds unusual at first, but I definitely think it's very tasty!

The jam is made with cinnamon sticks, star anise, cloves and nutmeg and smells wonderfully like Christmas.

Then the starter - I always end up with my all-time favorite, the classic Icelandic halibut soup ( lúðusúpa ). The soup is made with egg yolk, whipping cream, honey and prunes and tastes wonderful, soft and sweet. The recipe has been here on the blog since the beginning of 2015. Similar recipes for fish soup have actually been passed down from the Vikings!

As a main course, also very classic, Hamborgarhryggur (a type of smoked cheese) with peas, potatoes and thick white sauce. For our dear Icelandic friend, this dish truly is the epitome of Christmas!

And for dessert, a Christmas ice cream , more precisely a Prins-Póló-Jólaís , prepared with chocolate cookies, chocolate, cream, vanilla skyr and a little cinnamon. Very tasty - and conveniently easy to prepare in advance.

Vegan Christmas dinner

For those who also love Icelandic cuisine but are vegetarian or vegan for personal reasons, there is of course also a very tasty Christmas menu.

As a starter I would have a Grænkálsbyggottó on the blog, kale and pearl barley risotto - by the way, a really classic Icelandic recipe without meat and with vegan cream, also suitable for vegans.

As a main course at Christmas we already had Hnetubollur með sveppasósu , i.e. nut balls with mushroom sauce , when we had vegan visitors.

A classic Icelandic Christmas dish is actually meatballs with mushroom sauce, and if you love classic Christmas dishes but don't want to use meat or animal products, then there are nut balls!

And for dessert there simply has to be Sörur ! Sörur are a typical specialty in Iceland, a kind of hardcore cookies with a marzipan base, butter cream and chocolate coating. In the veganized version I use whipped chickpea water instead of egg whites; for the buttercream I use a vegan butter alternative and coconut cream. Plus dark, vegan chocolate as a coating. I find the vegan Sörur even easier to prepare than the classic version and have actually prepared them many times.

The recipe for the "veganized" Sörur is actually a long-time favorite on my blog - and I know lovely people, I know for sure - I can make them happy with it!

Whatever you cook or eat for Christmas - I wish you a Merry Christmas and enjoy your meal!

[Translated from here.]