Dishidrop’s festive food traditions
The team behind the local delivery service's plant-based fusion feasts tell us about their winter rituals, combining traditional Christmas fare with a bright, colourful winter solstice sit-down.
Dishidrop's menu – featuring the likes of Sri Lankan jumbo cashew curry with bobby beans – takes cues from Asian cuisine, with a vegan twist.
DishidropWhatever you’re planning for this year’s festivities, it’s important to take some time to recharge and look at alternative approaches, whether that’s trying out new recipes, switching turkey for curry or making homemade gifts for your loved ones.
In that spirit, we spoke to the Dishidrop team to find out more about their approach to food during the festive period – and what delicious vegan dishes will be on their restaurant-quality delivery subscription menu this December.
Tell us about your festive traditions?
We have a couple of traditions we try to maintain every December. This starts with a celebration of the winter solstice.
It’s a lovely food centric occasion, with yellow, sun-coloured food which we share with close friends. This includes dishes like roasted turmeric cauliflower and red lentil dahl with carrots and lemon tart.
After we eat, the adults and children play card and board games. Some of our favourite games are Skyjo, Bananagrams, Codenames and The Mind.
Instead of celebrating with a family dinner on 25 December, we have a Christmas brunch with a selection of traditional British foods. Everything is vegan and a walnut and cinnamon coffee cake is the centrepiece.
What
are your plans for Christmas Day?
After
our Christmas brunch, we go out for a walk before we come home to
watch a movie.
We always have a large Thai pomelo salad as a main meal over the festive holiday. Sometimes we have this on the 25th, but other times, we have a Mexican-themed meal or Japanese Ramen.
A more traditional English meal also makes a showing, but usually on Boxing Day. Apart from veggies, stuffing and gravy, our main dish is a potato shiitake gratin, cooked in advance and crisped in a pan before serving.
Sushi salad of pickled ginger, yuzu mayo cucumber and edamame
Dishidrop
Can
you share your cooking hacks to help anyone on a budget?
Have
an abundance of seasonal vegetables. Markets and stores really
compete and offer keen prices on these simpler items, which are great
on their own but make a perfect backdrop for more indulgent
ingredients.
Use your
luxury foods sparingly over a few meal occasions so that they really
shine.
Frequently
folks will have a lot of expensive, rich ingredients back-to-back
within a meal and their impact is lost.
Break up your meal occasions with some fiery, well-flavoured salads from the Middle and Far East to keep your fuel bills down and interest up.
What luxury items will you treat yourself to?
We try to get a few nice specialty ingredients for our Christmas meal depending on what we end up cooking. The websites for these goodies are coolchile.co.uk and sushisushi.co.uk.
We also pay a special visit to All Carrot No Stick on Chesterfield Road for some special vegan cheeses and specialty crackers for snacking on Christmas Eve. They also have a great selection of locally produced craft beers and gluten free stuffing.
What can people look forward to from your menu in December?
We're excited to bring back a firm favourite of Izakaya Japanese mac & cheese. This will be a great option for people who want us to cook their Christmas Eve meals, as we'll be delivering up to Friday 23 December.
