Cooking over the festive period can be pretty stressful, can’t it? So many to feed, so much prep to do – it’s a lot to think about, and a lot of washing up.
To celebrate the launch of their latest dishwasher, Whirlpool challenged me to cook a full Christmas meal in under an hour and then get all the dishes clean using the one hour wash and dry feature on the PowerDry ADP 900 IX.
For our festive feast, we opted to go entirely veggie with a vegetarian festive dinner that took just one hour to put together.
The cereal-based ‘no-meat meatloaf’ might sound strange, but I promise you it’s delicious. I adapted it from this Special K Loaf I made last year and I think we’ve really cracked the recipe this time. To make the meal really special, we paired it with honey roasted veg. SO GOOD!
To make this vegetarian festive dinner for yourself, here’s what to do.
Ingredients
For the no-meat meatloaf:
- 425g (14.99 oz) rice-based cereal flakes, crushed
- 5 medium eggs
- 600g (1.32 lbs) cottage cheese
- 100g (3.52 oz) walnut pieces
- 32g (1.12 oz) packet dry onion soup mix
- 150g (5.29 oz) slightly salted butter, melted, plus some for greasing
- 100g (3.52 oz) dried cranberries
- 2 tsp dried sage
- 3 tbsp gravy granules
For the roast veg:
- 450g (15.87 oz) trimmed sprouts
- 250g (8.81 oz) roast baby parsnips
- 150g (5.29 oz) baby carrots
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp honey
- 100g (3.52 oz) pomegranate seeds
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C (350F/160C fan)
- Mix all of the loaf ingredients except the gravy granules together until thoroughly combined
- Press into a greased loaf tin, level off and cook for 55 minutes until heated right through
- Mix all of the veg ingredients in another tray and place in the oven below the loaf about 10 minutes later, for 45 minutes total
- 15 minutes before the end, swap the veg and loaf round so that the veg is on the upper shelf, and turn the heat up to 200C (400F/180C fan)
- Make up the gravy, slice up the loaf on a plate and drench in gravy to serve
- Stir the pomegranate seeds through the roast veg to serve
I served with peas and mashed potatoes while I was waiting for the loaf and veg to cook, and we had a shop-bought Christmas pudding for dessert because…why not?!
After all that yummy food, there was a mountain of dirty pots, crockery and utensils to clean up, and that’s when the PowerDry saved our evening, transforming our dishes from grubby and sticky to gleaming and dry in just one hour.
Apparently, the PowerDry function works by condensing the humid air from the dishwasher cavity at the end of the final rinse – very clever.
More thoughts on the PowerDry’s performance:
- It cleans powerfully. There are 28 high-pressure jet sprays.
- It cleans intelligently. You don’t need to prewash, because the ‘6th Sense’ technology detects how dirty the dishes are and adjusts the water pressure accordingly.
- The controls are easy to use. Just press the program button to find the one you need, and refer to the quick guide inside the door if you need to. As well as the 1 hour program, you can select special programs to suit the load, such a 65° intensive wash for grubby pots, a 40° wash for delicate glasses and a 50° extra-quiet, low pressure wash for use at night, although the standard wash is so quiet anyway, we haven’t needed this one.
- That same 6th Sense is also part of what makes it so energy efficient with an A+++ rating.
- Another energy and water saving feature is the ‘Multizone’ button, which allows you to set the machine to only wash the upper or lower shelf. That’s a great idea, I think, especially for smaller families who might not produce a whole load in one day.
- It’s very quiet (44 dBA). So quiet in fact that I wasn’t sure if it had switched off once I’d moved away from the kitchen.
- It looks great with an unobtrusive, stainless steel body.
- The filter is self-cleaning using a ‘soak-and-pulse’ action, which means the machine doesn’t get full of food particles.
- You can delay the wash until morning. If you’d rather not have the machine running while you’re in bed, you can load it up, set the delay timer and crawl into bed, knowing it’ll start up in the morning, just in time for breakfast.
- There’s a pause function if you’d like to stop the cycle while you nip out.
If you’d like to pick a Whirlpool PowerDry up for yourself, they’re available to buy now with an RRP of £699.98.
Here’s that quick vegetarian festive dinner recipe again in a printable format:
No-meat meatloaf and roasted vegetables, a quick vegetarian festive dinner
Ingredients
For the no-meat meatloaf:
- 425 g (14.99 oz) rice based cereal flakes crushed
- 5 medium eggs
- 600 g (1.32 lb) cottage cheese
- 100 g (3.53 oz) walnut pieces
- 32 g (1.13 oz) packet dry onion soup mix
- 150 g (5.29 oz) slightly salted butter melted, plus some for greasing
- 100 g (3.53 oz) dried cranberries
- 2 tsp dried sage
- 3 tbsp gravy granules
For the roast veg:
- 450 g (15.87 oz) trimmed sprouts
- 250 g (8.82 oz) roast baby parsnips
- 150 g (5.29 oz) baby carrots
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp honey
- 100 g (3.53 oz) pomegranate seeds
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C (375F/160C fan)
- Mix all of the loaf ingredients except the gravy granules together until thoroughly combined
- Press into a greased loaf tin, level off and cook for 55 minutes until heated right through
- Mix all of the veg ingredients in another tray and place in the oven below the loaf about 10 minutes later, for 45 minutes total
- 15 minutes before the end, swap the veg and loaf round so that the veg is on the upper shelf, and turn the heat up to 200C (400F/180C fan)
- Make up the gravy, slice up the loaf on a plate and drench in gravy to serve
- Stir the pomegranate seeds through the roast veg to serve
Whirlpool commissioned the creation of this vegetarian festive dinner recipe.
More recipes for a vegetarian roast
For some wonderful accompaniments to this vegetarian festive feast, try these!
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Sarah Maison Cupcake says
OMG I can’t believe you’d get Christmas dinner done in an hour – even if it was veggie! Love the no meat meat loaf, looks very tasty.
Emily Leary says
It surprised me too – amazing what you can do when the pressure’s on!
Kavey says
We have a slimline dishwasher which is perfect for the two of us. We got a new one this year, after 18 or 19 years with the same one – it lasted pretty well. New one has a cutlery rack at very top, which is a great added bonus.
Margot C&V (@coffeenvanilla) says
Lovely meal Emily, the meatless meatloaf looks really delicious! A the dishwasher seems like a good gadget to have, especially with Christmas just round the corner.
Jenny @ The Brick Castle says
Tha’ts a great energy rating. Ours is a B I think, and I was stunned how much energy (and water) it saves compared to boiling the kettle or putting the water on to washin the sink :)