New Year's Dinner Ideas

What are your plans for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day? If you plan to stay home, here are some New Year's dinner ideas to help you prepare. This collection of Vegan New Year's recipes is my family's favorite!

My husband and I generally stay home on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day because most of the fancy restaurants around town have set meals that cater to something other than our plant-based lifestyle. So, we usually celebrate New Year's at home with friends and family.

When we first started eating a plant-based diet, I struggled to create a menu both the vegan and non-vegan guests would enjoy.

For that reason, I created a list of my family's favorite dinners to help you plan if you're starting or need a little inspiration for New Year's dinner ideas.

Appetizers

Sometimes, I make a bunch of appetizers for everyone to graze on throughout the day. Or we have a more formal tapas party for a more formal celebration.

Vegan Calamari

This crispy vegan calamari is made from hearts of palm and served with a spicy vegan tartar sauce. This vegan calamari recipe is so easy and tastes sinfully delicious!

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Vegetable Egg Rolls

Total Time: 20 minutes mins

Vegetable egg rolls are crispy, crunchy, and oil-free. Loaded with cabbage, carrots, onions, and mushrooms, these healthy vegetable egg rolls taste so good you won't believe you didn't order carryout from your favorite Chinese restaurant.

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White Bean Dip

Total Time: 30 minutes mins

White bean dip is a savory, rich hot dip with incredible flavor. Healthy and robust, this white bean dip can also be served as a cold dip with bread, crackers, or vegetables for dipping—skinning dipping at its best.

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Pizza Pinwheels

Total Time: 55 minutes mins

Full of your favorite pizza toppings, pizza pinwheels are made with oil-free dough. Rolled into bite-sized treats, these pizza pinwheels are easy to make and disappear from the plate in minutes. My kids LOVE them!

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Soups and Salads

I always make a big salad to serve with dinner. And having a crockpot full of your favorite soup or chili is a great way to stay warm during a cold New Year's celebration.

Vegan Gnocchi Soup

Total Time: 20 minutes mins

Thick and creamy, this vegan gnocchi soup recipe is oil-free, loaded with vegetables and delicate potato gnocchi dumplings in a savory broth. Not only is this soup decadent, but it also takes under 25 minutes from start to finish. Stove-top, crockpot and Instant Pot directions provided.

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Wild Rice Soup with Mushrooms

Total Time: 50 minutes mins

Wild Rice Soup with Mushrooms is gluten-free, oil-free, nut-free, and fabulous. Loaded with veggies in a thick, creamy, savory broth, this wild rice and mushroom soup is simply mouthwatering. Cook it on the stovetop, in the crockpot, or the Instant Pot.

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Vegan White Bean Chili

Total Time: 55 minutes mins

A twist on a traditional chili recipe, vegan white bean chili is a slightly spicy sweet chili with many vegetables. I served it with cornbread because chili and cornbread taste fabulous together!

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Chickpea Tomato Soup

This simple, quick, and easy recipe for homemade chickpea tomato soup is rich and delicious. And this chickpea tomato soup recipe s ready in under 20 minutes in one pan.

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Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

Dive into a bowl of Mediterranean quinoa salad for lunch or dinner. It's the perfect quick and easy summer meal you can prepare in less than 20 minutes!

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Asparagus Salad

Total Time: 25 minutes mins

Roasted asparagus highlights this fresh and light asparagus salad with simple ingredients dressed in an oil-free champagne vinaigrette dressing. Asparagus salad tastes like summer in a bowl.

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French Lentil Salad

Total Time: 30 minutes mins

French lentil salad is a cold or hot salad dressed in a tangy dressing with an array of vegetables served on a bed of arugula and topped with vegan tofu feta cheese. This quick and easy lentil salad is perfect for a hot summer night.

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Beet Salad

Total Time: 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Savory meets sweet in this beet salad dressed in an oil-free balsamic vinaigrette and topped with tofu feta cheese. Don't be surprised when they ask for seconds.

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Entrees

I make it as easy as possible to make an entree that everyone enjoys, and I can prep it in advance. These are a few of our favorites for a vegan New Year.

Vegan Cabbage Rolls

Vegan cabbage rolls taste just like grandma used to make. This perfect vegan cabbage roll recipe is easy weeknight comfort food for the whole family.

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Vegan Lasagna

Total Time: 1 hour hr 20 minutes mins

The best 7 layered vegan lasagna you will ever eat! Loaded with lentils, vegetables, and cashew basil cream sauce, you will be begging for more.

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Vegan Mushroom Wellington

Total Time: 55 minutes mins

Vegan Mushroom Wellington is filled with a savory mushroom pate, wrapped in a delicate puff pastry, and baked to perfection.

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Vegetable Strudel

Total Time: 45 minutes mins

Vegan vegetable strudel is stuffed with vegetables in a thick and creamy vegan gravy, wrapped in a light flaky, oil-free dough, and baked to perfection. Served with vegan mashed potatoes and gravy.

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Vegan Cajun Pasta

Total Time: 25 minutes mins

Creamy, cajun pasta is full of vegetables and cooks in one-pot in under 20 minutes. Make dinner easier, and clean up even easier. You will love this cajun pasta recipe!

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Breads and Desserts

Our family has a tradition of making Greek New Year's Bread with a quarter hidden inside. The family member with the piece of bread containing the quarter is gifted a year of good luck. And we enjoy finger food desserts as well.

Greek New Year's Bread

Total Time: 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Greek New Year's Bread is an oil-free sweet bread, almost like a cake made every New Year as a good luck tradition for the upcoming year. My daughter turned my family's Greek New Year's Bread into an oil-free vegan version of our family's annual tradition.

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Pomegranate Chocolates

Total Time: 20 minutes mins

This simple recipe for pomegranate chocolates takes minutes to prepare and tastes like magic in your mouth. Vegan dark chocolate surrounds fresh pomegranate seeds for a beautiful combination of flavors.

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Orange Cranberry Bread

Total Time: 1 hour hr

Orange cranberry bread is oil-free, nut-free, and refined sugar-free. Made with whole-food ingredients, each piece of bread is full of fresh cranberries that pop in your mouth with fresh orange flavor in each moist bite.

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Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls

Total Time: 35 minutes mins

Enjoy a chocolate peanut butter ball dessert with natural peanut butter, flax seeds, and a little vegan chocolate. One bite sized treat is all you need.

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Happy New Year to you and your family, and may you be blessed with a beautiful and healthy 2023!

Kathy Carmichael

Hi! My name is Kathy, I am a retired high school English teacher & vegan enthusiast and blogger. My entire blog is fully plant-based vegan. I truly believe what we eat & how we live determines our health & the preservation of our planet! 🙂

www.kathysvegankitchen.com/about-me/