What makes something taste Christmassy? Usually, it’s less about the food item itself than the spices used to season it.

“A lot of the spices found in Finnish Christmas food are pretty exotic,” says food author and blogger Elina Innanen. “It’s funny how, the rest of the year, many Finns might be shy of spices in their cooking, but come holiday season, we get busy with cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger.”

She should know: She has spent a lot of time pondering over the culinary spirit of Christmas. Her 250-page cookbook Vegaanin joulukirja (A Vegan’s Christmas Book; published by Kosmos, 2025), already in its third updated edition, boasts plant-based holiday recipes, including versions of Finnish holiday classics and suggestions for altogether new Christmas dishes.

In both her work and her own diet, Innanen focuses exclusively on vegan cooking, meaning she uses no animal products in her recipes.

“These days, almost every family has at least one vegetarian or vegan,” she says. “So when people get together for Christmas, I hope that even omnivores will bravely venture into plant-based eating, as it’s so inclusive.”

No need to compromise

In Innanen’s childhood home, they always cooked from scratch; she was a teenager by the time her parents bought a microwave.Photo: Emilia Kangasluoma

Innanen acknowledges that many people consider traditional dishes a quintessential part of Christmas. However, leaving meat, dairy and eggs off the table doesn’t mean giving up traditions.

“A traditional Finnish Christmas meal is pretty heavy on vegetables anyway,” she says.

She mentions a Finnish holiday mainstay: the casseroles made from vegetables such as carrots, potatoes and rutabagas. Although many casserole recipes include dairy and eggs, it’s easy to replace them with plant-based alternatives without sacrificing taste or texture.

“I find it really important that the plant-based versions I create are at least as good, if not even better, than the originals,” Innanen says.

Another Finnish Christmas classic, a beetroot salad called rosolli, is fully plant-based and needs no versioning to fit a vegan’s plate.

Gingerbread spices? Yes please

When many other countries celebrate Christmas by devouring turkey, people in Finland buy millions of kilos of ham. Innanen points out that getting plant products to taste exactly like ham is a tall order, but various plant-based alternatives can form the table centrepiece. Her own favourite is a vegan Wellington, a baked dish consisting of a pastry crust filled with pulled oats and mushrooms, but a marinated and slowly roasted tofu or a mock ham made of seitan can also work.

When it comes to desserts and sweets, spices again play a big part. Innanen has created Christmassy versions of traditional pastries, again drawing inspiration from seasonal flavours.

“You can make almost anything taste like Christmas by using gingerbread spice mix,” she says.

For example, the Finnish cinnamon roll called korvapuusti can be made with gingerbread spice mix instead of just cinnamon. Another Christmassy flavour is glögg, a hot mulled-wine drink popular in the holiday season, which can be used to make things like marmalades or cake toppings.

A quarter of a century of plant-based experience

Elina Innanen’s blog Chocochili has become popular in Finland, and has managed to attract veggie-curious omnivores.Photo: Emilia Kangasluoma

A gardener and florist by training, Innanen has no formal education in cooking. Even so, her expertise with plant-based cuisine goes way back.

She gave up meat as a teenager about 25 years ago, and soon she dropped all other animal products from her diet, too. In a small town in the early 2000s, she wasn’t spoilt for choice when it came to plant-based foods – and that’s putting it generously.

“At the time, if you wanted to eat something that actually tasted nice, you had to learn to make your own food.”

Initially, she started posting photos of her cooking on an online forum, and as people started asking for recipes, she established her blog Chocochili (website in Finnish).

Numerous recipes, multiple cookbooks and almost two decades later, the selection and availability of plant-based foods have exploded. People have woken up to the ethical and environmental implications of animal farming, and health awareness has led many of us to increase the share of vegetables in our diets.

Naturally, Innanen’s Christmas menu is plant-based, although it might not be very traditional.

“I like traditional dishes too, but I might spend my Christmas eating something completely different,” she says. “My dream Christmas meal would probably consist of Middle Eastern mezze.”

By Anne Salomäki, December 2025

Elina Innanen’s vegan Christmas recipes

Traditional carrot casserole

Innanen published her Christman recipes in Vegaanin joulukirja (A Vegan’s Christmas Book) by Kosmos, 2025.Photo: Emilia Kangasluoma; Book cover photo: Elina Innanen

(6–8 servings)

Carrot purée:

• 1 kg carrots
• about 1 litre of water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 dl oat cream
• 2 tbsp vegan butter

Rice porridge:

• 2 dl water
• 1 1/2 dl (dark) porridge rice (If Finnish puuroriisi is not available, use another short-grained variety, such as risotto rice)
• 5 dl oat milk
• 1/2 tsp salt

Additional ingredients:

• 1 tbsp chickpea or wheat flour
• 2 tbsp dark syrup
• 1/4 tsp white pepper
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp salt

On the surface of the baking dish:

• 1–2 tbsp breadcrumbs
• 1 tbsp vegan butter in dollops

Peel and chop the carrots; boil until soft. Pour off the water and add the oat cream, butter and salt to the pot. Purée the carrots using a hand blender or other suitable tool.

Prepare the rice porridge by boiling 2 dl of water in a thick-bottomed saucepan. Add the rice and let it boil, stirring intermittently, until the water is absorbed. Add the oat milk and salt. Cover and simmer on low heat for about 40 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius.

In the meantime, blend the carrot purée, rice, chickpea flour, syrup and spices. Spread the mixture into a baking dish (about 25 x 20 cm). Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top and sprinkle with dollops of butter. Bake the carrot casserole on the middle shelf of the oven for about two hours.

Warm beetroot and smoked tofu salad

A warm salad of beetroot and smoked tofu is one of Chocochili’s takes on what new Christmas traditions could look like.Photo: Elina Innanen

(4–6 servings)

Roasted beets:

• about 600 g of beets
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• salt and black pepper

Sunflower seed-parsley pesto:

• 1 bunch of parsley
• 1/2 dl roasted sunflower seeds
• about 1 1/2 dl cold-pressed olive oil
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• Salt

Other ingredients:

• 1 pkg (300 g) cold-smoked tofu
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp smoked paprika powder
• 1 bunch of arugula
• a handful of walnuts

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Peel and dice the beets. Spread them onto a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Bake for about 45 minutes or until thoroughly soft. The roasting time depends on the size of the pieces.

While the beets are in the oven, prepare the pesto. Put all the ingredients in a deep container and purée into a coarse pesto with a hand blender. Add salt to taste.

When the beets are almost cooked, dice the smoked tofu. Heat the oil in a pan and add the smoked paprika powder. Add the tofu cubes and fry until they turn a lovely shade of brown. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

Assemble the roasted beets, fried tofu and arugula in a serving dish. Top with walnuts and a drizzle of pesto.