Vegan ham feast with pineapple brown sugar glaze

Herbivorous Butcher Winter Holiday Feast includes vegan bacon, maple mustard sausage, brie, English cheddar, and a ham roast. Here are some fun ways to incorporate this Feast into your celebrations – including making pineapple brown sugar glaze for the ham roast!

Thank you to Herbivorous Butcher for sponsoring today’s post! The contents, photos, and opinions expressed are fully my own.

This time of year, the calendar fills up fast with get-togethers and parties. To make the season of twinkling lights even more festive, I’m back with another feast from the Herbivorous Butcher.

The Herbivorous Butcher is a vegan meat & cheese maker out of Minneapolis. They ship to all 50 states in the U.S. plus Puerto Rico.

I have partnered with them several times in the past year. Now I’m back to share a sneak peek at the next pack in their line-up – the Winter Holiday Feast. Plus I’m sharing ways that you can use it for your own gatherings and celebrations!

Here’s what’s included in the Winter Holiday Feast:

• Hickory Bacon – 8 ounces
• English Cheddar – 5 ounces
• Brie – 10 ounces
• Maple Mustard Sausage – 13 ounces
• Ham Roast – 2.5 pounds

(As always, everything is 100% vegan!)

Hickory Bacon

Obviously, I’m a huge fan of Herbivorous Butcher products. But of all of their products, the bacon is my absolute favorite. It’s a refrigerator staple.

Breakfasts and vegan BLT’s are so much better since HB bacon came on the scene.

The bacon slices are beautifully oversized. (One slice is enough for a BLT. Of course, I wouldn’t turn down two.) And it gets wonderfully crisp around the edges. It even includes a swirl of fat inside.

For a Winter Feast, vegan bacon dates make a delightful starter.

How to make bacon wrapped dates:

Start with a package of dates. Use Medjool if you’d like a lot of caramel sweetness, or smaller Deglet Noor dates if you want the bacon to dominate. Your call!

Slice open the dates with a knife to remove the pits. Then fill the space where the pit used to be with pieces of Herbivorous Butcher English cheddar or brie.

Slice the bacon in half lengthwise using kitchen shears or scissors. Depending on the size of your bacon, you will likely be able to cut it in half across the middle as well, and use one piece of bacon to wrap four dates.

Roll the bacon around a date. Then secure it with a toothpick. Fry the bacon wrapped dates in oil until the bacon is crisp. Use the toothpicks to flip the dates when necessary, so that the dates are fried all the way around.

Move the bacon wrapped dates to a paper towel lined plate to drain off some of the oil before serving.

Other ways to use Herbivorous Butcher bacon:

• Sliced roasted potatoes with cashew cream & bacon – in the oven or air fryer
• Crustless mini vegan quiche
• Vegan bacon wrapped pineapple
• Top an air fryer baked potato
• Add it to your easy collard greens

English Cheddar

English cheddar is a mild cheese that’s great as a topping on things like vegan three bean chili, or to enjoy on its own crackers.

It’s also a delectable topping with seitan bacon and green onions on vegan baked potato soup. It works as a starter for your Winter Feast. Or enjoy it as a full meal on its own.

It’s one of my most beloved winter soups, because it’s so darned cozy.

Brie

In the early 2000’s when I was thinking about going vegan after being vegetarian, my biggest hold-up was brie. Little did I know that someday non-dairy brie would be a thing!

Top brie with fruit preserves, and serve it with crostini or crackers. I used orange cranberry sauce here. But berry preserves would also be really nice.

It’s also wonderful served warm. It gets such a luscious texture. To bake, simply put it in a small dish and bake for 5 minutes at 300 degrees.

The brie would also be lovely in a veggie quesadilla with caramelized onions and thinly sliced apple.

Maple Mustard Sausage

Maple mustard sausage has faintly sweet and tangy notes. Enjoy it by the slice as-is with crackers, spicy pickles, and English cheddar.

Or fry it in a little oil, and have it with breakfast! It would be wonderful with waffles & a tofu scramble. Or put it on a vegan breakfast sandwich with eggy tofu.

Ham Roast

For the centerpiece, check out this beauty! The smoky ham roast comes with crisscross marks across the top that brown and spread as you cook it.

Cut the roast into slices. Then serve with a green vegetable and mashed potatoes.

I topped the ham with a simple pineapple brown sugar glaze. Then I finished it with maraschino cherries and broiled pineapple slices.

It just took a DNA test. Turns out it’s 100% that kitsch.

How to make ham with pineapple brown sugar glaze

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake in a covered dish for an hour and 15 minutes.

While the ham is cooking, it’s time to make the pineapple brown sugar glaze. In a medium sized pot, combine one cup of pineapple juice with brown sugar.*

FYI: One cup of pineapple juice is roughly the amount that’s in a 20-ounce can of pineapple rings.

Bring to a simmer on a medium heat, and allow the juice to reduce by about 75%. It will take approximately 20 minutes. Stir frequently.

*Not all brown sugar is vegan. However, if you buy organic brown sugar, you can rest assured it’s vegan, since certified USDA organic sugar cannot be filtered through bone char. I use Wholesome organic dark brown sugar.

Once it has reduced, set aside the glaze to cool. It will continue to thicken into a syrup.

Remove the ham from the oven, and coat it with the pineapple brown sugar glaze. (You may not need all of it, and that’s okay. You can drizzle the extra on top of the pineapple slices or serve it separately with the ham.)

Cook the ham uncovered for an additional 15 minutes. Then remove from oven.

Now you can broil the pineapple.

Put pineapple rings on a non-stick baking sheet. (If you’re worried about it sticking, you can lightly oil the baking sheet first.)

Broil until the rings are caramelized and blackened around the edges. It took my pineapple rings about 8 minutes on the 5 setting of my broiler. But it’s good to keep an eye on it since timing can vary.

Remove from oven and carefully put three of the pineapple slices on top of the ham, along with maraschino cherries. If needed, you can use toothpicks to secure them. Serve the remaining pineapple rings on the side.

Often people cook the pineapple right on top of the ham. However, I found that I got the best caramelization and color on the pineapple if I broiled it separately.

Also by broiling it on its own, I didn’t have to worry about the ham getting too done on the outside. And then you can caramelize all of the pineapple slices that are packed in the can, which means plenty of pineapple slices to go around for everyone at the table.

Other ways to use ham:

• Dice it, brown it, and serve it on top of vegan split pea soup
• Add it to a ham and pineapple pizza – full sized or on an air fryer bagel pizza
• Make toasted ham & brie or ham & cheddar sandwiches

How to order the Winter Holiday Feast

Update: The Winter Holiday Feast is no longer for sale. However, you can buy individual items from their a la carte menu.

 

This is a sponsored post with a brand that I use in my own home. Posts like these help me keep fresh recipes coming your way!