All the festive wonder and joy aside, Christmas can often be an incredibly busy and stressful time so we’ve pulled together our favourite recipes from quick canapés and drinks to showstopper mains and indulgent desserts to help you get through the festive season – plus a handful of brilliant leftover ideas too.
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Canapés: salmon on rye bread
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Canapés: aubergine and halloumi wraps
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Canapés: devilled eggs
Surprise your guests with this creative take on a forgotten classic – devilled eggs. The retro canapé features a rich and creamy tahini filling that’s perfectly balanced with zesty lime juice.
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Canapés: baked figs with halloumi
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Canapés: ham and cheese tarts
Although this recipe calls for Stilton thanks to its strong, savoury flavour, these tarts work with any cheese. Perfectly scrumptious for a Christmas nibble, you could make them 24 hours ahead and then reheat 15 minutes before serving.
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Starters: cauliflower soup
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Starters: warm butternut squash salad
For a lighter side, serve this colourful winter salad that combines sweet butternut squash with a piquant blue cheese and nutty chestnut mushrooms. It’s simple to put together and will also work well as a side to any meat.
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Starters: prawn cocktail
Another timeless classic, there’s just something about a prawn cocktail that everyone loves and Christmas is the best time to splash out and treat yourself. Either made the British way with Marie Rose sauce or with a spicy prawn cocktail sauce like in the US, it’ll be a big hit with your guests.
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Starters: mushroom and spinach pie
What’s not to love about earthy mushrooms and creamy ricotta with spinach all wrapped up in flaky puff pastry? This is also a great dish to serve when you’re hosting vegetarians as it can easily be turned into a main dish when served with a side salad.
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Mains: roast turkey
A Christmas classic, everyone will love turkey with a fruity apricot and walnut stuffing and delicious gravy. Christmas simply wouldn’t be Christmas without this traditional centrepiece.
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Mains: beef wellington
While beef wellington might seem like a tricky dish to master, this easy-to-follow recipe ensures no one’s left with a soggy bottom. Combining a succulent piece of prime beef with a rich stuffing of pâté and mushrooms, this pastry-wrapped centrepiece is a real showstopper.
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Mains: pork belly roast
Pork belly roast is one of the most comforting and delicious oven-roasted meats when cooked right and this recipe couldn’t be easier to follow. Rolled up Italian porchetta-style, the pork belly is filled with a nutty stuffing and cooked on top of garlicky roast potatoes.
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Mains: orange-glazed ham
Although this orange-glazed ham does take a bit of effort to make, it’s brilliant served both hot and cold. And it’s equally delicious in a sandwich the next day too.
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Mains: goose with pecan stuffing
An intimidating bird, no doubt, goose is one of the most flavourful meats to serve at Christmas. The perfect showstopper for an extra special Christmas, this recipe pairs the goose with pecan, bacon and sage stuffing balls and delicious red wine and blackberry jus.
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Vegetarian & vegan: nut roast
Recipes don’t get much more adaptable than this nut roast, which can be made gluten-free and vegan with a few simple substitutions. You can also make it ahead of time and freeze for up to three months before cooking.
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Vegetarian & vegan: butternut squash wellington
This is a showstopping vegetarian centrepiece, perfect for a festive feast. Sweet butternut squash is paired with nutty mushrooms and then encased in a wonderfully buttery pastry. Don’t be put off by the long cook time either – it’s mostly just squash roasting in the oven.
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Vegetarian & vegan: roasted spicy squash
A hearty one-pan dish of root vegetables, nuts and beans, this is a great meat-free meal that can double up as a side for meat-eaters. The different textures and flavours complement each other well while the ready-made sauce makes the cooking of this dish even easier.
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Vegetarian & vegan: vegetarian pithivier
This recipe makes an excellent alternative to a Christmas roast and it works well with all the classic Christmas sides. It takes time and attention to detail to make, but it’s definitely worth it.
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Sides: roast potatoes
Golden-crusted on the outside, fluffy and soft on the inside, these are the ultimate roast potatoes. The secret is simple – cook a floury potato variety in meat fat (like goose or duck) or a vegetarian alternative, like sunflower oil.
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Sides: creamy kale and celeriac
The creamy greens and roasted celeriac will go fantastically well with any Christmas meat. With minimum prep time, all of the cooking is done in the oven, leaving you to get on with other dishes.
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Sides: potato gratin
If you’re tired of serving the same potato sides time and time again, this potato gratin is a brilliant alternative. Great with any roast meat, the potatoes are grated and then cooked in an indulgent mix of butter and cream – perfect for Christmas.
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Sides: orange and thyme-glazed carrots
Bringing a pop of colour to your Christmas dinner table, these sticky and fragrant carrots pair well with a range of meats and other sides. You can also use up any leftovers in a casserole (if there are any, of course!).
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Sides: parsnip and hazelnut gratin
A brilliant alternative to simple roasted roots or an old-school potato dauphinoise, this parsnip and hazelnut gratin offers a variety of textures. It will work well with pretty much any meat or as a side to a vegetarian nut roast.
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Sides: easy Christmas gravy
A Christmas feast is no feast without a rich gravy covering every inch of your plate and making it is much easier than you might think. Same principles apply no matter what meat (or vegetarian alternative) you’re serving it with – just swap the stock for chicken, vegetable or beef, depending on what’s roasting in the oven.
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Desserts: gingerbread biscuits
These adorable biscuits don’t take ages to make and decorating them will be a fun activity for the whole family to do together. You’ll only need gingerbread men-shaped cutters as you can turn them upside-down for the reindeer.
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Desserts: chocolate and hazelnut roulade
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Desserts: Baileys crème brûlée
Christmas and Baileys just go together, so don’t be surprised when guests ask for seconds as soon as they’ve tried this grown-up version of a classic crème brûlée. You also don’t need a cook’s blow torch to make it – you can just put it under the grill in the oven.
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Desserts: gingerbread yule log
A Christmas classic with a fiery ginger kick, this yule log will be a guaranteed hit with your family and friends. The light and airy meringue buttercream and the sticky ginger sponge are a match made in heaven.
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Desserts: caramelised clementine tart
A real showstopper bake, this elegant tart is rather easy to make and it incorporates the season’s favourite citrus fruit. It’s the perfect blend of sweet and zesty flavours that’ll go down a treat with a cup of tea or coffee.
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Desserts: spiced latte cake
This is a really elegant festive bake that looks stunning and tastes even better. With plenty of spice from the nutmeg and a bit of a boozy kick from the creamy rum topping, this is a grown-up tea time or post-dinner treat.
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Drinks: mulled wine
The ultimate Christmas drink, making your own mulled wine will fill your home with festive aromas of spice, like cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom. You can also use any leftovers (in the unlikely event that you do have any) to make a glaze for ham or even use it as a poaching liquid for pears.
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Drinks: rosemary and pomegranate fizz
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Drinks: almande flip cocktail
Somewhere between a cocktail and a dessert, this creamy, sweet drink is the perfect after-dinner treat. A combination of Baileys Almande, apricot syrup and coconut milk, this cocktail is also vegan, meaning everyone can enjoy it. You could also make it with a classic Baileys instead, if you have it to hand.
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Drinks: festive grapefruit cocktail
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Leftovers: ultimate turkey sandwich
Salty, spicy and savoury, it couldn’t be any more well-suited for a lazy lunch on Boxing Day. Filled with crunchy salted crisps, spicy Tabasco sauce and savoury mayonnaise made with leftover turkey gravy sauce, it’s the ultimate leftover sandwich.
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Leftovers: Christmas mac ‘n’ cheese
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Leftovers: ham and egg linguine
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Leftovers: turkey casserole
You can make this simple casserole with either turkey, ham or chicken, or a mixture of the two and the topping is made from stuffing ingredients that comes out of the oven wonderfully crunchy. Although this recipe uses just peas and spinach for the filling alongside the meat, you could also use up any leftover root veg like carrots or Brussels sprouts.
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Leftovers: turkey, chorizo and avocado hash
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Leftovers: vegetable tart
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Leftovers: panettone bread and butter pudding
Made with leftover panettone you might have lingering around after Christmas, this recipe is a great way of using up any stale bits left uneaten. Served with an aromatic spiced clementine sauce, it’ll fill the house with lovely seasonal aromas of citrus and spice too.
