Top 5 Christmas Foodie Tips From A Chef

It’s the most delicious time of the year… The festive season is upon us! Whilst Christmas is the time to eat to your heart's content, relax and be merry, we know the lead-up to cooking that epic Christmas feast can be stressful - especially when you have a lot of people to cater for! To help with this, we asked you, our incredible foodie community, what foodie tips you’d like answered to make this process as easy as possible. I took the most popular ones and sat down with our food team to give you some answers. Let’s tuck in…

1. Making the Most of Christmas Leftovers

POV: You’ve just made and enjoyed a delicious Christmas meal that you worked incredibly hard on, but you wake up the next day with tons of leftover food and ingredients. Don’t panic… Now is the time to get creative!

Why not whip up a hash? Chop up your roast veg, potatoes and pigs in blankets, then gently fry it all off until crisp and hot! Once you’ve done this, serve it up with a fried egg for a super quick and satisfying lunch.

2. Prepping Ahead for Christmas dinner

Whilst eating your epic Christmas dinner creation can take up to no time, the prep to actually make it can be the killer! If you’re the designated cook for Christmas Day, we have some tips that will give you less time in the kitchen and more to spend with loved ones. 

Vegetables

Cut up your vegetables and blanch them 2 days before. Once doing this, store it in the fridge!

Potatoes

We recently did an Instagram post to see what Christmas side our community would save for their dinner… roast potatoes were by far the winners! To save some valuable time, peel, boil and ruffle your potatoes the day before.

Stuffing

Cook your stuffing in a tray as meatballs and then reheat them with your roast on Christmas day!

3. Alternatives to Turkey

In particular, when it comes to a classic British Christmas dinner, turkey meat is extremely common… But we have some other options to mix things up! If you haven’t already, we recommend going for chicken instead. Not only is it smaller (resulting in less waste), but it’s also easier to cook AND far cheaper.

If you’re opting for a vegetarian option, we would recommend going for a classic halloumi main. For our vegan readers, a good, firm tofu with a deliciously heavy seasoning will work wonders! 

4. How to Make the Perfect Roast Potatoes 

Ah, what is a Christmas dinner… Or life for that matter… Without potatoes. That is of course, completely subjective, but as mentioned, our UK community members felt very strongly about the humble roast potato!

A very popular question we had was how to make the perfect, homemade roasties - so let’s get down to some carby business! To start with, peel your potatoes, cut them into large chunks and cook them for 6 minutes in rapidly boiling and heavily salted water. Once done, drain them in a colander, ruffle them hard and allow them to cool to room temperature so that the excess moisture evaporates. 

Finally, pre-heat a heavy roasting tray with half a cm of rapeseed or canola oil in the oven at 200c. Tip in the potatoes, stir to coat in the oil and roast for an hour until beautifully, golden-brown.

5. Tasty Christmas Treats and Sides

It’s fair to say that a festive cheese board can take one of the crowns for the ultimate Christmas snack - but serving it when everyone is already full can be the downfall! Instead, why not try a mini cheese board with tarts, pickled grapes and sprout mac and cheese - this pairs great with a roast!

A lot of you may know by now, but we love a food debate! Another half of the Food Team felt that Christmas foods as snacks can easily be avoided. Another option can be to cater to your audience and give them what they want - don’t try and change things up too much simply because of the season. Focus on deliciousness first and foremost… With some added festive hints here and there!

We'd love to hear your thoughts - what’re your Christmas hacks and staple dishes? Let us know on IG or Twitter!

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