Christmas side dishes
Finding vegetable sides for Christmas lunch can be a bit of a challenge for me. I want everything to look really beautiful. But I also want it to be something different to what might be eaten throughout the year. I have found a couple of Christmas side dishes that I think you will love.
ROASTED PUMPKIN WITH CRANBERRIES & FETA
The first dish I chose this year was a Honey Roasted Pumpkin. It’s an easy dish that won’t stress you out on the day. In fact I roasted the pumpkin the day before and did everything but add the feta and parsley. Before serving I heated on medium high in the microwave for a few minutes. I then added the feta and parsley to serve. It was really delicious.
Roasted Pumpkin with Cranberries & Feta
Ingredients
- 1350 grams Butternut pumpkin (peeled and chopped into 3cm cubes)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1/4 cup crumbled feta
- ground cinnamon
- Salt, Pepper and onion powder
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
- Place pumpkin into a bowl and add olive oil, salt, pepper and a sprinkle of onion powder. Give everything a good mix and then pour onto lined tray. Spread out evenly.
- Roast for 25 minutes. Turn tray and if your oven doesn't cook evenly.
- Remove from oven and add cranberries and honey. Roast for a further 10 minutes until Pumpkin is cooked.
- At this stage you can allow to cool and refrigerate until ready to serve. Or sprinkle with cinnamon, feta and parsley to serve.
- If you are refrigerating until later, reheat in the microwave on medium high for about 3 minutes, and then add the cinnamon feta and parsley.
Leek Tarte Tatin
Christmas side dish number two is something utterly delicious – Leek Tarte Tatin. Now this one is a little bit of work but I’m telling you it’s so worth it. The leeks are so tender and the caramel amazing against the crunchy pastry. The most time consuming part of the whole recipe is preparation and cooking of the leeks. You need to ensure that you wash the leeks very well to remove any grit. I did this by soaking them in water and changing the water twice.
Leek Tarte Tatin
Ingredients
- 6 medium Leeks
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 4 tbsp butter
- 3 tbsp caster sugar
- 2 tbsp water
- 30 ml balsamic vinegar
- 2 tbsp sultanas
- 1 sheet puff pastry
- 1 tbsp fresh parsley or thyme to garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 210°C.
- Peel outer layer from leeks and wash well. Slice into 4cm pieces, discarding the dark green ends. Put the cut pieces into a bowl and fill with water. Shake around a few times, empty and repeat. Dry on paper towel.
- Put 2 tablespoons of butter and the olive oil in a large frying pan. Place the leeks, cut side down in the pan and and cook for 6 minutes until starting to caramelise. Turn leeks over and cook for another 6 minutes until leeks are tender but not soft. Remove from heat.
- Put sugar and water in a 20cm round ovenproof frypan and heat over low-medium heat to dissolve sugar. Once dissolved turn heat up to medium and cook, shaking occasionally until syrup thickens and starts to turn golden. Be careful not to burn as it will turn very quickly. Remove from heat.
- Add remaining butter and balsamic vinegar and stir. Sprinkle over sultanas. Arrange leeks cut ends down to fit snugly leaving no gaps.
- Spread pastry sheet over pan and tuck edges in around the side of the pan. Using a sharp knife pierce a few slits in the pastry to release the steam.
- Bake for 10 minutes at 210°C and then reduce temperature to 170°C and bake for a further 25 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for 5 minutes.
- Put a plate, larger than the frypan, on top and carefully flip the tarte tartin. Sprinkle with fresh parsley or thyme. Serve immediately.
Honeyed Carrots
This year I decided to make good old honeyed carrots for Christmas. I love to try and keep the flavours among the dishes similar so they all taste good together. Because the pumpkin had honey in it I thought honeyed carrots would work well.
First thing I did was make a honey butter for serving. To do this use 3 heaped tablespoons of room temperature butter, 2 teaspoons honey and 2 teaspoons of finely chopped parsley. Mix well and then put the mixture onto some baking paper and roll into a small log. Then place it in the freezer until the carrots are ready. You could do this days before and have it ready to go.
Honeyed Carrots
Ingredients
- 4 Carrots, cut in to sticks
- 40 grams butter
- 3 tsp honey
Instructions
- Boil carrots in a saucepan with water until just tender. This will take around 10 minutes depending on the size of your carrot sticks. Drain the water from the carrots and put back on the heat.
- Add butter and honey and cook on medium high for about 10 minutes or until the mixture has caramelised as per the picture.
- Serve with the honey parsley butter.
Broccolini with hazelnuts
I wanted to have a green side dish so chose broccolini and added a topping that included hazelnuts. This recipe serves about four and uses one bunch of broccolini. If you need to serve more people just double the recipe.
Broccolini with Hazelnuts
Ingredients
- 1 bunch broccolini
- 1/3 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cup roasted and chopped hazelnuts
- 1 tsp finely grated lemon rind
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp shaved parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Boil broccolini in saucepan and water for approximately 6 minutes.
- Heat oil in a small frying pan, add breadcrumbs and hazelnuts and fry until golden. Add lemon rind stir for 30 seconds and remove from heat.
- Drain broccolini and put on serving platter. Top with breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese.
DUCK FAT POTATOES – THE ULTIMATE ROAST POTATO!!!
Ok so if you’ve never made duck fat roasted potatoes then you have to do it this Christmas. These roast potatoes are the absolute best I’ve ever tasted. They are super crunchy on the outside and really fluffy on the inside. It’s essential that you pre boil the potatoes before roasting. You also need to give them a shake in the colander to rough up the outside as you can see if the picture below. This helps make them really crunchy. I add a very small amount of rosemary at the end but usually keep them plain in flavour because the other side dishes are always so flavour filled.
Duck Roasted Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg potatoes (starchy ones work best)
- 100 grams duck fat
- himalayan salt
- fresh rosemary
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 190°C.
- Peel and halve potatoes. Boil in water until just tender – will take about 10-15 minutes.
- Put the duck fat into your roasting pan and heat in the oven for about 5 minutes.
- Drain into a colander and shake to rough up the outside of the potatoes.
- Add potatoes to the duck fat and roast for 25 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and turn the potatoes over. Roast for another 20-25 minutes until golden on the outside.
- Remove from oven and toss in some finely chopped fresh rosemary, only about a teaspoon, you just want to add a hint of the rosemary taste.
I hope you enjoyed my round up of the side dishes I’ll be serving this Christmas. If you make any let me know what you think.
If you’re looking for some meat to go with these sides, have a look at my easy Christmas ham or Pork belly with cherry sauce.
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