Top Christmas Recipes
It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas… well, here at Pinch of Nom it is! Prepare a festive feast this year with our best ever Christmas recipes.
From exciting party food to stunning dinner centrepieces, we’ve got Christmas covered with our Top Christmas Recipes round-up. You can browse the full Christmas category for more inspiration and ideas to make sure you eat, drink and be merry all Christmas long!
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Starters
Kick off Christmas dinner with a bang by serving up these simple starters. They’re as easy as they are delicious!
We love a challenge when it comes to making your favourite festive food slimming friendly!
With a few clever swaps, we’ve created this rich and indulgent Pate with Port, served in individual ramekins.
Pop a few crackers or some fresh, crunchy veggie crudites on the side and you have a luxurious starter that looks great on the table.
Pigs in blankets are a Christmas classic, but we’ve added a twist (literally) to make them even better! Light puff pastry elevates these simple chipolatas into a festive treat that the whole family will love.
You could serve a couple of Pigs in Blankets in Puff Pastry per person as a starter or leave on the table throughout the main event for grazing.
Mains
Stunning Christmas centrepieces that will be the star of the show! Whatever your dietary requirements, we’ve got you covered:
A question we get every year over in our Facebook Group is ‘can I cook a turkey in a slow cooker?’ and the answer is YES!
We’ve perfected a moist, succulent Slow Cooker Turkey Joint that’s perfectly cooked and stress free.
The added bonus is that your oven is freed up for other things, making juggling dishes easier on Christmas Day!
A luxurious Beef Wellington is usually full of buttery pastry and lashings of oil, but we’ve created a slimming friendly version!
Including perfectly cooked tender beef steaks and veggies wrapped in puff pastry parcels, this Beef Wellington recipe makes for an indulgent main course for everyone.
If you prefer your beef well done, you can simply cook them for a few minutes longer.
This recipe is so good, you may find you’ll be making it all year round!
Another spectacular slow-cooked centrepiece, this Ginger and Orange Glazed Ham is a real festive treat!
Cooked in a ginger ale and orange juice liquor and spiced with warming ginger, this works well in Boxing Day sandwiches too! This dish is a great alternative to turkey that’s still packed with festive flavour.
It doesn’t get more festive than roasted chestnuts! We’ve made the most out of every bite with this Chestnut Roast.
For the vegetarians and those that would prefer a lighter Christmas main this year, try this veggie-packed main that can be adapted to suit most diets easily.
Psst… if you have any chestnuts leftover, don’t throw them away: use them for Chestnut Stuffing!
Sides
It wouldn’t be Christmas dinner without all the trimmings, would it? Take a look at our colourful, fresh and nutritious sides for the whole family:
It’s hard to describe just what a difference the maple glaze makes in this Maple Glazed Carrots recipe.
Fresh, crunchy carrots, but with a touch of indulgence!
With a sweet glaze and a hint of lemon and tangy cranberries, these Chantenay carrots take only 35 minutes to cook, so they’re an ideal side to Christmas dinner.
A creamy, tasty alternative to sprouts! Creamed Cabbage and Leeks are so nutritious and contain all of the goodness but a milder flavour than sprouts.
A rich, creamy sauce complements them perfectly and they go well alongside a roast dinner any time of year.
If sprouts will always be a staple of your Christmas Dinner, you may find that how they’re cooked makes a huge difference: try Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and you could be surprised who goes back for seconds!
Our cheesy-topped Christmas Hasselback Potatoes give classic roast potatoes a run for their money. We’ve baked all of our favourite festive flavours to crispy perfection by topping them with sage, onion, bacon and cheese. If all of that doesn’t get you in the Christmas spirit, the sweetened cranberry glaze definitely will!
Desserts
From traditional classics to make-ahead sweet treats, we’ve got everything you need for a festive finish to your Christmas dinner:
How beautiful does this Christmas Chocolate Log look?! It’s so decadent and rich that you won’t believe it’s only 133 calories a slice!
It’s so much easier to make than it looks with only a handful of ingredients, but it’s a real showstopper pud. Serve with an Christmas Hot Chocolate for after-dinner drinks to round off a delicious festive feast in style.
Who says you can’t have ice cream at Christmas? We’ve used shop-bought ice cream, berries, meringue pieces and chocolate chunks to make sure our Frozen Christmas Pudding is bursting with flavour, for a fraction of the calories in a traditional pud.
Chocolate sponge is layered with a rich chocolatey dessert and cherries, this is the perfect end to any festive dinner and is guaranteed to impress your guests.
Love them or hate them, there’s no doubt that mince pies are an essential part of Christmas!
These make-ahead Mini Spiced Orange Mince Pie Crumbles are a combination of the recognisable mince pie flavour with added warming cinnamon and fresh orange zest.
They store really well and can be popped in the freezer, so why not make a batch in advance for snacking on over Christmas?
Party Food
We LOVE a good party, but we don’t love the usual bland and beige party food!
Luckily, we have some exciting, delicious nibbles for you and your guests to enjoy.
Salty cheese and sweet pickle, wrapped in fluffy puff pastry make these Cheese and Pickle Twists ideal for popping on a buffet table or serving on Boxing Day.
Once you’ve got the hang of the twisting technique, you can experiment with lots of flavours, such as chocolate or pizza! Christmas brie and cranberry version, anyone?
These crispy Filo Crackers are a great way of using up leftover turkey from Christmas dinner and transforming it into a substantial, filling snack that will go down really well as part of a buffet spread.
We love avoiding food waste, so by using leftovers in a whole new dish it keeps things budget friendly as well as an impressive snack the following day.
We have Veggie Filo Crackers too if you’d prefer to skip the meat altogether.
For another way to make your leftover turkey go even further, try our BBQ Turkey Sliders and Christmas Slaw for another grab and go Boxing Day dish!
Drinks
A festive tipple or two is one of our favourite parts of the holiday season, but it doesn’t have to be high-calorie alcohol or expensive liquor to get everyone into the Christmas ‘spirit’:
The aroma of warming cinnamon and spice filling the air is a real delight, and one of the things that make Mulled Wine so special! We’ve substituted some of the wine with slimline ginger ale to shave off some of the calories while maintaining all of the characteristic flavour.
It takes just 15 minutes to warm through, but you could even pop in the slow cooker to be heated while you get on with other things. Why not serve to the grown-ups on Christmas Eve alongside a glass of traditional Eggnog for the kids?
When you’re in the mood to celebrate with a chilled festive tipple, our fun-filled Cranberry Fizz is sure to go down a treat. It’s bubbly, sparkly and fruity (not to mention slimming friendly!), so it’s perfect to help you keep the calories down over the party season.
Need some more motivation over Christmas?
We can’t wait to see what you’re making over Christmas! Show us what you’re serving over in our Facebook group, where we have almost 1 million members waiting to support you on your slimming journey.
Did you know that you can now share your hints, tips, quotes and photos in our PON Gallery too?