Xmas dinner side dishes/veg how do you do yours?

[mandco]

What side dishes do you do and how do you do them?

I normally end up doing mine fairly plain (Steamed veg no glaze etc) as my lot are really fussy but we may be having extra guests for dinner this year so looking for some ideas/suggestions/tried and tested recipes to make things more Xmassy
I’ll be doing them along side the steamed veg so any suggestions appreciated.

[wanye]

roast (almost) all the veg!

personally, i tend to cook the bulk of the dinner in my sous vide bath beforehand, so by lunchtime on xmas day, the ribeye joint and turkey crown are already cooked, they just need warming up/browning for half an hour in the oven... that way i can get all the veg ready to go, then just drop the meat into the oven for the last bit of it.

i also stick a bunch of jacket potatoes in a day or two before, scoop out all the middle, leaving me with a bag/tub full of potato to make mash, and a load of potato skins to make on another night with the leftovers. then just stick the mash into a pan, and reheat with butter/cream/cheese/seasoning

the only veg that doesnt get roasted are peas, broccoli, cabbage and a bit of carrot. these get steamed, but the water is then used to make the gravy (along with the sous vide meat juices out of the bags)

[Sandra & co]

I boil everything and roast potato’s, parsnips and carrots and buy cauliflower cheese already made. We have normal paxo stuffing as nobody likes sausagemeat stuffing and I buy pigs in blankets already done.

[Island mamma]

I do carrots with a honey and ginger glaze, sprouts with crispy bacon bits, sage and onion stuffing, sausagemeat and cranberry stuffing, pigs in blankets and roast potatoes. Quite often do the stuffing in advance, part cook and put in freezer in oven dishes so they are ready to throw in the oven on Christmas day. Everything else I do fresh cos it doesn't take long. I do fresh bread sauce too

[marypoppins38]

My husband cooks Christmas dinner. He does Gordon Ramsey’s glazed carrots and parsnips with honey and star anise. They are gorgeous! He also does Gordon’s roast potatoes with turmeric and sprouts with pancetta and chestnuts.

[Vanillapod]

Hmm, we tend to have to many things but can never decide what to ditch

Red cabbage (roughly Delia’s recipe)
Honey and caraway glazed rainbow carrots
Shredded sprouts with pancetta and chestnuts
Roast potatoes
Yorkshires
Cauliflower cheese with blitzed broccoli in the sauce
Green beans tossed with buttery shallots
Bread sauce
Cranberry sauce
Roast parsnips
Pigs in blankets (always in thin pancetta as bacon just doesn’t cook properly IMO)
Dates in pancetta too
Mashed Carrot and swede (it’s a classic!)
Is that everything?
Oh, sometimes cauliflower cream too if we decide to withold the Cauliflower cheese for Boxing Day

We always have the red cabbage in the oven on Xmas eve whisky we eat our cheese and biscuits and watch Xmas movies. I love the smell!
We then just warm up enough on the day and freeze the rest.
I try to make the cranberry sauce the night before too so that’s out of the way and also make the cauliflower cheese and the Yorkshire batter to shove in the fridge overnight.
OH tends to wrap the sausages and dates, shreds sprouts and chops pancetta and chestnuts on Xmas eve too.
Last year I infused the milk for the bread sauce in advance. It’s only a quick job but I want to spend as much time out of the kitchen as possible on Xmas day!
The Turkey goes in it’s bucket of brine first thing on Xmas eve as well.
By the time I’m 60 I’ll have nailed this 😂

[Claudette]

Steamed vegetables seem a bit miserable to me on Christmas Day, it is roasted or fried in this house. We parboil and freeze potatoes a couple of days before and roast from frozen in goose fat. We prep the rest of the vegetables the night before, usually have roasted honey glazed carrots and parsnips and we shallow fry brussel sprouts normally with pancetta and chestnuts, but I am tempted to do them plain next time.

[Goldia]

We have a mix of sides:
Potatoes are always roasted
Yorkshires
Carrots, Broccoli and green beans all go in the electric steamer
Mashed swede
Brussels. Usually roasted or fried with pancetta
Red cabbage...changes each year, Various recipes
Pigs in blankets
Sausagemeat stuffing
Sage and onion stuffing

[mandco]

Originally Posted by Claudette

Steamed vegetables seem a bit miserable to me on Christmas Day, it is roasted or fried in this house. .

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It is a bit miserable but it’s all my lot will eat so normally I don’t worry about it but as we are meant to be having guests this year I feel like I should make it a bit more xmassy so they aren’t disappointed