Tips for cooking for 8 with a tiny oven!

[Worried1305]

We have (foolishly!) agreed to host a group of 8 friends to Christmas lunch in mid-December. We have a tiny oven, a microwave and a hob. Half the group are vegetarian, half are meat-eaters (no vegans).

Any tips? Especially…

1. Easy recipes, preferably which can largely be prepped the day before.
2. How to make it work with a tiny oven! Especially with some vegetarians and some not!
3. Would it be OK to serve salad (eg potato salad) to bulk things out, or is that a weird thing to do in December?

Meat benefits from resting after it’s cooked, so if you do a joint or a turkey, cook that first. Set it aside under foil and tea towels and get on with the rest.

There are many sides that can be done on the hob (eg carrot and parsnip mash, pan fried sprouts). The vegetarian main dish and a tray of roast potatoes could probably be in the oven together. Veg like sweetcorn or peas only need to be scalded with hot water.

Personally I’d go with hot veg rather than salad. A soup starter would bulk it out too and that could be made ahead and reheated in the microwave.

When I host vegetarians, I have meat and gravy for the carnivores but I do all the sides as vegetarian (so I skip on duck fat or crispy bacon bits)

All the trimmings traybake for 4 https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/all-trimmings-traybake
and a veggie Christmas traybake for 4 https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/leftover-christmas-veggie-traybake/

I would honestly cook all vegetarian. I once did a wild mushroom lasagne with truffle oil....Best ever Xmas dish

This one

Or a buffet

Go completely vegetarian but amazing!
Soup dressed up with 'bits' on top served with good bread and flavoured butter.. this is all pre-prepared.
A spectacular pie with lots of sides.. some of which are precooked and reheated in the micro to serve or even steamed over each other...
The pie doesnt have to be red hot to serve.
Then a lovely pudding with cream or really good ice cream.
Coffee and chocolates..
Job done
Merry Christmas!!

Have you got a slow cooker? They are brilliant for steaming the Christmas pudding and can be plugged in anywhere so not taking up your hob/ counter space.

Also a tiered steamer for veg like this - they have big capacity and you can do spuds in the bottom (if you are doing new/ mash), carrots in one steamer basket and greens in another

If you wanted some additional bulk, try going a bit American and serving small, shiny dinner rolls.
Again, American, but a wild rice, butternut squash, cranberry, pecan salad etc would work if you really want a side salad.

I make smashed brussel sprouts, which can sit in bottom of oven where nothing else does and is fine. Par-boil them, drain well, mix in creme fraiche, chopped chestnuts (get in packet, easy!) lots of black pepper and nutmeg, then put in the bottom and forget about it!

I would agree with going all vegetarian, I had a beautiful not-sausage wreath with puff pastry, cranberry sauce, it looked fantastic.

Does it have to be turkey? A crown is smaller and quicker. You could even do the turkey the day before and serve it cold with warm gravy. A lot of things can be prepared the day before such as roast potatoes.

if you wanted you could do more of a buffet with cold meats (turkey, gammon), salads and roast potatoes / basically veggie side dishes and a nice veggie ‘main’. I used to do peppers stuffed with a rice mix (which was fried in onions and chill powder and had tomatoes, mushrooms, parsley, raisins and pistachios added). The rice mix could be made the day before and stored in the fridge and then put in peppers on the day and put in the oven.

Lots of the prep can be done well beforehand.
I always pre cook my roast potatoes, carrots, pigs in blankets, stuffing and gravy. Then freeze it in foil containers. Take it all out of the freezer the night before to thaw and throw in the oven once the meat is cooked and resting.
Mash can be made the day before and put in a microwaveable serving bowl to be reheated on the day. Frozen petit pois can be microwaved. If you want things like broccoli just steam it in the microwave. I also do a big cauliflower cheese for vegetarian DH. Again, this can be made a couple of days before, put in a foil dish and reheated.
We always have a seafood starter - my family would disown me if I did something different!!! Egg mayo for DH. So all you need is a couple of nice serving plates, a bag of posh salad leaves / rocket leaves, lots of lovely seafood - large prawns, smoked salmon, cold poached salmon etc. plonk a bowl of fancy seafood dressing in the middle, serve with fancy sourdough and french butter. Bung it in the middle and everyone helps themselves.
Dessert is usually a home made trifle - something fancy from Delia, fancy mince pies and cream, then a cheese board - so no cooking needed there.

This sounds delicious! I might make it this weekend.

do you have an airfryer? you can pick them up cheaply for about £30 or even off fb marketplace

I'm veggie have been for 15 years but "cross contamination" doesn't bother me because in the grand scheme of things it actually doesn't matter.

We have a really little oven but an air fryer too so we have a bit more wiggle room

Do a winter veg soup and rolls to start very easy to make ahead (or buy in)
Turkey crown in the oven with plenty of time to rest
3 tier steamer for veg +peas in the microwave
Roast spuds and parsnips in the air fryer (pre cook and freeze them a few weeks before to save the par boiling on the day)
Stuffing pigs in blankets and cauli cheese in the oven while the turkey is resting
Desert mince pies or something else premade, yule log, pavlova etc. there are millions around that time of year

I had this problem and I bought a food warmer. Absolute game changer, keeps things warm for a good couple of hours. I couldn’t do it without it

Oh love to know what you think of it!

For the meat, I will do individual portions.
Chicken legs with sausage stuffing. Precooked them and serve with piping hot gravy.
Leaves room for individual veggie pies and roasties in the oven

@TeapotCollection what food warmer do you have? im interested!

Make your menu completely vegetarian.
Do a cold starter, perhaps goat cheese & pear salad or a selection of hummus/aubergine/yoghurt & cucumber dips, all easily prepared in advance.

Do a vegetarian roast with traditional side dishes, or perhaps a baked pasta dish with a selection of winter salads...mixed bean, lentil, beetroot etc.

For pudding serve a choice of mince pies, stuffed dates, winter fruit salad compote, with brandy cream.

As your meal is mid December, presumably all the guests will be having their own Christmas meals, so don't feel restricted to a typical Christmas Day menu, it will be enough to include some Christmas flavours, especially as your cooking facilities are limited.

Thank you everyone, these are wonderful suggestions. The tray bake idea looks good. I have to try that lasagne! We can probably borrow a slow cooker, and the tiered steamer is genius!

A few suggestions:
First course: soup can be kept warm in slow cooker, also if you choose mashed potatoes they can be served from a slow cooker. So borrow an extra one?
Roast a joint day before or very early then rest under foil.
Then use the hot oven space for roast mixed root vegetables as a traybake for the vegetarians.
Steamed brocolli or fine beans as another vegetable.
Ubiquitous nut roast at the same time?
Vegetarian gravy for all.
Cold desserts bought in with Christmassy flavours rather than the steamed pudding etc.

You can roast in a slow cooker, depending on what meat you are doing. You can also do Christmas pud in a slow cooker.

Cook the meat first and rest while doing veg.

Steam veg in the microwave.

These veggie pies make a nice main, and might be small enough that you can squeeze them in the oven besides the meat.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/individual-christmas-pies

@HairsprayBabe ours is similar to this but it’s also got a pull down tray underneath the 3 glass trays

I honestly wouldn’t, in fact couldn’t, do a dinner for more than 4 without it

Have you a bbq of some sort? I have been known to fire up the Weber in an English Christmas morning.

do you have a combi microwave?

if yes, that's a second oven!

On Christmas Eve I'm cooking for 40 in my tiny kitchen and delivering to local pensioners and single parent families. I know it's daunting but it's far from impossible to cook for 8!

Decide what time you want to eat and then reverse engineer your time line. Then look for recipes that fit in to any time slots or can be Prepped earlier. Red cabbage is a great one and went down a storm with my family last year. Pigs in blankets and stuffing do not need to be hot. You can even pre cook the meat and shove it thinly and cover it in gravy. Takes minutes to reheat.