To panic about needing to serve a liquid Xmas dinner

[Ciderapplevinegar]

A relative is in the unfortunate position of not being able to swallow solid food. They are currently living on soup and meal replacement drinks. However, I am hosting Xmas this year and really want them to be able to take part. But I'm so stressed!
Has anyone got any ideas of how I can feed them? They've said they are more than happy to bring their own "food", but I know they'd love to be able to join in. Might have to just be a nice meal rather than a Xmas one - possibly custardy trifle? Extra saucy moulles? Any other thoughts?!

I would check they are happy to sit round a table of other people chowing down on a huge roast dinner, while all they can have is soup.

You can liquidise just about anything. I spent 13 years doing it for my disabled DD until she had a gastrostomy.
You can either chuck all the meat, stuffing, veg, and gravy all in together and make it a Christmas dinner flavoured soupy consistency by adding more gravy or water or you could liquidise the meat, stuffing and gravy, then do each veg and potatoes separately. The latter is time consuming but you could do most of it in advance and quickly reheat it in the microwave.

I was on a liquid diet at Christmas 2020. We just liquidised the cauliflower cheese soup, added thinner gravy and liquidised a spoon of everything on the dinner and I didn’t bother with dessert because I was full but I would have had jelly (brilliant on a liquid diet).

100%. Wanting to do everything to make everyone feel included is very lovely and the point of it all 😌

I work in the kitchen in a dementia care home so have residents with this issue.
Blending different components of a roast dinner will be fine using gravy to get a right consistency for them.
The same with dessert, use cream to get the right consistency.

Wiltshire farm foods do pureed meals, but they are shaped to look like regular meals - so the pureed peas are shaped to look like a pile of peas on the plate. I'm pretty certain you can order ad hoc meals - and it may alleviate stress and they still get a nicely presented meal

YABU, simply for the massive overreaction of “panicking” and being “so stressed” about Christmas dinner in early October!

A simple conversation about what he wants and would work is all you need.

My daughter is tube fed but I have a device called a biozoon that turns liquids into intensely flavoured air bubbles that can be tasted from a spoon and give you a whole taste experience that lasts and no choke hazard. Gravy bubbles followed by custard bubbles followed by wine bubbles?

Please do not just make things , make up a menu give it to the person to discuss with her dietician first, some of the items mentioned on here , like chestnuts, may not be suitable. Whoever does their meal prep now will have a better idea I would discuss and do a practice run perhaps give them some samples to verify. You would hate to get wrong and the person could become seriously ill.

I have a soft food diet so fully understand. It's not as hard as it looks trust me. If your doing a 3 course meal such as a starter,main and desert. Make the first a milkshake starter, that's one part already out of the way. The second one is Cream of chicken soup but with turkey instead of chicken, use the Christmas dinner ingredients to make this then follow this up with a flavoured custard or ice cream. Serve it up with plenty juices or smoothies.

What about a chestnut and chorizo soup. Festive and spicy! Followed by a tangerine posset served in the peel?

Ask them what you could make. Maybe turkey soup blended up with some cranberry jelly. I wouldn't stress too much they have offered to bring their own food. Thanksgiving is not really about the food, it's more about friends and family.

This. It’s a little more complicated than soup or trifle. But you have months to experiment so you could. There’s spoon tests and you need to practice the recipes and thickness/texture.

Can’t you just blend regular christmas dinner with gravy until it’s a thin soup consistency?

Google level 3 liquidised diet. It needs to be totally smooth. Have you got a hand blender? If so why not just blend the xmas dinner? so you’re not cooking a separate meal.
Ask your relative what they prefer mixed or separate. I was on this diet for a while after surgery and preferred mine seperate. Blend meat with gravy, roast potatoes with milk and veg with water.

I really wouldn’t go the route of blending a solid meal, I would make intentionally liquid foods like really nice soups, that have a purposeful flavour that isn’t just a murky mix of a plateful of everything.

If they can have ice cream then presumably as long as there are no chunky solid bits and the mix itself is smooth they are ok. That could open up options like a set custard/pannacotta but obviously check that with your relative.

There are some lovely festive/wintery soups with xmassy flavour profiles, things like:

• Leek and potato
• carrot and ginger
• Cream of chicken/mushroom
• roast parsnip and rosemary

My son had a broken jaw last Christmas. We discovered that liquidised turkey was grainy and not so good but liquidised pigs in blankets with lots of gravy were a hit with mashed potato and mashed carrots. I did him chocolate trifle which everyone loved.

it was all a bit last minute, he was injured on the 23rd and didn't tell me until late evening so I was unable to plan for much else.

Sorry if this has already been said. I haven’t read the whole thread, but wanted to add that the reason for liquid diet may be important too. E.g., head and neck radiotherapy can knock out the taste buds and make for very disordered tasting, so things that usually taste nice end up tasting awful. From experience, trying to cook tasty and soft/liquid food for someone in this position is thankless as totally bland things were all that was tolerable.

DH doesn’t eat, for reasons I won’t go into. He lives off Fortisip and the occasional soup, bovril drink etc for some flavour.

He would much prefer to make his own arrangements in the unlikely instance when he might want to “eat” something on Christmas Day. No matter how well intended, people can’t/don’t understand his problem and usually make something he can’t manage.

Far too grainy.

Blended leek and potato soup made with the stock that matches the main meat you are serving (so turkey stock if turkey etc). Ham and turkey stock combined makes for an amazing flavour and is our usual boxing day staple.

If it can contain some soft chunks then add in a bit of dried stuffing mix and some of the xmas meat cooked down so it's soft and swallowable. Otherwise just stick to the above and add some xmas themed herbs instead.

It'll have a nice xmas-y flavour and the smells will mostly match the rest of the food around the table.

Desert could be custard with fruit puree (maybe with a splash of alcohol) or some chocolate mousse.

You're thoughtful to research this. I would let them bring their own food or else have a conversation about how they prepare their food so you can be sure.
It probably is fine to puree what you are cooking. Probably not ok to serve semi solid food, puree it all. Liquid would mean liquidy, like a watery smoothie or creamy broth probably?
My brother was on semi solid foods due to burns in his throat. He had a food delivery service it looked like pureed baby food. Even rice pudding was pureed. And that was a semi solid diet.
I'm sure you'll do right,

@Ciderapplevinegar Lovely that you’re embracing it!

My BiL made an excellent soup from Xmas dinner leftovers, with stuffing balls as croutons! 😂 Maybe just blitz up a Xmas dinner? (Leave off the croutons) 🤷‍♀️

Same with the pudding?

OP google the Wiltshire Farm Foods for elderly.

Ive worked in the care industry for years and have sampled similar at shows I’ve been to. Not sure if you can buy an individual meal from these places but it’s worth a few calls.

Or at least having a look will give you ideas of how you can replicate.

When I worked for a caterer chef would blitz What other people had and sieve it.