Christmas dinner accompaniments

[Dancer12345]

I’m hosting Christmas this year and am doing a turkey Christmas dinner. I want to do all the usual trimmings but liven it up a bit - things along the lines of honey-glazed carrots. Hit me with your best suggestions please!

This is stunning but deceptively easy www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/entertain/winter-veg-tian/
Parsnip gratin recipes.sainsburys.co.uk/recipes/sides/parsnip-gratin
Sprouts and crispy chestnuts www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/brussels-sprouts-cooked-in-foaming-butter-with-crispy-chestnuts/
Or if you’re not a fan of the texture of spouts, mash them slightly www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1799635/smashed-sprouts-mash-with-chestnuts

I'm fairly traditional with my Christmas lunch but sprouts & pancetta are very good plus easy as you cook (al dente) the sprouts in advance then pan fry with pancetta at the last minute to warm them back up. Double roast potatoes are also amazing - par boil and roast the night before then a 2nd shorter roast on the day once you've taken the meat out.

Following with interest.

I like a little maple syrup with my pancetta and sprouts.

I like Delia's red cabbage with apple and port.

Yes I was going to say red cabbage, I like it with cinnamon balsamic and cranberries.

I like little individual blind baked pastry cases with cranberry sauce in.

My DC are massive fans of chipolata sausages so I do plain ones, flavoured ones (glazed), ones wrapped in bacon.

Likewise a variety if stuffing and stuffing balls wrapped in bacon/ airdried ham,

Both the above can be done weeks in advance and frozen on disposable baking sheets then bake from frozen.

Veg bundles like very thin carrot batons wrapped/tied in a courgette strip

My family love bread sauce - mine is apparently very nice but I don't quite get it.

Yorkshire puddings at some point became an essential ingredient of every roast meal in our house.

Love shredded red cabbage and orange. It's a rich and gorgeous dish.

Steam red cabbage. Glaze with cranberry sauce. Job done

Dates wrapped in streaky bacon and baked are also tasty.

Mmm some amazing ideas here! All sounds so yummy!

One of the best hacks I've heard of is making your gravy over Christmas eve night in a slow cooker with the giblets, onion, garlic, carrot, celery, bay leaves, marmite etc. Christmas day you just remove the giblets and some of the veg, blitz the rest, season and you're done. Leave it on slow cook so it's nice and warm and ready to go.

Oh sorry, just realised you wanted accompaniments not time saving ideas!

I like a carrot and swede mash topped with cheese. Easy to make in advance and bung in the oven.

We do parsnips in maple syrup, roasted carrots with cardamom seeds and red cabbage and Apple. They are all from Delia's vegetarian book.

Port in the cranberry sauce.

Saint Delia's bread sauce with cream and spices.

Carrots, grate on large teeth, into a microwavable bowl with a knob of butter, a tiny sprinkle of water and a dollop of whole grain mustard, microwave for 1 !/2 to 2 minutes, stir well before serving.

Buttered leeks, wash well and slice thinly, into a microwavable bowl with a dash of water and a knob of butter. Cook, test after 1 minute then cook again if needed.

Shred finely, pre cooked, sprouts, stir in a good spoon of double cream and heat through gently in a saucepan.

Brighten up sprouts with a sprinkle of finely grated orange zest.

Garnish swede or parsnip mash with lightly toasted (in a dry frying pan) flaked almonds.

@Yamaya That’s still an accompaniment though, and sounds lovely!

Red cabbage with apple and sultanas is lovely and easy (also goes nice with nut roast for those fussy types). Roasting veg - parsnips, beetroot, carrots, sweet potatoes and onions plus fresh thyme is a simple but delicious side

Cauliflower, leeks and red peppers topped with cheese then under the grill. A few chilli flakes too if everyone likes them.

I like the idea of all this stuff but in the end it jus5 ends up too much on the plate and then feeling like I’ve become obese in under 20 mins.

Pigs in blankets. I use chipolatas instead of the cocktail sized ones and DH can munch through a sickening amount of them.

Red cabbage

Cauliflower cheese

The meaty type of stuffing balls.

And controversially - macoroni cheese for DS.

Chestnuts in the sprouts with pancetta or chopped bacon. I do not like sausages so do bacon rolls rather than use it to make blankets.

We do braised red cabbage with spices, apple and cider, we also do Brussels with pancetta and chestnuts and carrots cooked in butter and fresh sage...

But our family favourite is HM stuffing, don’t have the exact measurements as we wing it but you sweat off onions, and a bramley apple in butter, in a bowl add ciabatta breadcrumbs, good quality sausage meat and shredded fresh sage and then gets your hands in and give it a good mix, stick I’m a loaf tin and bake....

The smell of it cooking makes my Christmas!!!

I make Delia's parmesan parsnips ahead of time and freeze them, then they just need tipping into a tin of hot fat on the day.

@3littlemincemeatpies That stuffing sounds like this recipe, it's amazing.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3056/sausage-sage-and-onion-stuffing

Makes enough for one loaf tin and then I do a tray of rolled stuffing balls with the leftover mixture. The balls crisp up a bit more than the loaf tin.

My other favourite is shredded Brussels sprouts (done in food processor) that I throw into the hot pan of fried lardons, with lots of crushed garlic and butter/oil. I do it in a huge wok and you want the Brussels sprouts to reduce down until they're very well cooked, even a bit charred in places. They're amazing!

Loads of great ideas here. Feel like I need to do a practise run to test them out!