Non-oven sides

[Citygirlrurallife]

Due to catering for 4 meat eaters, 4 vegetarians and 2 small fussy humans plus the mountain of roast potatoes that will be requested, my oven space on Christmas Day will be low

any recommendations for veggie side dishes that don’t require oven cooking?

Glazed carrots, braised red cabbage with apples, stir fried brussels with bacon...

Or maybe not with bacon for the veggies!

Cheat,get the cabbage etc ready done,so you can heat up in a microwave.... assuming you have one.

do you have an air fryer? you can do the pigs in blankets in there

Shredded stir-fried brussels, with a bit of sesame oil or whatever seasoning takes your fancy. Swede and carrot mash with lots of black pepper. The only veggies we do in the oven are roast parsnips which are done with the potatoes but not in for so long.

Can you throw some frozen Yorkshire puddings in at the end. I do this whilst everything else is being served up and the oven is empty as they only take a few minutes. (I know frozen Yorkshire are not very Christmassy but small fussy humans quite like them in our house)

What about mash potato? We often have both with a roast as kids prefer it.

That sounds delicious

Carrot and swede mash (you can make ahead and then microwave on the day). Red cabbage (works well cooked with some apple juice).

green beans - you can just boil them then add a chunk of butter before putting on the table.

Brussels do oddly well in the microwave. If you buy the very small ones extra-trimmed ones in a sealed bag, you can microwave them for just few minutes and they cook perfectly in the steam, then you can last-minute glaze them in a pan if you want extra flavour.

Creamed leeks

Great suggestions already - the carrot and swede mash sounds good (already doing a bowl of peas for the small people). Brussel sprouts I could def shred and sauté instead of roasting like I usually do and actually @BeMintBee Yorkshire puds not a stupid idea at all

of course leeks, fussy DD is a fan so that helps too

thankyou!!!!

I hate the Christmas red cabbage side dish that always seems to be done despite loving red cabbage - if anyone has an alternative for this I’m up for hearing it!

I hate the Christmas red cabbage side dish that always seems to be done despite loving red cabbage
Do you mean "always seems to be done by other people"? Put your finger on which bit you don't like, leave that out and do a version that you do like!
It freezes, so you can make it well in advance and then just heat it up in the microwave on the day.

lol yes quite. I think maybe it’s the sweet and sour nature - always seems to be done with apples and balsamic vinegar. I’m just not a fan of the combination

I hate the braised red cabbage other people do as well, sweet and spicy does not IMO go with a roast dinner. I also don't like anything creamy or cheesy with a roast, or buttered veg and worst of all honey/maple glazed roast veg. Keep it all plain and simple.

A red cabbage, a red onion, a cooking apple, red wine vinegar, light brown sugar and a splash of water in the cabbage.
slow cook in the oven in advance then freeze and reheat in the microwave.

lol this is exactly the recipe above I said I hated!

Haha that’s the only way I ever cook red cabbage, I don’t think of it as a Christmas variant! It’s just what Delia says and I’ve been doing that since I was little!

Agree if you like it another way just cook it like that, I’m sure it will heat up fine in microwave. Cabbage is fairly robust.

Op - I often think red cabbage is too sweet, you could experiment this weekend cooking some with no or very little sugar, or if you like the apple juice flavour, use good apple juice that’s not full of additional sugar.

Oh and if you get a recipe you like, you can freeze red cabbage cooked, then just microwave it on Christmas Day- one less job on the day.

If you do want sides that are cooked in the oven, you could cook them the day before and then reheat in the hot oven for > ten minutes while the meat is resting.