Xmas day starter ideas

[loveawineloveacrisp]

Am looking for inspiration as I'm fed up of serving up prawn cocktail year after year. Need to be able to prep in advance. What are you all serving on Christmas Day for starter? (4 adults, no veggies or allergies).

Thanks!

A few ideas that I've done over tbe years.

Pate with toast, oatcakes, crackers
Smoked salmon blinis
Soup
Small salad with smoked salmon
Mozzarella and tomato salad.

Pate on toast with chutneys

Do you need a starter?

We stopped doing them a few years ago, and haven't looked back.

Christmas Dinner has enough variety that you don’t need starters, and they're such a pain for timing. The dinner needs loads of last-10-minute things just at the time you would be be eating the starter.

If you really want to add a course, do a really nice salad course between the main and desert - I've done a chicory and blue cheese one which works well. It's a much more relaxed time to do the extra course.

We're having cauli cheese soup with star shaped croutons

I don't do a starter either but I do think Christmas is a time for tradition and love the fact that I know what I'm cooking and eating.

Your guests might be looking forward to your prawn cocktail and be a bit miffed if you go off piste !

We don't have a starter. Christmas lunch is huge and filling.

We don’t have a starter, but our main is huge!! We all like a variety so there are two different meats, 10 different vegetables, and all the trimmings!

We have a seafood platter around lunchtime and then our main meal early evening and this works well for us.

We don't have a starter either but if we did, it would be something light and refreshing like melon and Parma ham. It's also quite traditional so might be a good replacement for prawn cocktails .

I'm doing smoked salmon, lettuce cups with prawns, pate, toast and brown bread and butter.

@loveawineloveacrisp No starter here either. Nibbles and champagne or Bucks fizz as pre dinner drinks then into the turkey! After one course everyone is pretty full!

We normally do canapés instead of starters, about 1 to have main around 2. Means everyone can cope with a slightly later lunch, not as overloaded as a starter. And it means we can cook canapés and then get them out of the oven in time for potatoes, veg, etc to go in.

Tbh I normally just browse what I fancy from M&S!

I would leave out some olives, antipasti and salad and let people help themselves. Basically buy it in rather than prepare it.

Smoked salmon, asparagus, salmon mousse.
We tried to deviate a few times but always came back to this because it's light and easy

Canapés and cocktails or wine before is much easier when you need the oven for the main event.

Fresh figs and Parma ham.

Mixed citrus salad with fennel flavoured salami and mozzarella pearls, (you only need a couple of slices of salami per serving).

Bitter leaves, sliced avocado, and smoked trout flakes with horseradish and vinaigrette dressing.

I like a Christmas lunch starter, as it gets everyone to the table, wine poured etc, and it makes the meal more special.

I make everything for Christmas dinner itself from scratch so I cheat for the starter to save time and we have the lobster bisque from M&S. It’s delicious.

These for me

Scallop gratin in the shell.
Available from most supermarkets I would imagine (got mine in the freezer section in Sburys).
Bake in the oven / air fryer.

We do coquilles st Jacques, little shot glasses with a mousse/terrine (last year was cauliflower and chorizo) then the main course (usually beef, we don't have a traditional Christmas dinner) cheese course and entremet Christmas log.

Two favourites in our house:

Tiny shots of cream of chestnut and sage soup

Salmon stars- sliced white bread cut in star shapes, painted with melted butter and baked until golden. Cool.
Top with a home made or bought salmon pate, a ruffle of smoked salmon. Garnish with chives or a grind of pepper, a lemon wedge and another star.

We do smoked salmon blinis too. Very easy and not too filling.

Salmon mousse
prawn cocktai
melon and strawberries
pate and Melba toast

mare our starters

We gave up a starter years ago and haven’t looked back.
Like a previous poster we have two meats and all the trimmings and feast on that. We then take an hour and anyone who wants desert has had a little time to digest their huge Xmas dinner.
We eat about 3pm and then in the evening after tv and when the games come out, if anyone wants anything to eat it’s just pork pie, sausage rolls, cheese and biscuits etc.

Ooh canapes are a good call.

We, like a couple of PPs, have Coquilles St Jacques as a starter. We now have these seafood canapés for breakfast too (after we began to find our usual staple of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs on a muffin too heavy), which would also work nicely as a starter:
www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/seafood-platter/713786-807742-807742