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Christmas

From present ideas to party food, find all your Christmas inspiration here.

Batch cooking for the festive period

31 replies

FurForksSake · 19/10/2025 11:06

I’m thinking about making some meals for the family to eat between Christmas and new year. Turkey will be used for lunchtime sandwiches, a curry and the New Year’s Day pie (we freeze the leftovers).

So probably five meals that I can make ahead and freeze that feel a bit special but are easy to reheat. If I do one a week we’ll end up with five meals that we can enjoy for little effort.

Any suggestions for freezable, festive, delicious family meals? We don’t eat much fish, but other than that no restrictions.

OP posts:
FigCandle · 19/10/2025 22:53

Chicken curry (wilt in spinach and top with fresh coriander and yoghurt before you serve - with rice)

Bolognese sauce (make up into a lasagne and serve with green salad and fresh Parmesan)

Savoury mince cooked with carrots, onions etc. (defrost and top with mash made from frozen mashed potatoes = shepherd’s pie. Serve with frozen petits pois)

Lamb tagine (serve with cous cous or rice and fresh coriander and mint)

Thai green chicken curry (rice and coriander)

Hanschristiananderson · 20/10/2025 04:33

Lalanbaba · 19/10/2025 22:41

Ohhh cheese scones! Do you freeze them baked or raw?
Such a great idea for soup

I freeze them baked. I got the idea of freezing things from my mother in law who used to do the same. I always marvelled that she was able to sit and have a drink calmly with us before producing lovely meals with minimal hassle.

PaddlingSwan · 20/10/2025 05:28

How about a couple of substatial soups to be served for lunch with bread, cheese & fruit?

soniaita · 20/10/2025 05:33

I am Italian, and since we have small children we prefer to organize a rich aperitif for Christmas day, with all the things we like but in small portions.

BiddyPopthe2nd · 20/10/2025 06:11

If you are planning now, even everyday things like lasagna can be slow cooked with loads of veg and half a bottle of wine reduced down into for the sauce type luxury versions.

If freezing mash, make it with dried milk powder rather than liquid milk. As it absorbs water in the freezing/thawing process so the dried version is perfect rather than sloppy.

Obe suggestion might be a few days doing a good curry now but big pot of each to freeze half - in individual portions. So you have capacity for individual meals or adding one extra easily - but also o have a few different types available to do more of a curry feast over Christmas with little effort. Defrost enough servings of 2/3 types for your quantities eating, serve in the middle of the table for sharing with an easy pulao rice and some chutneys, puppodums (from shops) and diced tomato/red onion/black pepper mix. (I do a pulao that involves frying 3 cardomon pods, 5 whole cloves, about 10 whole black peppercorns in some ghee for a minute, add the basmati that’s been rinsed 3 times for a minutes, add your boiling water, salt and good pinch of saffron and leave to cook - 1 cup rice to 2.5 cups water).

Lovely unctuous stews are already covered.

My other oven bakes include shepherds pie, chicken and mushrooms in a cream and wine sauce (under mash or pastry); poached smoked haddock flaked with brocolli florets in a white sauce made using the poaching milk under mash and topped with breadcrumbs and some grated cheese.

I also like to put things like chicken joints in lemon and garlic Greek marinade; chicken breasts in piri piri marinade; lamb chops with garlic and rosemary marinade etc into bags ready to cook. And diced Mediterranean veg freezes well to cook from frozen - doesn’t matter what size (I do big in bbqs in summer, fine dice for dinner parties..) but that the veg are all the same size in the batch. Onions (red are nicest), whole garlic cloves, red and yellow peppers, mushrooms, courgette, (aubergine if you like it), mange tout/sugar snap peas, french beans - whatever you have and like. Toss with seasoning - some olive oil, dash of balsamic vinegar, herbs like thyme, chopped rosemary, oregano, salt and pepper. Bag and freeze. Cooked leftovers also freeze well to reheat as a side dish, chuck into tomatoes for ratatouille or plain tomato sauce/with added meat for a pasta dish.

I also like to have a few rolls of different cookie doughs to slice and bake, as some previous posters. I always plan mince pies but usually get as far as the pastry but not even making the shells before freezing (I use the Hairy bikers pastry with grated orange zest in it). I’ve also frozen Jamie Oliver’s sweet pastry (from original Naked chef book) as a lump or blind baked for easy tarts. Or a bag of crumble mix so I can grab a bag of frozen berries, rhubarb from summer freezing or someone has volunteered to peel apples into a baking dish and add some crumble on top to throw into the oven, especially if it’s already hot for main/sides.

BiddyPopthe2nd · 20/10/2025 06:13

I also like to freeze a mix of small sized cheese scones and larger fruit scones, slightly underbaked to pop in oven to be perfectly finished but not over-crumbly. For breakfasts or snacks in the day or cheese ones with soup for lunches.

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