Healthy Recipes for a Traditional Christmas Menu

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle during the festive season is not only an applause-worthy aspiration but it is also possible! These much loved traditional recipes are what you’d expect to see on a Christmas menu, but they are dairy-free, wheat-free and contain no added sugar (yes, even the desserts)! Enjoy a healthy Christmas lunch/dinner without the post-meal bulging belly (Nanna naps optional).

In Australia, we’re blessed with weather conducive to an active lifestyle (who doesn’t love a dip in the pool or a run under the sprinkler on Christmas day?) and the best variety of seasonal produce to make for an epic Christmas menu. This menu serves eight people and is based on real, locally sourced and seasonal whole foods.

Technically a Paleo menu, it’s the exact feast I prepared for family and friends last Christmas. I’m no longer Paleo, but I completely appreciate the health benefits of the Paleo diet / lifestyle. If you’re not Paleo either, don’t be put off – this menu went down an absolute treat among the Paleo and non-Paleo peeps alike! They couldn’t even tell the difference between the healthy and the original Christmas recipes!

You can expect to spend a day in the kitchen, but it is possible to make everything a day ahead if you wish.

I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and and the very best the New Year!

What’s on a healthy Christmas menu?

• Turkey with macadamia, goji berry and sausage stuffing
• Baked sweet potatoes, carrots and parsnips with rosemary
• Sauteed brussel sprouts with bacon and garlic
• Gravy
• Cherry & rhubarb trifle
• Fruit mince tarts

Roast Turkey with Stuffing of Macadamia, Goji Berry and Sausage

Ingredients

• 3.5kg turkey
• 2 tablespoons duck fat
• 2 – 3 pinches of sea salt
• 650gm sausage mince
• 1 brown onion
• 1 pink lady apple
• 2 stalks celery
• 1 cup macadamias
• ½ cup goji berries
• 1 sprig sage
• 1 sprig Italian flat-leaf parsley
• 1 sprig thyme

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (or 160 degrees fan-forced).
2. Combine onion, apple and celery in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.
3. In a large frypan, cook sausage mince over medium-high heat until browned. Remove from pan and place in a large bowl.
4. Add the onion, apple and celery to the pan and cook until softened. Add to the sausage mince.
5. Roughly chop or crush the macadamias in either a mortar and pestle or food processor. Transfer to a small small frypan and cook over low heat until slightly browned and you can start to smell the nuts. Turn off heat immediately and add to the bowl of sausage mince.
6. Add goji berries and herbs to the bowl and stir to combine.
7. Stuff the turkey with sausage mix and place on a rack in a baking dish.
8. Add 2 cups of water to the dish.
9. Brush the turkey in duck fat and sprinkle with sea salt.
10. Place the turkey in the oven for 2.5 hours.

Baked Sweet Potatoes, Carrots and Parsnips with Rosemary

Ingredients

• 3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into inch-long pieces
• 3 large carrots, peeled and chopped into inch-long pieces
• 3 medium parsnips, peeled and chopped into inch-long pieces
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• 2 tablespoons duck fat

Method

1. Place all vegetables and the rosemary on a rack in a baking tray and drizzle in duck fat.
2. Cook in the oven with the turkey for the last 1 – 1.5hrs of baking, turning 2 – 3 times.
3. When turning the vegetables for the last time, remove the rack and toss the vegetables around in the duck fat. Place back in the oven until cooked and crispy.

Sautéed Brussel Sprouts with Bacon and Garlic

Ingredients

• 500gm brussel sprouts, base remove and leaves separated
• 4 pieces short cut bacon, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoon olive oil

Method

1. Cook bacon and garlic in a large non-stick frypan over medium-high heat until bacon is cooked and slightly crisp.
2. Add brussel sprouts to the pan and drizzle with olive oil. Stir and cook until the brussel sprouts are bright green and wilted.
3. Transfer from the pan to a serving bowl.

Gravy

Ingredients

• Juices from the turkey, fat removed (use a paper towel to sponge the surface)
• 2 tablespoons coconut flour
• 500mL chicken stock

Method

1. Transfer the juice from the baking dish that the turkey was cooking into a small saucepan. Using a paper towel, remove the fat by sponging the surface to absorb the oil layer.
2. Add coconut flour, one tablespoon at a time, stirring with a fork until combined.
3. Gradually add the chicken stock, stirring with a fork, until combined.
4. Cook over medium heat and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring regularly, for 45 minutes.

Healthy Cherry & Rhubarb Christmas Trifle

Ingredients

Sponge

• 6 eggs
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1.5 cups almond meal
• 2 tablespoons brandy (optional)

Fruit

• 1 bunch rhubarb
• 2 tablespoons honey
• ¼ cup water
• 330gm pitted cherries
• 1 tablespoon brandy (optional)

‘Custard’

• 670mL coconut cream
• 1.5 teaspoons vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 2 tablespoons honey

Jelly

• 1 tablespoons gelatin
• ⅓ cup cool water
• ⅓ cup boiling water
• 2 cups cold pressed apple & raspberry juice (I used blueberry, beetroot, banana, carrot, pear & blackberry, but apple and raspberry would work best)

‘Cream’

• 4 x 400mL cans coconut cream, refrigerated overnight (you will only need the cream on top, save the liquid for smoothies)
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Method

Sponge

1. Pre-heat oven to 175 degrees celcius.
2. Grease and baseline 2 x 20cm round cake tins with coconut oil.
3. In a large bowl, beat eggs and honey with an electric mixer until thick and creamy, and until air bubbles just start to form – then turn off the beaters.
4. Gently fold in almond meal, half a cup at a time.
5. Pour mixture into prepared cake tins and bake for about 20 minutes or until golden and the edges of the cake start to come away from the rim. You might be tempted to open the oven when the sponge starts to brown – don’t! It will cause the sponge to sink.

(If you’re wondering about the brandy, that comes during the assembly.)

Fruit

1. Chop rhubarb into ½ inch size pieces and add to a large frypan with water, honey and brandy (if using).
2. Cook over medium heat until the rhubarb is softened but not falling apart and the juice is syrupy.
3. Turn off the heat and stir in the cherries.

‘Custard’

1. In a large saucepan combine coconut cream and vanilla and cook over medium heat, stirring continuously. When the cream starts to bubble (after about 5 minutes), remove from heat immediately.
2. In an electric mixer whisk eggs and honey on medium speed until pale and creamy. Then slowly add the hot cream mixture until combined.
3. Return the custard mixture to the saucepan and cook over the lowest heat, stirring continuously, for 45 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.

Jelly

1. Add to a large bowl the gelatin and cool water and stir to combine.  
2. Then add the boiling water and stir to combine.
3. Then add the juice and stir to combine.
4. Cover with cling wrap and place in the fridge overnight or until set (about 4 hours).

‘Cream’

1. Open the canned coconut cream and scoop out the cream from the top halves of the tin.
2. Place in the bowl of an electric mixer with honey and vanilla and whip until thickened and creamy.

To assemble

1. Carefully cut the sponge into 2 inch squares and place on the bottom of a trifle bowl.
2. Add the fruit layer, then the custard, then the jelly, then the cream.
3. Cover with cling wrap and place in the fridge until it’s ready to serve.

Fruit Mince Tarts (with no added sugar!)

Ingredients

Fruit mince

• 1 cup sultanas
• 1 cup dried figs
• 4 apricots
• 2 small pink lady apples
• 2 tablespoons rice malt syrup
• 1 teaspoon cinamon
• pinch all spice
• zest and juice of 2 oranges
• zest of 1 lemon

Shortcrust pastry

• 3 cups almond meal
• 1 cup coconut flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 egg white, for brushing

Method

Fruit mince

1. Add all ingredients to a large frypan and cook over medium heat until the mixture starts to boil.
2. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring regularly, for about 10 minutes or until the fruit softens and the mixture becomes sticky.

Shortcrust pastry

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (160 degrees Celsius fan-forced).
2. Add all ingredients except the egg white to the bowl of a food processor and, using the dough blade, combine until dough forms a ball.
3. Remove from the bowl, roll the dough into a ball, wrap in cling wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
4. Remove from the fridge and unwrap the dough, keeping the cling wrap on the surface that you’re working on.
5. Using a rolling pin lightly dusted in coconut flour, roll out the pastry on the cling wrap to ½ centimetre in thickness. Use a cookie cutter to cut 15 rounds from the pastry (you could also use a 1 cup measuring cup).
6. Gently press each round into the bases of a silicon cupcake tray (you will need a 15-hole cupcake pan). Using clean fingers, gently press and mould the pastry to extend from the base of the cupcake mould to the sides as well.
7. Add 1 tablespoon of fruit mince to each pie.
8. Using a star-shaped cookie cutter, cut 15 stars from the remaining pastry and top each pie, gently pressing at the tips of the star points to join the tops with the pie cases.
9. Brush each pie with egg white.
10. Place in oven and cook for 20 minutes, or until the pastry is cooked and appears golden.

Enjoy!

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