Want to spend less time in the kitchen and more time enjoying Christmas Day with your family? My Christmas meal prep series is all about getting ahead, making life easier and taking the stress out of cooking Christmas dinner!
Every year, I share my tried-and-tasted Christmas meal prep videos on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, showing you how to get all those time-consuming jobs done in advance. From peeling and chopping vegetables to parboiling potatoes and preparing your Christmas dinner essentials, you can get so much done ahead of time.
The best bit? You can prepare your sides in advance, freeze them, and cook them straight from frozen on Christmas Day, following the appropriate cooking instructions. That means less peeling, less chopping and far less last-minute panic when you’re trying to get everything on the table.
Whether you’re cooking for two or feeding a crowd, planning your Christmas dinner ahead of time can make a huge difference. Imagine having most of the prep work done before the big day, leaving you free to enjoy the festive atmosphere, spend time with your loved ones and actually relax!
So, if you’re looking for Christmas dinner prep ideas, make-ahead Christmas recipes and tips for preparing vegetables in advance, you’re in the right place. Follow along with my Christmas meal prep series and let’s get organised now, so you can enjoy a more relaxed and stress-free Christmas Day!
My meal-prep series covers my eight Christmas dinner essentials: roast potatoes, carrots and parsnips, cranberry sauce, pigs in blankets, brussels and lardons, gravy, cauliflower cheese and mincemeat for the all important mince pies.
As well as sharing my videos, this year I have compiled a shopping list and compared the cost of the ingredients across 4 major supermarkets.
Ingredients for 6 people (scroll down for the ingredients per recipe).
Note: this shopping list assumes that you have no store cupboard essentials – you probably have a lot of the ingredients already!
🥕Fruit & Vegetables
- 2.5 kg potatoes
- 1.5 kg carrots
- 500 g parsnips
- 500 g Brussels sprouts
- 2 large cauliflowers
- 2 apples
- 2 oranges
- 1 lemon
- 250 g fresh or frozen cranberries
- 1 onion
🥩 Meat
- 1 chicken carcass or 10 chicken wings
- 12 chipolata sausages
- 12 rashers streaky bacon
- 200 g lardons
🥛 Dairy & Chilled
- 190 g butter
- 200–230 g mature cheddar cheese
- 750 ml milk
🥖 Baking & Dry Goods
- 65 g plain flour
- 100 g light muscovado sugar
- 200 g muscovado sugar
- 500 g mixed dried fruit
🧂 Herbs, Spices & Seasonings
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 sprigs rosemary
- 1 star anise
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp mixed spice
- Salt
- Black pepper
🫙 Oils, Sauces & Condiments
- 150 g fat
- 200ml oil
- 3 tbsp runny honey
- 1 tbsp cranberry sauce
- 40 ml red wine
- 50 ml brandy
And here’s my price comparison (assuming you have to buy everything and will be buying, for example, a full bottle of wine and brandy!!)
If you would like the ingredients per recipe, here they are:
1. Delicious and real gravy
Makes approximately 750 ml–1 litre before adding meat juices
- 1 onion
- 1 carrot
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 sprigs of rosemary
- 1 star anise
- 1 chicken carcass or 10 chicken wings
- A drizzle of oil
- Salt and black pepper
- 40 ml red wine
- 3 tbsp plain flour
- 1 litre boiling water
- 1 tbsp cranberry sauce
2. Delicious and real freeze-ahead roast potatoes
- 2.5 kg potatoes, peeled and halved
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- Salt and pepper
- 100 g fat or 100 ml oil for preparation
- An additional 50 g fat or 50 ml oil after freezing
3. Freeze-ahead carrots and parsnips
- 500 g carrots
- 500 g parsnips
- 30 g butter
- 3 tbsp runny honey
- Salt and pepper
4. Pigs in blankets
- 12 chipolata sausages
- 12 rashers of streaky bacon
5. Brussels sprouts and lardons
- 500 g Brussels sprouts
- 200 g lardons
- 1 tbsp butter
- A little oil
- Salt and pepper
6. Cranberry sauce
- 100 g light muscovado sugar
- 100 ml orange juice
- 250 g fresh or frozen cranberries
7. Cauliflower cheese
- 2 large cauliflowers (about 1.2–1.5 kg total)
- 60 g butter
- 60 g plain flour
- 750 ml milk
- 200 g mature cheddar cheese, grated
- 1 tsp English mustard (optional)
- Salt and black pepper
- A pinch of nutmeg (optional)
- 30 g extra grated cheddar for the topping
8. Make-ahead mincemeat
- 2 apples, peeled and grated
- 200 g muscovado sugar
- 1 orange, zest and juice
- 1 lemon, zest and juice
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp mixed spice
- 500 g mixed dried fruit
- 50 ml brandy
- 100 g unsalted butter, grated
