Best recipes to cook this Christmas
My favourite Christmas recipes:
Have a look at the Christmas starters, meat dishes, side dishes (including salads), Christmas-themed snacks or have a look at the full list!
Starters
Main Dishes
Beef
Turkey
Lamb
Seafood
Side Dishes
Snacks & Desserts
Boxing Day (cooked with leftovers)
A Christmas menu made up of delicious recipes but easy-to-prepare dishes
After winning MasterChef South Africa, I set out on a mission to create accessible, easy-to-make recipes for every day cooks to elevate their dishes. This round-up includes my favourite Christmas recipes to make sure you can make a delicious menu this Christmas.
Christmas is coming up and it is time to start thinking about what to make over the long weekend! In South Africa, Christmas means warm weather, long days at the beach and cooking on the fire.
South Africans have taken over a lot of American and British traditions, and like to have gammon, lamb roast and turkey. But other than these traditional meat dishes, there are a lot of side dishes and canapés that you can prepare to get into the Christmas spirit.
Have a look at the list of recipes I’ve written up and put together your own menu.
Christmas Starters
Smoked Yellowtail, Beetroot Hummus, Smoked Avocado Mousse and Fennel Fronds Canapés
If you want to make an Alfresco lunch, these canapés make a nice light starter. With the colours reminiscent of Christmas, you will impress your dinner guests with the fine dining-style plating, yet actually it’s a simple dish that anyone can make.
Pairing smoked yellowtail with beetroot hummus, smoked avocado mousse and fennel fronds is a tasty combination. Give it a try, and let me know what you think!
Christmas Meat Dishes
As South Africans, we love our meat.
Turkey, lamb, beef, ostrich… you name it, we cook it. And our favourite way to cook meat is on the braai. As soon as the sun is out, the fire is on. Although actually, South Africans are known to even braai in the rain, and throughout winter. In December though, we are generally blessed with great weather in the southern hemisphere.
This is the perfect recipe for any South African who still wants to make a braai on Christmas Day.
Prime Rib Roast with Exotic Mushroom Sauce and Pak Choy
Click on the link below for the prime rib roast recipe:
Slow-cooked fall-off-the bone Turkey
Turkey is a traditional addition on the Christmas table, but when cooked badly, it is dry and not enjoyable. Fortunately I have some tips and tricks for you that will make your Christmas turkey moist and delicious.
Throw away any other turkey recipe you have and use this one. It’s fail proof!
This recipe for slow-cooked fall-off-the bone turkey on a bed of sunflower shoots and a spinach and kale cream is to die for.
Deboned lamb leg, slow-roasted in the oven
This dish is a labour of love - it takes a whole day to cook it and ideally you need to start the day before, to allow the meat to marinade overnight.
Lemon & Herb Peri-Peri and Rosemary Deboned Leg of Lamb
Why not make a braai this Christmas? I roasted this deboned leg of lamb, straight over the coals. It was part of an Alfresco Grilled Christmas Menu.
Pulled Lamb
This pulled lamb dish takes a bit of time to cook, but by cooking it slowly on a low heat, cooking it slowly on a low heat, you get the meat amazingly really tender and it doesn’t dry out.
I served the pulled lamb on krummel pap with grated parmesan, and topped it with some Greek yoghurt, onions, mint, pomegranate seeds and chickpeas. The side dishes were roasted aubergine, topped with roasted peppers and fresh dill. I also had some more Greek yoghurt and pomegranates on the side to add to the lamb dish.
South African Style Slow-Roast Leg of Lamb with Atchar
If you have been following me for a while, you will know that I like to add a South African twist to international favourites. I have made a Spanish paella on a skottel braai and Mexican Quesadillas with Bobotie! This recipe is no exception as I marinaded the leg of lamb in atchar.
Gammon Sausage Bake with Apples, Tomatoes and Coriander
It’s that time of year when limited edition products fill the shelves. Pick n Pay stock these Festive Gammon Sausages only at this time of year, and you’d be silly to miss out! This recipe is a nice Christmas addition that you can’t go wrong with.
Seafood dishes
Smoked snoek on the Weber with cherry glaze and grilled peaches
If you live in the Western Cape, in or around Cape Town, you will be well familiar with putting snoek on the braai. With this cherry glaze, it makes for the perfect Christmas dish. Colourful, and delicious. I cooked this snoek on the weber, and served it with a delicious side salad.
Christmas Side Dishes
Christmas Salads
Christmas is traditionally a meat festival, but a good host includes some vegetarian dishes as well, to serve as either a side for the meat-eaters in your midst, or for vegetarians to dish up as their main. Some of these salad do include meat or meat products, but you can always swop it out with something else.
Beetroot Salad with Whipped Feta, Bacon, Roasted Olives and Toasted Pecan Nuts
This Beetroot Salad with Whipped Feta, Bacon, Roasted Olives and Toasted Pecan Nuts is a crowd pleaser.
The red colour of the beetroot and the green of the rocket bring some Christmas colours into this dish, and it’s a perfect light accompaniment to the heavier meat dishes that you could serve it with.
To make a vegetarian version, you can replace the bacon with citrus slices.
Exotic Pumpkin & Butternut Salad on Whipped Feta
South Africans traditionally serve a lot of meat dishes, but a good host includes some vegetarian options as well. This pumpkin and butternut salad is a great side for the meat-eaters in your midst, and for vegetarians can be dished up as part of their main.
This salad is light, yet filling and as it can be served up warm or cold, making it the perfect dish.
Snacks and Desserts
S'more Christmas trees
S'moreThis is a great alternative Christmas-themed snack to make with the kids. Who doesn’t love a s’more? Traditionally, s’mores are made by toasting marshmallow s and/or in between two pieces of marie biscuit (or graham crackers, if you’re American). To make these Christmas tree-shaped s’mores though, you mix the biscuits with melted chocolate, marshmallows and then add some red and green smarties. You don’t need to bake them in the oven and kids can help breaking the tennis biscuits up and separating out the red and green smarties. Of course the best part was decorating them and tasting the end result. This can serve as both a yummy dessert or snack.
Once you try these Christmas trees, you’ll want s’more!
Enjoy! Please tag me on Instagram if you make any of my recipes, I love to see it!
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About Shawn Godfrey
Photo credit: Niki M Photography
Shawn Godfrey is an entrepreneur based in Cape Town, South Africa. After the Covid-19 lockdown saw his business in financial distress, cooking was the creative outlet that helped to keep him sane. To keep track of his recipes, and encourage friends and families to join him, he starts his instagram account The Roasted Dad.
Fast-forward to late 2021 - on a whim Shawn (encouraged by his wife Lianne) enters MasterChef South Africa. It is a crazy time of life: running a 200 people business and struggling to keep it profitable, two small children with a third on the way, and about to move into a new house. But when Shawn gets selected to be one of the 20 contestants participating in the fourth season of MasterChef South Africa, he decides to go all in. Leaving his 7-month-pregnant wife to look after their then three and one-year-old children, he battles it out and comes back home five weeks later with the trophy and a million rand prize money in his pocket.
It all started with an Instagram account, but The Roasted Dad is so much more now. Shawn has stayed his entrepreneurial self and whilst he hosts Private Dinner Parties and Cook-with-Me Demos, does Restaurant Take-Overs, he still runs the lighting company and several other businesses.
On his blog, Shawn shares Restaurant Reviews and Accommodation Reviews, and gives an insight into the wild and wonderful life he leads together with his wife Lianne, and their three children Aiden (6), Olivia (4) and Harvey (2).
Sign up to the newsletter to be kept up to date with events, new recipes and reviews, or contact Shawn to chat about recipe creation, restaurant takeovers and public speaking events.
This Christmas dish is made up of pulled lamb is served on krummel pap with grated parmesan, and topped with Greek yoghurt, onions, mint, pomegranate seeds and chickpeas. The side dishes: roasted aubergine, topped with roasted peppers and fresh dill, and some more Greek yoghurt and pomegranates.