tasty meals for a winter celebration

Breaking the rules and making our own healthy traditional feast. Warning this blog contains recipes

Winter has most certainly arrived in the UK and with it comes the mid-winter festival of Christmas – a time where some of us living in the UK celebrate, either religiously or not, with a ‘traditional’ feast of turkey and a lovely mix of winter veg and gravy.

While legend has it that Henry VIII was the first person to eat a turkey on Christmas Day, it wasn’t until the Victorian times that this meal became more common. In fact, there are all sorts of influences from different periods in history that have helped make Christmas in the UK what it is today, shaping what we consider to be the traditional feast.

 As Christmas is constantly in the ‘making’, we are sharing three different recipes curated by our wonderful nutritionist, Jude, that invite us to explore, shape and re-shape the meals we cook for festive occasions. Based on their nutritional value, their low-cost and the fact that they are easy to create, the recipes incorporate new healthy and unconventional twists that acknowledge the multicultural society we live in, making them suitable for anyone looking for a nourishing feast.

Whether you are seeking to break the rules of what a traditional Christmas meal can be or you are simply looking for feast inspiring recipes – these meals invite you to celebrate the rich histories and nutritional properties of the ingredients that we invite into our kitchens.

Roast Turkey

Although at first glance this recipe doesn’t challenge our traditional expectations, look twice and be surprised at its healthy and distinctive twist. With ingredients ranging from potatoes and Brussel sprouts to miso paste and cashew butter, prepare yourself for an immunity boosting, gut friendly feast!

Did you know? Potatoes were first cultivated in the Inca Empire around 8,000 BC to 5,000 BC, in the Andes mountains, in what is modern day Peru and Bolivia. Arriving in Europe sometime before the end of the 16th century, as a result of the colonization of the Americas, potatoes very rapidly gained popularity becoming a major staple by the 19th century. In the UK it was Queen Victoria who introduced the potato as an essential component of the traditional Christmas meal, although at the time they were eaten mashed rather than roasted.

Courgette & chickpea filo pie, gravy and mixed vegetables

For a veg-full feast try this delicious filo pie. Packed with chickpeas, rosemary and thyme herbal goodness, and an unusual poppy seed topping, this filo pie makes for an excellent protein rich alternative.

Did you know? Chickpeas can make many delicious dishes, not just hummus! Roughly 75,000 years old, chickpeas are one of the earliest cultivated legumes, tracing their discovery in Turkey to a time before humans could produce pottery. Their nutritional value is what has made chickpeas one of the most valuable pulses in the world, so that now it is the second most widely grown legume found in many different traditional festive dishes across the globe.

Nice and Spicy meatballs & bean chili with avocado and parmesan

If you are looking for a hearty feast option, try this spicy meatball and bean chili recipe. The innovative turn in this bean chili recipe brings to the table a culinary blend of fiery flavours, ingredients, techniques and histories.

Did you know? Chipotle paste is made from jalapeno chili peppers, a pepper originally cultivated around 5000 BC in Xalapa, a large city in Mexico from which the pepper derives its name. Today, as a result of colonization and the increasing expansion of trade routes, jalapeno peppers, alongside many other varieties of chili peppers, are grown in various countries in the world. Their proliferation in the rest of the world has led chili peppers to be eaten by a quarter of the earth’s population every day, and is central to many cuisines.

It is said that eating chilies triggers the same receptors as eating something that is too hot – hence the burn – almost tricking our brain into thinking that our tongue is on fire. Though there is still no clear reason why humans love the spicy sensation, it is well known that the unique compound that makes them spicy – capsaicin – is also responsible for many of their health benefits.