Planning Your Gluten Free Christmas Menu

It's Party Time!

Can you believe it?? With less than one month to go, Christmas is just around the corner. And this year there’s no need to miss out on delicious Christmas fayre, you can eat, drink and be merry this festive season tucking into tasty treats that even Aunt Millie will enjoy sinking her brand new teeth into. With a few basic modifications to the traditional Christmas menu it’s easy to come up with delightful Christmas recipes for everyone to savour.  Discovering new ways to use fresh and unadulterated ingredients can be fun and in no time you can be making your own health-promoting seasonal dishes that you’ll be proud to bring to the festive table.  If you’re cooking for others, here are a few quick tips to remember when creating a supercharged Christmas lunch.

1. About a week before Christmas plan your menu and check recipes ensuring that ingredients are suitable for guests.  If you’re using any store bought ingredients check the labels to ensure there are no hidden ingredients. Sometimes the words; all natural, added spices, natural colourings and flavorings and maltodextrin are included on the labels and these ingredients can be a disaster for many people who cannot tolerate gluten, additives and preservatives.
2. To get the show on the road with cracker and dip options, why not experiment by making buckwheat and herb crackers and teaming them with dairy free pesto, tahini or guacamole? You can also slow bake crunchy sea salt and apple cider vinegar almonds a few days earlier and have them sitting around as tempters, which will be gobbled up in no time whilst guests are getting into the Christmas spirit and letting their hair down.
3. If you’re planning on cooking a traditional turkey, why not bake it with the stuffing on the outside? Or better still flavour-up the turkey by making up your own stuffing by combining crushed nuts or brown rice or quinoa with celery, onion, garlic, olive oil, rosemary, thyme, sage, an egg yolk, chicken stock, sea salt and freshly cracked pepper.
4. If you’ve decided to ham-it-up this Christmas, just bear in mind that when purchasing store bought ham glazes it’s a good idea to check the label before you buy, as many packaged ham glazes contain chemical additives and preservatives as well as gluten.  There’s a great Christmas Ham recipe that I roll out every year, it’s delicious, tasty and will knock your guests out with its intense, exotic flavour and tenderness. Try it, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
5. When it comes to dessert ideas, pre-baking a lemon flan or pumpkin pie and then serving it with dairy free ice cream, or mock or cashew nut cream is a good option for people wanting to go the extra mile and indulge in a delicious dessert.

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