A traditional Christmas dinner is the high point of the celebration in an English house. Friends and family gather every year to enjoy the best of the English produce, steeped in tradition and heritage. The best thing about this tradition is that just a little has changed over the centuries. People sit around the table, cracking silly jokes, exchanging tacky gifts and wearing the paper hats they got from their Christmas crackers. So if you also want to recreate the same ambiance, we’re here to help you. Below we’ve listed stupendous traditional English Christmas dinner ideas for your reference. Take a look.
Traditional English Christmas Dinner Ideas
For Starters:
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Easy Smoked Salmon Appetizer:
Salmon, either smoked or cured would make the easiest, quickest and quintessentially English Christmas dinner started. We’d suggest you team your smoked salmon with dill sauce to make the dish complete. Alternatively, you can serve the dish with boiled potatoes to turn it into the main course.
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Prawn Cocktail:
Prawn cocktail is a light and delicious dish, which can be made a few hours in advance. Prawn cocktail was a favorite starter in the 60s and 70s in England, but it fell out of favor over time. But now, the trend of prawn cocktail is back, and with the same recipe.
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Leek And Potato Soup:
Alternatively, you can even prepare the classic leek and potato soup. This classic English recipe is a winter favorite, especially when it’s served cold. Also known as Vichyssoise, leek and potato soup is believed to have been originated in France, but several other countries also claim the origin of this soup.
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Pigs In A Blanket:
Almost everyone loves this quaint starter dish, especially people in the UK and Ireland. In fact, this finger food is also served for Christmas lunch on the Boxing Day as well. If you want, you can even wrap around a good quality bacon around the cocktail sausage. It will taste even better.
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Classic Beef Wellington:
Beef Wellington, named after the Duke of Wellington has been gracing British Christmas tables since 1851. In the recipe, a classic French styled beef is wrapped in pastry and baked. It works amazing as starter, but can be served for the main course as well.
Main Course:
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Roast Beef:
Roast beef is one of the national British dishes and a major part of its Christmas dinner. The recipe usually involves rib roast served with classic accompaniments such as mashed potato or roasted Brussel sprouts. This rosemary and garlic roast beef looks absolutely scrumptious and would make a great addition to your English Christmas dinner.
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Bourbon Orange Glazed Ham:
What’s a British Christmas dinner without glazed ham? In fact, glazed ham is a part of the Boxing Day buffet as well. This one’s a bit different as it contains orange as well. It will taste even better if you serve it with mustard sauces.
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Duck Confit with Crispy Skin and Reduced Wine Sauce:
Long before turkey, duck was the bird of choice for the Christmas table. It became a bit unpopular in the 1960s, when it started being considered a bit too common. This fuck confit recipe with reduced wine sauce has the most flavor. The meat will be moist and juicy if you cook it in the correct way.
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Lemon Herb Roasted Chicken:
This lemon herb roasted chicken would be a star of Christmas table for its flavor and simplicity. It’s quite simple to make, but that in no way means it’s any less tasty. Don’t forget to serve traditional accompaniments with this dish.
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Rosemary Garlic Pork Roast:
The leg of the pig is considered the best joint and is often served for Christmas main course. So if you are also planning to include pork roast in your menu, this recipe would be perfect for you. The combination of garlic and rosemary is giving ample flavor to this dish.
Side Dish:
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Cream Cheese Mashed Potato:
A bowl of creamy and perfectly mashed potato is one of those dishes, which never goes out of popularity. It’s literally the backbone of British food and pairs excellent with most of the main course dishes. The one featured here is easy and quick to make and takes just 30 minutes. And it has cheese too!
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Honey Roasted Parsnip:
Roasted parsnips are already delicious, but when you add some honey to it, the flavor enhances manifold. While you can even boil or mash the parsnip, roasting improves the texture and sweetness, hence we’ll go with the latter. Roast the parsnips in hot fat to give a lovely crisp coat to it.
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Braised Red Cabbage with Walnuts:
The softness of cabbage is paired with the crunchiness of walnuts in this dish. We’d suggest you pair this dish with roasted pork to jazz the dish up. You can even give a peppery taste to the cabbage by adding mustard to it.
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Melting Sweet Potatoes:
This is one of the most unique sweet potato recipes we’ve seen and we’re totally bowled over by it. I think it’s a lovely alternative to the regular mashed sweet potato or sweet potato fries. The texture of these sweet potatoes is velvety and the crust is crunchy, which we feel is a perfect combination. Top it with maple-pecan sauce and you’re done.
You May Also Like To Read:
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- Quick And Easy Christmas Recipes
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Roasted Brussels Sprouts:
Roasted Brussels sprouts is a side dish with a bad cred. While children hate Brussels sprouts, adults love to have them with their roast dishes. The Brussels sprouts recipe is quick and easy to whip up and even those who do not like it, will love having it.
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Mini Yorkshire Pudding Canapés:
This is one of the most unique English Christmas side dishes we’ve seen in the recent times and we strongly urge you to try this Holiday season. It’s basically mini Yorkshire pudding canapés with horseradish sauce and roast beef. You can either share it as a side dish or as a starter. It will taste great anyway!
English Dessert Ideas For Christmas:
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Christmas Pudding:
A British dinner is incomplete with traditional Christmas pudding paired with a variety of sauces. There may have been rumors that puddings have fallen out of favor, but let’s tell you, there’s nothing even close to something sort of this. It’s as popular as ever and will continue to be so. Do not fret seeing the number of ingredients on this list. You just need to gather the ingredients in advance and the rest is fairly easy.
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Chocolate Mousse:
If you want to opt for something lighter, and we don’t even blame you, then you can make this 3 ingredient peppermint and chocolate mousse. The mousse is light, decadent and full of flavor. And it won’t even take much of your time as it just requires whipping three ingredients. We particularly love the peppermint and chocolate combination, so this recipe gets a vote from us.
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Yule Log Cake:
Yule log cake, a traditional decadent dish filled with the goodness of chocolate is a favorite in English houses during Christmas. But have you ever come across a white yule log cake? We picked this recipe because it looks a lot different from what we generally get to see. It’s not the usual dark chocolate one, but is filled with cream and decorated with pretty flower and leaf icing. The decoration of this yule log cake makes it look quintessentially British.
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Raspberry Cranachan:
Cranachan, a Scottish dessert recipe is a perfectly festive recipe for Christmas. Authentic raspberries are used for making this dessert, but you can opt for the regular ones also. And let us tell you, the combination of raspberry and mascarpone cheese is amazing. So don’t even miss making this recipe.
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English Christmas Trifle:
Last, but not the least, we’re rounding up the list of Traditional English Christmas Dinner Ideas with this gorgeous looking English trifle. This trifle is layered with pound cake, fresh fruits, custard and whipped cream. The raspberries and poached pears are making this trifle look as beautiful as it tastes. And it’s unbelievably easy to make too. You just need to layer all the ingredients that are readily available in the market.
We’re sure you’ll create a magnificent spread taking inspiration from our Traditional English Christmas dinner ideas. If you have any more Traditional English Christmas dinner ideas to share, leave us a comment below.
