Healthy Christmas menu: 4 celebrations and a shopping list

Who is this Christmas menu for, and who is it not for?

It is designed for adults without a health condition that calls for a special plan. It suits you if you are changing habits or losing weight and fear that the festive season will undo what you have achieved. It also suits you if you want light, attractive dishes for your guests. The underlying guidance on losing fat without rushing is in the healthy weight-loss guide.

It is not calculated for advanced chronic kidney disease, where potassium or phosphorus must be monitored. Nor is it for dysphagia or acute digestive problems, which call for adapted textures. If you have diabetes treated with insulin, your healthcare team will adjust your carbohydrate portions.

If you are pregnant, swap the smoked salmon and the anchovies in vinegar for fish cooked to 70 °C in the centre, and toast without alcohol. Food safety recommendations for pregnancy advise against refrigerated smoked or marinated fish and alcoholic drinks [1].

And if you have or have had an eating disorder, support from a specialist in psychology suits you better than a menu.

The festive menus: Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and Epiphany

Each row is a celebration. The main feast is served at midday or in the evening, depending on the occasion, and the rest of the day is simple dishes that take little time to prepare. The recipes for the starters are further down.

The shopping list for the festive days

The quantities are approximate, for four people and the four celebrations. If you choose soya drink instead of milk, bear in mind that soya is an allergen.

Fruit and vegetables

• 2 large curly endives
• 600 g of fresh spinach
• 1.2 kg of fresh mushrooms
• 3 medium aubergines
• 4 chicory heads, about 12 to 16 usable leaves
• 1 bag of lamb’s lettuce (125 g)
• 1 lettuce
• 500 g of mixed cherry tomatoes
• 1 kg of ripe tomatoes for salad and sofrito
• 4 medium courgettes
• 1 kg of pumpkin
• 1 bunch of leeks (4 units)
• 500 g of carrots
• 1 green pepper
• 1.5 kg of sweet onions and red onion
• 3 medium sweet potatoes (about 600 g)
• 2 heads of garlic
• 1 small piece of fresh ginger
• 2 ripe pomegranates
• 1 kg of seedless table grapes, for the skewers and New Year’s Eve
• 1 kg of apples
• 4 pears
• 4 mandarins
• 1 kg of bananas
• 500 g of kiwis
• 500 g of strawberries or raspberries
• 1 medium pineapple
• 2 kg of juicing and eating oranges
• 2 grapefruits
• 1 kg of lemons and limes
• 3 ripe avocados
• 1 bunch of fresh basil and another of parsley

Fishmonger and butcher

• 8 boneless fresh salmon loins, about 1.2 kg in total
• 200 g of smoked salmon
• 600 g of cooked or raw prawns, about 24
• 300 g of fresh anchovies to marinate after freezing them, or already in vinegar
• 8 whole cleaned quails, 4 for Christmas Day and 4 for Epiphany
• 400 g of chicken breast, for the Christmas Eve lunch

Eggs and dairy

• 18 free-range eggs, for blinis, muffins, scrambled eggs and omelettes
• 10 plain, unsweetened full-fat yoghurts
• 1 small carton of evaporated milk (200 g)
• 250 g of mozzarella pearls
• 1 litre of milk or soya drink with at least 3% protein.

Bakery, cereals and pulses

• 250 g of plain wheat flour, or oat flour
• 1 packet of wholegrain toast or crispbreads for the canapés
• 2 loaves of wholegrain bread from the bakery
• 500 g of rolled oats
• 1 large jar of cooked chickpeas (400 g drained)
• 300 g of cooked or dried lentils
• 250 g of fine noodles

Nuts, seeds and dried fruit

• 150 g of plain shelled walnuts
• 80 g of pine nuts
• 1 small jar of sesame paste (tahini)
• 100 g of pitted dates
• 100 g of pitted prunes
• 100 g of dried peaches or apricots
• 100 g of seedless raisins

Store cupboard, seasonings and drinks

• 1 litre of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 bottle of Jerez vinegar
• 1 small bottle of low-salt soy sauce
• 1 small jar of honey
• 1 small jar of capers and another of gherkins in vinegar
• 1 small jar of black olives
• 1 small jar of Dijon mustard
• 1 sachet of baking powder
• Bay leaf, thyme, cumin and black peppercorns
• Cardamom, fennel seeds, cinnamon sticks and ground cinnamon
• 4 bottles of 1 litre of sparkling mineral water
• 200 g of red berries, fresh or frozen, for the drinks
• Nougat or Epiphany cake, just the amount needed for the festive days

Why does this menu not count calories?

Because the energy you need depends on your sex, age, body composition and physical activity. A fixed figure would suit very few people. The Spanish obesity guideline [2] and the British one [3] frame weight control as a sustained change in habits over time. Within that framework, a well-planned feast fits in without having to be made up for.

What light, homemade starters can you prepare?

Blinis with salmon, hummus and aubergine canapés, vegetable muffins, stuffed chicory leaves and two kinds of skewer. They contain more vegetables and fish than the usual nibbles of cold cuts, crisps and puff pastry, and they keep the festive feel.

• Homemade blinis with smoked salmon. Mix a beaten egg with a natural yoghurt, half a teaspoon of baking powder, 50 g of flour and a pinch of salt. Make small portions in a barely greased pan, turning them straight away. Once cold, top them with smoked salmon and a teaspoon of homemade tartare sauce. It is made with chopped capers and gherkins, very finely chopped onion, a touch of mustard, parsley and lemon juice.
• Hummus and grilled aubergine canapé. Cut the aubergine into thin slices, salt them for a few minutes so they lose their bitterness and grill them. Spread a wholegrain toast with homemade hummus, made with cooked chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice and half a clove of garlic. Put the aubergine on top and finish with a drizzle of basil oil.
• Spinach and mushroom muffins. Sauté 400 g of mushrooms, 300 g of fresh spinach, an onion and a clove of garlic. Beat three eggs with 50 g of evaporated milk, salt and pepper, and add the well-drained vegetables. Bake in individual moulds at 180 °C for 25 minutes.
• Chicory leaves filled with avocado and prawns. Fill chicory leaves with chopped cooked prawns and shredded lettuce. Bind it with homemade guacamole, made with mashed avocado, chopped tomato, red onion, garlic, lime juice and cumin.
• Mozzarella and cherry tomato skewers. On each skewer, alternate a cherry tomato, a mozzarella ball, a basil leaf and half a black olive. Dress them with a few drops of extra virgin olive oil.
• Anchovy-in-vinegar and grape skewers. The sharp, salty touch of the anchovy goes well with the sweetness of a seedless grape. If you marinate the anchovies yourself, freeze them first. To avoid anisakis, fish in vinegar is frozen at −20 °C or below for five days, in a freezer rated three stars or more [4].

How can you enjoy Christmas sweets without guilt?

By telling a habit apart from occasional consumption. The WHO recommends reducing free sugars throughout life [5], and that recommendation is about everyday eating. A piece of nougat on Christmas Day or a slice of Epiphany cake is occasional consumption.

What weighs most on your health is not what you eat between Christmas Eve and Epiphany, but what you eat between Epiphany and the next Christmas Eve.

• Choose what you like most. Serve a portion of your favourite sweet on a small plate and savour it calmly, without regret.
• Forget “all or nothing”. Thinking “I’ve overdone it” and carrying on eating without hunger for days only prolongs the discomfort. Once the celebration is over, the next meal goes back to normal, with no punishments or compensations.

If the cycle of loss of control and guilt keeps repeating, talk to a specialist in psychology. It can be fixed, and it is not solved with another diet.

What should you drink at festive meals?

Water, above all, which is the main drink in a healthy diet [6]. You can toast with it too. Alcohol tends to multiply at this time of year, adds calories without providing nutrients and worsens sleep.

• Festive alcohol-free drinks. Serve sparkling water with ice, a slice of lime and red berries in a wide glass. It looks attractive and lets you join in the toast.
• If you toast with alcohol, alternate each glass with a glass of water or sparkling water.
• After-dinner infusion. After the feast, make one with fennel seeds, crushed cardamom and a cinnamon stick. If you like a little spice, add a slice of fresh ginger.

What mistakes do we see in consultation?

Every January we hear the same December stories in consultation. Almost all of them are about how the days were organised rather than about one particular dish.

Arriving at dinner fasting “to make up for it”. Skipping meals before the feast means you arrive with a hunger that is hard to manage. Eating calmly becomes an uphill struggle.

Nibbling non-stop while cooking. A tray within everyone’s reach hides how much you have had. Serve the starters on individual plates and sit down to eat them.

Eating standing up and in a hurry. Sitting down and eating slowly gives you time to notice that you are already full.

Punishing yourself afterwards. Guilt and January crash diets, with meal-replacement shakes or extreme restrictions, worsen your relationship with food and feed the cycle of restriction and bingeing.

Stretching the sweets out over weeks. The leftover nougat ends up in every January snack out of sheer inertia. Keep it for the festive days.