Real Food Christmas Menu

I first posted about real food / GAPS Christmas menu ideas a few years back, so it’s time for an update with lots of new ideas. Most of these recipes are from this recipe blog, but some are from other people’s blogs and we may not have tested them.

I may post new ideas to my Pinterest Festive recipes board, even if I don’t have time to try them out or post them here, so check in periodically.

Unless stated, these recipes are suitable for GAPS, SCD, gluten free and in most cases dairy free diets. But we believe that “special” food should taste good, so family members not on special diets might not even notice they’re different. Make sure you test the recipe before Xmas Day, so you can tweak to suit your own tastes.

Here’s another Pinterest board with a selection of recipes for a GAPS Christmas. I was thrilled to notice she’d pinned my GAPS Christmas cake recipe!

If you’re doing Autoimmune Paleo (AIP) even some of these recipes might not work for you, but check out The Paleo Mom’s Holiday Recipe summary.

Choose 2-3 from each group and you’ve got a feast!

Breakfast

If your main meal is at lunchtime, you’ll want something light, but still sustaining, such as:

• A festive-y smoothie (maybe with gelatin hydrolysate for extra protein) – this post has a few varieties for you to choose from.
• Christmas morning Orange Cranberry muffins
  ~ Nigella Lawson original recipe
  ~ coconut flour version
  ~ almond flour version
• This gingerbread souffle looks fun

If your main Christmas meal is in the evening, you may want a more substantial breakfast, so you’re not as tempted by the “treats” your family and friends lay out in front of you.

• I like smoked salmon WITH cheesy scrambled eggs, or pancakes and sour / fermented cream PLUS fruit salad and yoghurt / cream
• Or here is an Apple Bacon Pecan Butternut hash

Starters

• Chilled soup
• Marinated fish kebabs – these could also be a main course
• Xmas tree shaped cheese board
• Avocado devilled eggs
• A trio of dips:
  ~ Guacamole (for the green)
  ~ Beetroot dip (for the red)
  ~ Chicken liver pate
• To go with the dips:
  ~ Cheesy Christmas Star crackers (from almonds)
  ~ Nut crackers without cheeses
  ~ Biscotti made from your own favourite bread. For GAPS it will be a starch free bread – eg. pumpkin cashew bread, carrot almond bread or coconut almond bread
  ~ Regular crackers of your choice
  ~ Raw veges sticks or chunks, eg: carrot, capsicum, celery, cauli

Mains

Meaty things

• Stuffed leg of lamb (Nourishing Traditions, P344). This has a pecan stuffing and no starch, so is suitable for GAPS.
• Roast turkey with millet and cranberry stuffing (gluten free, but not GAPS).
• For GAPsters, or if you can’t be faffed making stuffing, make cranberry sauce instead.
• Curried chicken or turkey salad

Vegetarian

If you’re catering for a lacto-ovo vegetarian, these dishes are delicious and everybody else will like them too:

• Nut roast
• Spinach roulade, filled with chopped tomatoes and white cheese
• This recipe for Stuffed Pumpkin with Ginger Tomato Sauce by Nigella is vegetarian, gluten free but not starch free.
• Or go the whole hog (so to speak) and try Nadia Lim’s Vegetarian or Vegan Christmas Roast with Cranberry, Sage and Cashew Nut Stuffing Balls and Tomato Onion Gravy

Vegetables

• For the GAPsters – Twice baked pumpkin
• For the non-GAPsters – roast potatoes or kumera, or potato / kumera salad.
• This recipe for Roasted Citrus Thyme Carrots looks lovely – especially if you have access to heritage carrots
• Raw vege platter – chunks of cos lettuce, cherry tomatoes, capsicum, cucumber, grated carrot, fresh green pea pods. Serve with a bowl of homemade mayo.
• Sauerkraut salad

Dessert

Christmas Cake and Mince Pies

• Deb’s Xmas cake (GF or GAPS versions)
• Or this Xmas cake is GF, GAPS, Paleo, Raw, vegan
• Xmas mince pies – in NZ, Commonsense Organics are making their own in store, which are vegan and GF.
• Or these homemade ones are GF, GAPS, Paleo, Raw, vegan. They do use commercial mincemeat though, so you might want to make your own eg. from this recipe (which is uncannily similar to the first step in my Xmas cake recipe above.

Other Desserts

• A fresh fruit platter or rainbow kebabs or fruit Xmas tree or this other fruit Xmas tree or Watermelon cake
• Real fruit jelly or mousse
• Jelly trifle
• If you’re using raw cream for the first time, here are some tips on whipping it (read these well ahead of time)
• For a decadent looking but whole food dessert, check out these two chocolate cheesecake / mousse recipes
• White Christmas Slice or Chocolate Xmas Bark
• Choc peppermint fudge – for keto, use lakanto maple syrup
• Gingerbread men or cookies made with almond flour
• Almond flour Xmas star cookies
• Festive Gummies
• Some keto Xmas cookies from Hungry For Inspiration: Keto Pecan Snowball Cookies and scroll down the page for links to other Xmas cookies
• If you’re keto, there are plenty of options using lakanto or erythritol. This Keto sugar cream pie sounds like a great Xmas treat.
• And if you can’t go past pav, here’s a keto, sugar-free pavlova recipe
• This Mommypotamus page – Ultimate GAPS Holiday recipes – has a bunch of yummy looking dessert and sweet snack ideas

Drinks

For kids / non-drinkers:

• Punch made from organic fruit juice and sparkling water. Optional: add some kombucha.
• Or try some coconut water with sparkling water added. Or turn it into kefir.
• Water kefir (not suitable for GAPS)

For the adults:

• Cider – there are loads to try
• Preservative free red wine
• Sangria – there is apparently no standard recipe for it, but here’s one to give you some ideas
• Back in the day, my family were not drinkers. But at Xmas, Grandma, Mum and my aunts would break out the bottle of Blackberry Nip, and have a small splash in a glass of lemonade. Amazingly, you can still get it. Or a beautiful raspberry Liqueur is Chambord. Sip it as is, or top up with your favourite mixer.
• If you’re not gluten free, feel free to have a beer, or to be more ladylike, a shandy.