Christmas Food with JP: Roasted Christmas Veg and stuffing

Mustard Glazed Carrots & Parsnips

I adore this recipe and I use it year in year out for Christmas Day.

Not only is it delicious but it can be made 3-4 days before Christmas and left in the fridge to allow the glaze to infuse the vegetables.

Another top tip is to pop into a throwaway roasting tray; that way you save on the washing up. Us Christmas cooks have enough to worry about on Christmas Day.

Ingredients – Serves 8

• 500g carrots cut into bite-sized pieces 500g parsnips as above
• 3 tablespoons light-brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons of whole grain mustard
• 1 tablespoon of cider vinegar
• 50g melted butter
• 3 sprigs of fresh thyme
• Sea salt and ground black pepper

Method

1. Add the melted butter, sugar, mustard and vinegar into a large mixing bowl and mix together
2. Add in the prepared vegetables, fresh thyme and season with seal salt and ground black pepper and smoosh around to ensure all the vegetables are well-coated
3. Pop all of the ingredients into a large sealable freezer bag, seal and pop into the fridge until you are ready to roast them on Christmas Day
4. When you are ready to cook, preheat your oven to 200° Celsius. Place on a roasting tray and roast for 40 minutes until tender and golden brown – serve immediately and enjoy with the main event and all the trimmings.

Stuffing

I’ve been making this stuffing every Christmas for 17 years now.

This is my Nanny Rena’s famous stuffing recipe that when I was growing up was made for all the families on my Dad’s side.

I had to step in and learn how to make it the year my Nanny Rena was sick and spent Christmas in hospital and she kindly agreed to write it down for me.

I still have that handwritten recipe page that used to sit stuck on the inside of my kitchen press, but now I make it from memory and over the years I have adapted it somewhat but my version is still very true to the original recipe.

This is my Christmas Eve tradition; making the stuffing and the aroma means for me, Christmas has officially arrived.