Side Dishes for your Christmas Eve Dinner

These tasty and easy side dishes are perfect for your Christmas Eve menu. With just a handful of ingredients, you can create a series of delicious side dishes.

I can’t believe that Christmas Eve is tomorrow! I feel like my inner child is jumping up and down! Even though this year, I will not be celebrating Christmas with my family, I still plan to enjoy a traditional Christmas. Especially because my fussy eater will be celebrating Christmas Eve (or Kūčios as we call it) with me for the first time in his life. I decided to make our dinner very traditional. Nothing fancy or modern. I want to give him a Lithuanian Kūčios dinner.

I made a couple of twists for these recipes and I introduced some new ingredients (like truffles), but I haven’t changed the essence. The recipes for these side dishes have been in our family for more than 50 years and I’ve been cooking them all my life with my Mum.

Every single year, a day before Christmas Eve my Mum and I start the preparation. I was in charge of chopping vegetables and my mum coordinated the process and took care of the seasoning. Our time together was always special. We would play Christmas music, laugh a lot and talk for hours. In the middle of the preparation, my Dad would interrupt us by asking if we would like to take a break and have a cup of coffee with a slice of cake. And then the three of us would sit down and just chat for an hour. No rush, no negative emotions. Just pure happiness and that cosy ‘I’m at home’ feeling.

Swaps for your side dishes

If you decide to give these side dishes a go don’t forget that you can always make changes. For example, in my recipes, I used boletus (mushrooms), if you cannot get them, swap them for dry porcini. Secondly, you can skip chilli if you don’t like anything spicy. Lastly, in the recipe with carrots and tomatoes, I used orange. If you don’t have oranges, you can also use clementines (in this case use at least two of them, because they are smaller than oranges) or add a little bit of sugar to get that lovely sweetness.

No matter what you are going to do during this festive season, don’t forget you can create your own Christmas spirit for yourself. Turn the Christmas tree lights on, make yourself a glass of mulled wine, jump into the cosiest PJs and watch a lovely Christmas movie. This is the time when you can rest and relax without any guilt. Just don’t forget to send messages to your loved ones and let them know how much you care about them.

Have a lovely Christmas and (hopefully) a happy New Year my loves!

Mushroom Pate with Truffles and Thyme

Ingredients:
100g button mushrooms
70g marinated boletus
3 cloves of garlic
½ onions
¼ leek
2 tablespoons of clotted cream
2 springs of thyme
Salt and pepper
A knob of butter with truffles
½ chilli pepper
20g butter

1. Chop the mushrooms, onion, leek and garlic.
2. Add a knob of butter with truffles into a preheated saucepan. After the butter melts add all the chopped ingredients. Let them fry for a couple of minutes.
3. Add the clotted cream, thyme, salt and pepper into mushrooms and let it simmer for 10 minutes.
4. After everything is cooked take the thyme out. Add the mixture into a blender and blitz it until it becomes a smooth paste.
5. Melt the butter. Chop the chilli pepper. Add the mushroom pate into a jar, sprinkle some chilli pepper and thyme on the top. Finish it by adding the melted butter. 

Carrots with Red Onions and Orange Juice

Ingredients:
3 carrots
1 red onion
3 cloves of garlic
½ chilli
1 orange
4 tablespoons of passata
½ tablespoon of sugar
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

1. Grate the carrots, chop the onions, chilli and garlic.
2. And a splash of olive oil into a preheated pan. Add all the chopped ingredients. Fry them together for a couple of minutes.
3. Add the passata with orange juice, sugar, salt and pepper to your liking. Mix everything together. Taste it.
4. Cook everything together for 10 minutes or until the carrots become soft and sweet.

Three Types of Mushroom with Leeks

Ingredients:
20g dried porcini mushrooms
150ml boiling water
100g button mushrooms
3 cloves of garlic
½ leek
100g marinated boletus (mushrooms)
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

1. Add the dried mushrooms into a jug and pour boiling water on them. Leave them on the side until they get soft.
2. Finely chop the button mushrooms, garlic, leek and marinated boletus.
3. Add a splash of olive oil into a preheated pan. Add all the chopped ingredients (except boletus). Fry them together for a couple of minutes. Once everything is soft, add the remaining boletus into the pan and mix everything.
4. Chop the soaked mushrooms and add them with the remaining liquid into the pan.
5. Season them to your liking and gently simmer for 10 minutes or until they are soft.

Cranberry Sauce with Apple and Honey

Ingredients:
200g cranberries
1 apple
2 tablespoons of honey
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 cinnamon stick

1. Finely chop the apple.
2. Add the cranberries (you can use them as whole or mash them before cooking), chopped apple, honey and sugar into a saucepan with a little bit of water.
3. Cook them for 15 minutes by gently squashing the cranberries (this way you will be able to release all the juices).
4. Add the cinnamon stick and cook them together for 10 minutes or until it gets glossy and sticky.