12 Days of Blogmas: Day 10 🍽️

On the tenth day of Christmas, GingerLeafLiving gave to me………………………………. Seasonal food inspiration!

The traditional Christmas dinner gets a lot of the spotlight this time of year, but what other seasonal produce can you utilise to make comforting, delicious food during the festive season? Grab your recipe books, it’s time to get cooking!

• Seasonal vegetables – Using seasonal ingredients is a sustainable option as food can be grown more locally to the consumer, reducing transport miles and emissions associated with creating the conditions for out-of-season growth. In December, seasonal produce includes Brussels sprouts, carrots, cauliflower, potatoes and leeks ( see more and full yearly calendar here). This definitely calls for homemade soup for easy Sundays and roasted vegetables to accompany any festive spread 🥔🥕🍲

• Slow cooking – Christmas can be a time of increased food waste, so its important to make sure all ingredients and parts of a meal are used. Leftovers from roasts can be made into casseroles and curries, and batch cooked to take you to the new year. Viewing leftovers as just the ingredients for another meal can help us think more creatively about our cooking and enjoy the process more 👩‍🍳

• Vegetarian /plant-based festive inspiration – Reducing our consumption of animal products is one way we can reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, so this Christmas you could try doing one day or family meal meat-free. Using seasonal produce like root vegetables to make pies, spiced dishes and tray bakes which are easy to make and tasty to eat are sure to be a crowd pleaser. I’m no chef, so if you are looking for recipes, have a look through your cook books at home or try websites like BBC Good Food for vegetarian inspiration over the Christmas season. My go-to at the moment is Higgidy’s Clever with Veg cookbook, and I will definitely be trying some more of these recipes over the festive break 🥦🫑🍅

• Baking – One of the cosiest winter pastimes, who doesn’t love creating something delicious from things in the cupboard? Christmas calls for gingerbread biscuits, indulgent sharing cakes and mince pies. Again, a great opportunity to see what you have at home and what you can make out of it – maybe even to share with friends and neighbours too! And if done right, no waste at the end! It would be rude not to have a slice in that case….. 🍰

Let’s be honest, one of the best parts of Christmas is definitely the food. So this year, make sure what you eat is quality and used in it’s entirety. Include lots of seasonal vegetables, foods with sustainability accreditations, minimal packaging and make your own, be it savoury or sweet. Get ready to enjoy an incredibly tasty yet planet-friendly festive feast! 😋