One of the most heard things during the Holidays – apart from ‘Merry Christmas’ itself – is that people gained weight, because of all the high calorie meals and snacks they had. Truth is, your Christmas meal doesn’t have to be unhealthy to be delicious! Just by adding the right meals and make some small changes in ingredients in existing recipes, you can create an unforgettable meal, without the long-lasting aftermath. Always better to prevent than to cure, right?
Note: I did not create the recipes myself. I got all of them from Jamie Oliver and Albert Heijn – last one is a Dutch supermarket, they have tons of recipes on their website. You can check them here (only in Dutch). Creating twenty recipes from scratch would take too much time, in combination with a fulltime job :-).
All the meals in this menu are low calorie. If you want to add (or exchange dishes for) salad or vegetables, make sure to check the calories and don’t add calorie dense ingredients.
[highlighted color_scheme=”dark or bright”]Starter: shrimp cocktail with tomato and avocado[/highlighted]
Ingredients (4 persons)
- 125 gr Roma tomatoes
- 1 avocado
- 1 lemon
- 8 tbs tomato juice
- 2 drops tabasco
- 150 ml worcestershiresauce
- 100 gr crayfish
- 125 gr cocktail shrimps
- 2 tbs celery
Preparation
Cut for every portion 1 roma tomato in half and stick them on the edge of the cocktail glasses.
Cut the avocado in half, erase the core and take the avocado out with a spoon. Chop the avocado. Squeeze the lemon and mix a few drops with the chopped avocado and roma tomatoes. Bring the tomato juice to taste with the rest of the lemon juice, a few drops of Tabasco and worcestershiresauce.
Divide the crayfish over the glasses. Add the tomato-avocadomix on top and then the cocktail shrimps. Pour the tomato juice and add finely chopped celery to finish.
Nutritional Information
[styled_list][list_item]155 calories[/list_item][list_item]5 gr carbohydrates[/list_item][list_item]12 gr protein[/list_item][list_item]9 gr fat[/list_item][/styled_list]
Click here for the link to the original recipe.
[highlighted color_scheme=”dark or bright”]Appetizer: Tuna Tartare[/highlighted]
Ingredients (8 persons)
- 120 gr tuna
- 1 ts soy sauce
- 1 ts lemon juice
- ½ ts chilli flakes
- 2 spring onions
Preparation
Cut the tuna in small parts. Mix with soy sauce and lemon juice.
Bring to taste with salt and chilli flakes. If you don’t like spicy food, don’t add too much chilli.
Chop the spring onions. Divide the tuna tartare over the glasses and sprinkle with spring onions.
Nutritional Information
[styled_list][list_item]20 kcal[/list_item][list_item]1 gr carbohydrates[/list_item][list_item]4 gr protein[/list_item][list_item]0 gr fat[/list_item][/styled_list]
Click here for the original recipe.
[highlighted color_scheme=”dark or bright”]Main Course: Salmon Wellington[/highlighted]
Ingredients (8 persons)
- 650 gr salmon filet (room temperature)
- 250 gr chestnut mushrooms
- 15 gr butter
- 10 gr parsley
- 12½ gr chive
- 200 gr smoked salmon
- 1 roll fresh puff pastry (270 gr)
- 1 egg
Preparation
Preheat the oven on 200°C. Cut the salmon filet in half, lengthwise. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the pieces and put them back together.
Cut the mushrooms in very small pieces. Heat butter in a frying pan and fry mushrooms on medium heat until liquid has evaporated. Chop parsley and chive and mix with mushrooms, add pepper and salt. Then allow to cool down to room temperature, under a cover.
Place the smoked salmon in three rows on top of each other, slightly overlapping each other, on a piece of plastic wrap of 30 x 40 cm. Spread the mushroommix over the smoked salmon and put salmon filet on top. Roll with the plastic wrap the smoked salmon tight around the salmon filet.
Roll puff pastry on a baking tray covered with baking paper. Take the salmon out of the plastic wrap, put on the pastry and fold. The pastry may overlap 1 cm on the edges. Cut excess pastry off and press the edges together. Turn the package carefully, so that you can’t see the welt. Roll the rest of the pastry. Cut figures out with a cutter – for example in the form of a star – and press them on the salmon Wellington. Split the egg and whisk the egg yolk. Smear on the upside of the puff pastry.
Bake the Wellington around 25 minutes in the middle of the oven. Take it out and let it rest for 5 minutes under aluminium foil. Cut the Wellington in slices on the Christmas table.
Tip: you could prepare the salmon Wellington one day before until the salmon comes into the recipe. Conserve in plastic wrap in the fridge. Before you go on, make sure the salmon is on room temperature. Start with rest of preparation at least three hours before the meal.
Nutritional Information
[styled_list][list_item]390 kcal[/list_item][list_item]14 gr carbohydrates[/list_item][list_item]27 gr protein[/list_item][list_item]25 gr fat[/list_item][/styled_list]
Click here for the original recipe.