Always a crowd-pleaser, a great lasagne is a labour of love, but so much can be done ahead of time. The meat ragù will keep for three days in the fridge or make it in advance and freeze it. You can assemble the whole dish in the morning and simply leave it in the fridge. Do ensure you get it back to room temperature before baking.
A stunning fish pie is often a Christmas Eve tradition in many homes, and this one takes it up a notch. With a creamy chowder of fish, sweetcorn and potato, topped with a (bought) puff pastry lid, it's an easy dish to assemble. Mix and match the crayfish, adding juicy prawns, mussels or lobster, if you fancy pushing the boat out!
Here's an easy, comforting vegetarian dish. It's filling, too, with beans and chickpeas in the sauce. Topped with melting, bubbling cheese, it has a hint of spice from the cumin and chilli powder to enhance the flavour of the aubergines. It keeps for up to three days in the fridge. Any leftovers can be reheated in the microwave.
There's not much preparation involved in this rich chicken dish – the flavours are intensified through long, slow cooking. The smoky taste comes from chorizo and smoked paprika. You can make it ahead of time, then simply reheat it. For added theatre, try serving it in a roasted pumpkin. Simply serve with some crusty bread to mop up the delicious juices.
How do you make this classic dish a vegan one, without cheese, you may ask? It's a clever trick of flavouring the white sauce, made with plant-based milk, with nutritional yeast, sauerkraut, ground almonds and mustard. Enlist the help of your food processor or blender to cut down the preparation time. It freezes really well, too.
Bought salmon gravadlax on rye bread with a dill butter, topped with capers and red onion, makes a lovely nibble to have with a glass of fizz, or as an easy starter. It's just an assembly job, ready in about 10 minutes. You could also make this with smoked salmon or smoked trout.
It may be a retro classic, but a proper prawn cocktail tastes just as good now as it did in the 1970s. With crunchy lettuce, juicy prawns and a homemade Marie Rose sauce, it's a great combination. The sauce will keep for up to three days in the fridge, so you just need to assemble it on the day for a quick starter. Slices of avocado make a perfect addition.
If you're looking for a light vegetarian starter, these little rolls of baked aubergines stuffed with cheese, sun-dried tomato paste, garlic and herbs could be a winner. They are served with a shop-bought tomato salsa, or make your own with chopped tomatoes, spring onions and parsley or chives. Prepare them the day before, then just pop them into the oven to heat through.
Another favourite retro dish has made a comeback and given a contemporary vibe by mixing the boiled egg yolk with tahini, lemon and za'atar. Try them as a light starter with a few salad leaves on the side. Prepare a few hours ahead, leave covered in the fridge, then allow them to get back to room temperature before serving.
If you're having to cater for meat-eaters, vegetarians and vegans, this is the perfect starter. Made with a mix of dried and fresh mushrooms, it's intense with savoury flavours. Best of all, it freezes perfectly and will keep for up to three days in the fridge. Just omit adding a dash of cream to make it vegan.
Oysters are particularly plump and juicy in the cold months, and make a great treat for a festive meal. Served with a glass of bubbly, they are the perfect starter. Served grilled with diced bacon and Worcestershire sauce, there's a lovely hit of savoury, salt and the taste of the sea.
If you fancy a change from turkey, a goose is a rich, flavoursome option that will serve around six. You'll also have the resulting fat for the best roast potatoes. Here, it's served with pecan and sage stuffing balls and a red wine gravy. A goose is pretty impossible to carve, so the best way is to remove the legs, slice off the meat, then take the whole breast off the bone on each side, before slicing it to serve.
For a stunning centrepiece, beef wellington is hard to beat. Prime fillet of beef is covered with a mushroom and chicken liver pâté, encased in puff pastry and baked until golden, served with a mushroomy beef gravy. Prepare it in advance and leave in the fridge, then give it 15 minutes at room temperature before baking. Allow it to rest for 10 minutes to make carving much easier. You can make the gravy the day before.
Loved by the Scandinavians, a whole baked salmon is a festive treat for fish fans. Wrapped in a foil parcel with herbs, lemon and vegetables, it's succulent and tender, with no risk of drying out. To portion it, grab some disposable gloves, remove the head, take off the skin on one side and ease the fillet off the bone. Flip and repeat on the other side.
A pithivier is a festive French pie, usually filled with almond frangipane. Here it's transformed into an elegant veggie main course, the tasty, rich filling with chickpeas, herbs and spices, nuts, mushrooms, and dates. You can prepare it the day before – a food processor will make light work of the prep – and store in the fridge. Serve with a pistachio pesto, which can also be done ahead, for a deep, nutty flavour. Just use a non-dairy pastry to make it vegan-friendly.
Get the recipe for vegetarian pithivier with pistachio pesto here
This succulent turkey is served with two stuffings – one fruity beef and onion, the other with dried apricots and walnuts. Weigh the turkey once it's stuffed, to calculate the cooking time. You'll need your bathroom scales! Remember to rest the turkey for an hour, lightly covered, after roasting, to ensure easy carving and to free up oven space. You can prepare the stuffings and stuff the turkey the day before.
Get the recipe for roast turkey with stuffing and gravy here
A stunning centrepiece that is suitable for both veggies and vegans, as long as you use vegan puff pastry. It will match perfectly with all the Christmas trimmings, and can be prepared the day before and stored in the fridge. Don't worry about the long cooking time – it's just the time needed to roast the squash, which is paired with a herby mushroom layer.
Get the recipe for butternut squash and mushroom wellington here
The secrets to a perfect roast potato? The right potato, which should be floury, as opposed to waxy, must be hot when it goes into hot fat, to ensure a fluffy interior and crisp, crunchy edges. You can even roast the potatoes in the morning, remove from the roasting tin and leave at room temperature, then return them to a piping hot oven for five minutes or so to heat through. You can do this once the meat or fish is resting.
For an easy, super-tasty side that would be perfect with roast turkey, sprouts have had a makeover. Add crispy pancetta, cream, breadcrumbs, herbs and cubes of mature Comté cheese (you can use Gruyère or Cheddar, too) for a really savoury dish. You can prepare the gratin a few hours ahead then just bake before serving.
Make life a little easier with this traybake of roasted potatoes, beetroot, squash and onions, flavoured with garlic and honey. They can be prepared ahead, then are ready for the oven while the main course is resting. You could add parsnips or carrots too, or throw in some sprigs of rosemary or thyme leaves for added flavour.
Boiled carrots on their own are frankly, a little dull, so really jazz them up by adding a hint of spice, some marmalade, fresh herbs and a touch of soy sauce to give a sweet, salty and sticky glaze. Use baby carrots if you can, which are sweeter than their larger cousins. Prepare ahead then reheat in the microwave to serve.
The method to make gravy is just the same whether you're serving beef, lamb, turkey or chicken. It's just the stock and alcohol which differ, so for example, for beef gravy, you'd use beef stock and red wine. Use a rich, thick stock for optimum flavour, and prepare it up to three days ahead or freeze, just adding the meat juices while you reheat it on the day.
A sweet and salty ham makes a perfect centrepiece for the day after Christmas. You can bake and glaze it three days beforehand, too. Here it's served with an orange and mango salsa on the side, which has a little hint of welcome spice from mango chutney. Any leftovers freeze well. Just carve into slices, stack between sheets of greaseproof or baking paper, then take them out as you need them.
Crunchy, spicy fresh slaw is the perfect accompaniment to a baked ham or any Christmas leftover turkey or meat. It only takes 20 minutes to put together, and this recipe is far from a shop-bought rich, creamy coleslaw. With mango, spices and hot sauce, it will awaken everyone's tastebuds.
Having a dish in the freezer ready-to-go when you've spent the previous day cooking is a smart idea. This pork curry is sweet, sour and fragrant, with no fiery flavours – a real winner. Just serve with rice and, to save more time and less cooking, have a couple of pouches of pre-cooked rice to microwave in the store cupboard.
Everyone loves an easy leftover dish, and here's the perfect recipe using up the Christmas ham. It couldn't be simpler – just pasta, strips of ham, and some parsley, dressed in honey and mustard, and topped with a poached egg. It's on the table in 15 minutes. Add some grated Parmesan or other hard cheese you have in the fridge.
This could be your go-to pasta dish any day of the week. It's nourishing and comforting, and best of all, you must use frozen spinach, which has a more intense flavour than fresh. Plus, someone else has done the work of prepping and washing the spinach! Any small pasta shape which holds the sauce will work. Try lumache, which means snails, a shell-shaped pasta too.
On a chilly day when you need warming, comfort food and the afternoon on the sofa in front of a movie, here's your dish. A classic cauliflower cheese in a mustardy béchamel sauce, oozing with melted cheese and a hint of curry, all baked in crisp filo pastry. With just 20 minutes' preparation, you could serve it with a green salad on the side.
This is the recipe for that moment when you find lots of small bits of leftover cheese in the fridge. Any mixture of cheeses will do, whether blue, soft or hard. You could even add in any leftover ham, turkey or stuffing, too. When making the white sauce, add the hot milk gradually, whisking with a balloon whisk, to ensure it's lump-free.
If you're planning a celebratory meal for the 31st, this is an easy and flavour-packed dish to serve eight. Marinate the salmon in maple syrup and spices the day before, if you can. With sides of a punchy salsa of fresh pineapple and caramelised onion rice, there's little prep and cooking time involved.
Shop-bought shortcrust pastry makes these moreish tarts an easy win to serve with drinks. The creamy, cheesy filling can be made with any blue cheese. What's more, you can make them up to 24 hours ahead, then simply reheat them to serve.
You can't fail to please the meat-lovers in your life with this succulent, juicy roast pork with crunchy crackling. You can get your butcher to score the skin for you, or ensure you have a very sharp knife. Once prepared, you should leave it in the fridge, uncovered, for 24 hours before roasting. The fridge dries out the skin to ensure you have perfect crackling.
This classic French dish of marinated, slow-cooked beef in red wine is perfect party fare. It needs a day to marinate, but it can be cooked ahead of time, then reheated or frozen. Add the garnish of mushrooms, bacon and baby onions on the day. The recipe asks for beef brisket but use any cut of stewing steak you prefer. Serve with buttery mash, which can be made ahead then reheated in the microwave.
This hearty brunch dish is just what the doctor ordered for slightly sore heads on New Year's Day. Buttery, spicy, cheesy sweet potato mash is topped with fried eggs, onion pickle, hot chilli butter and crisp potato skins. It's filling and comforting. To save time, microwave the sweet potatoes.
After all those rich festive foods, something spicy always hits the spot. This combination of juicy chicken, peanut sauce, crunchy onions and peppers with straight-to-wok noodles is ready in 20 minutes. Add extra chopped, salted peanuts for crunch to serve.
Upgrade your cheese toastie with this easy brunch or lunch recipe. Strong cheese is combined with sweet, salty Parma Ham, chutney, apple and spinach in sourdough bread. If you don't have a sandwich toaster, the trick is to put a heavy pan on top of the sandwich while cooking, to make it crispy and even.
When you're over all that cooking and washing up, this easy pasta dish is rustled up in no time and is all made in one pan. Even the pasta doesn't require pre-cooking. It's creamy, herby and savoury, with lots of lovely, meaty sliced field mushrooms.