Jamie Oliver's short cut to 'tantalisingly tasty' Christmas dinner vegetables
It's easy to be so concerned about getting the turkey and trimmings just right for Christmas dinner that you run out of steam and even time when it comes to the humble vegetables.
But celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has some quick tips that will make your sides taste incredible too. "Even our regular Christmas veg deserves star treatment," he says. "So I've got some easy short cuts that will supercharge their flavour. From caramelised and crispy root veg to a chilli garlic butter on your greens - these festive sides will be tantalisingly tasty."
Jamie's tips for caramelised carrots and parsnips and greens dripping in flavoured butter that are taken from his C4 series Jamie's Christmas Shortcuts, are "a sure-fire way to get big flavour, fast" and ensure you have a collection of beautiful veggies to accompany your "tastiest turkey ever".
Add bay leaves and vinegar to the parsnips, says Jamie (channel 4)Ingredients you will need (you can swap any vegetables out for ones of your choice):
- Parsnips
- Carrots
- Olive oil or any fat you wish
- Sea salt and black pepper
- A handful of bay leaves
- Few sprigs of thyme
- Vinegar
- Two clementines
Here's Jamie's method for the carrots and parsnips:
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Carrots and parsnips are both "really humble vegetables", Jamie says and they're in season, readily available and great value. Using his tweaks they can be made "absolutely delicious". He says not to peel either of them, just take the ends off because a lot of the nutrition is in the skin and by roasting it and concentrating it, you get an amazing depth of flavour.
Keep about an inch of the green on the tops of the carrots because they're edible and look attractive too. Pour over a generous amount of olive oil which is really light and a brilliant carrier of the flavours of the herbs. Add a good pinch of sea salt and black pepper. Add bay leaf to the parsnips and thyme to the carrots.
When cooking root vegetables, choose a herb and choose an acid and they will both react in different ways to really bring out their unique flavour. For the parsnips give them a little lick of vinegar which will completely cook away but leave a flavour around the skin of the veg as it starts to caramelise. For the carrots use the Christmassy clementine. Lightly squeeze the juice from them over the carrots but leave some in the fruit too so when they are cooked you can squeeze the jammy juice over the carrots.
Put the carrots and parsnips into a preheated oven at 180C / 350F for about an hour and 20 minutes at the same time as you cook your roast potatoes if you’re having them.
Ingredients you will need for the buttered greens:
- Sprouting broccoli
- Brussels sprouts
- Peas (frozen is fine)
- Butter
- Fresh red chilli
- Couple of grated strokes of lemon and / or clementine zest
- Sea Salt and black pepper
- A little thyme or herb of your choice
Use a steamer that has stacked sections as this saves on space, time and energy costs at Christmas and the whole year round. Put the sprouts in the bottom section with the water for about five minutes of hard boiling. On the first rack put the broccoli, on the top rack put anything delicate like peas, spinach or asparagus.
To make the veg extra special make a flavoured butter. Take a large knob of butter and squash it down onto a board with a fork, sprinkle over sea salt, pepper, a little fresh chopped chilli, lemon and clementine zest and the thyme. Fork it all up again. You could do this in a bigger batch and put it in some greaseproof paper and freeze it.
When the veggies are steamed, drain the water from the bottom pan and then put the butter into the top section. As it melts it will drip down onto all your veg. Serve all the steamed vegetables with the sprouts in a bowl.
Jamie Christmas shortcuts is available to watch on Channel 4 now.
Will you try Jamie's tips for your Christmas veggies? Let us know in the comments below.
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