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10 Healthy Christmas Recipes for the Whole Family

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By Dr. Hemapriya, Mylittlemoppet_official

“Tis the season to be merry, and we deserve to be, after the year we’ve had! As with most festivals, a major part of Christmas celebrations is the food, especially the desserts. With the New Year starting in a few weeks, many people go with the school of thought that throws caution to the wind, saying they’ll start a new in 2022.

However, overconsumption of unhealthy foods like sugar-laden desserts can hinder your progress and take your starting point far back, making it much harder to reach your weight loss goals. That’s not all; all the excess sugar you consume can lead to chronic illnesses like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. 

The WHO recommends that adults consume no more than 30 g of sugar a day. However, the NHS estimates that a person consumes over 5 times this amount on Christmas Day alone! Now imagine how much sugar gets into our bodies over the festive period of 7-10 days!

However, this doesn’t mean that you should abstain from everything enjoyable this festive season and give up your favourites. You can easily make popular Christmas recipes at home with much less sugar and by substituting healthy ingredients. Here are 10 of our top picks, ranging from sweet to savory to beverages!

10 Healthy Christmas Recipes for the Whole Family

1. Christmas Egg in a Hole

Ingredients:

Instructions:

  1. Use Christmas themed cookie cutters to cut out shaped holes in the middle of the bread slices. 
  2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, cheese, carrot, coriander leaves and milk.
  3. Season with salt and pepper and mix well.
  4. Heat butter in a pan.
  5. Take  one of the cut out bread slices and toast on one side till golden brown.
  6. Flip and add the egg mixture in the hole.
  7. Cover and cook for 5 minutes or till the egg is thoroughly cooked.
  8. Repeat with the remaining slices of bread.
  9. Serve immediately.

2. Ragi Plum Cake

Ingredients:

Instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes. Grease the cake pan or line it with the help of parchment paper.
  2. Sieve the whole wheat flour, ragi flour, custard powder, spice mix, baking powder and salt together a few times. 
  3. In another bowl, whisk the jaggery powder, orange juice and oil until the jaggery powder dissolves completely.
  4. To this mix, add the vanilla extract and stir.
  5. Pour the wet mix on the dry mix and whisk well to get a lump-free batter.
  6. Put the chopped nuts and dry fruits in a small bowl, and add a teaspoon of flour to it. Toss the dry fruits and nuts so they are completely coated in the flour.
  7. Add the nuts and dry fruits to the cake batter. Mix well with a spatula or whisk.
  8. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Tap the cake pan once or twice to remove any trapped air bubbles.
  9. Bake the cake at 180 degrees Celsius in a preheated oven for 30-35 minutes. Keep a check after 25 minutes as the temperature may vary from oven to oven. To know if the cake is done, insert a toothpick in the center of the cake. If the tooth pick comes out clean, the cake is done. If you find batter sticking to the toothpick, bake the cake for another 5 minutes.
  10. Let the cake cool completely on a wire rack.
  11. Garnish with blanched almonds or cherries and serve. 

3. Almond Coconut Cookies

Ingredients:

Instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes. Grease a baking pan with butter.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk the butter till smooth.
  3. Add coconut sugar and whisk till creamy.
  4. Add the egg and vanilla essence and mix well.
  5. Sift the wheat flour and almond flour. Add in the desiccated coconut and mix well.
  6. Add milk a little at a time, just enough to get a smooth dough.
  7. Wrap the dough ball in parchment paper greased with butter and refrigerate for one hour.
  8. Take out the chilled dough and place it between 2 sheets of parchment paper.
  9. Roll out the dough between the parchment till the dough is about ¼” thick.
  10. Remove the top parchment paper and cut out cookies using cookie cutters of your choice.
  11. Collect the leftover cutouts of the dough and roll them again into a dough ball.
  12. Repeat steps 9-11 until you use up all the dough.
  13. Transfer the cookies to the greased baking pan. Bake at 175/180 degrees Celsius for 10-12 min.
  14. Let the cookies cool completely before serving.

4. Chavanprash Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients:

Instructions:

  1. Take a 5 liter pressure cooker that has a wide mouth. Remove the whistle and gasket of the cooker lid.
  2. Add 2 cups of salt in the cooker. Place a stand over the salt. 
  3. Using butter, grease an aluminium plate that fits inside the pressure cooker. 
  4. Dry roast the oats lightly. Cool and grind it to a powder to get oat flour.
  5. To the the oats flour, add the ragi flour, baking powder, salt and jaggery powder and mix well.
  6. Add oil and chavanprash to the flour mix. Mix well to get a smooth dough.
  7. Cover the dough ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
  8. Take out the dough and divide the dough into 2 portions. Re-wrap one half in the plastic wrap and refrigerate.
  9. Place the other dough ball between 2 sheets of parchment paper.
  10. Roll out the dough between the parchment till the dough is about ¼” thick.
  11. Remove the top parchment paper and cut out cookies using cookie cutters of your choice.
  12. Transfer the cookies to the greased plate, leaving enough space between the cookies. 
  13. Collect the leftover cutouts of the dough and roll them again into a dough ball.
  14. Repeat steps 9-11 until you use up all the dough, including the dough in the fridge.
  15. Place the plate with cookies in the refrigerator for 15- 20 minutes.
  16. You can bake the cookies in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes or use a pressure cooker.
  17. To preheat the pressure cooker, cover the cooker and heat on medium flame for 15 minutes.
  18. Take out the plate of cookies and place it on the rack of the preheated pressure cooker. Place the cooker lid.
  19. Bake the cookies at low flame for about 15 minutes. The cookies turn dark and may feel soft in the center. They will harden as they cool. 
  20. Cool the cookies on a wire rack.
  21. Bake the remaining of the cookies using the pressure cooker in the same manner as described above.

5. Dates and Nuts Cooker Cake

Ingredients:

Instructions:

  1. Take a 5 liter pressure cooker that has a wide mouth. Remove the whistle and gasket of the cooker lid.
  2. Add 2 cups of salt in the cooker. Place a stand over the salt. 
  3. Reserve some dry fruits to garnish the cake. Soak the remaining nuts and dry fruits in apple juice for 2 hours.
  4. Soak the pitted dates in warm milk for around one and a half hours.
  5. Grind the dates with the soaking milk to get a smooth puree. Add oil and blend again.
  6. In a mixing bowl, sift the whole wheat flour, cinnamon powder, ginger powder, baking powder and salt.
  7. Add the dates oil puree and the soaked nuts along with any left over juice. Mix well with a wooden spoon. 
  8. If the batter appears too dry, add a little milk to adjust the consistency.
  9. Pour the batter to an 8 inch greased or lined baking tin. Tap it twice on the kitchen counter to release trapped bubbles.
  10. Garnish the top of the cake with the reserved chopped nuts.
  11. To preheat the pressure cooker, cover the cooker and heat on medium flame for 15 minutes
  12. Carefully place the cake tin on the stand in the cooker. Cover and bake on low-medium flame for 40-45 minutes.
  13. You can also bake the cake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 35-40 minutes.
  14. Check if the cake is done by inserting a toothpick in the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is done. If you find sticky batter on the toothpick, bake the cake again for 5-7 minutes.
  15. Let the cake cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Run a knife through the edges of the cake pan to release it.
  16. Place an inverted plate over the cake pan and flip the cake onto it. Use another plate to flip the cake back so the garnished side is facing up.
  17. Slice the cake in desired shapes once it cools down completely.

6. Sathumaavu Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients:

Instructions:

  1. Sift the sathumaavu flour along with the spice powders, salt and baking powder 2-3 times.
  2. In another bowl, whisk oil with jaggery powder and a tablespoon of water until smooth and lump free.
  3. Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients to form a tight dough. If the dough is too dry, use a few drops of water to loosen it up. If the dough is too sticky, add a little flour to bind it together.
  4. Cover the dough in cling wrap and refrigerate for not longer than 10-15 minutes.
  5. While the dough is in the fridge, preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 10-15 minutes.
  6. Take out the dough and place it between 2 sheets of parchment paper.
  7. Roll out the dough between the parchment till the dough is about ¼” thick.
  8. Remove the top parchment paper and cut out cookies using cookie cutters of your choice.
  9. Grease a baking pan with butter. Transfer the cookies to the pan, leaving enough space between them.
  10. Bake the cookies at 180 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes per batch. They will be soft initially, but will harden as they cool.
  11. Let the cookies to cool on a wire rack. Transfer the christmas cookies to an air tight container.

7. Fudgy Cocoa Brownies

Ingredients:

Instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius. Grease a 9×9 square pan and line it with parchment paper.
  2. In a large bowl, sift together the whole wheat flour, cocoa powder and salt. Keep aside.
  3. In a blender or processor, blend the eggs, vanilla extract, oil, honey, milk and yogurt till smooth.
  4. Add the blended wet mix into the dry flour-cocoa mix. Mix until just incorporated. Do not over mix.
  5. Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Tap a few times gently to help the batter become uniform.
  6. Bake at 300°F for 25 to 28 minutes or till the cake is done. Try the toothpick test but for brownies the toothpick may still have some wet crumbs.
  7. Cool completely to room temperature in the pan. Once cool, lift out the parchment paper and slice into squares.

8. Pistachio Raisin Coconut Cookies

Ingredients:

Instructions:

  1. In a large bowl combine the eggs, honey, vanilla and almond extracts, softened coconut oil, and milk. Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer mix everything until smooth and creamy.
  2. Slowly add the coconut flour and gently mix with a whisk or spatula until the coconut flour is completely mixed.
  3. Let the dough sit for 15 minutes so the coconut flour can absorb all the liquid and become a sticky dough.
  4. Gently fold the chopped pistachios and the raisins into the dough. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
  5. Preheat the oven at 350 F or 180 C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon liner.
  6. Remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator. Use an ice cream scoop to make small 1-inch dough balls.
  7. Wet your fingers and gently flatten the dough balls to make thin cookies. 
  8. Add some extra chopped pistachios on top of each cookies for a more festive feel.
  9. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes depending on the thickness. Cookies are done when the top feels firm to touch.
  10. Let them sit on the baking sheet for 15 minutes before transferring it to a wire rack, to cool it completely.
  11. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container or Ziploc for up to 7 days. Or in the freezer up to 3 months.

9. Spiced Hot Chocolate

Ingredients:

Instructions:

  1. Mix together the cocoa, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a small bowl. Add 2-3 tablespoons of milk and make a paste.
  2. Heat the milk with coconut sugar, lowering the heat just before it boils.
  3. Add the cocoa paste into the hot milk, and mix well. Cook again on low heat for 5 minutes. 
  4. Strain the mixture and pour into a mug. Garnish with small marshmallows if you like.

10. Strawberry Santas

Ingredients:

Instructions:

  1. Whisk together the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla till smooth. Have two piping bags ready.
  2. Cut off the strawberry stem so it can sit flat on its own.
  3. Cut the top third of the strawberry to make the Santa hat.
  4. Place the cream mix inside a piping bag with a slightly larger tip. 
  5. Pipe some of the cream mix on top of the strawberry base.
  6. Place the strawberry ‘hat’ on the cream and then pipe a small amount of cream on top of the hat.
  7. Take another piping bag and cut a very small tip. Fill it with the cream mix and pipe tiny dots on the front of the strawberry base to make the buttons.
  8. Stick the mini chocolate chips on the cream mix to make the Santa’s eyes.
  9. The Santas can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
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