The best recipes for an Australian Christmas | Jamie Oliver (2024)

Here at Jamie Oliver HQ in London, we love Christmas and all the fantastic seasonal festive food there is to enjoy here. But these delicious dishes won’t necessarily fly with our Australian friends down under, so we’ve pulled together the best Christmas recipes for Australia.

From seriously good nibbles and beautiful salads to exciting mains and epic puds, we’ve got everything you need to cook up a festive summer feast.

Of course, if you want to go down the classic roast and all the trimmings route, check out Jamie’s ultimate Christmas recipes and Brilliant Christmas food collections. They’re full of festive food ideas to help you plan for the Big Day.

NIBBLES

Chicken wings, agrodolce-style

To kick off Jamie’s best Christmas Day recipes for Australia, choose this fantastic sharing dish of gently roasted chicken wings coated in a sticky honey and balsamic glaze. Perfect for any festive get-together, they would be incredible finished on the barbecue for extra smokiness.

DJ BBQ's scallops

It’s the simplicity of this dish that makes it such a winner. Fresh scallops are cooked in their shells with a dash of white wine directly on the barbecue, and finished with a quick chilli garlic butter. Juicy, buttery, sweet scallops with just a hum of chilli you’ll love this one!

Crostini - tomato and olives

Crostini are brilliant fun to make and a great one for kids to help out with. Get creative with your toppings anything goes. We’ve got more delicious flavour combos here, such as pea & broad bean purée and buffalo mozzarella & chilli.

Delicate, crispy squid and smoky harissa mayo are perfect partners in this bold Christmas party sharing dish. If you can get hold of flowering oregano (sometimes called wild marjoram), it’ll take this dish to the next level just remember to save some oregano flowers for garnishing your serving platter!

There’s something special about serving up a variety of beautiful, fresh shellfish to a group of hungry loved ones. Mix and match your shellfish we love scallops, clams, mussels and razor clams, all served with a zingy lemon, chilli & mixed herb dressing, but feel free to use your own favourite herby combos.

If you’re looking for a crowd-pleasing potato salad, look no further. This one buddies up with a zingy, crunchy pickle salad made from radishes, cucumber, dill and mint, and uses garlic, lemon and rosemary in its base. Perfect with fish, a glazed ham or some juicy chicken.

Summer ratatouille salad

This salad is the definition of summer. Beautifully ripe tomatoes, baby courgettes with flowers, aubergine and peppers the perfect accompaniment to any of the mains below.

MAINS

Mulled wine glazed ham

Would Christmas be Christmas without a glazed ham? We love this recipe that uses lots of store-cupboard ingredients, including marmalade tinned pineapple, festive spices and woody herbs. A reliable and dependable centre-piece.

Barbecued red mullet

Red mullet is a real show-stopper and works perfectly as a Christmas main. Cooking it whole keeps the fish juicy and locks in its sweet and buttery flavour. We serve this with a fiery and fragrant salsa made from olives, garlic, chilli, rosemary, tomatoes and parsley. Enjoy!

Mega veggie burger

A fantastically versatile tofu veggie burger that gives you the freedom to hit it up with any seasonal salad veg to ramp up the sunny flavours. Great for getting children (and adults!) involved in the making of the patties, the rich fresh tomato sauce and the creamy basil dressing.

If you’re looking for an informal Christmas recipe that still feels a bit special, why not try Jamie’s lobster burger, which is guaranteed to please. You can easily scale it up to feed a crowd, and get your guests to build their own burgers on the beach.

Nathan Outlaw’s seafood burger

If lobster isn’t your thing, give Nathan Outlaw’s seafood burger a go. It uses a delightful mix of king prawns, crab and cod, and is topped with a wasabi mayo.

Butterflied leg of lamb

A great dish to prepare ahead of time, this leg of lamb is butterflied and marinated overnight in a fragrant spice paste made from ancho chillies, fennel and coriander seeds, paprika, oregano and red wine vinegar. Cook it on the barbecue and serve up a real crowd-pleaser this festive season.

Roasted squid with a warm chorizo dressing

Roasted squid is an elegant main course, especially when paired with this smoky chorizo dressing. Feel free to use any chorizo and lettuces that are available to you. Delicious served with the Roast new potato salad & pickle salad (above) or , where you can take roast potatoes to the next level on the barbecue just make sure your barbecue is screaming hot and take care when removing them.

Christmas veg laksa

A colourful principle recipe that you can chop and change up the ingredients according to what you have at home, whether that be leftover roasted veggies, raw veggies, or cooked turkey, ham or any seafood. A tangy and spicy delight.

PUDDINGS

Frozen yoghurt layer cake

This is a wonderful dessert to get the kids involved over the holidays, especially if they can blitz their own favourite fruits. It’s refreshing, it’s colourful and it’s fun!

Strawberry berry pavlova

Pavlova is a fantastic gluten-free dessert that is guaranteed to delight a crowd. Vanilla, strawberries and raspberries are the heroes here, along with some baby mint leaves for both colour and zing.

Tropical fruit pavlova

A brilliant principle recipe that’s packed full of sunshine and colour hit this pavlova up with your ultimate favourite tropical fruits. Try passion fruit, tamarillo, mango, pineapple, guava or papaya whatever you like!

Epic ice cream cake

Do you love cake and ice cream? Well, this incredible ice cream cake is the perfect blend of the two. Use a panettone tin as your mould, any flavours of ice cream that you love, then serve it up on your fanciest cake stand and top with some of your favourite festive blooms.

Taron's mum's Christmas trifle

For some, trifle is the very essence of Christmas. This one uses raspberries, Madeira cake and a thick custard flavoured with white chocolate, making it beautifully smooth and rich. Give it a go!

Lemongrass adds a wonderfully citrussy ginger note to poached peaches, making this a refreshing and palate-cleansing dessert; the perfect way to end this year’s festivities.

For more inspiration, check out our collection of Aussie Christmas recipes that will guarantee to get your creative juices flowing!

The best recipes for an Australian Christmas | Jamie Oliver (2024)

FAQs

What do Australians eat for Christmas pudding? ›

What is the local traditional Christmas dessert in Australia? In my family it's plum pudding with sixpences in it with custard/cream/icecream (or all three). But things like a wine trifle and pavlova are popular too.

Do Australians have a roast dinner for Christmas? ›

The Australian Christmas feast has evolved over the years – many still enjoy a traditional turkey roast dinner, but warm weather favourites like seafood, ice-cream and tropical fruits now appear on most festive menus.

What time do Australians eat Christmas dinner? ›

Australia. Christmas dinner, although eaten at lunch time, in Australia is based on the traditional English versions.

What do Australians drink for Christmas? ›

Eggnog and Snowballs, Mulled Wine and Christmas Velvet Alexanders... all very fitting for 25th December if you're wrapped up by the fire.

Do Australians have xmas dinner? ›

From pavlova and prawn cocktails to potato salad and glazed ham, Christmas is truly a special affair Down Under. Here, we chart 39 essential recipes for the ultimate Aussie Christmas.

What is a Christmas cracker in Australia? ›

Christmas crackers are festive table decorations that make a snapping sound when pulled open, and typically contain a small gift, paper hat and a joke. They are part of Christmas celebrations in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Commonwealth countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.

What is the big fry breakfast in Australia? ›

The most widely-consumed breakfast in Australia is The Big Fry, which is similar to American and UK breakfasts. The plate will include fried eggs, smoked bacon, mushrooms, and grilled tomatoes.

What is an Australian Christmas dish? ›

Nothing says an Australian Chrissy quite like trifles, rum balls, prawns and pudding so get the party started with these Christmas essentials.

What is the national Australia dessert? ›

The quintessential Aussie dessert is the Pavlova. A soft marshmallow encased in a crisp but delicate meringue shell topped with whipped cream and your favourite assortment of fresh fruit. The pavlova was named after a Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, who toured Australia and New Zealand in 1926.

Why is it called Plum Duff? ›

Plum duff, one of the fortifying puddings of Old England, is essentially the same in its beginnings as plum pudding, before it went up-market to become Christmas pudding—in other words a plain boiled suet pudding enlivened with a more or less generous addition of raisins or currants (duff represents a former northern ...

What is the most popular Christmas tradition in Australia? ›

Sing along with Carols by Candlelight

A popular tradition in Australia is Carols by Candlelight, which occurs annually on Christmas Eve in major cities like Sydney, New South Wales; Brisbane, Queensland; Perth, Western Australia; Adelaide, South Australia; Hobart, Tasmania; and Canberra, Australia Capital Territory.

What is Australia's Christmas number one? ›

She wasn't the queen of Christmas this year, though Mariah Carey does reign over Australia's final chart of 2023 with “All I Want For Christmas Is You” (via Columbia/Sony).

Do Australians typically grill their Christmas meal outside? ›

Since the seasons are reversed below the equator, Australians prefer to celebrate Christmas outdoors by having a barbecue with family and friends. And the food they put on the grill is more indicative of where they live: prawns, lobsters, steak… All served with salad on the side.

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