The best recipes for an Australian Christmas

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

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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!

 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.  

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. 

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 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 Grilled & roasted potatoes, 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.

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

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!

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.

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! 

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.

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!