Spanish Christmas Food, Enjoy a festive feast
Spanish Christmas food. Christmas in Spain is a time for eating, drinking and spending time with the whole family, but forget the traditional roast turkey, mine pies and Christmas pudding.
Most Spanish will have their main celebratory meal on Christmas Eve, while another special meal is eaten on Three Kings’ Day, on January 6th.
There are 5 main meals served during the Christmas period - Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas Day lunch, New Year’s Eve dinner, New Year’s Day lunch and Three Kings’ Day lunch. Each meal will generally comprise of - Appetizer course: Usually a giant buffet of tapas, First course: Soup, Second course: Roasted meat or fish and a couple of sides then the all-important Dessert: Three-part banquet of Christmas sweets, fruit, nuts, and sweet wines and liquors.
Appertizers Some ideas for festive Spanish tapas include. (Click on the links for recipes)
Cheese Puffs with Sesame Seeds and Honey
First Course
The first course is generally a soup, or another type of salad served with plenty of crusty fresh bread
Hake Fillets with Clams in Salsa Verde is also very popular
Seafood soup or stew are also a popular for the first course.
Second Course
This will normally be a roasted dish either lamb, fish, turkey or suckling pig.
Spanish Roast Lam (cordero asado)
Octopus - How to cook and serve
Roast Suckling Pig (Cochinillo Asado)
Chicken in almond sauce is another popular choice
Traditional Picadillo which is a soft, fragrant stew of ground beef and tomatoes
Dessert
Just when you think the eaten your fill, a three-part dessert awaits.
First comes what you might typically think of as Spanish dessert: flan, this will be followed by various cakes or pies such as -
Lemon and Almond Olive Oil Cake
Spanish San Sebastian Cheesecake
Tarta de Santiago, almond cake
and the all-important Roscón de Reyes
The Roscón de Reyes is the Spanish version of a Christmas cake. Essentially it is a sweet bread ring topped with pieces of candied fruit and sometimes filled with whipped cream. While it’s eaten for the whole Christmas period, it’s traditionally consumed at the Feast of Epiphany on January 6, also known as Three Kings’ Day
Next is the spread of traditional Christmas sweets like turrón (nougat and almond bars), or almond cookies, fig bars, candied fruits, nuts (almonds, walnuts, pistachios, etc.), Marzipan candy figures and fresh seasonal fruit such as apples, mandarins, persimmon, and pomegranate.
And the final touch the liqueurs such as brandy or orujo (moonshine-like liqueur which is distilled from grape skins often flavoured with herbs or made into a creamy Bailey’s like liqueur) or you could make your very own homemade Irish cream Liqueur or Limoncello
No Spanish Christmas meal would be complete without a glass of Cava, the Spanish version of French Champagne.
Check out our guide to Spanish WINES
The above are just a few suggestions for your Christmas Feast, you will find lots more recipes in this section.
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