Your turkey lunch time plan

Prep ahead for success

Start your preparations up to a month before to make life easier

One month ahead

Cook, cool and freeze:

• Easy red cabbage

• Carrot & swede mash with brown butter & thyme

• Crumbed yorkshire puddings with thyme

• Sizzled sage & onion bread sauce

• Cranberry & stem ginger sauce

• Cheesy leeks

Assemble and freeze:

• The flavour-bomb butter for the turkey

• Clementine, bay & pink peppercorn stuffing balls

Thoroughly defrost anything you freeze and reheat until piping hot all the way through.

Up to three days ahead

Make and chill:

• The flavour-bomb butter for the turkey

• Sizzled sage & onion bread sauce

• Cranberry & stem ginger sauce

• Easy red cabbage

• Carrot & swede mash with brown butter & thyme

Up to two days ahead

• Salt the turkey, then keep chilled and uncovered in the roasting tin

• Parboil the potatoes for roasting with the truffle and parmesan, then keep covered and chilled

• Assemble the cheesy leeks in a baking dish and keep covered and chilled, ready to put in the oven when needed

• Start to defrost anything you’ve pre-prepared and frozen

Christmas Eve

• Prep the clementine, bay & pink peppercorn stuffing balls and keep chilled on a baking tray ready to go in the oven

• Assemble sweet chilli-glazed pigs in blankets on another baking tray, ready to go into the oven on Christmas Day

• Make the batter for the crumbed yorkshire puddings and keep chilled.

Christmas Day

9.30am

• Remove the turkey and flavour-bomb butter from the fridge to come to room temperature.

11am

• Prep the onions and carrots to go under the turkey and smother the turkey with the butter.

11.15am

• Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6.

11.30am

• Put the turkey in the oven.

12pm

• While the turkey cooks, get the stuffing balls and the pigs in blankets cooked on the shelf below, one at a time, then remove to reheat later, if needed.

12.30pm

• Turn th