Low protein recipes for a PKU Christmas or Thanksgiving

Tips and links to help with a low protein Christmas or Thanksgiving. I’ve included menu suggestions & recipes, but let’s start with making the festive season friendlier to those on restricted diets.

Some say that Christmas or Thanksgiving is all about the turkey, which may leave someone on a low protein diet feeling left out. This means we may need to think a little differently.

Thinking differently about Christmas

Even outside the rare disease community, I don't often find people who actually have turkey at Christmas or Thanksgiving. Friends frequently discuss the merits of various other dishes. This increasingly means vegetarian main courses like beetroot wellington or a nut roast.

"Simply talking about the low protein food first can mean the world to a child!"

Our family's Christmas dinner was always “the low protein dish and the NZ lamb”. (Note the word order, simply talking about the low protein food first can mean the world to a child!) I would have my own stuffed vegetables, as this meant I had something to carve at the table too.

Recently, the increasing availability of low protein pastry and cheese has allowed me to try new dishes. I hope the links and ideas below will inspire your low protein dinners.

Ideas for a low protein Christmas main

Three suggestions for a PKU or low protein Christmas centrepiece. The required skill level ranges from a little tricky to easy, and two can be made in advance.

Squash and blue cheese Wellington

A bit tricky, but can be made in advance and popped in the oven on the day. This was a hit with people who weren’t on a restricted-diet too! Make it low protein with the following switches:

Low protein ‘blue cheese’. Honestly tasty blue - 50g is 1g protein. Or if you can find Violife blue cheese, that one is exchange free.
Use your prescribed milk substitute, use a low protein plant milk, or aquafaba (chick pea water) rather than egg to bind & glaze.
Do not include the pecans.

If you follow the above switches, and make your own low protein pastry, the protein will only come from the cheese substitute. Alternately, JusRol Gluten-Free Pastry is 40g for 1g protein, while Genius Gluten-Free Pastry is 42g for 1g protein.

Tips:

This recipe makes a large Wellington which will serve six as a main. I suggest halving the recipe or making two small ones.
You can make this in advance, as it will freeze for up to two months.
Don't use a defrosted packet of frozen butternut squash, it was too wet and led to very soggy pastry. Definitely don't do this if you are freezing the dish again.

Mushroom & Jackfruit Wellingtons

Easier than the full wellington above, but best made fresh. This recipe makes four individual Wellingtons. They are great for Christmas or Thanksgiving, yet are so easy that I’ve been making them as a mid-week dinner.

Aubergine ratatouille

This recipe is an easy option for big occasions. It is already low protein, needing no substitutes or switches. However, I’m a lazy cook, so tend to ignore steps 3 & 4, and just use a can of chopped tomatoes instead. It will then need to cook for an extra 10-15 minutes. This makes for a dish with more sauce, perfect for scooping up with garlic bread, or for yummy leftovers.

Baked Aubergine with minted courgettes

While researching this article, I came across a new idea which I haven’t tried yet. This will require only two tweaks to make it low protein, including:

Using a low protein cheese, like this one.
Not using the ‘handful of walnuts’.

Trimmings

Sadly, there is little we can do about the protein content of roast potatoes. 60g of potato is 1g of protein, and I always save an exchange to ensure roasties on Christmas Day.

There are plenty of low-protein vegetables for roasting options including sweet potato, sprouts, parsnips, carrots, turnips, pumpkins & squash, beetroot, celeriac, fennel, garlic, onions & shallots, peppers (aka bell peppers, capsicums), swede...

Christmas breakfast & snacks

I love pancakes for breakfast, and love these ‘Santa Pancakes’ from Vitafriends. In New Zealand, Christmas Day is in mid-summer. My Christmas breakfast as a child was exotic fruits like melon, pawpaw (papaya), and mango. These are great breakfasts on Thanksgiving or Christmas when plenty of calories lie ahead.

Low protein snack ideas include avocado dips, sun-dried tomatoes, dried fruits - raisins, crystallised ginger, dried pineapple, dried papaya. Christmas shopping for me always includes speciality fruit jellies to go with the chocolate covered gingers.

These are great breakfasts on Thanksgiving or Christmas when plenty of calories lie ahead

If you are a baker, then the low protein food specialists have plenty of ideas for Christmas treats, including mince pies, which I’ll be trying out this year. I’m a fan of ginger so always make these Christmas ginger biscuits with PKU flour. Of the suggested decorations, the icing, cherries and currants are low protein. But they never last long enough in this house to make decorating worthwhile!

Low protein shopping for Christmas & Thanksgiving

If you want to spend less time in the kitchen, social media feeds from the PKU and low protein communities are full of snack and meal ideas which are available in the supermarkets or speciality food stores.

Promin have a dedicated low protein Christmas treats shop.
Alternative Stores has a dedicated page for low protein foods.

With any luck, this blog has provided inspiration for Christmas Day. My main tip is to ensure you have plenty of low protein treats around to allow the traditional gorging with less of the guilt. And Christmas isn’t all about food, so I hope you enjoy the season in other ways too.