FOOD : Christmas Banquet- Feed 4 people a 6 course menu for £40 from Lidl
After watching all the Christmas adverts that every supermarket can throw at you, I wanted to find out how much it would cost to do a one stop Christmas Dinner food shop for four people.
I’m laughing at all the videos on Instagram reels and TikTok about all the food in the fridge that’s off limits as ‘its for Christmas!’. My mum would always say this to us growing up and even as adults.
Christmas Banquet - Feed 4 people a 6 course menu for £40 from Lidl
So many people stress about Christmas food. Christmas Lunch or Dinner, held on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day needn’t be a big onerous task undertook by one or two people to feed four or six. It needn’t mean endless hours spent in the kitchen whilst the rest of the family lounge about watching TV and having all the fun and it also needn’t mean prepping several weeks in advance.
This challenge was how to produce a feast without spending long hours in the kitchen, prepping, cooking and cleaning, and as I mentioned it had to be from one shop. So after a day spent checking out supermarkets online and in store, I settled on Lidl. So many of us shop at Lidl, and their prices are certainly cheaper than a few other supermarkets plus they had a great Christmas range of food.
Most of the food was frozen, and the fresh produce had a good date on it. I made my purchases last week and everything kept until I was ready to make my dinner. Lidl have some amazing offers on this week, and it just goes to show that you don’t have to buy in everything weeks in advance; you can still buy Christmas dinner within a 5 day window prior to Christmas.
So here it is; this is Six by Adele - a six course Christmas Dinner with all the food purchased from Lidl. I’ve listed the menu with photos first, with pricing and cooking explanations further down.
Appetisers
Blinis with Smoked Salmon and edible gold
Blinis with Orange and Duck Pate with bramble jam
The Pork and Cranberry Sausage Wreath
Starters
Prawn cocktail with Marie Rose sauce
Mains
3 Game Roast
Brussel Sprouts with bacon
Chantenay Carrots with parsley butter
Hasselback Potatoes with sea salt and black pepper
Roasted Parsnips in an orange blossom honey flavoured glaze
Pigs in Blankets
Gravy
Dessert
Christmas Pudding 6 months matured with double cream
Cheese
Truffle Cheddar with Rosemary Crackers and Cheese Crackers
Tea and Coffee
with Iced Top mince pies
So how much did it cost me? Obviously there were a few store cupboard items like mayonnaise and ketchup for the Marie Rose sauce, tinfoil to cover the 3 game roast whilst in the oven; a half lemon in the fridge, bramble jam which was from the Bute Kitchen and Tawny Port from Port of Leith; but pretty much everything else was purchased from Lidl in one shop.
Here’s a break down of the costs and a basic description on cooking or serving.
Appetisers
Mini Blinis - £1.19
Salmon - £3.99
Dill - only used a sprig of this, so not included in the cost
Pate - £1.69
Wreath - £3.99
Topped half the blinis with the salmon and a little dill, the other a teaspoon scoop of pate with bramble jam on top, easy to prepare. The wreath went straight in the oven from frozen and took 45 minutes to cook; once ready served it up with tomato sauce but you could go with chutney, Branston pickle - what ever you have in the fridge.
Starters
Prawns - £2.19
Lettuce - only used a wee bit so not included in the cost
Baby Tomatoes - only used 4 tomatoes so not included in the cost
Prawns were frozen, so I put them in a dish of cold water to defrost whilst I prepared the martini glasses. I shredded some lettuce, cut 1 baby tomato in half per glass, filled the glass with the defrosted prawns and topped with the Marie Rose sauce (60-40 mayonnaise to tomato sauce), grated some lemon zest over the top and but cut some segments of lemon to place over the prawns.
Mains
3 Game Roast - £7.99
Brussels - £2.09
Hasselback Potatoes - £2.49
Parsnips - £1.59
Carrots - £1.59
Gravy Granules - only used a small amount so not included in the cost
Pigs in Blankets - £2.49
The Game Roast cooks from frozen but does take approx 2 hours to cook, so make sure you put this in the oven before you do anything else. The Pigs in Blankets take 30 minutes or so as does all the veg, so these can all be placed in the over, 30-40 minutes before the roast is done. Gravy is easy enough to make in the last 30 minutes whilst all the food is in the oven.
Dessert
Christmas Pudding - £3.49
Cream - £0.85
Pudding is microwaveable, so dish up your portions and pour over the cream.
Cheese
Truffle Cheese - £1.99
Cheese Thins Crackers - £0.65
Rosemary Crackers - only used a few of these so not included in the cost
Easy one, just unwrap the crackers and place on a platter with the cheese. Ideally take your cheese out an hour before serving, as its best served at room temperature.
Tea and Coffee
Iced mince pies - £1.25
Don’t think I need to explain this one.
TOTAL COST FOR THIS BANQUET 6 COURSE MENU FOR FOUR PEOPLE = £39.52
If £40 is out of your price range, read my other blog post on
This is super easy to replicate and takes much of the hassle out of Christmas Dinner. There is still some cooking required but most of it is either placing food from frozen in the oven or unwrapping it and serving it up.
Much of this food could also have been purchased fresh, for instance, all of the vegetables and you could have purchased a turkey, a beef or gammon, but it would have cost more and I wanted to show how you can still do Christmas Dinner without the fuss. The portions that I served up here were extremely generous and this could easily have fed five people.
Here’s hoping your Christmas Dinner is all that you want it to be.
Merry Christmas from TartanSpoon x