Christmas portion planner
For many people, Christmas dinner is the biggest food event of the year, but what you don’t want is mountains of food waste, so it’s good to work out the amount of turkey, roast potatoes and vegetables you think you’ll eat.
Not sure how much food to buy? We've given rough quantities for you below. All the weights are given prior to preparation and cooking – simply multiply by the number of guests you've got coming.
If you've got big eaters, want leftovers or have a smallish number of people (4-6), then go for the higher of the two amounts for meat and roast potatoes. We suggest 240g (3 x 80g) total vegetables per person, 80g is how much you need to eat to make it count as one of your five-a-day, if you’d rather count the number of veg per head, then our handy guide will help. If you’re serving more than three vegetables, you can reduce the weight of individual ones.
Print out this page, fill in your quantities and take it shopping. All quantities are based on adult-sized portions.
How much turkey per person?
An average portion of cooked turkey meat per person should be 140-175g, but as you tend to buy turkey as a whole bird it’s easiest to use the turkey guide below. The meat-to-bone ratio will vary depend on the breed of turkey so bear this in mind as well, and if budget is tight, big up the sausages, stuffing balls and veg, and go easy on the turkey.
- A turkey crown (2-2.5kg) will feed 6 people.
- A small turkey (3-4.5kg) will feed 6-8 people.
- A medium turkey (4-5kg) will feed 8-10 people.
- A medium-large turkey (5-5.5kg) will feed 10-12 people
- A large turkey (6-6.5kg) will feed 12-15 people.
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