Niki Bezzant: The grinch has Christmas dinner

Christmas Day is all about indulgence but it's possible to have your cake, and not feel like you've eaten it and the pavlova and the pudding too. Photo / Getty Images

"I'm not trying to encourage you to be the Christmas grinch," said my editor. "But how about something about how to make Christmas dinner healthier?"

In my experience, Christmas Day and being healthy are not things that go together in most people's minds. It's the one day of the year when really, all diets, eating regimens and plans to 'be good' are off. It's a day of indulgence and you can keep your green smoothie, thank you very much.

However, I think we overlook the fact that it is possible to be both healthy and indulgent at Christmas. To have your cake, and not feel like you've eaten it and the pavlova and the pudding too.

The thing is, a lot of Christmas food is inherently healthy. Think about fresh new potatoes; beautiful green peas and asparagus; ripe tomatoes and salad veges. Beautiful summer strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and cherries are festive and also happen to be healthy.

The traditional lamb and turkey are lean and healthy meats, and festive salmon is a health star. It's what we add to these foods that tends to make for a less-than-healthy Christmas feast, along with the piled-high portions we're tempted to serve ourselves.

But there are tweaks you can make to your festive food that not only make the meal healthier, but also make it delicious. So here, then, are my grinch-free tips for healthy and indulgent Christmas feasting.

Keep it simple. Yes, it's a feast. But we don't actually need multiple meats on the table, along with 10 different sides. To me it's more elegant (and a whole lot easier) to have one main protein as the star of the table - whether it's a beautiful ham or a turkey or a leg of lamb - and tailor a few delicious side dishes to compliment that.

You could have lamb with lovely minted peas and asparagus; new potatoes; a tomato and mozzarella salad and some fresh mint sauce. Turkey with gravy and a salad of mixed roast veges and a big cranberry, walnut and spinach salad. With ham go for a mustardy dressing on a new potato salad; lemony-dressed rocket leaves and mixed green veges.

Making these dishes abundant is the key to feeding a crowd, and large, full dishes look beautiful, too.

Lighten up the dressings and gravy. This is not only a health tip; it makes things taste fresher and more summery, too.

I'm mixing my mayonnaise with plain yoghurt a lot these days; it makes for a lighter, tangier dressing on salads, slaws and potatoes and I think it's delicious. For gravy, invest in a gravy separator jug, which lets you get most of the liquid fat out of your meat juices. Find them at kitchen shops; they're fantastic for making gravy that tastes like meat, not grease.

Yes, it's a feast. But we don't actually need multiple meats on the table, along with 10 different sides.

Trim the nibbles. We probably don't really need six different kinds of nibbles at 11 in the morning, before we sit down for a feast. Eaten mindlessly, they can easily supply a meal's worth of calories before the main event. But nibbles are delicious. So pick a couple of colourful, seasonal dishes and make abundant platters of these.

My favourite is a big piece of smoked salmon with trimmings: crostini or crackers; yoghurt and cream cheese (mix these again) and pieces of preserved lemon or dill. You could also do a colourful platter of seasonal vege crudites including asparagus and cherry tomatoes, with a creamy white bean and garlic dip drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil. You'd actually be sneaking in some bonus healthy veges and legumes with that one.

Tweak the sweets. I'm not going to tell you not to have pavlova at Christmas! There is no healthier way to do what is essentially sugar, egg white and air. But you can cut the cream a little; again mixing it with yoghurt actually makes for, I think, a more delicious topping that has a slight tang and works beautifully with fresh seasonal fruit.

Keep an eye on portions. If you want to go all out on Christmas Day, who am I to stop you? But if you want to feel less like sleeping for a couple of hours after Christmas dinner, a good thing to remember is that you don't have to eat everything.

Just as with all buffets, there's no rule that says you have to have a bit of everything that's available so you end up with a plate-sized mountain. Just choose what you really like the look of. If that's a bit of everything, keep in mind the ideal plate model: half colourful veges, a quarter carbs and a quarter protein.

And remember it's not a death-row meal; you will see food again! Probably in the form of Christmas leftovers, which are often more delicious than the meal itself.