WATCHING your waistline this Christmas?

A Masterchef champion, who is coming to Bolton on Friday and Saturday, has devised recipes for a 1,000 calorie, two course dinner for Christmas Day.

Simon Wood, who was crowned winner of the BBC show earlier this year, created the menu for jockeys — perfect for elite athletes riding on Boxing Day, one of the busiest racedays of the year.

He said: "As an advocate of healthy eating, I wanted to really try and capture all the Christmas lunch flavours but keep the dinner healthy and well balanced for jockeys and anybody wanting a lighter option.”

The main meal, with festive favourites including turkey breast, Brussels sprout and cranberry sauce, comes in at 715 calories while the dessert is a trim 309 calories — a total of 1,024.

The average person is said to consume a gut-busting 7,000 calories throughout Christmas Day alone.

Speaking of the dessert, he said: "This recipe really does cover all the flavours of Christmas, the citrus, the spice, the vanilla, in a low fat tasty dessert. It even covers one of your five a day.”

This weekend Simon will be bringing a Nordic supper treat to Bolton, with a menu including roasted cod and dessert of apple cake with fudge caramel.

The pop-up restaurant nights will take place in the tipis in Victoria Square at 7pm on Friday and Saturday, as part of Bolton's Winter Festival.

Tickets cost £30, go to visitbolton.com/winterfestival/tipi.

Ingredients

175g new potatoes

40g Brussels sprouts

10g butter

20g parsley

100g shallots

200g turkey breast

10g croutons

1 sage leaf

6g mustard

1 tablespoon cranberry sauce

15g trimmed bacon

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C.

2. Take a shallot and cut it length ways into two. Add cut side down into a hot dry frying pan and fry until blackened. Once blackened remove and separate the layers of the shallot.

3. Dice the bread into 1cm cubes, you should have around five cubes. Cook in the oven with two sage leaves. Remove once golden and crisp.

4. Into a large saucepan add water, one clove of smashed garlic, your stalks from the sage and season with sea salt. Add potatoes and cook until soft (around 15 minutes).

5. Season your turkey with sea salt and white pepper before adding to the steamer. Steam for eight to 10 minutes or until the breast is cooked through and the juices run clear.

6. Next take your sprouts and shred finely, finely dice a shallot and trim all fat from your bacon. In a frying pan add butter followed by bacon and shallots. Fry on a medium heat until the bacon starts to

colour and the shallots are soft. Next, add in your sprouts and stir well. Add two tablespoons of water from your now boiling potatoes. Stir for two minutes, remove from heat and add in your chopped parsley.

7. Now remove your potatoes from the heat and strain through a colander discarding the stalks and garlic. In a mixing bowl add in your mustard and potatoes, using a spoon roughly halve the potatoes and mix ensuring they are coated evenly.

8. Using a chef ring or pastry cutter in the centre of your plate add your crushed potatoes, pressing down using the back of a spoon.

9. Next add a layer of your sprouts, again pressing down with the back of a spoon. Remove your ring to reveal your neatly presented vegetable stack.

10. Top your stack with your turkey, followed by your burnt shallot, crispy sage leaf and croutons.

11. Serve with gravy and cranberry sauce.

Ingredients

2 figs

1 clementine

½ teaspoon of cinnamon

10g almonds

100g fat free yoghurt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon of pomegranate seeds

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C.

2. Cut your clementine in half, slice one fig from top to bottom and then dust with cinnamon. Place cut side down on to baking tray and then take your second fig and slice a cross half way down through the fruit.

3. Add to the baking tray and then put into the oven. Cook until charred and sticky, usually around 10 minutes.

4. In a dry frying pan toast the almonds until golden, taking care not to burn them. Set them aside.

5. Add the yoghurt and vanilla into your bowl and mix well. In a large wide rimmed bowl add your yoghurt and neatly arrange your warm fruit leaving one half of the clementine aside.

6. Top with your toasted almonds and then squeeze the juice out of one half of your caramelised clementine, sprinkle pomegranate pearls around the plate dust with ground cinnamon to taste and then serve while the fruit is still warm.