Homemade Edible Christmas Gifts — Grantourismo Travels

Our collection of recipes for homemade edible Christmas gifts include recipes for condiments, hot sauces, chilli oils, a whole array of pickles, spice blends, and spicy snacks, such as our Cambodian and Vietnamese roasted peanuts. While cheap to make, these are food gifts that are rich in meaning. We guarantee they’ll get used, rather than discarded or re-gifted.

I don’t know about you but I love giving homemade edible Christmas gifts as much as I love receiving them. Who wouldn’t appreciate jars filled with their favourite chilli oils, hot sauces, piquant pickles, and spicy peanuts that loved-ones have taken the time to make? They can get shared with family and friends the same day as you gift them or popped in the fridge to be savoured over multiple meals.

Not only are homemade edible Christmas gifts more delicious than store-bought, they’re super-affordable to make, and they’re imbued with meaning, especially if you gift a condiment or sauce to a friend or family member who loves that cuisine or has travelled to the place of their origin. They’ll be touched that you remembered.

Aside from the gesture and affordability of gifting homemade edible Christmas presents, you can also minimise waste. You can give your gifts in recycled jars or if you’re buying new vintage mason jars or clip-top Kilner jars, you know they’ll get repurposed.

There’s no need for wrapping, just attach some Christmas baubles or tinsel to the lid. I used squares of Cambodian kramas (cotton scarves), which can be repurposed as napkins or drink coasters, and tied a ribbon or two around the lids, and attached last year’s Christmas tree decorations to some.

Do bookmark this collection of homemade edible Christmas gifts, as we’ll be adding more recipes for jams, chutneys, cookies, and more edible presents to make between now and Christmas Eve.

Before you scroll down, we have more Christmas recipe collections you may like, including our best Christmas cocktail recipes, best dip recipes for crackers and crudités for festive parties, best Christmas starters (including devilled eggs), best Christmas salads, and best desserts for Christmas. We also have Christmas gifts for food lovers designed with Terence’s mouthwatering images in our Grantourismo shop.

Between now and Christmas, we’ll be adding more recipes and recipe compilations for Christmas day breakfast and brunch, Christmas finger food and nibbles, Christmas mains and sides, and ideas for Christmas leftovers, so do bookmark this page, drop by and visit again, or subscribe (bottom of the site).

Before I tell you about our homemade edible Christmas gifts I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve cooked our recipes and enjoyed them, please consider supporting Grantourismo by buying something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers or classic cookbooks for serious cooks, or browse our Grantourismo store for gifts for food lovers designed with Terence’s images.

Now let me tell you all about our homemade edible Christmas gifts.

Homemade Edible Christmas Gifts – Recipes for Hot Sauces, Pickles, Chilli Oils, Spicy Snacks and More

Our homemade edible Christmas gifts are easy to make, taste delicious and make a thoughtful gift for Christmas.

Festive Dukkah Recipe for Dipping and Gifting

If you’re bored with the bowls of mixed nuts that have traditionally been a feature of your Christmas-New Year snacking spreads, then try our festive dukkah recipe for a seasonal twist on the classic Egyptian spice and nut blend. I toast and pound premium nuts such as cashews, macadamias and walnuts to a round grind, then blend the nuts with Christmas spices, poppy seeds, and cranberries and currants.

This Christmas dukkah recipe is versatile and you can substitute nuts, spices and seeds to use whatever you have on hand. Use the festive dukkah as you would a classic dukkah, and serve as a snack with extra virgin olive oil and crusty sourdough bread, or sprinkle it over baked camembert, or even pudding and custard, or use as a crust or stuffing if you’re still cooking up a storm.

Quick and easy to come together, my festive dukkah recipe makes the easiest homemade edible gift if you’re looking for last-minute presents to give friends and family you’re visiting or who unexpectedly drop by over the Christmas-New Year period. I quickly prepared half a dozen small jars of dukkah in less than thirty minutes yesterday for neighbours who surprised us with a knock at the door.

Festive Dukkah Recipe for Dipping and Gifting Over Christmas-New Year

Quick Pickled Vegetables Recipe for Mexican Escabeche

This quick pickled vegetables recipe makes crunchy Mexican escabeche in the style of the tangy Mexican pickles served at restaurants and taquerias in Mexico. They’re not only delicious but versatile, so you can adjust the pickle brine to the taste of the person you’re gifting them, softening the tang or giving them more bite.

This is a fab gift for anyone who has spent time in Mexico, as they will definitely remember the tangy vegetable pickles that waiters set down on their table with a menu, so they could munch on them while deciding what to order.

This is one of the best homemade edible Christmas gifts you can give as they’ll definitely get used. They can be served with the same Mexican dishes that jalapeños can be served with, or simply with tortilla chips, salsa, guacamole, and cervezas. Plus, they’re so gorgeous they definitely won’t get lost in the fridge.

Quick Pickled Vegetables Recipe for Homemade Mexican Escabeche in the Style of Taqueria Pickles

Homemade Sriracha Sauce Recipe

This is the gift to give to hot sauce lovers, especially fans of Southeast Asian chilli sauces such as Sriracha sauce. The world-famous American ‘rooster’ branded sauce tastes like no chilli sauce that comes out of Southeast Asia.

While you may ask, “why should it, when it’s an American product?” Well, the hot sauce is named after the coastal city of Sri Racha, Thailand, which happens to have its own style of chilli sauce called Sriracha sauce, so there’s that.

Making your own Thai Sriracha is easy and it will result in a chilli sauce that doesn’t have that bitter heat and overpowering vinegar aftertaste. This Thai Sriracha sauce recipe makes one of our best homemade edible Christmas gifts for chilli sauce lovers.

This Sriracha Sauce Recipe Makes the Best Homemade Thai Sriracha Sauce You’ll Taste

Japanese Furikake Recipe with Southeast Asian Flavours

My homemade furikake recipe with Southeast Asian flavours makes the umami-rich Japanese rice seasoning with a tropical Southeast Asian twist.

Traditional furikake ingredients such as white and black sesame seeds and toasted nori are combined with dried Southeast Asian spices and herb powders. It’s completely addictive and has so many uses, and it’s one of the best homemade edible Christmas gifts as far as I’m concerned.

You can try my recipe, but you can also create your own based on the flavours you know your family and friends’ enjoy. Edible gifts don’t get more personal than that!

Homemade Furikake Recipe With Southeast Asian Flavours to Spice Up Your Rice

Russian Dill Pickles Recipe

My Russian dill pickles recipe makes old-fashioned gherkins or pickled cucumbers just like my Russian grandparents made. While they used the water bath canning method, this recipe is for easy refrigerator pickles but they’re still delicious.

A jar of dill pickles is one of the best homemade edible Christmas gifts you can give, as they go so well with everything. I include pickles in devilled eggs, potato salad, beef stew, barley and pickle soup, blini with smoked salmon, buckwheat kasha, and my mini mimosa salads.

We also serve gherkins with beer battered fish and chips, in homemade tartare sauce, on an array of burgers, and with Southern style fried chicken. This is one edible gift that won’t get lost in the back of the fridge.

Plus the pickles look so gorgeous, no fancy wrapping needed, just wrap a ribbon around the lid or attach some Christmas tree baubles to the mason jar clip.

Russian Dill Pickles Recipe for Homemade Gherkins Just Like My Russian Grandparents Made

Sichuan Red Chilli Oil Recipe

This Sichuan red chilli oil recipe makes another of the best homemade edible Christmas gifts you can give. This essential ingredient of Sichuanese cooking and a specialty from China’s Sichuan province, chilli oil is an amazing thing.

However, it’s hard to find the real thing in many countries, even in a market or supermarket here in Southeast Asia let alone an Asian supermarket in the USA, Australia orUK. Easier to find are some of the popular Thai brands of chilli oil, but most taste like rancid red flavoured cooking oil.

If you can find the right chillies and the usual Asian spices, you can make a far superior chilli oil at home for dousing on Sichuan style wontons, dan dan noodles and kung pao chicken, and you’ll be adored by the spice lovers whom you gift jars of this stuff to!

Sichuan Red Chilli Oil Recipe – How to Make Two Red Chilli Oils From One Recipe

Mexican Pickled Jalapenos Recipe

This homemade pickled jalapenos recipe makes another of the best homemade edible Christmas gifts you can give. Because like a jar of dill pickles, homemade jalapeños are not going to sit at the back of the fridge as they’re so good with so many dishes.

They’re fantastic served as a side or topped on Mexican dishes such as tacos and enchiladas and Tex-Mex favourites such as chilli con carne and nachos. We also sprinkle them on top of any number of Mexican breakfast dishes, serve them as sides to tostadas, and use them in burgers and sandwiches.

This is another quick and easy refrigerator pickles recipe, too, as they take ten minutes to make. A tip: if you’re gifting quick pickles such as these, write the date they’ll be ready to eat and how long they’ll last on the gift card or a personal label.

Homemade Mexican Pickled Jalapenos Recipe for Quick and Easy Refrigerator Pickles

Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce Recipe

This Thai sweet chilli sauce recipe makes another of the best homemade edible Christmas gifts you can give spice lovers in your family or circle of friends, because it has one thing that most store-bought sweet chilli sauces don’t have – a balance of flavours.

Most commercial sweet chilli sauces are sickly sweet and stingy on the actual chillies. The best part of making your own sweet chilli sauce is not just the lack of preservatives in it, it’s the fact you can tailor the sauce to suit your heat preferences – and you can cut down on the sugar and artificial thickeners.

This sweet chilli sauce needs to be kept in the fridge, so make sure to write a note on the gift card or a label on the jar.

Homemade Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce Recipe for the Best Sweet Chilli Sauce You’ll Taste

Tartare Sauce Recipe

For us, homemade beer battered fish and handcut chips without tartare sauce is like a hot dog without mustard and tomato sauce or ketchup to our American readers.

When we’re going to make the effort to make fish and hand cut crispy potato chips at home, tartare sauce in a jar does not cut the mustard, so to speak. Commercial tartare sauce is too sweet and has too many preservatives.

Our tartare sauce recipe has neither, making it another one of the best homemade edible Christmas gifts you can give to lovers of fish and chips and seafood dishes. I guarantee a jar of this will not go missing in the depths of the refrigerator.

A tip: it will need to go into the fridge immediately after gifting, so don’t put this in a Christmas stocking. Hand-deliver it with tips on the gift card.

Easy Homemade Tartare Sauce Recipe for the Condiment of Culinary Legend

Yucatan Pickled Onions Recipe

Our easy Mexican quick pickled onions recipe, made with purple shallots, makes zingy refrigerator pickles in the style of Mexico’s Yucatan pink onion pickles.

This makes yet another of the best homemade edible Christmas gifts you can give as these pickles are a perfect condiment, garnish or side for so many dishes, not only Mexican dishes.

Sure, they’re terrific with tacos, tostadas, tortas, and any number of Mexican breakfast recipes, but they’re also fantastic sprinkled on salads and with burgers, sandwiches, hot dogs, and so on. We also use them on dishes from Southeast Asia and the MiddleEast.

As the onions are small, you can make pickle them in small jars, and therefore make more of them. They’re a great gift on their own or included in a Christmas hamper.

Mexican Quick Pickled Onions Recipe for Tangy Pink Onions to Brighten Your Tacos

Chilli Salt Recipe for Spicing Up Cocktails and Fruit

This homemade Cambodian chilli salt recipe makes a popular condiment eaten with fruit in Cambodia, in particular sour fruits.

Consisting of chilli, salt and sugar, it can be sprinkled on fresh fruit to give it a kick or presented in a bowl as a dipping salt. It’s also fantastic on the rim of a cocktail glass! I

t’s one of the most popular condiments in Cambodia and while the Khmer name translates to ‘salt chilli’, this condiment actually consists of salt, sugar and chilli, in varying proportions depending on the market or street food vendor.

You will need a mortar and pestle to make this, and that also makes a great Christmas present.

Homemade Cambodian Chilli Salt Recipe for Spicing Up Everything from Fresh Fruit to Cocktails

Mexican Pickled Red Cabbage Recipe

Our Mexican quick pickled red cabbage recipe makes col roja en escabeche, col lombarda en escabeche or col morada en escabeche, all of which mean red cabbage or purple cabbage in escabeche.

‘Col’ is cabbage and ‘escabeche’ refers to the process of ‘cooking’ in an acidic marinade of vinegar and water to which salt, pepper, maybe sugar, and perhaps herbs and spices, such as bay leaves and oregano are added. These piquant purple pickles will pep up any meal.

They’re the perfect topping for tacos, a bright filling for burgers or a tangy accompaniment to toasted sandwiches, making another of the best homemade edible Christmas gifts you can give, as they will certainly get used.

Quick Pickled Red Cabbage Recipe for Piquant Purple Pickles to Pep Up Any Meal

Vietnamese Traditional Roasted Spicy Peanuts Recipe with Five Spice

This traditional roasted spicy peanuts recipe makes roasted peanuts perfumed with five spice. Vietnam’s addictive snack that typically accompanies a bia hoi drinking session in the capital and Terence has been obsessed with making them since we lived on Food Street in Hanoi some years ago.

We make these regularly and they turn out perfectly every time. They’re not only reliable and a cinch to make, but super-affordable, so you could gift a large jar to peanut-loving friends and family.

Traditional Roasted Spicy Peanuts Recipe – An Addictive Southeast Asian Snack

Tonkatsu Sauce Recipe

This tonkatsu sauce is tailor-made for the simple but revered deep-fried Japanese pork cutlet that simply melts-in-your-mouth when made correctly. The tangy taste of the tonkatsu sauce that accompanies it is not an option, it’s essential – and it should be house-made.

If you have friends who are lovers of Japanese food, especially tonkatsu then gift them a jar of this and it will be greatly appreciated. You could also print up our recipes for tonkatsu burgers and tonkatsu fried rice to pop in the envelope with the Christmas card.

Tonkatsu Recipe for the Most Tender Juicy Japanese Deep Fried Pork Cutlet Ever

Cambodian Roasted Peanuts with Chilli, Kaffir Lime Leaves and Lemongrass

This Cambodian spicy roasted peanuts recipe is a perfect snack for any holiday season, a great partner to an icy cold beer or a potent spiced Negroni.

When you go to a good bar in Cambodia, especially in Siem Reap, you’re usually served nibbles with your drinks and, if you’re lucky, it will be a bowl of these roasted peanuts with chillies, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, and garlic.

Aromatic, spicy, salty, and sweet. Cambodia in a nutshell, so to speak.