19Apr / 2016

Broccoli, Almond and Tahini Soup

This soup was a happy accident. I forgot I already bought broccoli and also had some leftover. It’s a great way to use up leftovers and surprisingly filling. I also realised recently that almonds have quite a bit of protein in them so that’s probably the reason. It was delicious! If you have the vegetable stock already made and in the freezer it’s also very quick to make.

Serves 2

2 heads of broccoli

100g whole almonds

10g butter (optional)

1 1/2 tsp tahini

400ml hot vegetable stock

Salt to taste

Cut off the florets from the head of broccoli so you’re just left with the stalks. Set aside.
Trim off any gnarly bits from the stalks and chip into large chunks (5cm long)
Boil and then simmer the stalks and almonds in water with a pinch of salt for 15 minutes.
Add the florets and simmer for a further 5 minutes.
Drain and reserve some of the cooking water. Put the vegetables and nuts back in the pan.
Add the stock and butter and blitz with a hand blender until it is as smooth as you can get it. The almonds will remain a little chunky.
Season to taste. If it’s looking a little thicker than you would like, add in the reserved cooking water.
Swirl in the tahini and serve.

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19Apr / 2016

Stuffed Peppers with Non Cheese Cheesy Topping

This week I’m trying to eat more vegetarian food for my health, my wallet and for ethical reasons. However, whenever I eat veggie I try and make sure that I get protein from another source.

Serves 2

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion

1 clove garlic

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp dried oregano

50g brown rice

1 can quality chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp tomato puree

700ml boiled water

50g red lentils

3 large or 4 medium red peppers

1 courgette

Salt and pepper

Topping

1/2 tbsp olive oil

1 leek

90g celeriac

4 sun dried tomatoes

4 sprigs of thyme

5 tbsp creme fraiche

To serve

1 aubergine

Salt and Pepper

100g spinach

Pinch of grated nutmeg

Splash of boiled water

Preheat the oven to 200C.
Heat 1/2 tbsp olive oil in a medium saucepan on the hob.
Peel and finely chop the onion. Saute in the saucepan on a medium heat for 5 minutes.
Fill and boil the kettle
Crush in the garlic and stir fry for a further minute
Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, herbs, salt and pepper, 700ml of boiled water and rice. Bring to the boil and simmer for 40 minutes until the rice is cooked. Add the lentils 20 minutes before the end. You can cook let this cool if it’s ready too soon as it will be baked in the oven at the end.
Meanwhile, heat the rest of the oil (1/2 tbsp) in a medium saucepan on a medium heat.
Slice the courgette into 5mm slices and each slice into quarters. Saute for 10 minutes then set aside.
While the courgette is cooking start to prepare the peppers. Cut each pepper into half and remove the stalk and the seeds.
Line a baking tray with foil and place the peppers face down onto it. Roast in the oven for 10 minutes and then leave on the side to cool.
Cut the aubergines in half lengthways and each half into 3 wedges. Rub with oil, sprinkle over salt and pepper and bake in the lower part of the oven for 8 minutes with the skin side down and then 4 minutes on each side.
Heat the oil for the topping in a large saucepan on a medium high hob.
Roughly chop the leek into small pieces as well as the sun dried tomato. Cut off the tough outer edge of the celeriac and grate. Pick the leaves from the thyme.
Stir fry the leek, sun dried tomato, celeriac and thyme in the oil for 4 minutes.
Add the creme fraiche and stir fry for another 2 minutes.
Blitz the topping in a food processor until it’s as smooth as is possible.
Stir the courgettes into the rice, tomato and lentil mixture. Fill the pepper halves with the mixture right to the top.
Spoon on the topping and roast for 10 minutes. Warm the aubergine by putting it into the bottom part of the oven.
Boil the kettle and 2 minutes before the end, put the spinach with the pinch of nutmeg in a saucepan with a splash of water and stir until wilted.
Arrange on a plate and serve.

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17Apr / 2016

Falafel Salad with Tahini Dressing

Apologies for not including the carrot in the picture, it was hiding in my grater and I completely forgot about it!

Makes 5 lunches

Falafel

200g dried chickpeas (makes about 400g when rehydrated)

1 onion

1 clove of garlic

1 handful of fresh flat leaf parsley (leaves of)

1 handful of fresh coriander (leaves of)

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp coriander

A pinch of cayenne pepper

A pinch of all spice

10 cardamom pods

1 egg

1 1/2 tbsp olive oil

Salad

1 large carrot

2 red peppers

1/2 cucumber

5 medium sized tomatoes

1/2 red cabbage

70g rocket

15-20 kalamata olives

Dressing

1 lemon

2 1/2 tbsp live full fat yohurt

2 tbsp tahini

To serve

1 tbsp sesame seeds

Soak the chickpeas overnight.
In the morning, wash through twice, put on the boil and simmer for 45 minutes until soft
Put a small frying pan on a medium heat and add 1/2 a tbsp of the oil
Dice the onion and saute on a medium heat for 5 minutes
Crush the garlic clove into the same pan and saute for a further minute
Use a pestle and mortar to grind the cardamom pods and remove the outer shells.
Drain the chickpeas and add with the cooked onion, garlic, cardamom and all the other ingredients for the falafel apart from the oil into a food processor. Blitz until everything is mixed but still slightly chunky.
Shape into small balls (about 4cm in diameter) and flatten slightly to make a patty.
Put a clean frying pan on a medium heat, add a little more oil and fry the falafel. The ones in the centre need only 3 minutes per side but as you move the ones that are done to the edge, the others will need a little longer. Add a little oil at a time so it isn’t soaked up all at once.
Once done leave the falafel to cool.
Slice the red cabbage into wedges and remove the stalk. Using a mandolin on the thinnest setting, shred the cabbage.
Cut the cucumber into 3 and slice each piece lengthways using the mandolin on the thickest setting. Cut each tomato into quarters and remove the stalk. Slide each quarter into 3 slivers.
Peel, top, tail and grate the carrot.
Remove the stalk and seeds from the peppers and dice small (about 5mm)
Squeeze the juice from the lemon into a bowl, add the yoghurt and tahini and stir vigorously.
Arrange the salad (not forgetting the rocket and olives) with the falafel on top, drizzle over the dressing and sprinkle over the sesame seeds.

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10Apr / 2016

Wholemeal Spelt Tagliatelle with Roasted Aubergine and Tomato

Sorry to labour the point about good quality tomatoes but it makes all the difference! I used wholemeal spelt tagliatelle in this recipe but if you can’t find it, use wholemeal tagliatelle instead, I know they definitely sell it in Sainsbury’s. I managed to find wholemeal spelt pasta in Rome and also in Home Sense! Both times it gave the ingredients in Italian: farina di farro. This is a quick, simple recipe and really good after doing exercise. I garnished with fresh marjoram as I have it growing in my garden and it tastes a little like oregano but this is optional!

Serves 1

1 aubergine

1 tbsp olive oil

2 medium good quality fresh tomatoes

1/2 can good quality chopped tomatoes

2 balls of wholemeal tagliatelle/100g other wholemeal pasta

1 tsp dried oregano

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 200C
Chop the aubergine into 1cm thick rounds and then cut right across each round 3 times to make into bite sized segments.
Put the aubergine into the medium sized roasting tin and drizzle with the oil and season. Toss through the with your hands to ensure everything is evenly coated.
Put into the oven and set the time for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile chop each tomato into quarters, remove the green part of the core and chop each quarter into 2. Season with salt and pepper.
Boil the kettle for the pasta and preheat a hob at a medium heat (4).
2 minutes before the aubergine timer has finished, add the boiled water and pasta to a medium saucepan on the hob. Bring to the boil and simmer for 12 minutes or until the pasta is al dente.
Once the 10 minutes is up, bring the aubergines out of the oven and use a fish slice to scrape them up and turn them over. Add the fresh tomatoes and return to the oven for 8 minutes.
Once the 8 minutes are up, take the roasting tin out of the oven, pour in the canned tomatoes, mix and return to the oven for 2 minutes.
One the pasta is cooked, drain. Take the tin out of the oven, add the pasta and oregano to the sauce and mix so that the pasta absorbs all of the lovely flavours.
Plate up and enjoy!

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10Apr / 2016

Mango Chicken Salad with Lime and Coriander Mayonnaise

I will stretch this out to a week’s worth of lunches but you might want to add more chicken and spices if you think you will need more sustenance. When you make mayonnaise from scratch you realise just how much oil is in there! However, you can also make sure that you only put in the oil that you like and have much more control over the flavour. The mint and mango combination reminds me of mojitos – delicious!

Makes 4 – 5 lunches

For the chicken

3 chicken breasts

1 tsp dried thyme

2 small or 1 large clove of garlic

1 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 pinch of cayenne pepper

salt and pepper

For the lime mayonnaise

1 medium sized egg

1/4 tsp salt

10 tbsp olive oil (or other light oil of your choice)

1/2 lime

1 large handful of coriander leaves

For the salad

1 large red pepper

1 courgette

250g mango chunks

small handful of mint

1/2 lime

100g baby leaf spinach

Preheat the oven to 200C
Put slashes 4 into the chicken each side going against the grain so that it will cook quicker and you can get more flavour into it.
Add the thyme, spices and seasoning and rub into the meat.
Crush over the garlic and push it into the slashes in the meat.
Place the chicken breasts in a small roasting tray and put in the oven for 12 minutes each side.
While the chicken is cooking, prepare the mayonnaise.
Crack the egg into a food processor and add the salt. Blend the mixture and add the oil, one tablespoon at a time until the mixture is thickened but not too firm. We want it to be a dressing and not a dipping sauce.
Add the juice from the lime half and coriander and blitz again until all of the ingredients are mixed and the coriander is chopped finely.
Now for the salad. Chop the pepper into 5 mm strips discarding the centre with the seeds. Chop each strip in half so they are easier to eat without chopping.
Chop the courgette lengthways and using a mandolin, thinly slice so that you have half moons.
Finely chop the mint and chop the mango into bite sized chunks if it isn’t small enough already. Add all of the salad ingredients into a bowl. Squeeze in the other half of the lime and toss to dress.
When the time is up, check the chicken is completely cooked through otherwise return it to the oven and keep checking every 2 minutes. It should be white all the way through with no pink.
Leave the chicken to rest for 5 minutes before serving.
If you want to serve the chicken warm then chop it into bitesized pieces, otherwise leave it to cool and rip along the grain and the slashes.
Serve the chicken on top of the salad and drizzle over the mayonnaise dressing.

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10Apr / 2016

Pork Loin with Sweet Potato Colcannon

This is pork loin cooked with mustard and rosemary on a bed of sweet potato and celeriac colannon served with broccoli. You can cook this under 30 minutes but it’s a bit hectic so you might want to prepare all the vegetables in advance and take a bit more time. It depends on how confident you are in the kitchen.

Serves 2

350g celeriac cut into 1 cm slices

250g sweet potato

4 spring onions

20g butter

2 pork loins

2 sprigs of rosemary

2 tsp of mustard powder

1/4 of a savoy cabbage with outer leaves removed (about 250g)

10 florets of broccoli

salt and pepper

Boil the kettle and warm up the hob on a medium-high heat (4)
Peel and chop the celeriac and sweet potato into 1cm chunks
Put the celeriac into a medium saucepan, cover with boiling water and put on the warm hob. Add a pinch of salt. Bring up to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes
Peel and chop the spring onions into 3-4mm rounds
Melt 10g of the butter in a medium frying pan over a medium heat (3)
After 5 minutes of the celeriac simmering, add the sweet potato to the same pan.
Add the spring onion to the frying pan and stir fry until soft, then remove the onion from the pan into a separate bowl.
Remove the leaves from the rosemary and chop finely.
Put the frying pan back on the heat, it should have some butter still in it. Turn it up a little (4) and add the pork loins. Sprinkle over a quarter of the rosemary and half a teaspoon of mustard powder on each loin, season and then turn immediately. Add the remaining mustard powder and rosemary and fry for 4 minutes. Turn and fry for another 4 minutes.
Meanwhile, boil the kettle again, remove the stem from the cabbage and shred. Boil in a small saucepan for 5 minutes.
Drain and set aside with the spring onion.
Boil the kettle again
When the celeriac and sweet potato is done, drain and put back into the medium saucepan. Add the other 10g of butter and using a hand blender, blitz the celeriac and sweet potato mixture until smooth.
Add the broccoli to the small saucepan, put back on the heat, cover with boiling water and a pinch of salt and simmer for 3 minutes.
Add the spring onion and cabbage to the sweet potato mixture and stir through.
Serve and enjoy. Delicious and simple!

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09Apr / 2016

Creamy BBQ Beans

Serves 2 as a side

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 onion

1 clove garlic

1 can haricot/cannelloni beans drained

1/2 can good quality chopped tomatoes

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp mustard powder

pinch of salt and pepper

1 tbsp creme fraiche

1 tbsp of coriander leaves

Heat the oil in a large saucepan on a medium hob (3)
Finely dice the onion
When the oil is hot, saute the onion for 5-10 minutes until it is soft
Add the garlic and stir fry for 1 minute
Add all of the other ingredients, stir and leave it simmer for 20 minutes to bed in the flavours. Stir every now and then.
Halfway through, if it is getting a little dry, add a splash of recently boiled water
At the end stir in the creme fraiche and top with the coriander leaves. If you don’t like a big hit of coriander you can always chop these finely and add.
Serve with sourdough toast, steam green vegetables or omelette.

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09Apr / 2016

Chinese Duck and Orange Salad

I don’t personally like raw spring onions so I took them out in the end.

Makes 5 lunches

2 duck breasts

5cm ginger peeled and grated

2 cloves of garlic

1 1/2 tsp chinese 5 spice

4 spring onions (optional)

10 cm cucumber

100g radishes

1 medium carrot

100g baby leaf salad leaves

100g peanuts

4 oranges

Dressing

2 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 lime

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Heat a medium saucepan on a medium low hob (3). You do not need to add any oil to the pan.
Using a sharp knife, slash the skin of the duck breasts, diagonally 4-5 times. Add the chinese 5 spice and rub in both sides of the breasts
Add the ginger to the duck, it may end up looking a bit “hairy” because of the fibres in the ginger mixed with the spice but you can always remove these bits at the end.
Add the breasts to the pan skin side down and crush the garlic onto the side facing upwards. After 18 minutes, turn and cook for 6 minutes or less if you like it rare. I like mine medium, slightly pink in the middle.
While the duck is cooking, finely slice or mandolin the radishes and spring onion if using. Cut the cucumber in half lengthways and mandolin or finely slice to make half moon shapes.
Peel and grate the carrot.
Blitz the peanuts in the food processor so they are roughly chopped. Keep an eye on them as you don’t want them to be a too small.
Once the duck is cooked, remove it from the pan and put onto a chopping board. Leave it to rest.
Segment the oranges.
Squeeze the juice from the lime into a small bowl and add the sesame seed oil and extra virgin oil to make a dressing. Dress the leaves.
Add the cucumber, radishes and carrot.
Finely slice the duck.
Top the salad with the duck, orange and then peanuts and spring onion if using.

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09Apr / 2016

Chicken Liver Pate

200g of chicken livers are about £1.50 from my local butchers making it a very cheap but tasty source of protein.

50g butter

1 small onion

leaves from 1 sprig of fresh thyme

200g chicken livers

2 tbsp full fat live yoghurt

1 tbsp tomato puree

Pinch of salt and pepper

Pinch of ground allspice

1/2 tsp ground ginger

Finely chop the onion and pick off the leaves from the thyme
Take 10g of the butter and melt in a medium sized saucepan on medium low heat (3)
Once melted turn the heat down a little and let the onion and thyme cook in the melted butter for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, wash the chicken livers and trim away any sinew. Pat dry with kitchen roll. Chop into 15mm pieces.
Remove the onion mixture from the pan into the food processor bowl and set aside
Add another 10g of the butter to the pan and cook the chicken livers on high for 2 minutes until caramelised on the outside.
Place all the ingredients into the food processor. Blend until as smooth as you can get it.
Pass the mixture through a sieve so you are just left with the smooth mixture and leave to cool.
Seal with melted butter if you wish but I don’t believe it’s necessary.
Serve with sourdough toast or oatcakes.
The pate will freeze but remember not to heat when defrosting or else the yoghurt may curdle and split.

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03Apr / 2016

Healthy Tacos

Tacos are made in a factory so strictly speaking, they’re processed but when I looked at the ingredients list it said cornflour and oil so it didn’t look as if they were full of chemicals and life’s too short to make your own tacos! Plus only 2 ingredients makes it under the 5 ingredients rule of clean eating.

My boyfriend swears that if you use guacamole and creme fraiche as cement when building the taco then it doesn’t go everywhere when you eat it. I tried it and it still didn’t work!

Serves 2-3

1 brown onion

1 clove of garlic

1 finger/birds eye chilli (add more if you like it hot)

500g minced beef (I used 10% fat)

1 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp coriander

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Salt and pepper

1 tbsp oil

Salsa

1/2 green pepper

1/2 yellow pepper

1 spring onion

3 medium tomatoes

Half a lime

1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Handful of fresh coriander

To serve:

Creme fraiche or sour cream

1 5cm slice of Iceberg lettuce shredded

Grated cheese for those not dieting!

8 taco shells

Guacamole

Peel and chop off the root end of the spring onion. Finely slice and place in a bowl of cold water for at least 10 minutes to get rid of the tart flavour of raw onion.
Heat the oil for the beef in a large saucepan over a medium hob (3).
Finely chop the brown onion and when the oil is hot enough, add and saute for 10 minutes.
Finely slice the chilli and add with the crushed garlic and saute for a further minute. You can also add the stalks from the fresh coriander, finely chopped at this point.
Add the spices, seasoning and the meat and brown the meat turning up the heat slightly (4).
Once brown turn down (2) and leave to absorb the flavours for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, to make the salsa, drain the spring onion and gently pat dry with some kitchen roll. It doesn’t have to be bone dry.
Chop the coriander leaves finely, chop the peppers into 5mm squares and the tomatoes as finely as you can.
Add all the ingredients into a bowl, squeeze in the lime and drizzle over the extra virgin olive oil. I don’t like to season it as the salt draws all of the water out of the tomatoes.
Make the guacamole, shred the lettuce and serve everything in bowls so people can help themselves.
Separate the tacos on a plate and microwave for 1 minute.
Let everyone tuck in and enjoy!

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Broccoli, Almond and Tahini Soup