Easy Cheesy Pasta Bake

I was in the mood for comfort food yesterday, and this absolutely hit the spot.  It's a sort of mac 'n' cheese, with a few twists to make it lower syn / food optimising.  I've tried versions before with quark / fromage frais / cottage cheese to make it free, but I like this version better - worth spending a couple of syns for I reckon.  The cheese included comes to 4 x HEA allowances, so I only spent syns on the crème fraiche. 
Serves 4


Ingredients


350g pasta (I used a mix of conchiglie and fusilli)
Frylight
1 gammon steak, cut into cubes
2 leeks, sliced
1 courgette, cut into quarters lengthways then sliced
200g low fat crème fraiche (check syns, as brands vary - mine came to 8 syns = 2 per portion)
1 tsp mustard powder
A pinch of nutmeg
120g reduced fat cheddar, grated
30g parmesan, grated
4 tomatoes, sliced


Method


1.  Cook the pasta for a couple of minutes less than the packet instructions say.  If it's overcooked you'll end up with a hot soggy mush at the end.  Reserve some of the cooking water for loosening the sauce later.


2.  Spray a pan with frylight and pan fry the gammon cubes for 4-5 minutes.  Add in the leeks and courgettes and fry for a couple more minutes.


3.  Stir the mustard powder and nutmeg into the crème fraiche.


4.  Tip the cooked pasta into an ovenproof dish.  Add the gammon mix, the crème fraiche, and three quarters of the cheddar and parmesan.  Mix together well, adding some of the reserved pasta cooking water to loosen up the sauce.  Top with the sliced tomatoes and the rest of the cheeses. 


5.  Bake at 200-220C for 15-20 minutes, until golden and bubbling on top.  Serve with a green salad.

Marrowfat Pea and Ham Soup

I haven't posted anything for a while, but I made this for taster night at group this week, so thought I'd share the recipe. It's very filling, and just the thing to warm you up as the nights start drawing in.

It's based on a recipe I found for Lancashire Pea and Ham Soup, but I've simplified and slimmified it.  The original recipe calls for a ham shank, but I used a cooked ham joint instead.  It also has chopped carrots in it, but my other half isn't keen so I left them out. Add them back in if you like.

Ingredients

500g dried marrowfat peas

500g cooked ham joint, cubed

2 onions, finely chopped

3-4 celery sticks, finely sliced

A few sprigs of thyme

2-3 chicken stock cubes

Water 

A handful of chopped fresh parsley

Method

1. Prepare your dried marrowfat peas. Either: 

- soak them in tepid water overnight (about 8 hours) 

or

- boil them up in a pan of water for 3 minutes, and then cover and simmer for a further 45 to 60 minutes until the peas are tender.

2.  Drain your prepared peas, and put in a large heavy saucepan / stockpot with the ham, onion, celery, thyme, 2 chicken stock cubes and 4 pints of water.  Bring to the boil then turn down the heat, cover and simmer for 2 hours.

3. At this point the original recipe says to liquidise half the soup, but I skipped this step.

4. For best results, make a day in advance and refrigerate overnight.  Reheat for 15-20 minutes the next day, adding water to loosen it if necessary.

5. Before serving, stir the parsley through and check the seasoning. You might want to add another stock cube if you think it needs it, plus the usual salt and pepper of course.

Courgetti Spaghetti!

I found a bargain spiralizer thingy in Lidl yesterday - at £2.99 for a set of three, I couldn't leave it on the shelf, worth a go even its rubbish (I think that's probably Lidl/Aldi's entire business strategy right there, and I'm a sucker for it).

Verdict: not bad for the price. I've never used a proper spiralizer, so I have nothing to compare these to, but they seem to work alright with a bit of trial and error.  The courgetti was lush so I can see me investing in a proper all-singing all-dancing gadget before long.

We're in the middle of a courgette glut at the moment, so I picked one of our home grown monsters to test out the new kit. 

Once I got the hang of it, it was pretty easy. Half my courgette was too fat to fit in the attachments, but I reckon it would work fine with regular sized shop bought produce.  I had bits left over but I used them in the pasta sauce.

We grow courgettes every year, so I have a few courgette recipes in my repertoire (courgette cake anyone?)... One of our favourites is from the River Cottage Cookbook. It uses single cream, but I adapted it yesterday to make it SW, not free but low-syn, and the result was seriously scrummy.

Courgetti Spaghetti (Serves 2-3)

1 monster home grown almost-a-marrow, or 3-4 normal sized courgettes

200g spaghetti

Frylight 

4 smoked bacon medallions

1-2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 level tbsp low fat crème fraîche (syn for the brand you are using - they vary)

Fat free Fromage Frais

Salt and pepper

Grated fresh Parmesan / Grana Padano (syn, or use 30g for your HEA)

1. Spiralize about half your courgette(s). Dice the rest.

2. Cook the spaghetti according to the packet instructions.

3.  Spray a large frying pan with Frylight. Chop the bacon and fry on a medium heat for a couple of minutes. Add the diced courgette and garlic, and cook until the courgette reduces down. Add your crème fraîche, and enough Fromage Frais to make it into a nice creamy sauce.  I also added a splash of the pasta cooking water to loosen the sauce up a bit.

4. When the pasta is cooked, add the courgetti and swirl it around in the water to mix it in with the spaghetti. Drain, and chuck the whole lot in the frying pan with the sauce.  Mix well, and season with salt and pepper to taste.  You can either add your Parmesan now, or after portioning out if you're counting your syns / HEA allowance (the cheesier the better, IMHO, but perhaps not if you're on plan!)

Euro 2016 Food Challenge: Slovakia: Oravska Pochutka

I used a recipe from the Hairy Bikers Big Book of Baking as the basis for this. Sausage, potato and sauerkraut casserole, from the Orava region of Northern Slovakia.  Very simple to make and very filling too.  This would be a great winter warmer (or summer warmer with this weather).  

Ingredients

1.5kg potatoes, peeled and cubed

3 large onions, sliced

1 tbsp sweetener

6 juniper berries

1 tsp ground cumin

900g-1kg jar of sauerkraut 

500g pork mince

1 egg

1 tsp mace

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp smoked paprika 

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Half a pint of chicken stock

Preheat the oven to 180C / 160C fan.

Boil the cubed potatoes until tender. Drain and set aside when ready. 

Fry the onions in Frylight until softened. Stir in the sweetener, juniper berries, cumin and sauerkraut and simmer until tender.

Make the "sausage meat" by mixing the pork mince, egg, mace, coriander, smoked paprika, salt and pepper.  I mixed it with my hands then whizzed it in the food processor to bring it all together.

Layer the potatoes in the bottom of a large casserole dish. Pour in the chicken stock.  Break the sausage meat into small pieces to make a layer on top of the potatoes.  Pile the sauerkraut on top to make the final layer.  Season the top, and bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes.

Euro 2016 Food Challenge: Turkey: Tabbouleh

I love tabbouleh. It's really simple and quick to make, and it tastes so lovely and fresh. I first ate it when I went to Syria in 2004 with my friend Hala, so it also brings back memories for me of all amazing food I had over there, not to mention all the wonderful people I met! I've loved Middle Eastern food ever since, and this is no exception.

There are literally hundreds of variations of this recipe, but this is my SW friendly version.

Ingredients 

100g bulgar wheat

3-4 fresh tomatoes

3-4 Spring onions

A quarter of a cucumber

A large bunch of parsley

A small bunch of mint

Juice of half a lemon

Put the bulgar wheat in a bowl and pour over enough boiling water to just cover it. Chop the tomatoes finely, and put these on top of the bulgar wheat so the juices soak in. Set aside for 30 minutes.

Finely slice the Spring onions. Finely chop the cucumber and herbs. 

When the bulgar wheat is ready, fluff the grains up with a fork, and stir through the chopped ingredients and the lemon juice. Season with salt to taste.

Serve on a bed of lettuce leaves.  We had ours with roast chicken, and it was lovely.

 

Euro 2016 Food Challenge: Spain: Lamb Albondigas and Patatas Bravas

I used a recipe on the BBC website as the basis for this, but I've made it syn-free and I've baked everything to make it a bit more low maintenance (running around after a three-year-old = much easier to prepare stuff and bung in the oven than watch the hob!)

Ingredients

Meatballs:
500g lean lamb mince
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp hot paprika
2 tbsp. chopped fresh herbs (the original recipe says parsley, I used oregano and mint)
1 egg
salt and pepper
Frylight

Sauce:
1 onion
1 carrot
1 stick of celery
3 garlic cloves
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp. tomato puree
0.5 tsp crushed chillies.
1 tsp sweetener

Patatas:
3/4 large potatoes
Frylight
Season-all seasoning

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Make the sauce.  Finely chop the onion, carrot, celery and garlic.  Spray a frying pan with Frylight and sauté the veg until softened.  Add the tomatoes, tomato puree crushed chillies and sweetener.  Leave the sauce to simmer while you make the meatballs.

In a large bowl, combine the meatball ingredients together with your hands.  Divide into 16 meatballs and place in a casserole dish. 

Pour the tomato sauce over the meatballs and cover the dish with foil.  Place in the oven to bake for about 1 hour.

Chop your potatoes into cubes and par-boil for 3 minutes.  Drain.  Spray a roasting tin with Frylight and tip the potatoes in.  Spray with a bit more frylight and sprinkle with season-all seasoning.  Put in the oven for the last 40 minutes of cooking, turning them once or twice.  Take the foil off the meatballs for the last 15 minutes of cooking.

Euro 2016 Food Challenge: Romania: Sour Chicken Soup

This is very definitely sour, but I quite like it!  You can put noodles in it too, but it's weigh day today so I'm being extra good.

Ingredients

2 chicken thighs, bone in but skin removed

2 small onions, diced

2 celery sticks, sliced

3 medium carrots, diced

3 garlic cloves, crushed

2 pints chicken stock

A handful of fresh parsley, chopped

4 tbsp reduced fat soured cream

Juice of 1 lemon

Fry the onion, carrot and celery until the onion is translucent. Add the chicken thighs and brown them on each side.  

Stir in the garlic, parsley and stock. Simmer on the hob until the chicken is cooked through.

Remove the chicken thighs, strip the meat off the bones and shred the flesh.  Add the shredded chicken back into the soup.  Stir in the lemon juice and soured cream. Season and serve.

Euro 2016 Food Challenge: Czech Republic: Chicken Paprika

The Hairy Bikers' version of this dish is actually one of my favourite recipes, super simple and very easily adapted to Slimming World.  This is my interpretation of it, but it is very close to the original.

If not on plan, you can add the soured cream to the finished dish before serving, but I prefer to add it per portion so I can count the syns properly...

Ingredients

4-6 chicken thighs, bone in but skin removed
1 onion, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tbsp paprika (I use smoked paprika - 1 tbsp of hot / 1 tbsp of sweet)
Half a pint of chicken stock
A handful of chopped flat leaf parsley
2 red peppers, deseeded and cut into strips
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
250ml soured cream / 1-2 tbsp. per portion (if counting syns)

Fry the onion until translucent. Add the chicken thighs and brown them on each side.  Stir in the garlic, paprika, peppers, stock, parsley and chopped tomatoes.  Simmer on the hob for about an hour.

Stir in the soured cream before serving (portion by portion if you're counting!)

We usually have this with rice, but this time we tried it with Orzo pasta stirred through it. Very nice indeed.

Euro 2016 Food Challenge: Wales: Welsh Rarebit

How have I managed to live in Wales for all of my adult life without ever eating Welsh Rarebit?? Oh well, there's a first time for everything. 

There's a recipe on the Slimming World website, but I improvised mine a bit. I used quark to make it extra cheesy - it adds a bit of a sour taste, but I liked it. 

Ingredients

2 slices wholemeal bread from a 400g loaf (HEB)

45g reduced fat cheddar (HEA)

1 tsp mustard powder

1 Spring onion, sliced

1 egg yolk

1 heaped tbsp quark

Smoked paprika, black pepper and salad, to serve

In a bowl, mix the cheese, mustard powder, spring onion, egg yolk and quark.

Toast the bread under the grill on one side. Turn over and divide the cheese mix between the two slices. Grill until the cheese is starting to brown.

Season the rarebit with smoked paprika and black pepper. Serve with a side salad.

Euro 2016 Food Challenge: Republic of Ireland: Colcannon

Proper comfort food is this! Just the thing for a rainy day like today.  Back in the day I would make mash with half a pack of butter - this is a nice way of getting flavour in without the calories, as well as packing in some sneaky speed foods...

Ingredients

1kg potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

1 small head of Spring greens / cabbage, finely shredded

3 spring onions and some chives, finely chopped

White wine vinegar

2 tbsp reduced fat soured cream (2 syns)

Salt and white pepper

Frylight

Boil the potatoes in salted water until cooked through. Drain. Add the 2 tbsp soured cream and mash well (I like a really fine mash, so start it off with a masher and finish it with an electric whisk).

Spray a large frying pan with Frylight, and stir fry the cabbage / greens. When they have wilted, stir in the spring onion and chives, and a splash of white wine vinegar, and fry for another minute to heat through.  Add to the mash and mix thoroughly, seasoning with white pepper and plenty of salt.

Serve with baked gammon and a big pile of veg.

Euro 2016 Food Challenge: Poland: Golabki

Big thanks to my gorgeous Polish friends for help with this one - all the Polish recipes I found in researching this looked lovely, but heavily based in pastry and other naughty things!  So they sent me a couple of ideas and I ended up making this. I used this recipe as a basis, but changed the sauce to use free foods instead.  Very scrummy it was too.  A bit of effort in the making, but incredibly filling and very tasty.

I served ours with SW roasted new potatoes.

Ingredients

1 large cabbage, cored

1 large onion, chopped

500g lean beef mince

250g lean pork mince

1.5 cups cooked brown rice

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1 tsp salt

0.5 tsp black pepper

800g passata

Half a tube of tomato puree

2 tsp sweetener

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Put the cabbage head into a large pan of salted boiling water.  Cook until the cabbage leaves are softened enough to remove from the head (about 3 minutes).  Remove from the pot and let the cabbage sit until it's cool enough to handle.

Separate off the cabbage leaves, you will need about 16-18.  Cut out any tough centre ribs.  Set the whole leaves aside.  Chop the rest of the cabbage and scatter it in the bottom of a casserole dish.

Cook the onion in frylight until softened.  When cooled, mix the onion with the mince, rice, garlic, salt and pepper. 

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Take a small handful of the stuffing mixture, place in the centre of a cabbage leaf and wrap the leaf around it, tucking in the sides and then laying in the casserole dish.  Repeat until all the mix and leaves are used up.

Mix the passata, tomato puree, sweetener and Worcestershire sauce.  Pour over the top of the cabbage rolls and cover the dish with foil.

Bake in the oven for about an hour, until the cabbage is tender and the meat is cooked through.

Euro 2016 Food Challenge: Germany: Frikadellen

As written in one recipe I read, "the original hamburger". Another variation on a meatball theme, but why change a winning formula.

The recipes I looked at all required breadcrumbs, but I had some cooked rice leftover so thought I'd try that instead.  Worked a treat.

Ingredients

350g lean minced pork

350g lean minced beef

1 cup of cooked brown rice

1 onion, finely chopped / grated

A handful of chopped parsley

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 egg

Plenty of salt and pepper

In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients together with your hands.  Take handfuls of the mixture and form into small hamburger like patties.  Spray a large frying pan with Frylight and fry the Frikadellen, about 5 minutes each side, until cooked through.

Serve with potato salad and some veggies / a garden salad.

Euro 2016 Food Challenge: Switzerland: Rösti

This recipe was borrowed extensively from the oven-baked rosti cake recipe on the BBC Good Food site.

Very tasty, but if I did it again I'd probably use a bigger dish, to increase the surface area / crispyness.  Proper comfort food, pair it with meat of your choice and a big heap of veggies to keep with the food optimising...

Ingredients

1.5 kg Maris Piper potatoes, peeled

6 bacon medallions / equivalent fat-trimmed bacon

1 onion

Frylight

Heat oven to 190C / 170C fan / GM5.

Chop the bacon into short strips and dry fry until cooked through.

Boil the potatoes for 5 minutes, drain and plunge into cold water.

When they are cool enough to handle, pat the potatoes dry and grate into a large bowl.  Spray each layer with Frylight as you go, to stop the potato sticking together too much (the original recipe uses oil for this purpose - my mixture was quite sticky so I also used my hands to separate it out as much as possible). 

Peel and grate the onion (or cheat and blitz in the food processor like I did!).  Add this to the potato with the cooked bacon and use your hands to gently mix it all together.

Put a large baking tray in the oven for 5 minutes to warm through. 

Spray your chosen cooking dish liberally with frylight.  I used my silicon cake tin, which is great for not sticking.  If you're worried about the mixture sticking to your dish, line it with greaseproof paper first.

Scatter the potato in your cooking dish, being careful not to pack it down.  Spray the top with Frylight.  Place on the hot baking tray and bake in the oven for 1 hour 20 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked through and crisp on the top.

Euro 2016 Food Challenge: France: Summery Pistou Soup

Having holidayed, studied and lived in France at various points in my life, I'm no stranger to French cuisine, so for the Challenge I wanted to do a dish I've never tried before. So I found this. A summery, minestrone type soup characterised by its Pistou sauce - basically a French pesto.  Intensely garlicky, but simple, fresh, healthy, and very tasty.

Ingredients 

2 leeks

1 courgette

3 tomatoes 

100g green beans

1 can cannellini / haricot beans, drained and rinsed

2 pints vegetable / chicken stock

Frylight

Basil

Garlic

Olive oil

Chop all the veg.  Spray a stockpot with Frylight and fry the leeks until wilted. Add the rest of the veg and the beans and fry for another minute. Add the stock and cook for about 20 minutes.

Now make the Pistou sauce.  Chop a handful of basil. Peel 1-2 garlic cloves, chop roughly, then sprinkle over some rock salt and grind the garlic to a paste with the back of your knife. Stir through the basil and add enough olive oil to bring it together as a sauce (synned as necessary - I used 1 tbsp).

Serve the soup with a spoon of the Pistou sauce on top.

Euro 2016 Food Challenge: England: SP All Day Breakfast with Traditional Oxford Sausages

Being English there were any number of English dishes I could have chosen for the challenge, but I wanted to do something a bit different. I'd never heard of Oxford sausages until I started researching English dishes. Traditionally they were made without casings, so I thought they'd be worth a try as a syn-free sausage replacement (I know they sell them in Iceland, I'm just not a fan).  These are supposed to be made with pork and veal, but I've used pork and beef instead.

Verdict: not bad. The low fat meat gives quite a dense texture, but the taste is good. I oven baked mine, but they ended up quite dry so I'll pan fry them next time. 

Oxford Sausages

250g lean pork mince

250g lean beef mince

Half an onion, finely chopped

A handful of sage, chopped

1 tsp mace

Plenty of salt and pepper

Place all the ingredients in a food processor, and blitz until the mixture comes together like sausage meat.  Form into sausages. Pan fry in Frylight.

I served mine with beans, bacon medallions, grilled tomato, mushrooms pan fried with thyme leaves, and 2 slices of toast (HEB). I don't like fried eggs do I left those out, and black pudding was too many syns! So this was a Not-Quite-Full-English...

Euro 2016 Food Challenge: Austria: Wiener Schnitzel

The Austrian classic.  I'll admit, this isn't quite as moorish as the butter-fried original, but it's a pretty good substitute. Sadly Asda were all out of veal, so this recipe uses pork steaks.

4 pork steaks, trimmed of visible fat

4 slices wholemeal bread (synned as necessary - I used mine as HEB)

Season-all seasoning

1 egg, beaten

Frylight

Meat hammer

Cling film 

Lay some cling film over a chopping board and put one of the pork steaks on it.  Put another layer of cling film over the top, and use the meat hammer to flatten out the meat. Get it as thin as you can without bashing holes in it.  I got mine to about double the size, and about half a centimetre thick.

Make the breadcrumbs - this recipe needs a fine crumb, so I toasted and blitzed by bread, then put the crumbs in the oven for 10 minutes to crisp up before crushing them in a pestle and mortar.

Mix the breadcrumbs with 1 tbsp. season-all seasoning.  Dip each steak in egg then coat in the crumbs.  Place the steaks on a rack over a roasting tray (or a baking sheet lined with baking parchment).  Spray both sides of the steaks with Frylight to help the crumb crisp up.

Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 200C / 180C fan.  Rest for 5 minutes before serving.

I served mine with SW potatoes and a salad.

Euro 2016 Food Challenge: Ukraine: Borscht

This could probably count for a few countries, but my recipe book says it's Ukrainian so I'll go with that.

This recipe is incredibly easy, and makes loads so you can freeze some for another day.  The original recipe used raw beetroot, but I'm lazy so use pre-cooked!

Ingredients
1 large onion
3 fat garlic cloves
3 large carrots
1stick of celery
600g cooked beetroot (2 Asda packs = 10 beets)
A big squirt of tomato puree
1 chicken stockpot
2 tsp caraway seeds
1 tsp paprika
2 pints boiling water

Peel the onion, carrots and garlic.  Finely chop all the veg (or blitz in a food processor).  Put in a large stock pot with the rest of the ingredients.  Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 45-60 minutes.

Serve as it is if you want to leave it chunky, or blend for a smoother texture. Season to taste. Serve with a dollop of soured cream if you have syns to spare.

Euro 2016 Food Challenge: Sweden: Köttbullar

Sweden = meatballs, obviously. What better excuse to try an SW version of my favourite IKEA dinner.

The taste on the meatballs was good, but they ended up a bit dry so I mixed them with the gravy and let them soak up a bit of moisture before serving.  Next time I make them I think I'll try braising them in the oven with the gravy.  I served mine with roasted new potatoes, as a healthy alternative to chips.

There are syns in this, soured cream in the gravy and I served it with redcurrant jelly (use lingonberry jam for the real authentic taste, but redcurrant is a decent substitute). Check syns for the brands you're using as they vary.  Mine came out at 3 syns per portion.

Ingredients: 

Meatballs:

250g beef mince

250g pork mince

1 egg

0.5 medium onion, very finely chopped 

0.5 tsp ground allspice 

Salt and pepper

Gravy:

1.5 medium onions, sliced

1 beef stock pot

2-3 tbsp reduced fat soured cream (check syns)

New potatoes

Frylight

Season-all seasoning

Mixed veg 

Lingonberry jam / redcurrant jelly (check syns)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200C.

2. Spray a roasting tray with Frylight. Add the sliced onions, spray with a bit more Frylight and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper and roast in the oven for 10 minutes. 

3. Par boil your new potatoes in salted boiling water for 5 minutes. When you drain them, reserve the cooking water in a jug or another pan.

4. Now the potatoes and onions do a swap - put the roasted onions in the empty pan you used for the spuds. Spray the now-empty onion roasting tin with more Frylight, add the potatoes, spray with some more Frylight and sprinkle over some season-all seasoning.  Toss to coat, and roast in the oven for about 30 minutes, turning occasionally.

5. Add the beef stock pot to the onion pan with about 1 pint of the reserved cooking water (topping it up with boiling water if needed).  Bring to the boil and simmer gently for about 10 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, make the meatballs.  Chuck all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well with your hands. Roll into small balls, about an inch diameter.

7. Spray a large frying pan with Frylight, and brown the meatballs in batches.  Place in a roasting / baking tray and cook in the oven for 10 minutes while you finish the gravy.

8.  Put the gravy in a blender and liquidise.  Put back in the pan, and stir through the soured cream.  Simmer to thicken it up.

9. Remove the meatballs from the oven, and add to the gravy pan, including any meat juices from the baking tray.

10. Serve the meatballs and gravy with the roasted new potatoes, 1-2 tbsp lingonberry jam / redcurrant jelly (synned but worth it!) and your choice of veg.

Euro 2016 Food Challenge: Portugal: Caldo Verde

Caldo Verde, a.k.a. Portuguese Green Soup.  This is the only Portuguese recipe I know, but it's one of my favourites, and as chorizo is so high in syns I thought I'd have a bash at a syn-free version. 

I first saw this on one of the Hairy Bikers' programmes, and I've cooked their recipe so many times I know it off by heart:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/caldoverdeportuguese_73565

In my slimmed-down version, I've swapped the chorizo for gammon and smoked paprika, and used a mix of swede and potato to up the speed food content. 

Ingredients

Frylight

2 large onions, peeled and sliced

4 garlic cloves, sliced

1 large potato, peeled and diced

300g diced swede

250g lean smoked gammon / bacon, cubed

1 tsp sweet smoked paprika

1 tsp hot smoked paprika

2 pints chicken or vegetable stock

2 bay leaves

A large bunch of spring greens, finely shredded

Spray a large stock pot with Frylight and sweat the onion over a low heat until translucent.  Add the garlic and gammon, and fry for another couple of minutes before adding the potato and swede.

Add the paprika and stir well to combine. 

Fry for a couple more minutes then add the stock and bay leaves. Simmer over a lowish heat until the potato and swede are cooked.

Use a potato masher to mash the potato and swede into the soup.

Put the greens into a pan, pour over boiling water and leave to stand for a minute.

Drain the greens and add to the soup one spoon at a time until you get the consistency you like (if you want a heavy soup add more, for a lighter soup add less).

Season and serve.

Euro 2016 Food Challenge: Italy: Linguine Picchi-Pacchi

We eat A LOT of Italian food, so for my Italian challenge recipe I wanted to do something a bit different and seasonal.  There's a version of this dish in our Cucina Siciliana book; not only does it have a brilliant name (pronounced pic-key pac-key) but it's very tasty too.

Its basically a really easy fresh tomato sauce.  I think this is everything I love about good Italian food - simple, fresh, and packed with flavour. 

The recipe I used as a base included prawns in the dish, but I kept it veggie this time.  I think bacon would probably work well too.  This sauce is usually served with spaghetti, but we had linguine in (and I prefer it to spag).  And usually parsley is the herb used, but we have an abundance of oregano in the garden.   I used a mix of cherry and salad tomatoes to vary the texture, but any will do.

Serves 2

Ingredients 

400g fresh tomatoes, peeled and chopped

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 large garlic clove, crushed 

200g linguine

A large handful of oregano, chopped

Frylight 

Salt and pepper

To peel the tomatoes: use a sharp knife to score a cross in the bottom of each tomato. Plunge them into a bowl of boiling water for 30-60 seconds. Fish them out with a slotted spoon and plunge them into cold water.  Peel the tomatoes and chop them up.

Spray a pan with Frylight. Sauté the onion over a low heat until softened but not browned. Add the garlic and tomatoes and cook for about 10-15 minutes, using a wooden spoon to break down the tomato flesh.  Season with salt to taste.

Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions.

Reserving some for garnish at the end, add the majority of the oregano to the sauce and heat through.  

Stir the sauce through the cooked pasta. Serve immediately, topped with the rest of the oregano, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Euro 2016 Food Challenge: Albania: Mocarela Mbushur Qofte Mish Gengji

Mozzarella stuffed meatballs! Albanian food, where have you been hiding all my life??

Day two of the challenge, and I thought I'd get one of the trickier ones out of the way. I know nothing about Albanian cuisine, but a quick google search gave me lots of recipes to choose from, incorporating some classic Mediterranean flavours.

When I found a recipe for Mozzarella meatballs on myalbanianfood.com I had to give it a try.  Here's my SW take on it. The original recipe calls for lamb mince, but I used beef, as that's what I had in. It also uses shop bought pasta sauce, but I made my own.

Mine didn't quite work out, as I forgot to cover the dish before baking so it was a tad overcooked... The flavours were good though, I'll definitely be trying this again.

Albanian Mozzarella-Stuffed Meatballs 

350g lean beef / lamb mince (less than 5% fat)

1 egg

1 medium onion

2 garlic cloves

A handful of parsley

A handful of other fresh herbs (I used oregano and thyme)

1 ball of reduced fat mozzarella

800g chopped tomatoes / passata

Frylight 

1. Peel the onion and cut it in half. Peel the garlic cloves. 

2. Roughly chop half the onion, and put it in a food processor with one of the garlic cloves, a sprig of the parsley and a handful of other mixed herbs. Pulse until fairly finely chopped. 

3. Spray a frying pan with Frylight. Cook the onion mix over a low heat until the onions are softened but not browned. Add the chopped tomatoes and some salt and pepper. Stir together, heat through, and set aside while you make the meatballs.

4. Roughly chop the other half of the onion, and put it in the food processor with the other garlic clove and the rest of the parsley. Whizz it up until it's finely chopped. 

5.  Add the mince and egg to the food processor with some salt and pepper, and pulse until it's all mixed together. 

6. Divide your mozzarella ball into eight equal parts. Weigh them so you know how many syns will be in each meatball (I was using the mozzarella as my HEA, so made sure four meatballs-worth added up to 70g).

7. Tip the meatball mix out onto a chopping board and work it into a ball with your hands.  Split the meatball mix into eight equal parts and roll into balls. 

8. Take a meatball, and push a piece of mozzarella into it. Work the meat mixture around with your hands to completely enclose the cheese.

9. In a baking dish or slow cooker, tip some of the sauce into the bottom, and place the meatballs on top.  Cover the meatballs with the rest of the sauce.

10. If slow cooking, cook on high for 6 hours. If baking, cover the dish with foil, and cook in the oven for 2-3 hours at 180C / 160C fan.

Serve with whatever you fancy - we had our slightly-over-baked ones with linguine.