My best slimmed down tzatziki

Tzatziki is one of my all time favourite things, and thankfully the recipe stored in my head was easily adapted to be syn-free. Here it is.

500ml fat free yoghurt (Total is worth the extra spend, it's twice as nice as own brand)

1 cucumber, peeled and grated

3-4 spring onions, finely sliced

2-3 garlic cloves, crushed

A handful of mint, chopped

Lemon juice, to taste

Salt and pepper, to taste

Mix it all together.  Enjoy.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

I made these yesterday for a dinner party and they were delicious. I'm a bit quinoa obsessed at the moment, and this recipe is based heavily on one in the "Best of Quinoa" booked I borrowed from the library last week. Seriously good, they'd make a great accompaniment for a barbecue.

(We also tried the "Turkey Sausages" from the quinoa book, but they weren't nearly as successful - although I reckon they could have potential with a bit of spicing up... Will post a recipe if I get round to trying them again.)

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

- 90g quinoa, rinsed and drained

- 240ml cold water

- 2 large red peppers, halved and seeded but with the stalks left on

- 250g cherry tomatoes, halved

- 2 garlic cloves, crushed

- A handful of basil, chopped

- 2 tbsp capers

- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Put the quinoa and water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil.  Cover and simmer for 10 mins until the water is absorbed (keep an eye on it towards the end so it doesn't burn in).

Set the quinoa aside to cool completely.  Put the tomatoes, garlic, basil, capers and balsamic vinegar in a bowl.  Mix well.  Then mix in the quinoa when it has cooled.

Spray a baking tray with Frylight. Put the prepared peppers in the tray, cut sides up.  If they don't sit straight, cut a fine slice off the bottom of the pepper, being careful not to cut through.

Stuff the peppers with the quinoa mix, spray a bit more Frylight on top, and bake for 20-30 minutes until the peppers are tender.

Roasted Squash and Sage Soup

I confess this is my other half's concoction... Super easy and super tasty, the instructions are a bit approximate though (that's how we cook in our house).  The amount of stock will depend on the size of the squash and how thick you like it. I'd start with a pint and add more if you need it.

• 1 Squash (any variety), peeled and in thick slices / chunks

• 1-2 Red Onions, peeled and roughly chopped 

• 1-2 Carrots, peeled and roughly chopped 

• Garlic Cloves, peeled

• A handful of sage leaves 

• Frylight 

• Chicken Stock

1. Toss the veg and sage together with some Frylight and roast in the oven until the veg is cooked (200C, keep checking on it until it's soft).

2. Mix with chicken stock

3. Blend

4. Heat through and serve

Syn-free Gravy!

I'm a certified gravy addict, so rationing it was pretty unthinkable to me.  I was so excited to perfect a Slimming World syn-free gravy, I thought it rude not to share.

• 2 onions, sliced
• A handful of chopped celery
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled but left whole
• Frylight
• Chicken stock

1. Preheat oven to 200C  / 180C fan.

2. Place the veg on a baking tray, spray with Frylight, and roast in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, until the onions are softened and crisping up around the edges.

3. Place the roasted veg in a pan with about some chicken stock (I use a chicken stock pot made up with about a pint of hot water).  If you are boiling any potatoes / other veg for your meal, reserve the water when you drain them and make the stock up with this - it'll add to the flavour.

4.  Bring to the boil and simmer for about 20 minutes. 

5.  Now put the gravy in a blender, and blend until smooth.

6.  Put the blended gravy back in the pan,  back on the heat, and simmer to reduce it to your preferred thickness.  

7.  Check the flavour and add seasoning to taste (salt and pepper - or another stock cube if you think it needs it).

Dry-Roasted Broad Beans

I joined Slimming World after Christmas (finally accepting that it's time to lose the baby weight, now that said baby has started school...)

So far so good, turns out we ate pretty healthily already, just a bit heavy handed with the olive oil and butter... I am now best friends with Frylight and the pounds are dropping off.

One thing I've really missed so far is crisps (which you can still have on SW, but I'd rather save my syns for booze...) so I've been on a mission to find a "free" crunchy snack to cure my munchy cravings of an evening. 

After a number of mediocre attempts, and some almost broken fillings, today I think I've cracked it (the recipe, not my teeth). Inspired by the classic Spanish snack of Habas Fritas, here is my syn free version. These are dry roasted flavour, using "Season-All" seasoning. Just add different spices to change the flavour.

After trying out a number of different recipes online, I found this one to be the best - http://www.thedailyspud.com/2009/03/04/posh-spicy-beans/

- if you follow the link, there are a few flavour variations too. The recipe below is heavily based on this, but made SW friendly with a liberal spraying of Frylight.

The recipe requires dried split Fava beans - I ordered mine online from http://hodmedods.co.uk/ - 

You can do it with normal broad beans, but they are far better made with the dried version. If you can't get hold of any, buy tinned broad beans, drain and pop the beans out of their shells. No need to soak or pre-cook then, just spray, spice and bung in the oven.

These do come with a bit of a health warning - they are VERY moreish, so if you are on SW be careful not to overeat on them!  Some SW purists might say it's cheating, but I think it's worth it to keep me off the crisps!

Recipe: Low Fat Dry Roasted Broad Beans

125g dried split broad beans

Frylight (I use the Olive Oil one)

2-3 tsp "Season-All" seasoning

1. Soak the beans in plenty of water overnight.

2.  Drain the beans, rinse well, and put in a pan with about a pint of fresh water.  Bring to the boil and simmer over a medium heat for about 7 minutes. The beans should be softened but not mushy.  Drain, and set aside to cool a little.

 (If you are using tinned beans, you come in here...)

3.  Preheat oven to 180C

4.  Spread the beans on a baking tray in a single layer. Use two trays if necessary - if they're too crowded they won't crisp up properly. Spray liberally with Frylight and sprinkle with the seasoning, then toss it all together in the tray to ensure an even coating.

5. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the beans are golden and crisping up.

6. Leave the beans in the trays to cool (I left them in the oven with just the fan on, this seems to dry them out a bit more and makes them extra crispy)

Cajun Spiced Wedges (or "pimped up" SW chips)

Adapted from a recipe in the Dorling Kindersley "Eat More Vegetables" book.  These are lush.

4 potatoes

1 lemon

1 bulb of garlic

3 red onions

1-2 tbsp Cajun spice mix

Frylight

Cut each potato into 8 wedges, leaving the skin on.

Cut the lemon and red onions into wedges and separate the garlic cloves, discarding the outer papery skins but leaving the cloves unpeeled.

Parboil the potato wedges for 3 mins. Drain and leave to one side while they steam dry. 

Spray a roasting tray with Frylight. Tip in all the ingredients and toss them together.  Spray with a bit more Frylight and roast at 200C for 30-40 mins, turning occasionally.

I served mine with the pulled pork recipe from SW mag May/June 2016, and the hot and spicy coleslaw from the SW website. Delish!