Week 4

Crikey, hasn’t the weather been hot this week! I’ve tried to include this week another set of quick and easy recipes with minimal cooking but plenty to nourish your body. I’ve also included a couple of recipes to use ingredients you may still have leftover from previous dishes.

If you are having trouble maintaining your mealplan, in the heat, talk to your dietitian. Keep your body hydrated - drinking between meals so as not to fill yourself up and deny your body vital nutrition.

Chicken and sweet potato curry

This is one of those go-to recipes that everyone in my family likes. I’m not sure it’s too authentic but it’s tasty nonetheless. You can adjust the amount and heat of curry paste to your liking. I often use turkey stir fry strips for this as it saves time. The red lentils cook down in this curry and thicken the sauce so it’s a bit like a dahl. Lentils are a great little legume! Not only are they high in fibre but they are a good source of protein, iron and brain boosting magnesium. Also I sometimes use sweetcorn instead of peas as some of my family aren’t keen on peas and it’s just as good but not as colourful. I would serve this with rice or naan bread.

Serves 2

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp sunflower oil
  • 2 tsp curry paste
  • 2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
  • 1 medium-sized sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-size pieces
  • 2 tbsp red split lentils
  • 150ml chicken stock
  • 200ml can coconut milk
  • Handful frozen peas

Method

1.Heat the oil in a deep frying pan or wok, stir in the curry paste and fry for 1 minute.

2.Add the chicken, sweet potatoes and lentils and stir to coat in the paste.

3.Pour in the stock and coconut milk.

4.Bring to the boil, then simmer for 15 minutes.

5.Tip in the peas, bring back to the boil and simmer for a further 4-5 minutes.

6.Season to taste before serving

Quesadillas

Quesadillas are basically Mexican style toasted sandwiches with a cheese based filling (queso is Spanish for cheese apparently). They are really quick to make and very adaptable. You can add shredded chicken, prawns, ham, roasted veg to the cheese filling. (If you use the large wraps cover half the surface with the filling and fold the over half over to form a half moon shape).

We often have these in our house and each person has their own favourite filling. We usually serve them with salsa and sour cream to dollop on or to dip into as desired and in the winter often have them with soup. My favourite filling is the one below. I love avocados and they are particularly good when heated as in this recipe. As well as containing heart friendly fats, avocados are a good source of fibre, potassium and fat soluble vitamins E and K. Buen provecho!

Serves 2

Ingredients

  • 4 soft flour tortillas (in the Mexican section of the supermarket) or 2 large wraps
  • Small tin refried beans
  • 1 avocado, sliced
  • 100g Cheddar
  • Salsa and sour cream to serve if liked

Method

1.Spread the tortillas with refried beans, slices of avocado, and sprinkle over the grated Cheddar. Top each with another soft flour tortilla.

2.Heat a frying pan until hot.

3.Cook the quesadillas, one at a time, for about a minute on each side until crispy on the outside and the filling is melted

If you find flipping the quesadillas a bit fiddly they can be cooked in the oven. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Place on a lightly oiled baking tray and cook until golden brown and the cheese has melted about 10mins

Falafel with mixed grains and spiced yoghurt

I have to confess that I haven’t actually made this yet. I saw it (or rather a version of it) in a recent Sainsbury’s magazine and decided to add it to my must try list but with one thing and another I haven’t got round to it yet. I’ve bought the mixed grains! They were with the ready cooked rice pouches and I saw some with the dry pulses so it’s worth looking in both sections at your supermarket. I thought they would be difficult to find but there was quite a choice. I bought a mix containing spelt, lentils and brown rice but there was one with seven different grains in! I can imagine all sorts of uses for these. Wholegrains have a high fibre content and are a valuable source of B vitamins, iron and protective antioxidants. Iron from non-animal sources is best absorbed with vitamin C, so a glass of orange juice to drink or some red peppers added to the salad will give maximum benefit.

The salad looks really good and so simple to prepare. I’ve adapted the original recipe as that used pomegranate molasses which I thought would be either very expensive or difficult to find and I would end up with it sitting at the back of my cupboard. I’m definitely going to try this next week, maybe you might like to give it a go too.

Ingredients

  • 1 pack ready to eat mixed grains
  • Spring onions, finely chopped
  • Cherry tomatoes halved
  • Cucumber chopped
  • 1x 200g pack falafels, halved
  • Pitta bread, warmed
  • 100g Greek yoghurt
  • 1 teaspoon Harissa
  • Squeeze lemon juice
  • Garlic clove, crushed

Method

  1. In a bowl mix together yoghurt, harissa, garlic and lemon juice. Season and taste. Adjust to your liking by adding more harissa or yoghurt. Thin with a little milk to achieve pouring consistency.
  2. Divide the grains between two plates and top with tomatoes, onion and cucumber. Season
  3. Top with the halved falafels and drizzle over the spiced yoghurt dressing.
  4. Serve with warmed pitas.

Quick Ratatouille baked Fish

This recipe is a bit of a cheat as it uses frozen mix roasted vegetables. This is really for speed, but feel free to roast your own veg if you’d prefer. I like this served with a baked potato as shown (you can do this in the microwave for ease and speed and finish in the oven with the fish to crisp up the skin). I would also serve it with a green veg maybe green beans or broccoli but the choice is yours. Use whatever white fish fillets you like - cod, haddock, tilapia, river cobbler....

Serves 2

Ingredients

  • 2 white fish portions
  • 200g can Chopped Tomatoes
  • Frozen Grilled Vegetable Mix
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried mixed herbs
  • breadcrumbs
  • Olive oil

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200˚C, gas mark 6.
  2. Place the fish portions in an ovenproof dish.
  3. Heat the chopped tomatoes and add a couple of handfuls of frozen Grilled Vegetable Mix, and the dried mixed herbs and cook for 5 minutes until thickened.
  4. Spoon over the fish then sprinkle over breadcrumbs to cover. Drizzle with olive oil
  5. Bake for 15 minutes until golden.

Quinoa and chickpea burger

In an effort to use up the quinoa I bought recently and to find other uses for it I made these burgers and they turned out quite well. If you don’t have quinoa you could use a handful or two of oats or breadcrumbs or a mixture of the two to bind the burgers instead. I used steak seasoning for these. It might seem strange to use steak seasoning in a veggie recipe but I use steak seasoning quite a lot in cooking as an all purpose seasoning for meat and veggies. If you haven’t used it before it’s a blend of herbs and spices and may include mustard seeds, ginger, ground coriander and chilli depending on which brand you buy. Cajun seasoning would also be good or just add some ground cumin and ground coriander if that’s what you handy. All will taste great. The yoghurt dressing from the falafel salad recipe would go well with this as well I think. This amount made three burgers. You could use any leftover for lunch the next day. These would also freeze well. Layer them between sheets of greaseproof paper in a plastic tub and pop in the freezer.

Serve in a burger bun with fries/wedges and a salad alongside.

Makes 3 burgers

Ingredients

  • 1 small/medium sweet potato
  • 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
  • 4 handfuls quinoa, prepared and cooked with 200ml water according to package instructions or
  • 1 small tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • 1/2 small onion, peeled
  • 1 carrot, peeled
  • 2 nuggets frozen spinach defrosted or couple handful of fresh spinach
  • 1 teaspoon steak seasoning
  • Flour

Method

  1. Poke several holes in the sweet potato using a fork. Place on a paper towel and microwave on high for 3 minutes. Turn the sweet potato over and microwave 3-5 minutes more, or until tender. Slip off the skin.
  2. Place the chickpeas and sweet potato in a medium size bowl and mash with a potato masher until broken down but still chunky.
  3. Grate the onion and carrot into the bowl.
  4. If using fresh spinach: rinse in a colander then pour a kettleful of boiling water over it to wilt it. Rinse with cold water to refresh. For both frozen and fresh spinach: squeeze as much water out as you can. Chop and add to the bowl
  5. Drain the quinoa well and add to the vegetables together with the steak seasoning.
  6. Stir until well combined, taking care to ensure all ingredients are evenly distributed. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  7. Shape the veggie quinoa mixture into burgers using your hands. Dust each one with flour.
  8. Heat the oil in frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the burgers and cook until browned on both sides.