Mulligatawny Soup made from Leftover Chilli Con Carne

Nice and quick, nice and comforting, nice and easy, nice and warming, nice and healthy. What more can you want on a miserable day? 

 

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

1 cup leftover chilli con carne (syn free of course)

½ cup red lentils

2 onions

2 stems celery

2 tsp bouillon powder

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp ground turmeric

½ cup cooked carrots, chopped

a few drops food colouring

a small handful chopped coriander leaves

1 red chilli (optional), finely chopped

Finely chop the onion and celery and onions and sauté in Fry Light until soft. Add the lentils and bouillon powder and enough water to make it a soup consistency. Boil rapidly for ten minutes. Turn the heat down, add the leftover chilli con carne and spices and simmer for another 15-20 minutes until everything is cooked through and the lentils are soft and mushy. Add the carrots and fresh coriander and heat through. Add a few drops of food colouring if the soup looks a little insipid. Serve topped with some chopped coriander. 

 

Lemon Pepper Chicken

You can use almost any vegetables to stir fry here, I used bok choy, onions and green beans as that's what I had in my fridge. The chicken is very peppery and quite tangy!

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

2 chicken breasts

1 tbsp black peppercorns

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp celery powder

½ tsp salt

2 lemons

stir fry vegetables to serve

Remove the skin and any visible fat from the chicken breasts. Cut into small mini fillets and place in a bowl. Finely grate the zest from both lemons. Coarsely grind the herbs and spices in a spice grinder, and add the lemon zest. Pulse a few more times to mix well. Add the spice mix to the chicken fillets in the bowl, with the juice of one of the lemons. Mix well to ensure the fillets are evenly coated. Grill until cooked through and beginning to brown. Serve with stir fried vegetables of your choice and the other lemon cut in two to squeeze over if desired. 

 

Teriyaki Beef and Lettuce Cups

Makes 10 lettuce cups

5½ syns for all of them or ½ syn each

350g trimmed sirloin steaks

2 tbsp teriyaki sauce

75g basmati rice

stock cube or bouillon powder

4 spring onions, chopped

2 tbsp coriander, chopped

1 tub Muller Light coconut and vanilla yogurt

1 tsp Thai red curry paste

10 little Gem lettuce leaves

1 red chilli, deseeded and thinly sliced

½ red onion, thinly sliced

a few coriander leaves to decorate

Slice the steak into thin slivers and marinade with the teriyaki sauce for at least 30 minutes. Heat a frying pan until very hot, spray with a little Fry Light and cook the steak slivers for a couple of minutes until done to your liking.

Boil the rice in stock for ten minutes. Drain and allow to cool. Mix the yogurt with the Thai curry paste and stir in the rice, chopped coriander and spring onions.

Break off the lettuce leaves and place them on a serving plate. Top with the rice mixture, then arrange the steak strips, red onion, chilli and coriander on top. Serve as part of a finger buffet, or they would make a nice starter for a dinner party. 

Scotch eggs

Makes 4

Syn free on Extra Easy*

* providing you use the bread as your healthy extra B

1 pkt Joe's sausagemeat

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp salt

1 tsp orgeano

1 tsp sage

1 tsp sweetener

4 eggs

1-2 small slices wholemeal bread

Boil the eggs for ten minutes, run under cold water and remove the shell. Mix the sausage meat with the cumin, ginger, salt, oregano, sage and sweetener. Mix well. Blitz the bread in a food processor until fine crumbs, then dry fry in a pan over medium heat until dried out but not browned. 

 

Coat the eggs with the sausagemeat. I find the easiest way of doing this is by first diving the meat in four, then making a slightly oval patty with each of them. Holding the patty in your hand, place the egg on top and cup your hand around it. Then gently draw and stretch the sausagemeat until it complete covers the egg. 

 

Roll in the dried breadcrumbs and bake at 220°C for 15-20 minutes until the sausagemeat is cooked through. 

 

Serve as part of a finger food buffet (as I am doing on Sunday for the football), or with a salad. Great for taking on picnics or in the lunch box too. 

 

Beef and bean burgers

I wanted to make something slightly different with the leftover beans – normally I would just bake a jacket potato and use them as filling, or make a chilli con carne, but I just didn't fancy that today. Hence the burgers were born.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra easy

Using 250g of extra lean minced beef, I mixed in the leftover jazzy gungo peas as well as the chick pea and carrot tajine using a few quick bursts in a food processor. I wanted to retain some texture and shape of the beans still. I reckon most leftover vegetables would work very well in burgers – the beans added a nice moisture as the spices lots of taste. Shape into patties and fry in a little Fry Light.

Home made tomato sauce:

Syn Free on Extra Easy

200ml passata

1 tbsp sweetener

stock cube or bouillon powder

a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce

In a screw top jar, add all the ingredients and shake well until everything is evenly mixed.

Serve burgers with salad of your choice. 

Llama Steak

At the Bath & West Show recently, there were a couple of stalls selling unusual meats, and always being up for trying something new, I bought a couple of llama steaks which were the only meats there that we had not tasted before.

It's a very lean meat and should apparently be flash fried over a high heat to a rare or medium rare. The steaks looked very good, and for the first few bites its denseness came across more than anything else. As I got nearer the centre of the steak, it became disappointingly tough. There wasn't a strong flavour to the meat, however, and the taste was very pleasant. I doubt if I'll bother again though, as I didn't feel they were worth the cost.

I served the steaks with jacket wedges, garlic mushrooms, broccoli, grilled tomatoes and a green peppercorn sauce. The steaks certainly needed the sauce, being really quite dry.

To make the garlic mushrooms, slice a few cloves of garlic and fry in a little Fry Light for a few minutes until fragrant and slightly browned, taking care not to burn. Add quartered chestnut mushrooms and fry for a couple more minutes, then add about 1 cm of water to the pan along with a stock cube or a teaspoon of bouillon powder. Simmer over a medium heat until all the liquid has been absorbed, around 5-7 minutes.

Lamb Shish Kebabs with Apple Slaw

As I always seem to have trouble finding extra lean minced lamb, I usually end up mincing my own. I have one of these old fashioned hand mincers, but it works a treat.

Zaatar is a middle eastern herb mix which includes sesame seeds. If you can't find zaatar, you can leave it out completely, and deduct one syn. I was unable to confirm the syn value for it, but have counted it as 1 syn for sesame seeds.

Serves 2

2 syns on Extra Easy

For the kebabs

300g extra lean minced lamb

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground cumin

salt and pepper

1-2 tsp zaatar

For the apple slaw

½ small white cabbage

1-2 carrots, depending on size

1 small onion

1 apple

4 tbsps extra light mayonnaise

4 tbsp fat free plain yogurt

For the Harissa swirled yogurt

1 tub of fat free natural yogurt

1-2 tsp harissa paste

Mix together all the ingredients for the kebabs except the zaatar, and form into little sausage shaped sticks. Roll in the zaatar to coat. Bake on a greased oven tray for 15-20 minutes until cooked through and nicely browned.

Meanwhile make the slaw by grating the carrots and apple; and finely slicing the cabbage and onion. Mix the mayonnaise and yogurt together and add water, a little at a time, until the runny consistency has been achieved. Stir into the slaw.

Swirl some harissa through the yogurt and serve with the kebabs. I usually make my own harissa paste – it is a lot of work and very fiddly, but so worth the effort, as the taste is far superior. 

Black Bean Salad

If you are using dried beans, remember to soak them overnight and cook according to the packet. This recipe called for half a red pepper but my personal shopper (AKA husband) seemed to have somehow missed that. He swears black and blue that he bought it, he must have left it behind in the shop. Oh well, just a slight variation. Anyway, while looking for the absent pepper, I came across an orange, and thought that would go well with the black beans. I was right. I also had a lone tomato hanging around, and as it was the same colour as the missing pepper, I decided to include that too.

Black Bean salad

1 cup of cooked black beans

Juice of 1 lime

2 tsp sweetener

2 tsp samal oelek

1 green chilli

1 orange

1 large tomato

small handful of coriander leaves

handful of rocket leaves

handful of baby spinach

½ red onion

In a large bow, mix together the cooked beans, finely chopped green chilli, finely chopped tomato, rocket and spinach leaves and the thinly sliced red onion. Peel the orange, divide into segments and cut each segment in two. Add to the salad bowl. Mix the lime juice, sambal oelek and sweetener and toss into the salad with the chopped coriander leaves.

My main purpose of making this salad was to go with a cold slice of the leftover meatloaf. I still have three slices left, so I will have to put my thinking cap on again for another meal involving some variation of meatloaf. 

Despite the green chilli and the sambal ealek, it was hardly spicy at all. Personally I would have preferred it with a bit more kick, so if I make it again I will add more chilli. 

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Entertaining Dad

It's always difficult to think of what to serve when my dad comes over for dinner. Although he will always eat what's put in front of him (apart from spicy food – my dad thinks soured cream pretzels 'burn his mouth' - and fish, to which he is allergic), the proud chef in me wants him to enjoy his food too. He is not generally very keen on tomatoes, mushrooms, rice, couscous, Yorkshire puddings, yogurt, lentils or lamb to name a few, which does rather narrow the choice down. Then comes the list of foods he is not supposed to eat because of using Warfarin, which includes most dark green vegetables, cranberries, garlic and grapefruit.

We love our food spicy, so trying to think of bland food that fits in with most of the categories above, as well as my Slimming World plan, twice a week does pose some challenges. Of course, my pride doesn't allow me to repeat dishes too often either.

Meatloaf isn't something that has featured heavily on our menu over the years, and I don't think I have ever made it for my dad, so that's what I decided to do tonight. Had it been just for the two of us, the spice level would have increased tenfold for the recipe, but as it was I had to tone it down a little (lot) for my dad.

Meatloaf with barbecue sauce

Serves 4-6 (I cut it in to 10 slices)

Syn Free on Extra easy providing you use the bread as your Healthy Extra B.

500g extra lean beef mince

500g extra lean pork mince

2 small onions

3 garlic cloves

2 slices wholemeal bread

2 tsp thyme

2 tsp oregano

2 tsp sweetener

salt and pepper top taste

8 slices of bacon

500 ml passata

1 tsp mustard powder

2 tsp bouillon powder

1 tsp sweetener

a few drops Worcestershire sauce

The easiest way to make the meat loaf is in a food processor – start with the onions and garlic and whizz until finely chopped. Add the bread and ensure it is just fine breadcrumbs before adding the meats, egg, thyme, oregano, salt, pepper and sweetener. Pulse until mixed. Mix together the passata, mustard powder, bouillon powder, sweetener and Worcestershire sauce until smooth and mix 100 ml of it in with the meat.

Stretch the bacon slices with the back of knife and line a loaf tin making sure all sides and the bottom are covered, reserving two for placing over the top. Press the meat into the tin and cover with the bacon pieces, wrapping any overlapping pieces over the top. Cover with tin foil and place in a large roasting tin. Fill boiling water to half way up the tin – I find the easiest and safest way of doing this is to put the roasting tin in the oven fist and then adding water from the kettle. That way I am less at risk of spilling boiling water over myself when I move it.

Bake at 150°C for 2 hours. Check that the meat is done by inserting a skewer into the meat and pressing down slightly to ensure that the juices are running clear. If so, remove from the oven and let it rest for 20-30 minutes, still covered with foil before turning it on to a board and cutting into slices and serving it with the rest of the BBQ sauce. 

I served it with whole roasted Apache potatoes, tomatoes stuffed with some leftover risotto, leeks in white sauce and fine green beans. 

Dinner service from John Lewis, tablecloth was my mum's. 

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