Paludeh Garmac

This typical Persian dessert is great for a dinner party as it looks spectacular and is easy to make. Not to mention that it is syn free. That is, I am assuming rose water is syn free, I can't find it in the book or on line. The original recipe also added grapes, though in all honesty, I forgot to add them! Husband even bought some grapes this morning especially for it. Just as well in one way, as the mix (without the grapes) was just the right amount to fit into the empty melon shells. 

 

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

1 small melon

1 peach

a handful strawberries

½ tbsp rose-water

juice of half a lemon

½ tbsp sweetener

Using a melon baller, scoop out the flesh from the melon, leaving the skin intact. With a spoon, scrape out the rest and set the skins aside. Chop the strawberries, leaving two for decoration. Remove the stone from the peach and chop. You can peel it if you wish – I didn't as I like the texture of the skin. Mix all the fruit together, add the lemon juice, rose-water and sweetener. Mix well to combine, then serve in the melon skins, decorated with the whole strawberry. 

 

Vanilla Strawberries with Yogurt

This is just a simple twist on a simple dish, but it makes such a big difference. 

 

Serves 1

Syn Free on Extra Easy

200g strawberries

sweetener to taste

1 tbsp vanilla essence

fat free plain yogurt

Clean, hull and halve the strawberries and place in a bowl. Pour on the vanilla essence and sweetener to taste. Stir well and leave overnight to infuse. It's important to cut the strawberries in half, as it's the cut side that really soaks up the vanilla and sweetener. Serve for breakfast the next morning with the yogurt and added sweetener if desired. 

 

Strawberry Chiffon Pie

You can have your cake and eat it! At only 1 syn for the whole cake, this is very healthy and very tasty. 

 

Serves 6-8

1 syn for the whole cake

1 cup buckwheat

1 tbsp sweetener

800-1000g strawberries

2 sachets strawberry flavoured sugar free jelly

2 tubs Müllerlight strawberry yogurt

sweetener to taste

1-2 tsp vanilla essence

Heat a pan without any oil and dry fry the buckwheat for 6-8 minutes until crunchy, brown and fragrant. Take the pan off the heat and add the sweetener and one tbsp water. Stir until the water is absorbed. Use to line a greased 20cm springform cake tin.

Hull the strawberries and chop approximately half of them finely. Make the jelly up with only 250ml boiling water using both sachets. Leave to cool a little. Gradually mix in the fruit, then the yogurts. Leave in the fridge to thicken slightly before pouring on top of the buckwheat in the cake tin. Chill in the fridge for several hours to set, then decorate the top with halved strawberries. 

 

Vanilla Strawberries with Toffee Vanilla Sauce

This is a slight twist on the normal strawberries and cream (or rather yogurt) and makes a pleasant change.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

Punnet of strawberries

Sweetener to taste

Müllerlight Toffee Yogurt

fat free plain yogurt

vanilla essence

Hull and halve the strawberries (quarter them if they're large). Place in a bowl, add 1-2 tsp vanilla essence and sprinkle on sweetener. Leave to infuse for at least an hour.

Mix together the two yogurts and add sweetener (if desired) and vanilla essence to taste.

Serve with chopped mint leaves. 

 

Strawberry Trifle

This is by no means a simple recipe, but well worth it for the extremely low syn value.

Serves 4-6

1 syn for the entire dessert on Extra Easy

½ tub quark

½ tsp baking powder

4 eggs, separated

1 tsp vanilla essence

4 tbsp sweetener

½ pkt Sainsbury's frozen Fruit Toppers

1 sachet sugar free orange flavoured jelly crystals

2 eggs

1 tub fat free plain yogurt

2 tbsp sweetener

1 sachet gelatine

500g fresh strawberries

Mix together the egg yolks, baking powder, sweetener, vanilla essence and the quark, using an electric whisk. In a separate clean bowl, using a clean whisk, whip the egg whites until firm. Carefully fold the yokes into the whites. Line a Swiss Roll tin with baking paper and pour in the mixture. Bake at 180°C for 10-15 minutes, keeping an eye on it to ensure it doesn't burn. Remove from oven and leave to cool. Cut the cake into small pieces and line the bottom of a serving bowl.

Make up the orange jelly with 200ml boiling water according to the instructions. Add the mixed fruit, still frozen, then top up with cold water to 500ml. Stir well and pour over the cake. Leave in the fridge for two hours to set (or 10-15 minutes in the freezer).

Meanwhile, make the custard by whipping the eggs with the sweetener. Place in the top of a double saucepan over gently simmering water, and stir until the custard has thickened, being careful not to 'cook' the mixture as the egg will scramble. Allow to cool slightly, then add the yogurt. Sprinkle the gelatine on 200ml boiling water, cool slightly and add the custard. Leave to cool completely.

Once the orange jelly has set, pour the custard over the top. Leave for a further couple of hours in the fridge to set. Once it is all set, top with the hulled strawberries and serve. 

 

Strawberry Pannacotta

Serves 3

>1 syn on Extra Easy

2 Müllerlight Strawberry Yogurts

1 sachet of gelatine crystals

400g strawberries

2 tbsp sweetener

1 sachet sugar free strawberry jelly

3 tbsp spray cream

Keeping 3 strawberries aside for decorating, hull and chop the rest. Stir the gelatine into 200ml boiling water. Gradually mix in half the chopped strawberries and the yogurts. Pour into three glasses and leave in the fridge for at least two hours to set.

Put the rest of the chopped strawberries in a bowl and stir in the sweetener. Leave in the fridge until ready to use.

Divide the strawberries between the three glasses. Make up the strawberry jelly with 200ml boiling water. Add ice cubes to make it up to 350ml, and pour over the strawberries once the ice cubes have melted and the jelly is cool. Leave in the fridge for another two hours to set. Top each one with cream and a strawberry and serve. 

 

Chocolate and Mint Strawberries

This doesn't really need a recipe, but I will include it as I like looking back over old posts for inspiration.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

400g strawberries

sweetener to taste

1 tub Müllerlight mint sprinkled with dark chocolate yogurt

Sprig of mint to decorate

Hull and halve the strawberries. Place in a bowl and sprinkle over the sweetener. Stir well to coat each of the strawberries with the sweetener. Leave for at least half an hour at room temperature.

When ready to serve, mix in the yogurt and top with mint sprigs. 

 

Cinnamon Oat Pancakes with Balsamic Strawberries

It seems everywhere I look on the net is a recipe for balsamic strawberries, and I feel that I have been missing out as I have yet to try this so-called delicacy. Until this morning that it. They were nice, but not that special, so I can't really see what all the fuss is about. I would do them again, but they didn't have the 'wow' factor I was imagining. Oh well.

On one of the slimming forums on the net I found a recipe for oat pancakes, which I amended slightly to suit the Slimming World plan. You can use whatever flavour of yogurt you fancy (checking the syn value of course), and vary the fruit too. Next time I think I will make them using toffee yogurt and serve with sliced bananas. The oat cakes would make a nice dessert too, served with some fat free fromage frais or sweetened/flavoured quark.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy providing you use the oats as your Healthy Extra B

For the Oat Cakes

70g rolled oats

tub fat free yogurt

1 tsp cinnamon

sweetener to taste

4 eggs

2 tbsp water

½ tsp vanilla extract

For the Balsamic Strawberries

punnet of strawberries

1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

3-4 tbsp sweetener

a little freshly ground black pepper

Hull and halve the strawberries. Sprinkle with the sweetener and leave to infuse before adding the vinegar and pepper.
  
Place the oats in a bowl with the yogurt, the sweetener, cinnamon, vanilla essence and a little water. Leave for several hours or overnight to soak.

When ready to cook, add the eggs to the oats, stirring to ensure they are well mixed. Heat a little Fry Light in a pan and add the oat mixture to cook a few minutes each side like pancakes. . You can either cook them as small individual pancakes using cooking rings, or as one large one using a small frying pan. I did both this morning as there was way too much mixture to go in the four rings I had.

Strawberries Cardinal

As the two men in my life were having triple chocolate pudding for dessert tonight – special offer at the garden centre of all places, selling off Easter stock- I didn't want to be left out, so I decided to make myself one of my favourite summer desserts: Strawberries Cardinal.

Serves 1

2.25 syns on Extra Easy

150g strawberries

150g raspberries

sweetener to taste

Hull and quarter the strawberries. Place the raspberries in a saucepan with a little water and heat gently until the berries are nicely crushed. Push through a fine sieve to remove the little seeds and add sweetener to taste. In a bowl, mix the raspberry coulis with the strawberries are stir well to cover. Leave for at least an hour at room temperature before serving.

Of course, it is perfect topped with whipped cream, but fat free yogurt was pretty delicious too. 

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