Pulled Pork Tortilla Pizza

Having read about pizzas made from tortillas, I was keen to try it for myself, and when I discovered that I could have the Bfree Wheat and Gluten Free Wholegrain Wraps as as a Healthy Extra B choice, the idea was sold. I had terrible trouble finding the said wraps though – they are apparently only available in Asda in this area, but the first Asda I tried was too small, so I ended up driving half way around the West Country to find them. When I finally did, I bought two packets to keep in the freezer.

I used the leftover BBQ pulled pork for my topping, but you could use anything you like, remembering to ensure that you get plenty of superfree foods. My BBQ sauce had onion, cherry tomatoes and passata in it, but even so I decided to serve it with a couple of salads to balance it all out.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy*

* providing you use the cheese as your Healthy Extra A

and the tortilla as you Healthy Extra B

2 Bfree Wheat and Gluten Free Wholegrain Wraps

topping as required

60g grated Parmesan cheese

Salad or vegetables to serve

Place the wraps on a pizza cooking trays and spread the topping over the surface leaving a couple of centimetres around the edges. Scatter the grated cheese over the top and bake in the oven at 210°C for 10-15 minutes until the cheese is melted and everything is heated through. Keep an eye on them as the edge can burn easily.

Tropical Coleslaw

As I still had some mooli left (those buggers are huge!) I made a tropical coleslaw to go with the pizzas. I tried grating the apricots too, but it just became a soggy mush, so I resorted to chopping them very finely.

finely grated mooli

finely grated carrot

2 apricots, finely chopped

1 tub zero percent plain yogurt

1-2 tsp mint sauce

Sweetener to taste

Mix together all the ingredients for the coleslaw and serve with the pizza. I also served it with a sweet bistro style salad (bought ready packaged from the store. 

 

Croatian Pork Schnitzels

During our tour of the Balkan states a few years ago, we felt after a while that we were having meat overload – some of their dishes were so laden down with meat, and not a vegetable in sight. It is certainly not a place for vegetarians! The picture below shows a mixed grill just for one person! I really missed vegetables on that trip – they rarely came as standard with the meal and often weren't available to order as a side dish. And almost everything came with chips – I am not a great lover of chips....

These schnitzels are not that heavy on the meat, and I have included a few vegetables for good measure (and to fill up on superfree foods). I have also used fromage frais in place of soured cream.

Serves 4

Syn Free on Extra Easy

4 pork steaks

115g chicken livers, chopped

3 cloves garlic, crushed

175g mushrooms, all visible fat removed and chopped

2 onions, chopped

4 rashers bacon, chopped

2 tsp bouillon powder to make stock

1 tsp mustard powder

250ml fat free fromage frais

Place the pork between 2 pieces of cling film and flatten using a culinary mallet or a rolling pin. Season well. Sauté the chicken livers with the garlic in Fry Light for a few minutes. Leave to cool. Divide the chicken livers between the steaks and roll up, securing with a toothpick (remember to remove before serving). Fry the schnitzels in Fry Light for a few minutes each side until cooked through.

Meanwhile, sauté the onions, bacon and mushrooms in Fry Light, then add stock, mustard powder and fromage frais. Heat gently without boiling. Serve the schnitzels with the sauce. 

 

Ramen Noodle Soup

This is loosely based on a traditional Japanese recipe – I struggled big time to find a recipe on line that used plain ramen noodles rather than those already flavoured with a soup mix, so I made my own recipe up, based on what I had in the fridge as well as some information I found on Wikipedia. 

 

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

ca 100 g plain ramen noodles (the packet was 250g and I used 1/3.)

2 small pork steaks, all fat removed, grilled and thinly sliced

knob of ginger, cut into julienne strips

½ savoy cabbage, finely shredded

handful fresh coriander leaves, chopped

soy sauce to taste

Sauté the ginger in Fry Light for a few minutes, then add 1 litre of water, the cabbage and soy sauce to taste. Simmer for 5, add the noodles and continue to cook for a few more minutes until the noodles are tender. Add the coriander leaves, taste and re-adjust the seasoning if necessary. 

 

Steamed Pork Cups

This is my adaptation of a Thai recipe – substituting coconut flavoured yogurt for coconut milk and sweetener for palm sugar to make the recipe more Slimming World friendly. I used a chilli from my Aji Hot plant for this, and was disappointed by how mild it was, so next time I will increase the quantity.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

250g extra lean minced pork

½ tub Müllerlight coconut and vanilla yogurt

4 spring onions, chopped

juice of half a lime

1 tsp sweetener

1 chilli, chopped

handful coriander leaves, chopped

1 egg

stir fried vegetables to serve

Blend or process the pork, yogurt, spring onions, lime juice, sweetener, chilli and coriander leaves until combined. Transfer the mixture to a bowl. In another bowl, beat the egg until thick and creamy and fold into the pork mixture. 

 

Spoon the mixture into 4-6 small cups – I found the Chinese tea cups perfect size for this, but egg cups would be a good alternative. Steam the cups in a bamboo or electric steamer for 20 minutes until cooked through. Serve with stir fried vegetables of your choice – I used a packet of ready cup vegetables as I knew I was going out for the day and wouldn't have much time when I got back. 

 

Pork Fried Rice

You can of course use just normal, plain pork steaks for this dish. Or coat them with your favourite spice mix before grilling. I just find Joe's meats to be such an easy option when I'm busy.

This was my very first Ajo Hot chilli harvest, and I was disappointed. There was very little heat to it, although it had a nice fruity taste. 

 

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

1 pkt Joe's Chinese Pork Steaks

1 cup rice

2 tsp bouillon powder

1 onion, chopped

handful green beans, chopped

1 pkt beansprouts

100g spinach

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp sweetener

2 tsp rice wine vinegar

1 red chilli, finely chopped

Grill the pork steaks until cooked through and slice very finely. Boil the rice in plenty of water with the bouillon. Drain. Sauté the onion and beans in Fry Light until soft. Add the beansprouts , spinach, soy sauce, vinegar, sweetener, rice and chilli. Stir over a low heat until the spinach has wilted and the beansprouts are beginning to get soft. Serve with extra soy soy if you like. 

 

Breakfast Tian

A tian is a layered dish, usually using food presentation rings. This is just a different way of serving the usual breakfast ingredients. 

 

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

2 potatoes

a little salt and pepper

100g minced pork

½ tsp chilli flakes

½ tsp salt

1 tsp sage

¼ tsp white pepper

a little milk

2 gammon steaks

2 tomatoes

a few mushrooms

2 eggs

tin of baked beans to serve

Peel the potatoes and grate them using the finest part of your grates. Squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can and mix with the salt and pepper. Using a food ring, make two circular shapes, spray with Fry Light and bake in the oven at 200°C until cooked through and browned and crispy on top.

In a food processor, combine the pork, spices and a little milk from your allowance (or water), ca 1-2 tablespoons. Using the same food rings, shape into circular patties and bake in the oven at 200°C until cooked through.

Using the food rings as cutters, shape the gammon steaks into round disks (save the cut-offs for use in something else) and grill for a few minutes each side until cooked through.

De-seed the tomatoes and chop finely. Heat some Fry Light in a pan and gently cook the tomatoes for a couple of minutes until heated through but not too soft.

Finely chop the mushrooms and cook in Fry Light until cooked to your liking.

Fry the eggs with the food rings to create perfectly round eggs.

Assemble the tian with the potato hash in the bottom, then the gammon, sausage patties, the mushrooms and tomatoes, and finally the egg on top. Serve with the baked beans. 

 

Oriental-Style Coleslaw with Chinese-Style Pork

As plans changed today, I was left with no food for this evening, so Joe came to my rescue again – this time in the form of Chinese-style pork. What to serve with it? Hmmm, what's in the fridge....?

This is what I came up with:

Serves 3

Syn Free on Extra Easy

½ red cabbage

1 small onion

2 carrots

small knob ginger

½ pineapple

80g edamame beans

juice of 2 limes

2 tbsp sweetener

2 tbsp soy sauce

3 Joe's Chinese-style pork steaks 

 

Finely slice the cabbage and onion. Peel and cut the carrots and ginger into julienne strips. Peel the pineapple and cut into matchstick sized sticks. Mix the cabbage, carrots, onion, ginger and pineapple with the beans. In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, sweetener and lime juice. Pour over the salad and mix well.

Meanwhile grill the pork steaks on medium high for 8-10 minutes until cooked through. Serve with the salad. 

 

Char Siu (Chinese BBQ Pork)

Traditionally you would use a large piece of pork such a belly and cook this slowly in the oven to make it really sticky. This is a much simplified version using thin pork escalopes and sweetener rather than sugar, and is ready in a flash.

Serves 2

1 ½ Syns on Extra Easy

2 pork escalopes

½ tsp five spice powder

2 tbsp sweetener

2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine

1 tbsp Hoi Sin sauce

1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

pkt stir fried vegetables to serve

Mix together all the ingredients except the pork and the vegetables. Marinate the pork steaks for 3 hour or more. Drain the meat (reserve the marinade) and grill (or BBQ) on a very high heat for a few minutes each side until cooked through and nicely brown and sticky. Stir fry the vegetables, adding the reserved marinade. As the sauce has been in contact with raw meat, ensure it is cooked properly before serving. 

 

Baked Spaghetti 

This is an excellent way of using up leftover meat and vegetables. You can of course use any kind of cooked meat – gammon goes particularly well.

Serves 4

Syn Free on Extra Easy*

* Providing you use the cheese as you Healthy Extra A

300g wholewheat pasta

400g cooked meat

2 onions, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 leek

4 eggs

100ml fat free fromage frais

2 tsp bouillon powder

180g mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced

Boil the spaghetti for 10 minutes, drain, and using scissors, cut into smaller lengths by sticking the scissors in the drainer randomly.

Sauté the onions and peppers in Fry Light until soft. Add the leeks and fry for a couple of minutes more. Mix in the spaghetti and stir well.

Whisk the eggs with half the fromage frais and 1 tsp of the bouillon powder. Stir into the spaghetti mixture and place in an oven proof dish. Mix the rest of the fromage frais with the remaining bouillon powder and enough water to give it a pouring consistency. Drizzle over the spaghetti and top with the mozzarella slices.

Bake at 200°C for 35-40 minutes, until the egg is set. Serve with a salad. 

 

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. 

 

Fugeddaboutit Pork AKA Slow Cooked Aromatic Pork

This is one of those dishes that you need to start early in the day, but once you get it in the oven, you can forget about it (hence the name). The meat is meltingly tender, fragrant rather than spicy and extremely tasty.

Serves 4

Syn Free on Extra easy

1 pork joint

5 large garlic cloves, peeled and grated

knob fresh ginger, ca 5cm, grated

2 tsp chilli flakes

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tbsp sweetener

½ tbsp sea salt

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 star anise

2 tsp fennel seeds

½ cinnamon stick

8 cloves

1 tsp black peppercorns

Heat the oven to 230°C. With a sharp knife, make several cuts in the surface of the pork.

First whizz together the star anise, fennel seeds, cinnamon stick, cloves and peppercorns in a spice grinder. Place in a bowl with all the other ingredients (except the pork of course) and mix to a paste.

Rub the paste all over the pork and place, uncovered in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes, then cover the pork with foil and turn the heat down to 120°C and bake for 5-6 hours.

Remove the pork from the oven, scrape off any loose spice paste and carve. Serve with potatoes, vegetables and gravy. 

Fennel Pork with Jazzy Gungo Peas

Most beans and lentils would work well in this recipe., either dried or tinned.

Please note that I don't do exact measurements for my recipes, I just go by what looks about the right amount. That is one of the reasons I like the Slimming World Plan – almost no weighing and measuring.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra easy

2 pork steaks

fennel seeds

A couple of large handfuls of dried gungo peas

2 onions

tin of tomatoes

1 red chilli, chopped

stock cube or bouillon powder

Soak the gungo peas overnight. Drain and rinse then boil according to the packet instructions, approximately an hour. Meanwhile sauté the onion in a little Fry Light until soft. Press the fennel seeds into both sides of the pork steaks and leave until ready. Fry the pork chops for 5-7 minutes each side until cooked through. Add the cooked peas to the onions with the tomatoes, chilli and stock cube/bouillon powder. Place the bean mix on a plate and top with the pork steaks.

Pork Tenderloin Stuffed with Prunes

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

This is so simple it doesn't really warrant a recipe as such. Take your tenderloin, remove all visible fat and make a long slit lengthways. Flatten out as much as you can without breaking the meat apart. Stuff with prunes (bearing in mind that you are allowed 85g of semi-dried ready to eat prunes as your Healthy Extra B – I found I used around 100g for the whole tenderloin, which will serve 3-4 people) and roll up tightly, securing the ends with string or cocktail sticks.

Bake in the oven on 230°C for about 30 minutes, until cooked through. Serve with vegetables of your choice, remembering to remove the string or cocktail sticks before serving. We enjoyed the pork with roasted sweet potatoes, sautéed leeks, steamed green beans and roasted red onion. 

Thai Meatball and Noodle Soup

Looking for shitake mushrooms on the shelves in Tesco, I came across some forestiére mushrooms, a new variety 'just discovered'. Always one to try something new, I was delighted to find they were on special offer too. Almost any type of mushrooms would work in this recipe though, and I really couldn't tell a difference with so many other flavours.

This dish is very much more than just a simple soup, it is very filling and a meal in itself.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

200g extra lean pork mince

4 cloves garlic, crushed

1 bunch spring onions

2 red chillies

zest of ½ lime

½ tsp galangal

1 tsp dried ginger

2 kaffir lime leaves

¼ tsp lime powder

1 tsp salt

a few turns of the mill of freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp sweetener

¾l well flavoured stock

1 tbsp light soy sauce

50g forestiére mushrooms, finely sliced

1 pak choy

100g fine egg noodles

5-6 shallots, finely sliced

A few shredded mint leaves to serve

Finely chop half the spring onions and one of the red chillies. Mix with the pork mince and add the garlic, lime zest, galangal, ginger, kaffir lime leaves, lime powder, salt, pepper and sweetener. Stir well to ensure it is thoroughly combined. Turn into little balls and place in a steamer. Steam for 15 minutes until cooked through, reserving the water that has come off the balls for using with the stock in the soup.

Thinly slice the remaining spring onions lengthways in 2” long pieces. Slice the second chilli. Gently sauté the shallots for a couple of minutes, then add the sliced mushrooms, cooking for a few more minutes while stirring. Add the stock, meatball stock, pak choy, spring onions, soy sauce , sweetener and noodles. Simmer for 3-4 minutes and serve with the mint leaves.

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