Couscous Sarda Pudding

This dish is best known cooked with fregola, but as I was unable to locate fregola, I used giant couscous instead, as it is very similar (fregola is a small pasta grain from Italy)

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy*

*Providing you use the milk from your Healthy Extra A allowance

1 cup giant couscous

3 cups skimmed milk

sweetener to taste

½ tsp saffron powder

½ stick of cinnamon

2 whole star anise

5 whole cardamoms

Gently simmer the couscous in the milk with all the other ingredients for around ten minutes until the couscous is soft but still retains some bite. I would recommend stirring almost constantly to avoid it sticking to the bottom of the pan. Remove the whole spices before serving. Sprinkle over a little cinnamon and enjoy!

Rhubarb and Ginger Pudding

The idea for this came from the carrot cake, but obviously the rhubarb mixture didn't set very well, so I immediately changed it from a 'cake' to a 'pudding'. It has a very moist, soft centre and is very gingery.

You need to start the day before you want to eat the cake in order to get everything done, so it's not a five-minute wonder.

I used 3 stems of rhubarb to get 250g cooked fruit, cooking it to a pulp with very little water.

Serves 2

1 syn on Extra Easy *

* Providing you use the oats as your Healthy Extra B

For the ginger:

Large knob of ginger, about the size of your fist

1 cup sweetener

For the pudding:

70g porridge oats

1 Müllerlight rhubarb yogurt

1 tsp vanilla essence

350g cooked rhubarb

½ cup sweetener (or to taste)

½ tsp baking powder

2 eggs, separated

½ cup cooked ginger

a few more slices ginger

1-2 tsp ground ginger

Peel the ginger and slice into 1mm thick slices. Place in a saucepan with the sweetener and enough water to cover. Cook, covered, on a low heat for 2½ – 3 hours, checking on it from time to time to top up the water to stop it boiling dry. The ginger should have a translucent look about it when it's done.

Place the oats in a bowl and mix in the yogurt, vanilla essence and 1 tbsp water. Stir well and leave to soak overnight.

The next day, whip up the egg whites until soft peaks form. Place the ginger in a spice grinder or food processor and whizz until a pulp. Finely chop the extra ginger slices. Mix the cooked rhubarb, ginger pulp and bits, ground ginger, baking powder and sweetener to taste with the oat mixture. Mix in the egg yolks and finally fold in the egg whites.

I used two 4-inch cake tins to bake this in as I was planning on a cake, but next time I will use individual pudding basins. If you use one large basin, make sure you adjust the baking time accordingly.

Bake at 180°C for 25-30 minutes. The puddings will have a cake-like outside and a soft gooey centre. 

Purple Polkadot Pudding

Since starting back on the Slimming World diet I seem to have become obsessed with desserts. As long as I make then to fir within the plan I suppose it doesn't matter.

Serves 2

½ Syn on Extra easy

1 tub fat free natural yogurt

1 sachet of sugar free jelly – blackcurrant flavour

sweetener to taste

punnet of blueberries

Mix the jelly crystals with 200 ml of boiling water and stir well. Mix in the yogurt and sweetener.

Place the berries in a two glasses and top with the jelly mix. Leave in the fridge for several hours to set.