Chilli rice with chickpeas

I know I only just wrote a post about my favourite bolognese / mince but I made a dish with it that was so tasty it deserved it's own post! We had a pot-luck lunch at work last week where we all had to bring a dish, it being a foodie company it's higher pressure than if I just worked in a standard office (although I'm sure my colleagues would all argue it doesn't matter) - this meant something shop bought just wouldn't do!

Enough of my colleagues are keen on chilli for me to be fairly confident I can pick a spicy dish (my favourite) to cook for them. I wanted to do something that was filling and high protein without being too heavy. Rice is one of my favourite things ever - as I'm sure you've noticed from the number of risottos that end up in my Instagram feed (https://instagram.com/hannahalqadhi/) - so that seemed the perfect carb.

On the day it was just served warm and went very well with everyone else offerings - particularly the warm kale and broccoli salad, the greek salad, and of course, avocado!

Chilli rice with chickpeas

Large red onion, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 romano peppers, halved then finely sliced
1 tin chickpeas, drained
1 tin tomatoes
Lots of dried chilli
1 heaped tsp hot smoked paprika
Oregano
Salt and pepper
3-4 heaped tbsp mince (previous blog)
Coconut oil
200g rice (dry weight)

Warm the coconut oil to fry off the onion and garlic.
Once softened add the peppers and fry for a couple of minutes before adding the chickpeas along with spices and seasoning.
Once the spices have fried for a couple of minutes add your tinned tomatoes and puree, rinse out the tomato tin with a bit of water and add to the pan.
Cook your rice according to packet instructions, while cooking allow the chickpea mix to cook down a bit - about half way through add your mince.
Just before the rice is done add to the pan of mince and chickpeas, stir through.
Taste for seasoning and serve in whatever way you see fit - it went really well with salad (especially avocado as in the picture above) or if you're feeling adventurous on the weekend have it for brunch with a fried egg (and the obligatory avocado and chilli because I'm obsessed)!

Slow cooked bolognese

I've called this a bolognese but it's basically a one-size-fits-all mince - it can easily be a bolognese sauce for pasta, add some chillies and kidney beans for a chilli, or even layer up with aubergine for a beefy version of moussaka. I cook this a lot in very large batches and make it up into any number of dishes. You'll see a very similar variation on the mince sauce for my take on 'lasagne' in an earlier post. As you'll see this time I decided to get the slow cooker out to make super slow cook version of my favourite mince - I've also included a couple of examples of how I've used it this time.

A note on slow cookers - my grandma passed one of her slow cookers on to me (she had about 10 but that's another story!) with some strict instructions on using it successfully:
1. You must heat the slow cooker before adding your ingredients to it.
2. You must fry / brown off your ingredients before adding them to a slow cooker.
3. Add much less liquid than you think you'll need.

I questioned her and she was a little evasive around the specifics but logically I would guess that you need to treat the slow cooker as if it's the moment you put your dish in the oven. You would never expect to be able to throw a load of raw ingredients into a casserole dish, cook at 60 degrees for 8 hours and it taste as good as if you've taken the time to brown your meat first. To be honest the results of taking the time to follow the above three steps speak for themselves.

Slow cooked bolognese

2 x 400g packs minced British beef (I normally use around 10% fat but use whatever you have)

1 x 400g pack minced free range pork

2 large onions, diced

4-5 large cloves garlic, crushed of finely chopped

3 red peppers, diced

1 pack chestnut mushrooms, quartered or halved depending on size

2 tins of tomatoes

Tomato puree - approximately a tbsp

Large glass of red wine

Lots of dried oregano, basil, salt and pepper (esp. the dried herbs)

Coconut oil or meat fat - I happened to have a bit of coconut oil with chicken fat from previous frying off some chicken thighs but obviously use whatever you have - also if the idea of using meat fat freaks you out then steer well clear! :)

Turn the slow cooker on to low so it gets warm, at the same time heat the oil/fat in a pan on the stove.

Fry off the onion and garlic in the oil, when slightly softened add the meat and brown.

Once brown, add the meat to the slow cooker (you might need to do this in batches depending on how much space there is in the pan).

Once you've browned all the meat chuck the rest of the veg into the pan and cook off - it doesn't need to be soft in any way just start the frying process.

Use the wine to get any meat residue off the bottom of your pan, scrape the pan with a wooden spoon while you're stirring the veg in the red wine.

Add the tomatoes, puree, herbs, salt and pepper.

Bring to boiling point then add all the rest of the ingredients to the slow cooker - you might want to use a bit of water to rinse out the pan into the slow cooker but don't go overboard as slow cookers retain most of their moisture.

Put the lid on and keep the slow cooker on low while you are out for the day (so you get a delicious meal for when you come home from work!) - alternatively you can leave it to cook overnight.

Serve the mince in whatever way you see fit - below I've included a healthier option paired with cauliflower rice (left) or cheat meal style scattered along with jalapeños and olives on a pizza (right).

Baked Spanish omelette

After the overall success of my recent baked omelette / crustless quiche I've been experimenting with other fillings. I really like deep omelettes but they are so tricky to turn over without breaking them. I think I've found the perfect solution - invest in a silicon cake case. I have a bright orange one (pictured below), all you do is spray with a little oil and the omelette comes out perfectly. The recipe below is great with a big green salad for dinner or on it's own as a portable breakfast!

Baked Spanish omelette

Ingredients:

8 large, free-range eggs

2-3 potatoes, halved and finely sliced

Large white onion, halved and finely sliced

50g smoked, free range bacon lardons

Large handful curly kale

Salt and pepper

Coconut oil

Method:

Preheat the oven to about 160-180 fan.

Cook your potatoes - now controversially I cooked my potatoes in the microwave (about 5 minutes on high) in a bowl covered in cling film, I know some people disapprove of microwaves so please feel free to cook then in some boiling water but if you do this give them a decent amount of time to dry out before you add them to the frying pan.

While your potatoes are cooking fry your bacon lardons and onions in the coconut oil until the onions are soft and slightly browned, the bacon should have browned off at this point too.

By this point your potatoes should be cooked so can be added to the frying pan and lightly seasoned (don't forget you'll be seasoning the egg too so don't go overboard!).

Fry for a few minutes then set aside to cool slightly - I chucked them in my silicon mould to cool as it let some of the bacon and onion flavoured oil come off into the mould so I could use this to grease it.

Next add your curly kale to the pan, you can add some butter at this point if you like but I just used a splash of water to let it steam / fry a bit, once cooked add to the other cooked ingredients.

Beat your eggs in a large bowl and season, once your fillings are closer to room temperature add them to the eggs and stir though (it doesn't matter if they are still a bit hot as it just helps the egg cook a bit faster), pour the mix into your greased mould.

Make sure your mould is sat on a baking tray so it's steady then put in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until it is fully set.

Cut up and enjoy!

NB: You might want to cut up your bacon lardons so you get lots of small bacon bits all through the omelette rather than the odd massive chunk!