Spicy chicken casserole with quinoa

One of my favourite things to do when I have a bit of time is to make a casserole. There is something comforting about doing very little and letting a pot blip away on your stovetop or in the oven for a couple of hours while letting the house fill with delicious smells. Flavours seem to meld together in a much tastier and smooth way than a speedy cook; meat also becomes tender and succulent. In this case I've used chicken thighs but beef or lamb stewing meat would work equally well. You could also cook the chicken bone in - just remember to warn your guests/housemates/family!

Spicy chicken casserole with quinoa

Ingredients:

6 free range chicken thighs, de-boned
2 large white onions
3 courgettes
1 aubergine
1 red pepper
Pack of chestnut mushrooms
Garlic, 3-5 cloves depending on size
Tin of chickpeas, drained
Tin of tomatoes
Bomba tomato paste (or normal if you prefer)
Dried oregano
Dried basil
Ground coriander
Hot smoked paprika
Chilli flakes
Chicken stock (preferably homemade but use an organic stock cube if not)
Salt and pepper
Coconut oil
Quinoa, around 50g per person
Pesto, homemade or jarred

Method:

Put your quinoa on to soak, you can rinse before cooking instead but as we've got hours in makes sense to just soak in cold water.
Brown the chicken thighs in coconut oil then set aside.
While browning slice the onions and garlic.
Once you've set the chicken aside, use the same pan to fry the onions and garlic until they have become soft. I add a pinch of salt here to help the onions soften. They will need 5-10 mins to soften thoroughly, you want them to almost melt away in the cook.
Again while doing this chop your courgettes, aubergine, red pepper and mushrooms. I did large chunks for this as it is a long slow cook so leave any small mushrooms whole and only half the larger ones. You'll see from the pictures above the vegetables soften and shrink down.
Add the vegetables and let them start to fry, you can also add your herbs and spices here, I just shake them in then adjust to taste but if you prefer measurements I would do about a heaped tablespoon of each herb and a heaped teaspoon of each spice.
After the vegetables and spices have fried together for a few more minutes add the chickpeas, tinned tomatoes (rinse the tin out with water and add to the pan) and Bomba/tomato paste.
Stir everything together, transfer your chicken back into the pan and top up with chicken stock - you want the stock to cover everything generously as this is going to cook for a good few hours.
Turn the heat right down and leave for 2-3 hours to bubble away, stirring every so often if you are cooking on a stovetop to stop things sticking.
Once the liquid has reduced and everything is looking/tasting good then cook your quinoa according to packet instructions (it varies but around 15 minutes in boiling salted water).
Have a final taste of your casserole and season with salt and pepper.
Serve up with quinoa and top with a drizzle of pesto (or a few dollops if you're me!) - I almost always use jarred pesto because I'm lazy but by all means make your own, it will add another level of freshness to the dish.

Store cupboard soup

I made a beautiful roast chicken last week for our dinner (pictured below) and can't bear to waste the carcase. I pick every bit of meat of the bones and then make stock. Homemade stock is so much better for you than shop bought (although I will readily admit to using both). It can be used to improve risottos or simply to make soup. Having made my stock I decided to go down the soup route although you can easily freeze stock as well to use as and when you need it.

Spicy tomato, pepper and chickpea soup

Ingredients:

Chicken stock, I would guess I had approximately 3-4 pints but can't be sure
1 tin chickpeas
1 tin tomatoes
1 jar roasted peppers (I use Cooks & Co so 460g)
1 whole red chilli, seeds and all
Generous quirt of tomato puree or Bomba
Oregano
Basil
Salt and pepper
Handful of dried, gluten free pasta (I happened to have some left in the bottom of a bag so chucked it in to thicken the soup, you can easily leave this out)

Method:

Roughly chop any ingredients that need it then chuck everything into the hot stock.
Let it bubble away for approximately half an hour until everything is nicely softened.
Blitz with a hand blender and reduce further if needed.
Serve with rye bread or alone - it was particularly nice with avocado on rye with grated Parmesan over the top.

NB: To make your stock you simply put your bones in a large pan with a few stock veggies - I used onion, carrot and the ends of my two celery hearts along with about a tablespoon of pepper corns. Cover with water and simmer for a couple of hours, the more you reduce it the stronger the flavour will be.

Clean and lean pizza

Now I must admit this recipe is all thanks to last month's Waitrose magazine. I haven't even tinkered with the base recipe as I thought it was lovely as it was. The below recipe for the dough is taken directly from Waitrose and can be found on their website under 'Tom Hunt's spelt pizza with asparagus, radish and burrata'. I am simply putting it up here both so I have access to it if Waitrose ever decide to take it down and because I put a very different topping on mine! The great thing about this recipe is the dough only needs to prove for 1 hour and is made of ingredients I always have in the cupboard anyway.

Ingredients:

Dough:

200g wholegrain spelt flour, plus extra for rolling

1⁄2 tsp fine salt

1⁄2 tsp easy bake yeast

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for kneading and to serve

Sauce:

Passata

Bomba tomato puree (this is delicious but you can use plain tomato puree if you prefer)

Spicy BBQ sauce (not strictly clean and lean but adds a really tasty smokiness to the sauce)

Salt and pepper

Toppings:

1 red onion finely sliced

1 roasted red pepper (again these are the jarred ones I like) cut into long strips

Jalapeno pepper slices

Handful cherry tomatoes

Goat's cheese

Cheddar cheese (or mozzarella if you have it)

1 egg (I would have done more eggs but we only had one left in the fridge)

Method:

Put the flour in a bowl, make a well in the centre and add the other dough ingredients. Add 120ml warm water and mix to a smooth, slightly sticky dough. Knead for 5 minutes; add a little more oil if it sticks to your hands.

Leave to rise in a covered bowl for 1 hour - I put mine in the airing cupboard with a tea towel over the top but if you have cling film that’s probably easier.

You can prepare your toppings while the pizza dough rises although I tend to just add them straight on the the rolled out pizza as I go, either way if you are preparing in advance this would be when to do it.

Preheat the oven to 250 ̊C, gas mark 9.

Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour and roll the dough into a rectangle about 30cm x 25cm (or in my case to the size of your baking tray so you can have the biggest pizza possible!).

Roll onto the rolling pin, then lay on your baking tray - the official instructions say flour the tray but I oiled it instead. Fit the base into the tray ensuring the edges are slightly raised so no topping can escape.

Squeeze a generous amount of puree onto the base, add a small amount of BBQ sauce and then as much passata as needed to give you a generous tomato base, season to taste. Spread this out evenly then arrange your toppings across the pizza, I used goats cheese and cheddar but mozzarella would obviously be preferable if you have it. Crack your egg on last trying to keep the yolk whole.

Bake for 10-15 minutes depending on how hot your oven is - all ovens are slightly different and mine took 12 minutes to cook.

NB: If I am making lots of pizzas for an occasion I make a healthier version of the tomato base, fry an onion and a few cloves of garlic until soft, add oregano and basil (dried is fine), a good squirt of Bomba or normal tomato puree and one tin of tomatoes - I will add a splash of red wine here too if there is an open bottle, if not rinse the tomato tin with a little water. Allow to cook down and reduce for 10 minutes or so. Once reduced, taste and season then blitz to a smooth sauce. This is also really nice with pasta (obviously I go wheat free but it's not necessary).

Clean and lean pudding for two greedy flatmates!

I'm a sucker for anything chocolatey and I had a real craving for mousse today. I wanted to do something that used clean and lean ingredients but I'm not keen on the idea of an avocado mousse. It's not that I doubt it will be nice but I like eating avocados so much as they are it seems a waste to hide them in a mousse. This is basically a mix of the ingredients I had in the fridge loosely based on recipes from Lorraine Pascale and Delia Smith - both recipes used 'forbidden' ingredients so I did a bit of tinkering. I hope you will like the result - me and my flatmate definitely did!

Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients:

85g dark chocolate

120-150ml double cream

1-2 tbsp amaretto

Vanilla extract

1 large egg separated

Squeeze, approx 25g agave

Handful of raspberries

Method:

Melt chocolate in double cream over a bain-marie, add a splash of amaretto.

Let it cool for a couple of minutes and stir through the egg yolk, you might need to add a tiny bit more cream if it seems too thick at this point.

Whisk the egg white with the vanilla extract, once it's getting stiff add a squeeze of agave syrup and whisk until stiff peaks form, you won't need much agave as the vanilla helps it seem sweeter.

Fold the whites carefully into the cooled chocolate mix, spoon into dishes (either 2 or 4 depending on the portions you want) and put in the fridge to set for a couple of hours.

Either eat as they are or top with raspberries as in the picture. Alternatively if you want something more decadent go for whipped cream/crème fraîche and a grating of dark chocolate.

Multi-option risotto

There's nothing like a bit of comfort food on a bank holiday weekend. Sunday's can be a bit depressing - after all even if you love your job it's still not quite the same as swanning around town over the weekend - luckily it's bank holiday so I've been able to stay up a bit later to write. Risotto is one of the ultimate comfort foods in my opinion. The carb aspect goes without saying, having a creaminess to the dish helps even more. The fantastic thing about risotto is you can chuck pretty much anything in you like - mushroom is one of my favourites!

Chicken and Spinach Risotto

(or Chicken and Lemon depending on your available ingredients!)

Ingredients:

400g risotto rice (I use arborio)

1 white onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

100-250ml white wine or vermouth (I used 100ml vermouth on this occasion as it was all I had available but you can add as much or as little as you like and top up with stock)

2 pints of chicken or vegetable stock (you might need a bit extra if you are using less wine)

400g chicken breast, poached in the stock you will be using then chopped into bite sized pieces

Spinach (I used 5 cubes of frozen and defrosted but a bag of fresh is great)

20g coconut oil (flavourless is better if possible)

80g butter

Juice of two lemons

150g parmesan cheese plus extra to grate over the top

Salt and pepper

Method:

Poach your chicken in advance and set aside to cool, I used mini-fillets and cooked them for only about 5-8 minutes. Make sure you do reserve the stock you poach them in as it will be perfect for cooking your risotto.

Heat your coconut oil on a medium heat, once hot add 20g of butter and sweat your onions and garlic off. You do not want them to colour just to soften so I add a pinch of salt here too to help draw the moisture out.

Add your risotto rice, coat in the oil and allow to cook for a couple of minutes. This will toast off the grains and give them a nuttier flavour.

Once toasted pour in your wine and stir slowly to allow it to absorb.

Add your stock ladleful at a time, stirring slowly and allowing to absorb each time. Don't stir too vigorously or you will be left with a claggy mess. I think the best way to cook risotto is make sure you are drinking a glass of wine at the same time. It gives you the right relaxed atmosphere of keeping an eye but not obsessively stirring away - I'm sure there is healthier advice out there but that's my method!

Taste it as you are getting towards the last few ladlefuls - you want a bit of bite to the rice but no starchy quality left. Once you are nearly there add in your chicken to allow it to heat back through.

At this point you can decide how many extras you want to add - if you are going for Chicken and Lemon you just need to let the rice finish cooking, stir through your lemon juice, remaining butter and parmesan then leave to stand with a lid on for 5 minutes.

Alternatively if you want to add more then stir through your other ingredients, I've used spinach here but peas or mushrooms would also be great. Once these are incorporated you can continue as above - I'd lose the lemon if you're going for mushrooms but with both others it will work well.

Once you've left it to stand this is your last chance to adjust and taste for seasoning, you might want to add more parmesan here or a bit more stock if it seems too set.

Serve up, top with more parmesan and a good grinding of black pepper.

Chicken and Lemon Risotto

Chicken and Spinach Risotto

Tuesday night dinner!

I love stir fries (and basically any form of Asian food) so cook them a lot for our evening meals. They are healthy, filling and a great way to pack in loads of veg. As you will have noticed from previous posts I am from the 'chuck in what's in the fridge' school of cooking.

I always keep a packet of raw prawns in the freezer (you can buy them already frozen or freeze your own if you have a great local fishmonger). Using prawns as the base you can add whatever vegetables you have handy. If I've got one I'll always start with an aubergine because I think it takes on the flavours for a stir fry amazingly well, it does need to be cooked through though so add to the pan first. If you're hungry or want to stretch the meal out I'd also add some rice noodles or cold cooked rice - this route is also very good with an egg or two added.

Tonight's version is prawns, various vegetables and rice noodles (we'd run out of eggs) with enough for a meal for two and packed lunches the next day. Now I must admit to using a bit of ready made sauce but I am of the opinion than life is too short to be obsessive over staying clean and lean. I want a healthy new way of life, not a diet I feel I must stick to very prescriptive guidelines. Obviously if you are being super strict you can easily make your own sauces.

Prawn and vegetable stir fry with rice noodles

Ingredients:

200g rice noodles, cooked according to packet instructions and cooled

250g frozen, raw prawns

1 aubergine

1 red pepper

1 pack button mushrooms

2 pak choi

Very large thumb size piece of fresh ginger, peeled

2 red chillies

4 large cloves of garlic

5/6 spring onions thickly sliced

Bunch of fresh coriander - stalks finely chopped and leaves torn or roughly chopped

Shaoxing wine

Rice vinegar (preferably white)

Soy sauce

Fish sauce

Chilli sauce - I use Lee Kum Kee 'Chilli Garlic Sauce'

Juice of 1 lime

Dried chilli flakes

Chinese five spice

Sichuan pepper

Coconut oil

Method:

Chop all your veg before you start cooking, stir frying is too quick to be chopping as you go. I always chop the ginger, chilli and garlic very finely. I chop the aubergine into small cubes then slice the red pepper, quarter the mushrooms and slice up the pak choi reserving the leaves separately.
Once you have all the veg chopped heat some coconut oil in a wok until it's smoking hot, add your aubergine, ginger, chilli and garlic.
Fry off for about a minute then add a good slosh of shaoxing wine, rice vinegar, soy and a couple of shakes of fish sauce - I would guess I use about a tablespoon or two of wine, vinegar and soy with a teaspoon of fish sauce.
Cook until the aubergine has softened as the last thing you want is crunchy aubergine in your stir fry, the aubergine will probably absorb most of the liquid.
Once the aubergine is soft add the strips of red pepper and the mushrooms, fry off for a couple of minutes then add the frozen prawns, pack choi (white part only for now), chilli flakes, chinese five spice and some finely chopped coriander stalks.
Keep stir frying, once the prawns are defrosted add the noodles with a splash more soy and the chilli sauce and heat through, at this point you should also add the pak choi leaves and spring onions.
Take off the heat, stir everything through, add the lime juice and coriander leaves reserving a few for on the top.
Dish up into bowls and/or lunch boxes, top with the reserved coriander and crushed sichuan pepper (I use a pepper grinder for this because I add it to lots of things but a pestle and mortar will work equally well). Tuck in!

Creamy greens with wheat-free pasta

I've always loved pasta but since going wheat-free I try not to eat too much of it. Sometimes when I have a real hankering for it I will resort to the wheat-free varieties. In an ideal world I'd probably steer clear of even that and go for spiralised veg instead. I've recently discovered the joys of courgetti but sometimes only pasta will do! This is one of my favourite combinations of lots of green veg with a lovely creamy cheese sauce, if you wanted to you could also make it into a pasta bake.

Creamy greens with wheat-free pasta (Serves two)

Ingredients:

150g Wheat free pasta - I used Free-from penne pasta
1/2 head of broccoli, chopped into florets
50g frozen peas
40g frozen, shelled edamame beans
50ml double cream
100g goats cheese - I used a mix of soft and semi-soft
50g parmesan cheese with extra to top
Salt and pepper
Chilli flakes

Method:

Add your pasta to a large pan of boiling salted water, after a couple of minutes add the broccoli.
Once the pasta has been cooking for 5-6 minutes add the peas and edamame beans.
Cook until the pasta is done then drain reserving a mug of the pasta water, return the pasta and veg to the saucepan - for me this took about 10 minutes but it will depend on your cooker and how al dente you like your pasta.
Ideally your broccoli should be slightly overcooked so it can be mashed up slightly with a fork.
Add the cream, goats cheese and parmesan, stir through to melt the cheese, add a bit of the reserved pasta water to loosen the sauce slightly.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve up and top with chilli flakes and extra parmesan.