Veggie packed masala chickpea pilaff: Dairy free & vegan

This veggie packed chickpea pilaff feels a little like the answer to the unachievable - a quick, healthy, easy, and non sandwich based lunch that will keep me going until supper without raiding the biscuit tin!

One thing I have learned though, is that the key to said lunch, be it a pilaff, soup, noodles or pasta is to make it the night before - much like I do with M's packed lunch. That way, as soon as Harry's settled to his nap I can get on with sustaining myself for the afternoon's activities - be it a play date at the choo choo park, swimming lesson, nursery visit or just our errands.

This recipe mainly came about because of a really horrid cough, cold and sinusy virus (that's a medical term) that we've been stuck with for the last few weeks. It's hit Harry hardest and the poor love has been sofa bound with a rocketing temperature - thank heavens for Calpol. I really felt the need to put a stop to it via a nourishing bowl of something with a good kick of chilli and garlic.

There is so little faff with this recipe - the cooking can happen in one pan, and even the chopping is minimal, although I don't apologise for double podding the broad beans. Nearly all the veggies are from my freezer (sweetcorn, peas and broad beans being entirely out of season right now!) and I always have tinned chickpeas in.

Veggie packed masala chickpea pilaff
Serves 3 - 4 depending on portion size

Good spray fry light, or 2 tablespoons flavourless oil
60g bulghur wheat
300ml freshly boiled water
60g mushrooms, roughly chopped
60g peas
60g sweetcorn
60g broad beans
60g brocolli - broken into florets
1 tin chickpeas  2 cloves of garlic, crushed or chopped
1 green chilli, finely chopped
1 red onion, diced

2 tablespoons curry paste - I used a tikka masala one that we had open in the fridge, but you could use any you like.
1/4 pint of water

Pop the bulghur wheat in a bowl and cover in freshly boiled water - I use 60g of bulghur wheat and 300ml of  water - leave to stand for about 10 minutes until most of the water has been absorbed then drain in a seive (not a colander)


Put the peas, sweetcorn and broad beans into a microwaveable bowl, cover with boiling water and ping for a minute at a time until the broad beans are cooked (2 and half minutes in ours) then drain- I always take these out of their wrinkled white pods so that you just have the vibrant, soft green beans


Add the drained chickpeas, and veggies to the pan and stir the mushrooms and brocolli through. Put all of this into a large bowl and add the drained bulghur wheat

Put the pan back on the heat again (add more oil or fry light if necessary)and add the chilli, garlic and diced red onion. Cook these over a low heat for a good 10 minutes. Sorry, but this time you do want to keep stirring as the garlic and onion go horribly bitter if they catch and you want them to be sweetly softened.

To this add your curry paste and 1/4 pint of water. Bring this up to a simmer and let it cook for somewhere between 3 and five minutes(ish)

Pour this into the chickpea and veg bowl and stir so that everything is coated in the curry mix

If you're doing this the night before then split into 3 medium tupperware tubs and once cool put in the fridge. It keeps easily for the next three days and you can either warm it through or have it cold.

Roasted beetroot houmous: a dairy free weaning recipe

Houmous is such an easy win when weaning a CMPA baby, naturally dairy free, high in protein, and every baby I meet who's being weaned loves it. I make it at every opportunity (not least for the egg replacer aquafaba - as seen in my meringues) for Harry as it's such a favourite of is. He loves it mixed with grated carrot in sandwiches, on toast for a quick and easy post swimming lunch, with veggies dipped in, or simply in a bowl to grab handfuls of (when I'm pretending not to look).

I make a few variations of houmous: roasted, or sun-dried tomato, aubergine - but hadn't tried anything else until lately when the beetroots in my Seed Pantry veg patch were ready to be harvested. M got me my Seed pantry box for my birthday, and I have to say I wasn't enamoured to begin with (ungrateful wife that I am), but it was awesome. I loved planting my seeds and growing my veggies - I still have some late French beans and spinach to pick before I need to dig our little raised bed over. My trip to River Cottage cemented just how much I've changed my opinion on growing veggies - talking to their Head Gardener and making my mental list of seeds for next year, I'm excited already.

My Barbabietola di Chioggia beetroot was beautifully candy striped, which did however, mean that the humous wasn't the vivid pink I'd initially expected, rather a muted, Instagram filtered type of pink. It had a delicate earthy flavour, which worked beautifully with some pre roasted garlic and a light olive oil. 

We enjoyed this with my home made dairy free flatbreads - the only problem about making food from your veg patch is that once the veggies have gone you can't make any more! 

This is one recipe you really do need a food processor or blitzer of some sort for. 

Roasted beetroot houmous
Dairy free
Serves 4-6 adults or 8 babies

1 tin chickpeas (brine drained and saved for egg replacer duties)
2 medium beetroot
2 cloves garlic
4 sundried tomatoes
Olive oil - I used 4 tablespoons, but it'll depend on your ingredients and personal taste. You may want more or less.
1 tablespoon tahini (optional - don't buy it specially - just add extra olive oil)
Juice of half a lemon
If making for adults, add a teaspoon or so of salt

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees
Scrub, and chop the beetroot into eighths, peel the garlic and drizzle with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil
Wrap in foil and bake for 45 minutes to an hour - or until the beetroot is soft
Leave to cool
Drain the chickpeas and sun dried tomatoes, and put in the bowl of your food processor
Add the cooled beetroot, garlic, and olive oil left in the foil parcel and blitz until a rough puree
Add another couple of tablespoons of olive oil, the lemon juice and the tahini if using, and blitz until slightly smoother - if making for adults add salt now

Flatbread recipe to follow when I manage to take pictures - I keep forgetting and we eat them warm!

When you're happy with the texture, you're done. I store this in a tupperware in the fridge. Much like home made pesto I make sure the top layer is covered with some fresh olive oil.

Spring vegetable orzotto - Slimming world lighter lunches (dairy free, soya free)

I've not done much in the way of Slimming World posts of late, and to be honest my weight loss is all the worse for it. So last week I bit the bullet and returned to my planningy ways, making a big batch of this to keep in the fridge. Eaten while Harry napped it made me realise just how much easier it is to stay on plan when I actually eat a lunch as opposed to grazing and picking.

My problem with Slimming World is still that all treaty, low syn things are chock full of sweeteners that prompt my migraines, or dairy, soya or eggs which are all on our allergy list. Last week I was very honest (and nearly tearful) in group about just how hard I'm finding it and was hugely grateful for the support there.

I found this recipe online, but had to change it up to first off make it dairy free, and secondly to give it a bit more flavour - I've made it twice since the adaptation and am happy with it. According to the app, it works out as 1 syn per 4 portions.

You could use any combination of green veggies - I've used mange tout, brocolli, asparagus, broad beans, spinach and anything else we've had to hand. It's a great fridge bottom dish to use up those odds and ends languishing in the vegetable drawer.

Spring vegetable orzotto - dairy free, egg free, soya free (adapted from the Slimming World website)
Serves 4

Fry light
300g orzo
100g spinach, leaves picked
1 head brocolli, chopped
100g frozen peas
300 ml vegetable stock
500g broad beans
Big handful asparagus/ french beans
1 Red onion, finely chopped
2 tins anchovies in olive oil (entirely optional, I know some people abhor them)
2 chillis, deseeded and finely chopped
3 cloves garlic
Salt and pepper

Cook the orzo in a ban of boiling, salted water. Once cooked (about 9 minutes) drain and set aside
At the same time, cook the spinach, brocolli, peas - and if you're using asparagus, the bottom of the stems in 300ml of veg stock (I use Marigold bouillon) for 5 minutes
Allow to cool - don't drain. Once cool pour the lot into a food processor or blender and whizz up. Put this to one side
Drain both tins of anchovies of oil, and chop the anchovies finely - put one tins worth to one side.
Spray a big frying pan liberally with fry light and over a medium heat soften the onion, garlic, chilli and one tin of chopped anchovies for about 10 minutes
Add the orzo to the pan, and then pour in the blended vegetable puree and stir to warm everything through
Stir in the second tin of anchovies, add pepper. Taste, and add salt if necessary - oddly I find it does need salt in addition.

I have this as is, eaten off my knees while Harry naps. It's also lovely at room temperature as a pasta salad, and if you're having it cold it goes really nicely with chopped tomatoes.

I'm linking this up with Pasta Please - hosted this month by Slice Off Me and Tinned Tomatoes  

Have you made anything from the Slimming World website? What are your favourites?

Slimming World lighter lunches - Syn free tabbouleh

My healthy 2015 is going well, I'm losing weight slowly but steadily and am as active as my hips and back will allow. One of the bonuses of baby led weaning is that Harry and I seem to eat very healthily - lots of vegetables and next to no processed food. Despite a wet, cold and rainy morning the baby and I are eating an apple (he is very keen on eating what you eat) and I have a herbal tea.

Lunches however are my downfall - only of the things that happens if we're busy is that I skip lunch and end up trying to eat the entire kitchen before supper. I seem to be someone who needs to know that what I've got to eat is tasty and satisfying, the mugshots etc which can be so popular at Slimming World just don't tend to hit the mark for me, so I typically make a batch of something up for lunch that I can either eat from the fridge or as a pack up. This gets around the difficulty of finding things I can grab and go that are dairy and soya free as well.

This is more of a tabbouleh-esque recipe as it doesn't use bulghur wheat and is more of a guideline. I tend to have it with a piece of fish, or leftover chicken, or ham. The protein is important as I'm discovering that it's that that keeps the munchies away and stabilises my blood sugar (previous attempts at weightloss that have involved *ahem* skipping meals tend to fail when my blood sugar spirals into my ballet flats at about 3pm - see comment above about eating the entire kitchen).

Syn free tabbouleh

1 cup couscous
2 tsp vegetable bouillon powder
1 cup boiling water
1 cucumber
4 big vine tomatoes
Big bunch flat leaf parsley
Big bunch mint
1 lemon
1/2 clove garlic
salt & pepper

Put the couscous in a bowl with the 2 tsp of vegetable boillon and the grated garlic (you could use a stock cube, but I found 1 cube made it too salty) and the boiling water. Leave to absorb for about 15 minutes
Dice the cucumber and tomatoes
Finely chop the parsley, and the mint leaves - I don't worry about the parsley stalks, but pick the mint leaves first. 
Zest the lemon, then juice
Add all the extra ingredients to the couscous, taste then season.
Serve with salmon, ham, chicken - anything really.

 If you aren't being healthy, then add some extra virgin olive oil when you season this - 2 tablespoons should do nicely.

Of course you can use this as a base and add any and all veggies you like, chilli would be a nice addition too. 

Spicy pepper and tomato soup: A Slimming World syn free recipe

Lunches for me of late are soup. Lets face it, until it's warm enough for salad - soup is pretty much the standard. I tend to rotate between favourites, of late my minestrone soup has been my go to. This week I fancied a change. Lacking much in the way of inspiration I remembered something I'd seen on our Slimming World group and decided to work with that as a starting point. The poster said hers was quick and easy and my variation really was too. The best part of it is that it's all storecupboard ingredients, so it's an easy one to have the ingredients for on hand, just in case you're in need of something quick, easy and syn free.

Spicy Pepper and tomato soup - syn free, dairy free, soya free, egg free
Serves 4

1 jar Peppadew peppers or similar - I used the hot piquant ones as I like a bit of spice, but if you're not a fan of heat, why not have the sweet ones
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 litre chicken stock
1 tin cannelini beans

Drain the peppers, and pop the lot in a pan
Add the tin of tomatoes
Add the chicken stock
Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes
Take off the heat and cool, before blitzing to a consistency you're happy with
Add the drained cannelini beans, warm through before serving

If you're doing Slimming World then you could use your Healthy Extra B to have wholemeal bread with it. I tend to use my Healthy Extra B for oats so just have it by itself. M has it with my homemade 50:50 wholemeal.

Feeding the mummy

One of the things I've noticed since having Harry is just how difficult it is to fit in eating when at home with the baby. Essentially you need food that can be eaten with one hand (as the baby is in the other), is quick to prepare and has minimal fallout. Tell me I'm not the only new mummy who's dusted the baby's head with flakes of pastry, toast crumbs, and the odd grain of rice?

There are some things I've found that make actually fitting eating in easier as well as some foods that are easier to eat.  And not just chocolate digestives!

• Chop things like veggies up into bite size pieces the night before - either once the baby's in bed or when you can hand him over to your husband/ partner. This serves two functions, if you can just grab a bowl out of the fridge then you've got snacks ready.
• Mini babybel (other small cheeses are available) Again, can be grabbed and eaten one handed. And yes, I know that I could chop cheese up, but it's something else to remember to do. And I just chopped those veggies, remember? Its time for bed now. I particularly like pairing them with an apple.
• Ritz crackers, again grab and go. also see cereal bars (I like the Naked ones)
• If your partner (or you) are doing packed lunches then double up and pop it in the fridge. Sandwiches work best cut into quarters. Lettuce is pointless unless you want to give the baby a hat.

• Leftovers - make (or get someone else to make) extra dinner. Flasks are your friend: tea, leftover pasta (not spaghetti) soup, coffee. Oh coffee. All stay hot, so you can fill it during a nap and if your lunch falls during a feed you're sorted. Because it does, it always does.
• A sports bottle. I mentioned this in my previous post about breast feeding,  but it's really true. I wouldn't refill a glass as frequently as I would need to, but a bottle keeps !e going long enough so I stay hydrated.
• Fruit - I either chop up fruit so its in pieces (I learnt this when working in Dementia services: people are more likely to eat fruit that's in pieces as opposed to whole. If you squeeze a lemon over it you get that Haribo sourness as a bonus (just me then)

• Cake. It's a given but it never hurts to state the obvious.
• And if all else fails: chocolate digestives

Salad Days - a warm spring salad

Today's lunch. Well, with the sun finally putting his hat on I thought it was time to crack out the salad. Not in their true sense, but a variation thereof. So here we have a warm salad. After all, there's still a nip in the air, and whilst this sates my need for something healthy (I use the term loosely) it does still have strong flavours and a sense - from the oil in the dressing of being luxurious. 

This was one of those recipes that came to me whilst looking in the fridge, and just putting things together in my head. In terms of a recipe it's more of a loose approximation of what needed using up and would go relatively well together. Despite having a surfeit of parsnips and carrots, they didn't make their way in as I didn't fell they fitted with the other veg. 

Warm Spring Salad

1 bulb fennel sliced so it's still relatively chunky

2 courgettes, cubed

1 yellow pepper, cubed

1 orange pepper, cubed (by the way, Sainsbury's Basics peppers are brilliant, and much much cheaper than their regular ones)
1 leek sliced finely

1/2 a chorizo sausage, skinned and cubed

1 bulb garlic, smashed

Drizzle of olive oil

Dried thyme, sprinkled (probably about a teaspoon)

2 bay leaves

2 glasses white wine/ veg stock

Salt and Pepper

Balsamic vinegar

Rocket or watercress to serve

Aubergine, celery, cherry tomatoes would all be good additions, it's just I didn't have them.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees

Chop your vegetables so that they're roughly the same size and put them in a roasting tin. Try to keep them in one layer so that they cook relatively evenly

Add the chorizo, garlic cloves, herbs and salt and pepper

Drizzle with some olive oil and pour the white wine/ veg stock (about half a pint/ 2 wine glasses of either) over the veg

Cook in the preheated oven for about half an hour. Or until the veg is soft and starting to caramelise on the edges

Take out of the oven and leave to cool for about 10 minutes (so it's nice and warm but neither hot nor cold)

Serve in a bowl with lots of rocket or watercress (the pepperiness cuts through the dressing)

Pour off a little of the oil and cooked down wine into a jam jar, add some balsamic vinegar (sherry or white wine vinegar would be fine I imagine) put the lid on and give a good shake. Pour this over your warm salad and either toss through or if you're lazy like me, do some work while it sits on the side. 

Serve with some crusty bread, it's an idea working from home lunch in that it feels a bit more decadent than sandwiches or soup, but as it's basically a fridge bottom recipe is cheap and uses up veg that might be slightly past it's best. 

Alteration:

I would use the veg base for this as the basis of a sausage bake and serve with baked potatoes for an evening meal. It would be lovely, and you could spoon off some of the oils, and make a kind of gravy with any burnt bits of veg on the bottom of the pan. Lovely. 

Souper Dooper: Tom yum soup

It's actually a take on Tom yum soup. Without the coconut milk, and with a dash of fridge-bottom ness about it, making it slightly more frugal than either the name or this post would suggest.

I really have no appetite right now, my inclination is oddly, not towards traditional comfort foods, but to the clearing spice and cleanness of thai (or at the very least, thai influences). That said, this was a cobbled together lunch that made use of the last of my veg box, and a jar of tom yum paste left over from the Fusionfood challenges late last year.

1 glug oil
3 tablespoons tom yum paste (I used FusionFoods)
1 clove garlic crushed
3 pieces of galangal (I use Waitrose's dried galangal)
1/2 tsp lazy chilli
250g prawns (it's amazing what you find when you dig through your freezer)
Spring greens, leaves finely shredded
1 stick celery shredded
1 red pepper, chopped into matchsticks
Handful rice noodles
Boiling water

Heat the oil gently in a wok or frying pan and add the paste, cook until you can smell the aromatics
Add the garlic, chilli and galangal and continue to fry gently
Add the prawns and cook through until hot
Meanwhile, pour a kettle full of boiling water over the noodles and the shredded greens, and leave for about 4 minutes
Drain, the greens & noodles and add to the wok/ pan, stirring briefly
Add 150ml(ish) of boiling water into the wok/ pan and stir so that everything is combined
Serve in a bowl, and eat, alone and away from a mirror

The original recipe asked for coconut milk to be added at the end of cooking, and then coriander. I didn't add these as I didn't have them in and I didn't want the cooling sweetness of the coconut milk. That said this was particularly fiery and the sourness really came through, so it could probably do with the balance of the coconut milk. Something about it's clearing heat really appeals to me, with the lightly cooked vegetables and freshness of the broth says healing to me. And after all, that is what I'm after at the moment.

What appeals to me about this is that it could be prettied up into a lovely dinner, or if pushed for time and fresh food (like myself) a quick and easy lunch for one.

Meal Planning Monday: The healing edition

After last week's slightly incoherent, rambly post about the ills of hospital food, I'm still at home and slowly getting back to full strength. I'm hoping to go back to work next week, but have to get checked out by the doctor to say that's OK first. Consequently this week features a lot of comfort food, as demanded both by the weather and by the slowly healing system of this poorly person.

Breakfasts are 0% Total Greek yoghurt with some lightly stewed eating apples that I cooked down this evening with about 100g of sultanas soaked in orange juice and zest. I'm planning on making some granola to add some crunch - apparently crunchy foods increase serotonin and I've been craving them since my release last week.

Lunches for me are another batch of Nigella's split pea and frankfurter soup, with a good spoonful of lazy chilli stirred through.

Dinners, as I say are full on comfort food. It's not so much about calories, but about needing that soothing unctuousness that comfort food provides. M has work and Welsh this week so I'm getting the slow cooker back out for a hearty, warming casserole:

Monday: Toad in the hole, mashed potatoes and vegetables

Tuesday: Chicken and sweet leek pie with vegetables- cauliflower and spring greens I think

Wednesday: Chicken, butternut squash and barley casserole - I'll blog this as it's a long standing recipe I've been using for years that doesn't seem to have made the blog as yet

Thursday: Leftover casserole

Friday: Apparently I said we'd find out when we got there which means my brain was addled after thinking up four dinners. The fact that I just had to ask M this is evidence that I really am not on form yet.

I should be getting beetroot in my veg box tomorrow so M has requested Jenny's Beetroot chocolate cake, and I have a bit of a craving (is it the crunch again?) for Eccles cakes, so will be breaking out my t&t Delia recipe. 

I've promised M a roast on Sunday as he's at archery in the morning, so will either do the slow roast pork from the other week, or go steady on the cauliflower in the week and do roast beef and cauliflower cheese. Oh I think I've just decided! Beef it is, with a mustardy crust. Yum.