Having shed the winter woollies, I got on the scales recently and immediately realised I needed to shed more than a few woollies! All that lovely comfort food is now but a distant memory and the emphasis has to be on light and healthy.
I do get tired of all these culinary pundits who keep discovering ‘new’ healthy foods. Take kale for instance – a nice, leafy green vegetable we used to grow in the garden in England more years ago than I care to remember. Like all greens, it’s always been good for you, but suddenly it’s become the ‘must have’ superfood ingredient and you’d think no one had ever heard of it before.
It’s popping up in recipes everywhere, from smoothies to salads to sautés. I’m sorry, but the thought of a ‘healthy’ kale and cucumber smoothie for breakfast would not make me want to jump out of bed in the morning, whatever the pundits say.
Quinoa is another one which sprang up a few years back, but that’s one I do approve of. This ancient South American seed (pronounced keen-wa) is a source of all essential amino acids, contains lots of vitamins and provides calcium and iron, so it’s a perfect food, particularly for vegetarians. White, red or black quinoa, or a mixture of all three, is now widely available here. The seeds have a bitter coating which is removed before it’s packed and sold commercially, but I like to give it a rinse before using it. Try quinoa in minestrone instead of pasta, or substitute it for rice in risotto. It’s good in salads and, mixed with a few other ingredients, makes a nice bed for a fish fillet or chicken breast to sit on.
We’re always being told that a healthy diet should include wholegrains, and one that I like is wholegrain, high-fibre bulgur.
As it’s parboiled cracked wheat, it’s not suitable for those with a wheat intolerance, but not having that problem myself, I use it a lot, often substituting it for couscous. A traditional tabbouleh made with bulgur is a favourite of mine served cold in the summer months and decorated with peppers, tomatoes and olives, but it’s just as nice served hot.
Try it mixed with spices, dried fruit and cashew nuts as a stuffing for chicken breasts.
Lasagne with lots of meaty tomato sauce, béchamel and cheese, served hot and bubbling from the oven is guaranteed to warm the cockles of anybody’s heart, but that’s a bit too much for me in summer. Instead, I buy fresh egg lasagne sheets, halve them, fill them with spinach and ricotta and roll them into cannelloni.
Anointed with a light tomato sauce and a sprinkling of mozzarella and served with a green salad, they make a much lighter supper.
My biggest failing is that I have a very sweet tooth. I’m also a devoted white chocoholic, and as for those mini-Magnums – I just can’t resist them. So, trying to shed a kilo or two is difficult, to say the least.
Cutting out all sweet things is a misery, but I do treat myself occasionally to some carrot cupcakes.
Well, they are made with sunflower oil instead of butter, and together with all those healthy carrots, they must be good for me, surely.
Fish fillets with quinoa pilaf
(Serves 4)
200g quinoa
500ml vegetable stock
2 tbsps olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
1 stick celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Salt and ground black pepper
250g cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tbsps toasted pine nuts
1 tbsp shredded basil leaves
4 white fish or salmon fillets
Rinse the quinoa in several changes of water and drain. Heat the stock until boiling, add the quinoa, bring back to the boil and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the seeds become translucent, then drain.
Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the onion and celery until both begin to soften. Stir in the garlic and fry for two minutes more, then add the quinoa and season with salt and plenty of ground black pepper. Add the tomatoes, toss it all together, and cook over low heat for five minutes. Stir in the pine nuts and basil, then cover the pan and keep warm while you steam or fry the fish.
Divide the quinoa between warm plates, top with the fish and garnish with sprigs of basil.
Tabbouleh-stuffed chicken
(Serves 4)
150g medium bulgur wheat
Olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp each ground coriander and cumin
½ tsp cinnamon
3 tbsps roughly chopped cashew nuts
3 tbsps seedless raisins or sultanas
1 tbsp each chopped parsley and mint
Salt and ground black pepper
Juice of half a lemon
4 chicken breast halves
Chopped parsley
Put the bulgur into a bowl, cover with plenty of boiling water and leave to stand for 30 minutes.
Heat two tablespoons of oil in a pan and fry the onion until soft, then add the garlic and spices and fry for a minute more. Drain the bulgur, pressing out as much water as possible and add it to the pan, together with the nuts, raisins, parsley and mint.
Season well with salt and pepper, add three tablespoons of olive oil and the lemon juice and cook, stirring and turning over low heat for five minutes.
Slit each chicken breast down one side to create a deep pocket, without cutting all the way through. Stuff the pockets with as much of the bulgur as they will hold, reserving the rest to serve with the chicken. Pack the chicken in a lightly oiled baking dish just large enough to take them, standing them upright so that the stuffing won’t fall out. Drizzle with a little extra olive oil and bake in a preheated 200°C oven for about 25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
Serve the chicken with the remaining bulgur on warm plates and sprinkle with chopped parsley.
Carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
200g plain flour
2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
200g light soft brown sugar
160ml sunflower oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g finely grated carrots (prepared weight)
Half a 180g pack light Philadelphia cream cheese
4 tbsps icing sugar
2 tbsps roughly chopped pecan nuts
Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.
Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg together. Put the brown sugar, the oil, eggs and vanilla into a large bowl and beat them until they are well blended. Fold in the flour and then stir in the carrots. Divide the mixture between the baking cases and bake for about 20 minutes until well risen and brown. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes then transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack and cool completely.
Beat the cream cheese in a bowl, then gradually sift in the icing sugar. Drizzle the frosting on to the cakes and sprinkle with the chopped pecans.
Spinach and ricotta cannelloni
(Serves 4)
500g bag baby spinach
500g ricotta
Salt and pepper
Large pinch ground nutmeg
1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
500g passata
2 tbsps roughly chopped pitted black or green olives
2 tbsp shredded basil leaves
Pinch sugar
6 large sheets fresh lasagne
4 tbsps grated mozzarella
Rinse and drain the spinach, put it into a large pan and cook just until it’s wilted, then drain it thoroughly. Put the spinach into a bowl and chop it, then let it cool. Beat in the ricotta and season well with salt and pepper and the nutmeg.
Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onions until soft, then stir half of them into the spinach.
Add the passata to the rest of the onions, together with the olives, basil and sugar and season with salt and pepper.
Preheat the oven to 190°C. Cut the lasagne sheets in half widthwise. Lay the pieces out on the worktop and divide the spinach mixture between them, spreading it across the middle of each piece, then roll them up.
Spread three or four tablespoons of the tomato sauce into a shallow dish large enough to hold the cannelloni in one layer. Put in the cannelloni and pour the rest of the sauce over.
Sprinkle with the mozzarella and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes until brown and bubbling.