Category: Nutritious

For the times when you realise you should probably eat something with some healthy stuff in it.
Irish Stew with Dumplings

Irish Stew with Dumplings

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One day I’ll stop doing a themed dish for every post, but today’s not that day. Apparently it’s St Patrick’s day on Saturday so it’s time to start digging out the shamrocks and leprechauns to celebrate. Alongside that a good lamb and potato stew should definitely be on the menu. This one is full of nourishing veg and tender lamb shoulder, which goes really well with the light herby dumplings and warming broth to make a hearty meal all in one pot!

Stews also always taste better a few days after they’re made, so you can make this up to two days in advance without the dumplings, leave it in the fridge and then carry on the recipe from step 7 when you need it.

Recipe

Serves 6

Time: 30 minutes prep, 2 hours cooking

Ingredients

For the Stew

  • 2 tbsp Vegetable oil
  • 1 White onion, roughly chopped
  • 450g Lamb shoulder pieces
  • 2 Large baking potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters
  • 1 Leek, Finely sliced
  • 2 Large carrots, peeled an roughly chopped
  • 2 tbsp Plain flour
  • 750ml Beef stock
  • Salt and pepper to season

For the Dumplings

  • 150g Butter
  • 250g Self-raising flour
  • 2 tbsp Chopped mixed herbs

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C.
  2. Put the oil into a large frying pan and put over a medium heat. Add the chopped onion and fry gently until it starts to caramelise. Tip this into an oven-proof casserole dish.
  3. Add the lamb pieces to the pan you cooked the onions in and fry until the pieces have browned all over. Season the meat and then add the lamb to the dish with the onions.
  4. Cover the lamb and onions with the chopped potatoes, leeks and carrots, and then mix it all together.
  5. Add the flour to the pan you cooked the lamb in and cook it on a gentle heat for about 3 minutes so it soaks up all the juices. Then slowly add the beef stock whilst stirring until you have a smooth, lump-free sauce.
  6. Pour this sauce over the meat and vegetables. Cover the casserole with a lid and then put it into the oven to cook for 90 minutes. Check on this several times to make sure the sauce hasn’t reduced too much, if the meat or vegetables are exposed cover with more water.
  7. Now make the dumplings. Put the butter and flour into a large bowl. Using a knife cut the butter into little pieces in the flour, and then go in with you fingers and rub the butter into the flours to make a mixture like breadcrumbs.
  8. Stir in the herbs, salt and pepper to season. Pour in 150ml water and stir with a round bladed knife to form a dough. Flour your hands and roll the dough into small balls.
  9. Put the dumplings around the edge of the stew and put back into the oven uncovered to bake for another 25-30 minutes.
  10. Serve!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Pesto Salmon and Sweet Potato Traybake

Pesto Salmon and Sweet Potato Traybake

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So I’ve got to the end of detox January and on the whole it’s been pretty successful. I’ve found that making healthy dishes look appetizing is extremely hard, but you can still make meals that are super tasty. This one, for example, may look green, textureless and as though it’s come straight out of a 1970’s cookbook, but it tastes insane. Even better than that, it’s low-effort and only needs 6 ingredients!

Note: If you’re not a fan of the strong fishy taste that comes with salmon this also works really well with cod, and if you’re not a fan of sweet potato you can easily use any other root vegetable!

Recipe

Serves 2

Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 Sweet potatoes
  • 1 tbsp Olive oil
  • 2 Salmon fillets (I went for tail fillets as they’re cheaper and cook quicker)
  • 2 tbsp Pesto
  • 1 Red pepper, de-seeded and cut into chunks
  • 100g Vine tomatoes

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
  2. Cut the sweet potatoes into batons and then put into a deep roasting tin, (you can leave the skins on the potatoes). Drizzle with the oil, season with salt and pepper, and then mix to coat.
  3. Put the tin into the oven and roast for 20-25 minutes.
  4. Once the potatoes have been in for this long you can start on the salmon. Put the salmon onto a sheet of tin foil, skin side facing down. Spoon the pesto over the fish, spreading it out into an even layer. Wrap the foil loosely around the salmon so it’s in a little, enclosed parcel.
  5. Put this salmon parcel into the tin with the sweet potatoes, (you may need to move the potatoes to one side of the tin to make room). Mix the potatoes around in the tin so that they can crisp up evenly and then put back into the oven to roast for another 10-15 minutes.
  6. 5 minutes before the end of this cooking time add the chopped red pepper and tomatoes to the tin to roast slightly.
  7. When the salmon is ready it will be pink and should flak easily when prodded with a fork. When it reaches this point take it out of the oven and let it rest for 5 minutes.
  8. Serve with the roasted veg, and a side salad!

Thanks for reading, I’m going to be focusing on comfort food over the next few weeks so keep an eye out for that!

Emma x
Vegetable Curry

Vegetable Curry

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I love a good authentic curry as much as the next person, but when you go to make your own at home it can often end up  bland and lacking in flavour – nothing like the ones you get in restaurants or at take-outs. A good way of avoiding this is to make your own paste for the sauce, but who honestly has the time in the middle of the week to spend ages grinding spices in a pestle and mortar?? I’ve found that the best way of getting a flavoursome curry with as little elbow grease as possible is to cook the spices a little before using them in the sauce. This will unlock the aromas and give the curry more oomph. The best way of doing this is to add the spice mix to the onions once they’ve just started to caramelise, and then fry it all together for another 2-3 minuteness before adding the wet ingredients to make the sauce.

I chose to make a vegetable curry for this post as I had a lot of vegetables floating around my kitchen which I wanted to use up, but a homemade curry is also a really good way of using up cooked meat. For example leftover roast chicken or turkey can be shreded up and then added to the sauce with some vegetables and voila, you have a delish meat curry ready to go!

 

Recipe

Serves 8

Time: 1 hour (including cooking time)

Ingredients

  • 1 Large potato
  • 1 Sweet potato
  • 1 Aubergine
  • 1 Red pepper
  • 1 Corguette
  • 2 tbsp Vegetable oil
  • 6 tbsp Medium Curry Powder
  • 1 Red onion
  • 430g Tomato Passata
  • 400g Coconut milk
  • Salt and pepper to season

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200˚C.
  2. Now prep the veg. Peel the potato and sweet potato and chop into chunks. Chop the aubergine into similar sized pieces. De-seed the pepper and chop it into small chunks, slightly smaller than you chopped the potatoes and aubergine. Then slice the corguette down the middle and then chop it into bits of a similar size.
  3. Put the chopped vegetables into a large roasting tin and drizzle with 1 tbsp of the oil. Sprinkle over 2 tbsp of the curry powder and stir around the tin to coat evenly. Put into the oven to roast for 30-35 minutes, stirring half way through, until the veg are soft and just starting to crisp.
  4. Meanwhile peel and dice the onion. Put the rest of the oil into a large saucepan and put over a medium heat. Add the onion and fry, stirring occasionally, until it begins to caramelise and go brown.
  5. Add the other 4 tbsp of curry powder and stir to coat the onions in it. Fry for another 2-3 minutes to slightly cook the powder and then add the passata and coconut milk. Stir to combine and then leave on a gentle simmer for 10 minutes.
  6. When the vegetables in the oven are ready take them out of the oven and add them to the sauce. Leave everything to simmer for another 5-10 minutes until all the veg are cooked through and infused with the spices in the sauce.
  7. Season the curry with salt and pepper to taste and then serve with rice and/or naan bread!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Fruit Muffins

Fruit Muffins

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In every person’s healthy eating phase there comes a time where the ‘healthy muffin’ makes an appearance. They’re a sort of comforting link to the world of cakes, and yet are considered to be way more healthy (not sure why, but they are).

Whilst not great for the carb-free seekers, these are low in refined sugar, full of fibre and packed with fruit. The Greek yoghurt in the recipe might seem odd but it’s a clever way of  getting really light muffins. The acidity in yoghurt reacts with the baking powder to send it into overdrive and causes it to make lots of lovely CO2, which will make your muffins really light and airy.

Recipe

Makes 16

Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

  • 160g Wholemeal flour
  • 50g Plain flour
  • 40g Rolled oats
  • 1 ½ tbsp Baking powder
  • ½ tsp Bicarbonate of soda
  • 200g Greek yoghurt
  • 2 Medium Bananas, mashed with a fork
  • 2 Large eggs
  • 100g Honey
  • 2 tsp Vanilla
  • Handful of blueberries
  • Handful of raspberries

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Line a 12 hole muffin tray with muffin cases.
  2. Put the flours, oats, baking powder, and bicarb into a bowl and mix together.
  3. In another bowl put the yoghurt, mashed bananas, eggs, honey, and vanilla and whisk together.
  4. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Whisk to combine, then add the berries and whisk them a little more to mix them in. The mixture should be pretty thick, but if it’s too thick to work with you can thin it out with 2 tbsp of milk.
  5. Distribute the mixture between the muffin cases and then bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre of the muffins comes out clean.
  6. Leave to cool on a wire wrack and then they’re ready!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Tomato Soup

Tomato Soup

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Over new year I spent some time in Northern Italy, and for me there’s nowhere where the food is better. One of the things that really sticks in my mind from the trips I’ve made out there is their tomatoes. It’s an odd thing to pick up on, but their tomatoes are 100% better than any you find in the UK. Because of volcanic soil they manage to grow ones which are full of an intense, sweet and sour flavour which makes incredible tomato sauces and soups.

Whilst we don’t have direct access to this incredible produce, the UK does have it’s fair share of delicious vegetables and this soup is a great way of making use of this. Especially now we’re hitting the cold and wet season, and everyone seems to be getting flu, a quick, warm and nourishing bowl of soup is what we need. Packed full of good stuff and deliciously filling this soup is a perfect mid-week winter warmer.

Recipe

Serves 6

Time 25 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 White onion
  • 2 Garlic cloves
  • 1 Medium Carrot
  • 1 Celery Stick
  • 2 tbsp Vegetable oil
  • 900g Ripe tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp Tomato puree
  • 2 Stock cubes
  • 1 Litre of boiling water
  • Salt and Pepper to season
  • Basil and Pine nuts to garnish

Method

1. Begin by prepping the vegetables. Peel and dice the onion, garlic and carrot. Then take the ends off the celery and chop it into chunks about the same size as the carrot.

2. Put the oil into a large saucepan and heat gently. Add the prepared vegetables once the oil just starts to bubble, and gently fry until the onions begin to caramelise – this’ll take about 5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile chop the tomatoes into chunks. Once the vegetables are ready add the tomatoes and puree to the mixture, stir to combine. Then leave with the lid on for 5 minutes to soften.

4. Next make up the  stock by putting two stock cubes into a jug and pouring over the boiling water. Stir with a fork until the stock cubes have dissolved.

5. Pour the stock over the vegetables and leave on a medium heat to gently simmer with the lid off for about 15 minutes, or until all the vegetables are soft and the liquid has reduced slightly.

6. Take a hand-blender and blend the soup until it’s as smooth as you want it. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

7. Ladle into bowls and garnish with pine nuts and fresh basil. Serve with fresh bread and enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x