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Posts Tagged ‘Low-calorie’

Chicken with Mushrooms

This is a great one-pan dish for mid-week. Tasty, economical and good for you too. We’re all into healthy stuff now that we have a kitchen and no longer need to eat out so much. We served with buttery mash (not so healthy) but a salad or extra greens would also be appropriate.

Wine Suggestion: Given it’s mid-week, we’d suggest the Domaine Ventenac Cuvée Carole which is mostly Chardonnay, but has a touch of Gros Manseng to brilliant effect. Fresh and easy, and yet textured, savoury as well as full of joyful fruit.

Chicken with Mushrooms – serves 4

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 500g boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  • flour, for dusting
  • 50g pancetta cubes
  • 300g small button mushrooms
  • 2 large shallots, chopped
  • 250ml chicken stock
  • 1 tbsp white vinegar
  • 50g frozen peas
  • small handful of parsley, finely chopped

Heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil in a frying pan. Season and dust the chicken with flour, then brown on all sides. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.

Fry the pancetta and mushrooms in the same pan until softened, then remove.

Add another tbsp of olive oil and cook the shallots for a few minutes until soft. Add the stock and vinegar then bubble for a couple of minutes before returning the chicken, pancetta and mushrooms to the pan. Cook for 15 minutes.

Add the peas and parsley and cook for 2 minutes more before serving with mash, salad or veg.

(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)

 

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Duck Stir-Fry with Ginger & Greens

It’s not often you find a duck dish that is light and healthy. It pains us too to pull off and discard that duck skin but somedays it just has to be done. Can’t recommend this highly enough for a good food day. We served with some brown basmati.

Duck stir-fry with ginger and greens – serves 4

  • groundnut oil
  • 2 skinless duck breasts, cut into thin strips
  • 1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
  • 1 red chilli, sliced
  • 6 scallions, sliced
  • 500g pak choi, sliced
  • 1 tsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 2 tbsp oyster sauce
  • 1 tsp cornflour

Heat a wok until smoking hot, then add 2 tsp of oil. Add the duck and stir-fry for 2 minutes before removing with a slotted spoon. Add another teaspoon of oil and tip in the ginger, chilli, almost all the scallions and the pak choi. Cook until the pak choi is just wilted.

Add the soy, honey and oyster sauce to the wok and put the duck back in – bubble for a minute. Mix the cornflour with 2 tsp cold water and stir until smooth, add to the wok and cook until the sauce thickens and looks glossy. Garnish with the leftover scallions to serve.

(Original recipe by Jemma Morphet in Olive Magazine, February 2011.)

 

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Thai pumpkin & chickpea curry

Thai pumpkin & chickpea curry

A really good veggie curry and yet another use for the never-ending tub of Thai red curry paste. We’re very excited for pumpkin season and not because we want to make lanterns.

Pumpkin & chickpea curry – serves 4

  • 1 tbsp sunflower oil
  • 3 tbsp Thai red or yellow curry paste
  • 2 onions, finely chopped
  • 3 stalks lemongrass, bashed with the back of a knife
  • 6 cardamom pods
  • 1 tbsp mustard seeds
  • 1 piece pumpkin or a small squash (about 1kg)
  • 250ml vegetable stock
  • 400ml can reduced-fat coconut milk
  • 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • 2 limes
  • large handful mint leaves
  • steamed rice and/or naan bread, to serve

Heat the oil in a sauté pan and gently fry the curry paste with the onions, lemongrass, cardamom and mustard seeds for a few minutes or until fragrant. Stir the pumpkin or squash into the pan and stir to coat in the paste, then pour in the stock and coconut milk. Bring to a simmer, add the chickpeas, then cook for about 10 mins until the pumpkin is tender.

Squeeze the juice of one lime into the curry, then cut the other lime into wedges to serve on the side. Tear over mint leaves to garnish and serve with steamed rice or warm naan bread.

(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)

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We’re always on the lookout for low-calorie dishes for weeknights (so we can afford to redress the balance at the weekend!) This one was tasty and helpfully used up some of the bits and pieces we had in the fridge.

Coconut, noodle & vegetable soup – to serve 4

  • 1-2 tbsp Thai curry paste (use whatever colour you’ve got)
  • 1 tsp groundnut (or other flavourless oil)
  • 700ml vegetable stock
  • 300ml reduced-fat coconut milk
  • 200g thick-rice noodles
  • 200g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
  • 140g sugar snap peas, halved
  • 100g beansprouts
  • 1½ tbsp Thai fish sauce
  • juice of 1 lime
  • 3 scallions shredded
  • some mint and coriander leaves to serve (if you have some)

Put a large pot over a medium heat. Cook the curry paste in the oil for a minute until it starts to release its aroma. Add the stock and coconut milk and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and stir in the noodles. Simmer for 7 minutes, then stir in the mushrooms and sugar snaps. Cook for another 3 minutes, then add the beansprouts, fish sauce and lime juice. Take the pan off the heat.

Serve in bowls with some scallions, mint and coriander.

(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)

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