Category: Recipes

Curried Lentils from the Store Cupboard

Curried Lentils from the Store Cupboard

These curried lentils are quickly becoming a favourite side dish because the ingredients are all stock cupboard essentials.  Delicious with roast chicken and greens!

Ingredients

  • 300g red lentils
  • 1 large diced onion
  • 3 finely chopped garlic cloves
  • 1 tbsp tomato puree
  • 900ml chicken stock
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 2 tsp garam masala
  • 2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/2 tsp ground turmeric

Method

Saute the onion and garlic in a pan until lightly golden.  Stir in the spices, tomato puree and cook for another 2 minutes.  Don’t worry if the spices stick to the pan a little.

Add the lentils and chicken stock to the pan and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  Add water or cook for longer as necessary to achieve the desired consistency.

Will keep very well in the fridge, so make a batch for the week.

Awful, not Awful, Slow Carb Breakfast

Awful, not Awful, Slow Carb Breakfast

My Easy Slow Carb Breakfast recipe was very popular… well, obviously it was, it had sausage and runny eggs!

This breakfast is a bit more of a store cupboard “shit! I’ve not made breakfast and I’m heading to bed” recipe, and it sounds fucking awful.  In fact I totally expected to be repeating Tim’s slow carb mantra “food is just fuel, food is just fuel, food is just fuel” whilst I forced it down my throat.

The plus side, is that you can make 5 days worth in under 3 minutes, and then fill the fridge with portions in tuperware, ready to grab as you run out the door.

I was expecting that by day 3, the tomatos would be disgusting, and the avocado a strange brown colour, and of course, everything lost it’s liquid and would congeal in the bottom of the tuperware.

I was pleasantly surprised though.  I’ve just eaten my “day 3” portion, and it’s not just tolerable, it’s actually pretty nice.

Ingredients

  • 2 Tins Tuna or Salmon
  • 2 Tins Lentils
  • 6 Chunky Diced Tomatos
  • 2 Chunky Diced Avocados

Method

Seriously?  You think there’s a method to this?  Chop it up, portion it out.  Job’s done.

Let me know if you try it, I promise it’s not bad at all.

Easy Slow Carb Breakfast

Easy Slow Carb Breakfast

I started a new job last week, which necessitates the formation of new habits.  Changes in circumstance like this provide a fantastic opportunity to piggyback habit formation on top of those that will be created naturally.  So now I’m back on Slow Carb 🙂

I found after a few days that not breakfasting was causing me issues.  Please take a moment to pray for the innocent pack of cashew nuts that was callously destroyed.  Oops.

My previous success on Slow Carb was accomplished despite mostly shunning carbs, but now I feel that I need them particularly in the mornings.

Raiding the cupboards one evening to try to put together a pre-prepared breakfast led to a rather nice discovery…

Ingredients

This should make enough for 5 breakfasts.  Make it on a sunday night, shouldn’t take more than 30 mins tops!

  • 6 97% Pork Sausages, chopped or “meatballed”
  • 2 tins Kidney Beans
  • 10 Poached Eggs
  • 2 Chopped Avocados
  • Virgin Avocado Oil

Method

Fry the sausages in a little oil.  I prefer to pinch them out of the skins to make little meatballs, it’s just as easy as chopping them and the texture is much nicer.

Meanwhile poach some eggs.  Make sure you cool them in some iced or running water to halt the cooking process.

Divide the cooked ingredients evenly into tupperware containers, with the poached eggs on top.  Drizzle a little avocado oil over the eggs for a little extra punch.  Chuck the containers in your fridge, they’ll happily keep all week.

If you find you’re a little short on sausage (ooer), consider buying several packs, frying them off and freezing them.  18 sausages spread over 2 weeks would obviously increase your sausage quota by 50%.

If you liked the sound of this recipe, check out my Sausage, Chorizo and Bean Casserole recipe, which I eat most weekdays for lunch.  On the weekends I like to make my  Chicken and Butter Bean Salsa Salad, it’s full of delicious tomatos and avocado!

Chicken and Butter Bean Salsa Salad

Chicken and Butter Bean Salsa Salad

Literally just finished eating this, and it was awesome.  It requires very little prep, so you can easily knock it up in 15 minutes.  I ate a double portion today and I can’t finish it, it’s surprisingly filling.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

  • 1 Large Chicken Breast
  • 1/2 Red Onion
  • 4 Firm Tomatos
  • 1 Avocado
  • Handful Coriander (Cilantro)
  • 1 Small Tin Butter Beans
  • Extra Virgin Avocado Oil (Optional)

Method

Cut the Chicken Breast into cubes and fry in a little olive oil.

Finely Dice or slice the onion, and cube the avocado and tomatos.  Chop the coriander and mix everything with a liberal pinch of salt and some freshly ground pepper.  Leave to stand.

Open and drain the butter beans, add some boiling water to the tin and leave to warm for a few minutes.  Drain the warmed beans and add with the cooked chicken to the mixture.

Add a splash of Avocado Oil if desired and serve.

Fucking delicious.

Notes

Obviously cook a batch of chicken and keep in the fridge if you’re planning on eating it a few times in a week.  Make sure you warm the chicken before you eat it though, it’s tough and not as nice if left icy cold.

Warming the beans also gives them a nicer texture in my opinion.

I like to keep my tomato chunks pretty large (6 chunks per normal sized tomato), but you can mix that up, and try out cherry tomatos or beef tomatos.

Red onion is sweeter than white onions, but you’ll still get a great result if all you’ve got are white.

Stuffed Chicken thighs with peppers and sun dried tomatoes

Stuffed Chicken thighs with peppers and sun dried tomatoes

Ingredients

  • Boned Chicken Thighs (skin on)
  • 1 roughly chopped onion
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 jar roasted red peppers
  • handful fresh basil
  • 1 jar sun dried tomatoes

Method

Add sun dried tomatoes, garlic, 2/3s of the basil and onion to a food processor and blend until smooth.  If you prefer more bite, you can add the tomatoes after blending the rest of the ingredients and adjust how much you blend them to taste.

Fry the paste on a medium heat for 5 minutes.  Season to taste and remove from the heat to cool.  It’s easier to stuff the thighs with filling that isn’t piping hot.

Slice the red peppers and mix into the paste.  The peppers will be delicate, so mix carefully to avoid them disintegrating (or don’t, if that’s what you prefer).

Stuff the chicken thighs with a heaped spoonful of the pepper and sun dried tomato filling.  Use cocktail sticks to keep the thighs tightly wrapped if you like.  Place thighs into a roasting dish and season and oil the skins.

Place in a hot oven for 30 minutes, remove, allow to cool slightly and insert into face via mouth.

If you have left over filling, you can add this to the roasting dish, just try and leave the tops of the thighs free, to allow the skin to crisp up nicely.  You can also add any veg to the pan, just place the thighs on top.

This is an easy recipe to tweak to your own tastes, just adjust the stuffing as you prefer.

3 Minutes Perfect Scrambled Eggs

3 Minutes Perfect Scrambled Eggs

You’ve cooked scrambled eggs before right?  Of course you have, you’re a slow carb aficionado, eggs are a staple!

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you did them wrong :(.  I know, I know, it’s devastating to hear, but it’s the truth.  Fret not though, I shall impart on you the wisdom of 3 Minute Perfect Scrambled Eggs.  Sit back and I shall gift you with the only scrambled egg recipe worth knowing.

Oh dear god, this article is self indulgent… no matter, I shall plow onwards!  It’s certainly not likely to get better at this point.

Ingredients

  • 3 Medium Free Range Eggs
  • 1 Tbsp Ghee
  • 2 finger pinch salt
  • Plenty ground pepper
  • anything else – ham, chopped onion

Method

Put a small non-stick frying pan (Ikea sell some that are an ideal size) on your largest gas ring, and crank that shit up to 11.  The idea is to get the pan SCREAMING hot.

Crack your eggs into a bowl and whisk.  Have your ghee, salt and pepper ready, shit’s gonna move quickly now.

Add the salt to the bowl, do not stir/mix in, add the ghee to the pan and immediately add your eggs.  The pan is going to try to go ape shit, that’s ok.  Quickly add pepper to taste and gently scramble/mix your eggs with a spatula.

If you had ham/veggies to add, add them with the ghee for about 10 seconds before adding the eggs.

It should only take, 10-15 seconds for them to solidify, remove from the heat when they are just barely cooked, they should have a little moisture to them (they’ll carry on cooking even off the heat).

Transfer to a plate and insert into face.  If you’re in a hurry, use a large plate and spread the eggs out, they’ll help them cool quickly enough to shovel into your gob.

Wondering why you must not stir/mix the salt in with the eggs?  Egg whites break down when salted.  You want the salt to enhance the flavour, but not turn your eggs into a textureless mess.  See for yourself if you like, it’s horrible.