Category: Healthy

Salmon with mustardy celeriac mash

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 2

All I can say here is don’t judge a recipe by it’s cover.

Because what this recipe seemingly lacks in ingredients it quite commensurately makes up for in flavour and of course, ease of preparation.

Celeriac might be a bit hard to find – as hard as finding a Harris Farm – though that really is the hardest thing about it all. And at about 300 calories each for the celeriac and maybe another 200 for the salmon, it is a healthy dinner to boot.

This dish really surprised us. Very pleasantly so.

Ingredients

2 salmon fillets
700gm celeriac, peeled to remove all the skin and cubed
2 tsp wholegrain mustard
2 tsp lemon juice
100g baby spinach leaves
Pinch of sugar
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly cracked pepper

Method

  1. Brush the salmon lightly with olive oil and season. Set aside ready to grill.
  2. Boil the celeriac until tender; about 12 to 15 minutes and drain, reserving 1 tbsp of the water.
  3. Whisk together the mustard and lemon juice, sugar, 1 tbsp olive oil and season.
  4. Heat the grill or a pan and cooked the salmon on both sides for a few minutes and cooked to your liking.
  5. Return the celeriac to the pan and mash; alternatively, use a food processor or a ricer. Heat the celeriac over a low heat, adding the spinach until it is wilted. Stir through 1 tbsp mustard mixture and reserved water and season.
  6. Spoon the mash onto two plates, place a salmon fillet on top and splash with the remaining mustard mixture.

Nat’s Vegetable Jalfrezi (Indian Style Stir Fry)

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4 – 6

Being boring and healthy, we had a fridge full of vegetables. Brussel sprouts, squash, cauliflower, boring. The plan was to prepare them, steam them, hold our breath and eat them as quickly as possible with some tandoori salmon and rice.

But no amount of being boring or healthy deserves three servings of steamed, untouched vegetables. Not even wine can make up for it.

So borrowing from a jalfrezi recipe we found online, we invented our own stir-fry of vegetables, Indian style.

There is no limit to the vegetables that could be used. Carrot, cubed potato, peas, eggplant, you name it. Served on toast or had cold as I did the next day at work, this takes boring and healthy to amazing and healthy enough and that seemed like the right place to be for us.

And served with some BBQed tandoori salmon and brown rice, this was just heaven.

(We also had a wine because life is short.)

Cook up the latest in Nat’s repertoire and thank her later.

Ingredients

1 onion, thinly sliced
1 c julienned bell peppers (capsicum)
2 c cauliflower florets
2 c brussel sprouts, quartered
2 c squash, quartered
1 c diced tomato
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp white vinegar
1½  tbsp vegetable oil
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Method

  1. Steam the cauliflower, brussel sprouts and squash for a few minutes until just cooked through. Drain and submerge in cold water.
  2. Heat ½ tbsp oil in a heavy saucepan over a medium heat’ add the onions and bell peppers and saute until they turn slightly golden. Remove from the pan and set aside.
  3. Heat 1 tbsp oil in the pan and once hot, add the cumin seeds. Stir and then add the tomatoes and cook until they go mushy.
  4. Add the paprika, garam masala and salt. Mix well. Add the onion-pepper mixture and the reserved vegetables (brussel sprouts etc).
  5. Add the ginger and vinegar and heat well until the vegetables are fully cooked through. Test for seasoning and spice and serve!

Green salad with simple vinaigrette

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4

This is a really simple yet really vibrant salad I whipped up today. It looks – and is – so healthy.

I served it with grilled, tandoori chicken and potatoes which I sliced thinly, salted and oiled and cooked until golden in the oven.

What a winner of a Saturday lunch!

Ingredients

1 butter lettuce, leaves torn
2 cucumbers, brunoise cut
6 spring onions, whites thinly sliced
1 avocado, brunoise cut
Small bunch of basil, thinly sliced
Bunch of asparagus, blanched, refreshed and thinly sliced
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Vinaigrette

2 cloves garlic, mince
1 tbsp olive oil
Juice of half a lemon
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp heaped wholegrain mustard
1 tsp heaped honey

Method

  1. Combine the salad ingredients.
  2. Whisk together the vinaigrette.
  3. Combine and serve.

 

Skinny Chicken Laksa

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 2

I avoid Laksa at lunchtime. I avoid cooking it for dinner.

It tastes awesome, though it is notoriously fatty. I’m probably kidding myself given half the dinners I make, though Laksa has always been a red light for me.

This recipe by Jill Dupleix – which I have adjusted slightly – is, at least on face value, much healthier than the 400ml can of coconut cream variety I am used to, and tastes just awesome. The meat isn’t fried, the laksa paste isn’t fried off in oil.

(That means you can eat more I assume!)

On my deathbed I’ll smash down pork crackling and proper Laksa, though until then…

Serves 4

150gm vermicelli noodles
2 c (500ml) chicken stock
2tbs laksa paste
2 chicken breasts cut into 3cm strips
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tsp caster sugar
250ml can reduced fat coconut milk (OK, original recipe was 100ml though can was 250ml)
200 gm green beans, trimmed and cut in half
1 cup bean sprouts (add as much as you want)
2 cup coriander sprigs (again, add as much as you want)
2 cup mint leaves (ditto)
Fried Asian shallots to serve (half handful per serve)

Method

  1. Soak the noodled in warm water for 10 minutes until soft. Drain and set aside.
  2. Heat the stock in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Once hot, whisk in the laksa paste.
  3. Add the chicken, tomato, sugar and ½ teaspoon of sea salt and simmer for 10 minutes until chicken cooked through.
  4. Add the coconut milk and beans and simmer for 5 minutes until beans cooked through.
  5. Divide the noodles among 4 bowls and soon over the chicken and the laksa broth.
  6. Top with bean sprouts and scatter with coriander, mint and dried Asian shallots.

 

Skinny Hummus

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4 – 6 as a spread

When I first looked up a low(er) calorie hummus, I searched ‘skinny hummus’ and received only results from a company called Black Swan who has trademarked the term. No recipes.

So in calling this hummus skinny hummus, I may be infringing on their trademark. Though any publicity is good publicity for robbydogcooks.com, so I’ll run with the title until such time that they call me.

Anyway as far as hummuses go, this is a really neat recipe. I added a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil (instead of the water as per the recipe), though next time I’ll go with the water; the oil adds to it, though not as much as being able to smugly tell people it has no oil.

Enjoy.

Ingredients

1 x 400gm can chickpeas, rinsed, drained
¼ c fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp water
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground coriander
1 small garlic clove, crushed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Sweet paprika (to garnish)

Method

  1. Add all the ingredients except the paprika to a food processor. Process until smooth in consistency.
  2. Transfer to a bowl, garnish with sweet paprika and enjoy!

Fattoush (Lebanese summer salad)

.Reading time 1 minute.

 Serves: 4 – 6

This is a wonderful and healthy salad. And beautifully coloured too.

We had it as part of a Lebanese feast we cooked up, though served with some grilled meat and some pan fried potatoes and you would be the undisputed king or queen of the kitchen that day.

Keep your dice small and really make the salad special.

Ingredients

1 Lebanese round bread
2 Lebanese cucumbers, finely diced
2 tomatoes, finely diced
½ c radish, finely diced
½ red capsicum finely diced
½ green capsicum finely diced
4 spring onions, finely diced
2 tbsp mint, finely chopped
½ c coriander, finely chopped (or use parsley)

Dressing

1 lemon, juiced
¼ c extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 180c and cook the Lebanese bread until crisp; around 10 minutes. (More traditional Fattoush recipes call for the Lebanese bread to be deep fried in vegetable oil and feel free!)
  2. Allow the bread to cool and then crumble using your hands.
  3. Combine the rest of the ingredients with the bread and the dressing.

Nat’s Famous (Poached) Chicken Salad

.Reading time 2 minutes.
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OMG – As Nat would say.

Serves: 4

This really is one of my favourite recipes. And I can only claim scant ownership; I merely passed the recipe to my fabulous partner Nat who…

Now owns it.

And that is why it is her famous – and truly – amazing poached chicken salad.

Don’t hold back. This recipe is famous and famously good in our family and among our friends.

If you know Nat, you’ll know how clever and brilliant she is. With food, the theme is no different.

This salad sums her up.

Ingredients

4 x 180gm chicken breasts
100gm wild rocket leaves
20 green beans, blanched, refreshed (I then cut them in thirds)
1 small fennel bulb, thinly sliced (use a mandoline if you have it)
1/4 cup each finely chopped flay-leaf parsley and dill
2 x 300gm buffalo mozzarella balls, torn (or substitute bocconcini)

Red Wine Vinaigrette

1 tbs red wine vinegar
100ml extra virgin olive oil
3 tsp Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tsp finely chopped rosemary, thyme and basil leaves

Method

  1. Place the chicken in a large saucepan and pour in enough cold water to just cover.
  2. Season with sea salt and pepper and cover with a lid. Bring to the boil over a high-heat then reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes.
  3. Remove the lid, set aside from the heat and let the chicken stand in the poaching liquid for 10 mins. Drain and set aside.
  4. For the vinaigrette, whisk together the vinegar, oil, Dijon mustard, garlic and chopped herbs in a bowl. Set aside, though give a good whisk just before serving.
  5. Roughly shred the chicken into medium pieces.
  6. Toss with the beans, rocket, fennel, parsley and dill in a larger serving bowl.
  7. Drizzle with the vinaigrette and season.
  8. Serve the salad topped with the torn buffalo mozzarella.

Rick Stein’s Chicken Passanda

.Reading time 2 minutes.
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Nobody can complain and if they do…

 Serves: 4

Rick Stein’s ‘India: in search of the perfect curry; recipes from my Indian odyssey’ has absolutely become my go-to, easy-curry tome.

Every curry I have attempted has been spot-on and this simple, aromatic chicken curry is no different.

I cooked it for the boys as part of a bigger Indian feast and so I needed something with a hint of fire, though not too much more. This is the elegance of this curry, where it is the soft spices that carry the dish rather than some whack of heat.

Oh, and the boys loved it – and it is pretty healthy to boot!

P.S. Rick asks that the chicken breasts are merely cut in half and cooked that way. I cubed the chicken to make it easier for the boys and I am not sure I wouldn’t do that again.

Ingredients

3 tbsp ghee or vegetable oil
5cm cinnamon stick
2 green cardamom pods, lightly bruised with a rolling pin
1 small onion, finely chopped
3cm piece of ginger, finely grated
3 cloves garlic, finely crushed
1 tsp ground coriander
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
4 small chicken breasts, each cut in half
200gm Greek-style yoghurt
2 tbsp ground almonds
1 tsp salt
100ml water

To finish

Handful of flaked almonds, toasted
Handful of fresh coriander leaves, chopped

Method

  1. Heat the ghee or the oil in a large sturdy pan over a medium heat, add the cinnamon and cardamom and fry for 30 seconds before adding the onion and frying for 10 minutes until golden.
  2. Stir in the ginger and garlic and fry for 2 – 3 minutes, then stir in the ground coriander, turmeric and chilli powder and fry for 30 seconds.
  3. Add the chicken and stir well, then add the yogurt, ground almonds, salt and water. Bring to simmer, reduce the heat slightly and simmer gently for 15 – 20 minutes until reduced to a thick, rich, almost dry sauce that coats the chicken.
  4. Scatter over the toasted almonds and coriander to serve.

Nigella’s smashed avocado

.Reading time 1 minute.
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Oh yeah! 

Serves: 2

I type this recipe up on Valentine’s Day morning and so you can guess what I have just eaten and been made for breakfast!

This is better than any Hallmark card. In fact, it is better than any smashed avocado and tomato number that you’ll likely get at your local breakfast haunt, what with the addition of the chilli, ginger, dill, a squeeze of lemon and the radish sprinkled on top.

I added a few slices of tomato to my plate as well.

This is my new healthy breakfast favourite. Except for Nat’s incredible Mexican Eggs, reserved for my once-a-year birthday.

Happy Valentine’s Day turtle. You are the one.

(Thanks also Nigella!)

Ingredients

1 avocado
Juice of half a small lemon
Half a bunch of dill, chopped
Good pinch chilli flakes
2 good pinched of grated ginger
Rock salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste
2 thinly sliced radishes
2 – 4 slices of toasted soy and linseed bread
1 tomato, sliced 

Method

  1. Mash the avocado together with the lemon juice, dill, chilli flakes, ginger and salt and pepper.
  2. Spread the avocado mixture liberally on the toast.
  3. Throw a few radish slices on top and the tomato if using.
  4. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Protein Balls

.Reading time 1 minute.
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This man – John Cena – is a result of protein. But probably has small balls as a result. P.S. I only know about this guy because of my boys.

Serves: At least one muscly chick for a week

Who would have ever thought I would type up a protein ball recipe?

Times are a changing here at Chez Robert and among chopped carrots, chopped salads and salmon dinners, we now have homemade protein balls.

They taste bloody great – like cookie dough – and they’re not expensive to make unlike the stuff you can buy in the supermarket and fitness shops.

Chop and change the accouterments to include anything from walnuts, coconut and chocolate chips or go with my additions of raisins, flax and oats.

Just don’t over-protein yourself and explode in protein flames.

I tripled the recipe to make 12 balls of power and suggest you do too muscle girl.

Ingredients

96gm (3 scoops) vanilla whey protein powder
6 tbsp honey or maple syrup
6 tbsp natural peanut butter
2 tbsp flax seed flower (ground)
2 tbsp raisins
2 tbsp oats

Method

  1. With sweat dripping down your forehead, combine all the ingredients, shouting ‘Come out and face me John Cena’.
  2. Make into golf-size balls.
  3. Refrigerate, consume and fight.