Tag: tasty

food, healthy, life, recipes

Recipe: Potato & Egg curry

ramblingmads

This is a great way to use up potatoes left over from a previous meal. Oh and eggs. To make it vegan, just skip the eggs. A quick tip – book the eggs and potatoes in the same pan if you’re using raw potatoes. 

1 or 2 hard boiled eggs per person 

A few potatoes boiled and chopped up 

Tin tomatoes or passata

Onion, chopped

Celery, 2 or 3 sticks, diced

Ginger – 1 tsp fresh or frozen

Garlic – 1 tsp fresh or frozen 

Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

Turmeric – 1 tsp

Chilli powder – 1 tsp or a small fresh one chopped

Masala powder (optional) – 1tsp

Salt & pepper to taste

Method 

Boil the potatoes (10 minutes till al dente) and eggs (7/8 minutes till you’re happy they’re done). 

Brown your onion and toast the cumin seeds, add the ginger and garlic and leave to mingle for 5 minutes. Add your spices and season to taste. 

Pour in the tomatoes, mix and cook for 5 or 6 minutes. Drain the potatoes and add them and the celery. Mix in well and simmer. 

When your eggs are done, run them under a cold tap, peel and slice. Add them to the pan for a minute and spoon some of the sauce over them. 

Serve. You can add raita or yoghurt to serve or your choice of Chutney etc. I don’t tend to serve it with rice because of the potatoes but it’s up to you. I do like a piece of naan to dip. 

This is based on a recipe from my lovely work wifey whose family come from Gujarat in India. You can use different vegetables to bulk it out and it tastes just as good reheated the next day minus the eggs. 

clean eating, food, healthy, recipes

Potato Salad

ramblingmads

The humble spud has been accused of a lot recently – contributing to obesity, damaging farmland, being ugly. 

I say enough – clean eating is expensive, spuds are cheap and versatile. Leave them alone.  Here’s my potato salad, serve it as a side at a barbecue, or as my friend recommends, under a grilled chicken breast with broccoli  and salad.  

Serves 4 or more depending on hunger

Ingredients

1 small bag of potatoes – I prefer the small salad ‘new potatoes’ or similar. 

Small pot of yoghurt – I use natural yoghurt

Small pot of sour cream or creme fraiche 

Small bunch spring onions

Fistful of chives

Black pepper

Method

Wash the potatoes and boil till soft. While they’re cooking, chop the chives and spring onions (wash them too!). Mix the yoghurt, sour cream, chives and spring onions in a bowl. 

Once the potatoes are cooked, drain and leave to cool. Once they’re at a temperature you’re happy with (can be served warm or cold), use the sharp point of a knife to remove any eyes, peel off the skins if you prefer (much easier on the little potatoes after cooking), chop into desired size chunks. 

Add to the dressing, mix, season with black pepper, if using, stir again. It can now be served or stored in the fridge for later. Will keep a couple of days in an airtight tub in the fridge but is best eaten sooner.  

Ready to eat
food, healthy, recipes

Winter salad that doesn’t make you sad

ramblingmads

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It doesn’t look like much but this bowl of salad was a-ma-zing!

Based on a Nigella Lawson recipe (#TeamNigella all the way) but altered based on my fridge contents, this tasted so good I might just make it a few more times!

I was aiming for a twist on ceasar salad, but having watched Simply Nigella the other week I was inspired to winterise my food.

The romaine lettuce was cut roughly in half, placed on an oven tray and sprinkled with olive oil and garlic salt (I had no fresh garlic but recently stocked up on Cornish Sea Salt in various flavours), roasted for 25 minutes in the oven at 200°c, till soft and slightly browned.

Meanwhile, I found a few rashers of streaky bacon still in date in the bottom of the fridge. I cut it into little stamps and dry fried (hot pan, no oil) till crispy.

Lettuce went into a bowl, scattered with the bacon, then I dressed it with some delicious hollandaise sauce and a little black pepper.

You could grate some Parmesan or similar over it, add avocado, skip the bacon, add croutons, more garlic, crispy fried onion, anything really. The lettuce stands up well to strong flavours.

Eating healthy in winter can be hard, especially around Christmas, when food seems to specialise in fatty, naughty food. We promise to eat soups and casseroles full of veg but end up eating cake and having cheese and crackers for dinner every day.

It doesn’t help that in the UK fruit and veg is more depressing in the winter – all root veg like swede and turnip, which take some work to make into something tasty and enjoyable. These days you can get most things year round imported but not necessarily the tastiest, and when you’re feeling lazy it can be hard to find the energy in the cold.

So roast your lettuces, play with flavours, raid your fridge and eat delicious, easy peasy food. Yum.

ramblingmads

clean eating, food, healthy, recipes

Make this tonight: lettuce gratin

ramblingmads

This is a great way to get more veggies into your diet, and can be vegan or vegetarian as well. It’s adapted from a far more complicated Hugh Fearnley-Whittingsall recipe previously published in the Guardian newspaper.

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Photo from The Guardian

Ingredients

Cos type lettuces (I use two baby gems)
Olive oil
Sea salt
Black pepper
Celery
Peas
Spring onions
Pancetta cubes
Parmesan cheese
Bread crumbs (I used Japanese panko)

Wash and chop the lettuce, drain thoroughly. Toss with oil, salt and pepper. Put it in a casserole dish. Roast at 200°c for 25 minutes – keep an eye on it, do not let it burn.

While the lettuce roasts, wash and chop your celery and spring onions. Fry them in a pan with the pancetta, add the peas (I use them from frozen), season with pepper (if not using pancetta you could add a little salt).

Remove the lettuce from the oven, scatter the veg and pancetta over the lettuce. Reserve any liquid in the pan.

Sprinkle grated Parmesan over the gratin. Fry the breadcrumbs lightly in the preserved oil and fat. Scatter over the gratin. Return to oven for 5-10 minutes to melt the cheese and brown the breadcrumbs.

Serve on its own or with some crusty bread.

To make it vegetarian/vegan omit the pancetta, and switch the Parmesan for a dairy free hard cheese. You can add any other veggies that appeal too.

ramblingmads

clean eating, food, healthy, lifestyle, recipes

Eating for health

ramblingmads

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Recently I have been trying to improve my nutrition and eat better. In the last couple of years I’ve fallen into bad habits and need to sort my food choices out.

I enjoy cooking (and baking) but have been lazy when I know better and eaten junk food, takeaways and other rubbish.

The Greek salad above is one of the simplest ways to eat better. Feta cheese, tomatoes (I like different coloured cherry toms), red onion, cucumber, olives (if you like them), drizzled with olive oil and a scatter of ground black pepper. Done. Takes a few minutes, tastes great and all that veg is great for you.

And for dessert? How about this:

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Fat free yoghurt, fresh raspberries and sprinkled desiccated coconut. Tastes delicious, good for you too.

Now, neither of these things require much effort or actual cooking, so they’re perfect for a lazy person.

More recipes soon. (Problem is I never photograph my food, too busy eating it!)

ramblingmads