Well I think its true to say that I am a big fan of Slimline Wine. Its not only low in calories and carbs, its absolutely delicious. To compliment its wines they have now paired up with Chef Andy Campbell who is showing us Slimline Wine fans some amazing healthy meals, which compliment this fabulous wine.
If you are not following Slimline Wine on Facebook, then I have to ask you why not? You are missing a real treat. At 7.30 pm on a Monday night, Andy shows off some lovely recipes live on Facebook. Assisted by the lovely Mariam. If like me and you are on Slimming World, they are perfect. Just a very small tweak such as oil – and lets face it he uses hardly any anyway, for Frylight etc and it can be syn free or low syn.
So what have you missed so far? Well I have to say the first week was a real treat! Curry! I love a good curry and Andy didn’t disappoint. I tweaked it a little to go with Slimming World but (see my recipes on my website http://www.slimminginspirations4u.com) you could leave it as is, and it would still be low calorie. So what did he cook Punjabi Chana Dal, Southern Indian Vegetable Curry and Tumeric Rice. Recipes are below:-
Punjabi Chana Dal
Prep time 15 minutes/ cook time 1 hour
4 servings
1 cup chana dal
water to cover
¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
For tempering the chana dal:
2 medium sized tomatoes chopped
2 medium sized onions diced
2cm ginger peeled and grated
4 cloves of garlic peeled and chopped
1 green chili
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
½ teaspoon red chili powder
¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon garam masala powder
½ teaspoon dry mango powder
1 teaspoon kasoori methi
2 tablespoon oil or ghee
Salt
Coriander leaves roughly chopped
Method
- Soak the dal for an hour in water, rinse well under running water, drain
2. Cover with water.
3.On a high flame bring to the boil skin off impurities, cover with a lid, cook on a medium heat for 50/60 minutes
4. Meanwhile in another pan, heat oil add the cumin first and fry for a few seconds till they splutter.
3. Then cook the garlic until light brown add the onions and fry until golden.
4. Add the tomatoes, ginger and green chili cook for 7/9 minutes
6. Stir in the dry spice powders cook for 3/4 minutes
7. Add the methi and stir.
8. Pour the cooked chana dal along with its stock to the sauteed masala mixture season with salt
9. Stir and simmer the dal for 6-8 minutes
10. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves
Turmeric Rice
Ingredients
1/2 cup brown rice per person
Turmeric to taste
4cm Ginger peeled and grated
Salt
Coriander leaves roughly chopped
Method
1. Soak the rice in water and drain
2. Cook the rice till al dente with turmeric and salt
3. Fork the rice stirring in ginger
4. Garnish with chopped coriander
Southern Indian Vegetable Curry
Prep time 30minutes / Cooking time 25minutes
For the spice paste
5 tsb fresh grated coconut or unsweetened desiccated coconut
6 whole cashew nuts
½ tbsp roasted chana dal
½ tbsp coriander seeds
4 medium cloves of garlic
2cm piece of ginger
½ tsp red chili powder
1 tsp fennel seeds
4 cm cinnamon stick
2 cloves
1 green cardamom
1 tsp poppy seeds
½ cup water for grinding
Mix all the ingredients in a spice grinder
Ingredients
1 large carrot , peeled and diced
100g chopped french beans
100g frozen peas
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into 2cm chunks
1 piece of iron bark pumpkin peeled, deseeded cut into 2cm chunks
1 small/medium sized aubergine
1 medium sized courgette
6 white button mushrooms stalks removed cut into quarters
1 large onion, peeled and diced
1 large tomato , diced
250ml passata
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tbsp fresh low fat Greek yogurt
1.5 cups water
1 tbsp coconut oil
salt
few chopped coriander leaves for garnish
Method
1. Cook the onions and curry leaves and saute till the onions become translucent
5. Add chopped tomatoes, turmeric powder. Stir and saute for 4 to 5 mins till the tomatoes soften
6. Stir in the ground spice paste. Cook untill the oil starts to leave the sides of the paste. this takes about 4 to 5mins on a low flame. Stiring constantly
7. Add the pumpkin, sweet potato, aubergine and yogurt cook on a low flame for 3 to 4 minutes, add 1.5 cups water & Passata. Season with salt
8. Finally add the courgettes, peas, beans & mushrooms, allow to cook
9. Garnish with roughly chopped coriander leaves
I couldn’t wait to try his dishes so recreated the Dal, rice and added my own chicken curry dish. I love using my slow cooker so thought I would save the vegetable curry for another day!
It was so good I am actually doing this again for friends tomorrow night, along with a lamb curry!
The following week it was time for venison. I have to say, I struggle with any meat that comes from cute animals. I don’t eat lamb for that reason. Yes I am doing a lamb curry tomorrow night for friends. My husband loves it, so I don’t deprive him of it. I just can’t eat it myself. The beauty of this recipe is that you could substitute venison for beef! I’m still to try this one, but I promise I will!
Crying Tiger Beef/ Venison
Tiger Dressing
60 ml fish sauce
60 ml lime juice
2 tsp palm sugar or 1 tsp honey
Birdseye Red chili to taste
3 spring onions finely sliced
Coriander stalks chopped
3tbs Tamarind pulp
2 tsp Tamari sauce
400/ 500g piece of rump steak or trimmed venison
Method
1.Mix all the ingredients in a zip lock bag
2.Sear the well seasoned beef on a hot grill, allow to rest covered with parchment paper and slice thinly
Pad thai
2 tsp tamarind paste
3 tbsp fish sauce
2 tsp sugar or 1 tsp honey
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 egg whisked and fried in 1tbs of vegetable oil
1 garlic clove peeled and diced
3 spring onions finely sliced
125g noodles soaked in cold water until soft
1 courgette cut into noodles
1 butternut squash cut into noodles
2 carrots cut into noodles
1 x12cm piece mouli cut into noodles
150g sugar snap peas cut in half lengthwise
75g beansprout
Method
- Mix the tamarind paste, fish sauce & honey in a small bowl
- Stir fry the all the various forms of noodles & garlic in the tamarind mix
- Add the spring onions & sugar snaps
- Garnish with a handful chopped roasted peanuts, lime
Thai Prawn Soup with Lemongrass, ‘Tom Yum Goong’
Serves 4
Ingredients Stock
1/2 Cup Yellow Onion Peeled and Quartered
1/2 Cup Carrot Chopped
1/2 Cup Celery Chopped
1/3 Cup Fresh Shallot Peeled
Chopped coriander stalks
1 Whole Fresh Kaffir Lime Quartered
Method Stock
- Add above ingredients with 4.5 liters of water and simmer until reduced to a third of volume
Tom Yum
2 Stalks Fresh Lemongrass lightly pounded and sliced diagonally
3 Small Slices Fresh Galangal
3 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
3 Tablespoons Lime Juice
12 mushrooms quatered
2 Teaspoons Prik Pao Roasted Chili in Oil
20 Large Shrimp
Corriander leaves for Garnish
3 Leaves Fresh Kaffir Lime Leaves Shredded
Method Tom Yam
- Add the reduced vegetable stock and simmer
- Wash the prawns
- Add lemongrass, galangal, fresh chili and lime leaves. Bring back to a simmer then add mushrooms, fish sauce, prik pao and lime juice.
- Add prawns. As soon as prawns turn pink serve
- Garnish with chopped coriander
I’m seriously going to do the soup and it looked amazing and I love prawns so win win!
Then there was last week. My ultimate favourite so far! Coq Au Vin! Oh wow. I seriously love this dish, so recreated it the very next day. I again tweaked it a bit to keep it almost syn free. Mainly by using chicken breast with no skin, no oil and put quark in my potatoes. It wasn’t syn free as I felt it needed the wine, but that only came to 2.5 syns in total (for 2 people) and so worth it!
Andy’s recipe:-
Coq au vin
Ingredients
Recipe for Coq au vin
1.5kg organic / free range chicken, jointed
100g diced bacon or lardons
1.5kg organic / free range chicken, jointed
100g diced bacon or lardons
10 shallots, peeled
a few thyme sprigs
1 rosemary sprig
1 tbsp olive oil
250ml slim line white wine
20g butter
250g chestnut mushrooms
3 garlic cloves, crushed
300ml chicken stock
small handful chopped parsley
For the crème fraîche mash
600g sweet potatoes peeled and chopped
100ml low fat milk
20g butter
4tbs low fat crème fraiche
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Purple spouting or stem broccoli
Trimmed broccoli stems and steamed for 2/3 minutes
Method
1. For the coq au vin, preheat the oven to 220C/430F/Gas 7. Cook off the chicken pieces in a frying pan and brown in olive oil. Arrange the chicken pieces in a large roasting tin. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cook for 20 minutes
2. Heat the butter in the frying pan add the bacon, shallots, thyme, rosemary. Cook over a medium heat, until brown for a few minutes
3. Add the mushrooms, garlic add the wine and reduce until syrupy add the chicken stock and reduce by half sprinkle with chopped parsley
4. Meanwhile, for the crème fraîche mash, boil the potatoes in a pan of salted water until tender. Remove from the heat, drain well and return to the hot pan.
5. Mash the potatoes until smooth
6. Heat the milk and butter in a small pan over a medium heat, until the butter has melted. Beat the hot butter and milk into the potatoes, then fold in the crème fraîche . Season with sea salt.
7. To serve, pile some of the crème fraîche mash onto each of four serving plates, spoon on the steamed broccoli and top with coq au vin. Garnish with the button mushroom, bacon and shallot sauce
This was absolutely gorgeous!! I served mine with Kalettes. If you have never heard of them, they are a hybrid – a cross between Kale and sprouts. Don’t be put off by the sprout bit! They are so delicious. You will wonder why you never tried them before, I promise. I got mine from Lidl!
So Monday is another day! I can’t wait to find out what Andy is cooking next. Slimline have 3 more live cooking sessions left for this season. Then watch this space for season 2. I wonder what delights are in store for the rest of Season 1 never alone season 2!
What I love about these live shows is that it inspires you to try new things in the kitchen.
So if you haven’t liked their page yet, what are you waiting for. Do it now and don’t forget to tune it on Monday night! I for one have the alarm on my phone set already!
And if these recipes interest you, you can still watch Andy live preparing the dishes !
What are you waiting for ?
Slimminginspirations4u 