Homemade Hummus

Adapt or die is something our Highveld woman knows all to well.

It is not uncommon for us to substitute ingredients as you never find ingredients you need in our shops.

Because I love Hummus so, so much I had to alter the original recipe a bit as it is such a waste for me to buy a huge bottle of tahini  to only use 2 tbsp every time I make hummus. Because just how much tahini can one eat, right?

I’ve replaced the Tahini paste and Olive oil with Sesameaseed oil as Tahini is made of sesame seeds, at least the Sesame seed oil last longer in my pantry as I can use it in my stir fry’s ever so often.

The fat content of this recipe is much lower as I only use 3 tbs of sesame oil. Keep refrigerated and use within a week.

Hummus 

1 glove of garlic

3 tbsp Sesame seed oil

2 tbsp lemon juice (freshly squeezed is the best!)

1 can chickpeas, rinsed

+- 2tbsp water

Salt and black pepper to taste

In a blender chop the garlic, sesame seed oil, and lemon juice. Add the chickpeas and pulse for +- 1 minute.

Add +- 2 tbsp of water to the mixture and pulsate for another 1-2 minutes.

The water makes the hummus more creamier since we have reduced the oil in the recipe.

Season with salt and pepper and enjoy with crackers, instead of butter on pita’s  or sandwiches or as a dip for raw veggies.

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Healthy Bites – Bell peppers with Cottage Cheese and Olives

 

Now who doesn’t like snacking, how about a healthy little bite with crunch to keep the hunger at bay until your next meal.

Try this Bell pepper and smooth Cottage Cheese with Olives. I’ve used Jalapeno and Cheese flavoured low fat Cottage cheese for some added flavour but you can also use Hummus instead.

Simply cut a red, yellow and green pepper into fingers and top with a dollop of Cottage cheese, place an Olive on top and voila!

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Green bean Dish

Green beans is one of my favorite veggies.  When ever my mother use to cook Sunday Lunch I would usually sneak into the kitchen to have a slice of brown bread with thick butter and a tablespoon of the mashed green beans and potatoes on top of my bread. That “stolen” tablespoon of beans hit the spot every time!

This is a healthier version and serves as your veggie and starch portion. It’s also delicious eaten as a vegetarian dish on its own. If you don’t want the starch you can have it without the potatoes.

Serve 6 (as a side dish)

1 packet of green beans +- 400 g - 500 g

1 onions sliced

2 tomatoes cubed

1 punnet of button mushrooms

5 ml Robertson’s vegetable spices

2 – 3 potatoes peeled and cubed

Olive oil for frying

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Wash your green beans and cut them in half. Cook with the peeled and cubed potatoes over medium heat until soft. Strain and set aside.

In a pan fry the onions with the vegetable spices in a little olive oil until soft. Add the mushrooms and fry for another few minutes. Add the Tomato cubes stirring continuously allowing the tomatoes to break down and forming a little bit of a sauce.

Add the potatoes and the green beans to the tomato mixture and stir through making sure the beans and the potatoes are all coated in the tomato sauce. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Turn the heat off, cover pan with a lid. Serve warm.

Tips

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For a little Indulgence add +- 150 ml of fresh cream to the beans and heat through just before serving.

Add chillies for a spicy kick!

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Soy, Honey and Sesame Chicken Wings

There is a first time for everything….even green Asparagus.

Yes I know! How is it possible that I’ve never eaten green Asparagus yet I love white Asparagus spears so much.

When we just got married (many, many moons ago) I tried to cook green Asparagus and it tasted horrible, I thought it was just the Asparagus that tasted bad, off course way back than I wasn’t able to cook an egg properly either.

Don’t be fooled,  the actual star of this meal is the Sticky Soy, Honey and Sesame Chicken Wings served with a potato Rosti.

Soy, Honey and Sesame Chicken Wings 

+- 8 -10 Chicken wings

50 g Sesame seeds

For the marinade mix together

150 ml Vital Soy Sauce

75 ml Honey

1 tbs Chicken spice

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Marinade the chicken for at least 1 hour.

Pre heat oven to 180 degrees and place chicken in a baking tray. Sprinkle the sesame seeds on to the chicken. Baste frequently with the remainder of the marinade that is left over. Bake until golden brown and cooked through.

In the meantime cook your asparagus as follows: 

Heat a large griddle pan and dry-griddle the asparagus spears on both sides. When they are ready drizzle the juice of 1/2 lemon and a dash of Olive oil over them. Season with ground pepper and salt.

For the potato Rosti

6 Potatoes peeled

6 tbs flour

1 egg yolk

salt and pepper to taste

Chopped spring onion to taste

Grate the potatoes and rinse under cold water, strain the potatoes and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients to the potato mixing it thoroughly. Transfer the potatoes onto a clean tea towel.  Bring the corners together and squeeze the liquid out. Use your hands to form little potato patties for frying.

Heat your pan with a little olive oil and fry the rosti’s on a low to medium heat for +- 7 minutes on each side turning carefully.

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Quick Savoury tart

This is the quickest savoury tart that you will ever make! Great for lunch and even greater when you have unexpected quest.

It’s great for the children’s lunch boxes and sophisticated enough when cut it into bite size diamond shapes top with a dollop of mustard and served on your best plates.

175 g Spinach chopped

1 small onion diced

1 punnet button mushrooms

3 rashers of bacon (cut into strips)

1 tin of white asparagus drained

250 ml Cheddar cheese grated

Egg Custard

150 ml Milk

2 eggs

30 ml flour

3 ml salt

2 ml pepper

5 ml mustard

Olive oil for frying

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease a small pie dish.Fry the onions in the olive oil and fry until translucent. Add the mushrooms and bacon to the onions and fry for another minute or two. Ad the spinach to the pan and fry for 3 minutes until the spinach has wilted. Place ingredients for filling into the pie dish. lay the asparagus over the spinach filling.

Add all the ingredients for the custard together in a separate bowl or a measuring jug and whisk.

Pour the mixture over the spinach filling and top with the grated cheese. Bake for +- 30-35 minutes until set and golden brown.

Enjoy hot or cold.

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Chicken and Pineapple “Potjie”

What is summer without a potjie?

Slowly but surely the weather is changing and one of these days it will be winter again, my favorite season! Now don’t get me wrong I like summer especially when it comes to the vegetable garden, or just relaxing next to the pool, what I don’t enjoy is all the mosquitos.

My husband is actually the Potjie King but since he was to busy installing the laminated flooring for me I decided to make a Chicken pineapple potjie to reward him with.

If you don’t have a potjie don’t be discouraged to try the recipe, even on the stove the interesting flavor from the pineapple and Ideal milk with the chicken will leave you craving for a second helping.

Ingredients

1 Kg Chicken pieces

500 g baby potatoes

300 g baby carrots

200 g baby corn

200 g courgettes

200 g patty pans

200 g butternut

250 g mushrooms

200 g shallots

1 onion

1 tbs Robertson veggie spices ( optional)

1 tsp Salt and pepper to taste

 Oil for frying

2 tbs Chicken spices

1 tin Ideal milk

2 tbs Bisto powder / Flour to thicken the sauce

1 tin pineapple pieces in syrup

250 ml water

Get your coals ready before preparing the rest of the ingredients.

Prepare all veggies by rinsing and cutting into smaller pieces, keep aside. Rinse your chicken pieces and rub with the chicken spices, set aside. Slice the onion, remove skin from the shallots keeping them whole and add with the mushrooms.

Assemble your potjie over the hot coals and allow to heat through.

As soon as your pot is hot enough fry the sliced onions, whole shallots and the mushrooms in a little oil.

Remove mushrooms and onions and set aside.

Add the Chicken pieces to the pot and fry for a few minutes until brown.

Add the mushrooms and onion mixture. Add the vegetables,  salt and pepper and the 250 ml water to the pot. Cook for +- 30 – 50 minutes with the lid on until the potatoes are soft.

check often and lift the pieces from the bottom with spoon allowing the liquid to flow back to the bottom of the pot,  but don’t stir. You could add a little more water if need be to ensure that pot don’t cook dry.

As soon as the vegetables are done (and the neighbours are in comatic state of the lovely smell escaping from your yard) add the tin ideal milk keeping about 1/3 tin aside to mix with the bisto / flour.

Mix the bisto / flour with the remaining ideal milk to form a smooth paste, add to the pot. Add the Pineapple pieces + the juice to the pot. Gently stir your pot and cook for another 15 minutes without the lid until the sauce have reduced.

Enjoy with rice.

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a Hearty Bean salad

I don’t know if this is an age thing, but somehow Valentine’s day is getting more enjoyable as the years go by….Somebody should have told me years ago that being in your 30′s is far better than being in your 20′s. Let’s hope the 40′s is even better!

Well since I’m sharing my son’s Valentine chocolates tonight I should make up for it with a healthy salad tomorrow, you know, just to balance things out.

If you love beans you will love this salad.

Ingredients

400 g green beans

1 x tin mixed beans

1/3 cup rice vinegar

5 tbs sugar

salt and pepper to taste

1 wheel of feta cheese

Cook the green beans in salt water till soft, strain, cut in half and set aside.

Strain all the water from the tin of beans and add to salad bowl.

Add the green beans to the mix beans and season with salt and pepper.

Mix the sugar with the vinegar in a sauce pan and simmer for a few minutes, making sure that all the sugar have dissolve.

pour hot vinegar mixture over your salad.

Assemble salad in glass containers also adding some of the vinaigrette in each container. Divide the feta cheese amongst the containers and add last.

refriderate and enjoy later.

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I’ts a Chicken pie! a healthier Chicken pie.

I LOVE Chicken and mushroom pies, the type you buy at the filling stations. Yes that one’s! you know for a fact that you will have heartburn from eating them and still you end up buying one.

Well unfortunately my hips don’t lie and I had to make a healthy Chicken pie, so we ditch the puff pastry swap it for filo pastry, ditch the cream and use low-fat milk and just to add some flavour and fibre we add some courgettes, served with roasted butternuts on the side…yum.

Serves 6

Chicken Mushroom Pie

500 g  Chicken breast, cut into small cubes

2 slices of ham / 125g bacon cubed (optional)

5 ml olive oil

1 medium onion chopped

1 garlic glove chopped

250 g mushrooms chopped

4 courgettes ( grated)

1.25 ml salt

5 ml freshly ground pepper

15 g flour

350 ml low-fat milk

60 ml flour

2 filo sheets

1 egg

Preheat oven to 220 degrees

Cut chicken into small chunks.

Add oil to your pot and fry onions , garlic, mushrooms and ham / bacon (optional). Add the Chicken and for another 2 minutes.

Add  courgettes with the salt and pepper to the pot and fry until mushrooms are just about soft.

Mix the flour with the milk in a cup. Add the flour mixture to the chicken in the pot. Cook for a minute allowing the sauce to thicken while continuing to stir.

Grease an oven dish and pour the chicken filling in it.

Top the chicken filling with the filo sheets. Place the filo sheets roughly onto the pie it don’t need to be neat.  Brush with a little beaten egg. Reduce your oven heat to 180 degrees  and bake for 15-20 minutes until the filo pastry is browned.

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Carrot mousse with Spinach sauce

This recipe had me fascinated and I just had to try it.

It is from my book ”Eet gesond vir die lekker” - Pat Barton en Magdaleen van Wyk.

I had this book for a few years and to be honest at first it never really impressed me, that’s until I decided to make healthier choices and suddenly I can’t get enough off it.

This is a carrot mousse with a spinach sauce.  The mousse was soft and light but the eggs seemed to overpower the carrots a bit too much to my liking.

Ingredients

45 ml butter or margarine

3 gloves of garlic

7 medium carrots, peeled and cut into slices

375 ml Chicken stock

65 ml Cilantro leaves (optional)

3 eggs – lightly beaten

Sauce

6 x Spinach leaves

250 ml white sauce

Pre heat oven to 160 degrees

Add butter in a sauce pan. Fry the garlic and carrots for a few minutes. Add the Chicken stock and bring to the boil. Lower the heat, cover with lid and slowly cook the carrots until soft.

Strain the carrots retaining 65 ml of the liquid.

Whiz the carrots in a food processor, add the 65ml of liquid and cilantro. Allow mixture to cool down and add the eggs.

Grease 6 ramekins, spoon the mixture into the ramekins and place in a water bath (bain-marie).

Bake 40 minutes or until set.

For the spinach sauce; Steam your spinach leaves. Whiz up in your food processor and add with your whites sauce.

 

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(Almost meat free) Cheese and Vegetable tart

So I’ve cheated with 6 slices of ham in this recipe. In my defense it was not on purpose. I’ve opened the fridge and there it was! I realized it is Saturday and no one is having sandwiches over the weekend.  So my conscious told me to add it to the Veggie tart instead. It was either in the tart or to the dog, and no matter how much I adore my dog I was sure as not going to give him the ham, maybe if it was Christmas morning but not on a September afternoon, such action would qualify as “spoiling the dog”.

Anyway, this tart don’t need ham or any other meat, it is really good on its own. At first I thought there is too little moisture in this recipe but something magical happens between the natural juices of the veggies and the cream cheese.

Recipe

3 extra-large eggs

200 g fat-free cottage cheese (1 tub) smooth or chunky

5 ml parmesan cheese, grated

1 garlic glove chopped

Freshly ground pepper to taste

500 g Fresh or frozen veggies of your choice

For this recipe I’ve used:

1/2 onion finely sliced and 1/2 punnet of chopped brown mushrooms.

1/2 bunch of spinach chopped finely, 1 grated carrot, 2 grated courgettes.

60 g Mozzarella / Matured Cheddar cheese.

1 tsp Robertson’s veggie spices (optional)

2.5 ml Paprika

2.5 ml Salt

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees.  Spray a pie dish with non stick spray.

Saute’ the onions and mushrooms in olive oil, add the veggie spice and salt.

Mix the eggs, cottage cheese, parmesan cheese, garlic and black pepper.

Mix all of the vegetable together and add to your pie dish.

Pour egg and cottage cheese mixture over veggies and add the grated cheese evenly over the top.

Sprinkle with paprika and bake for 25-35 minutes until golden brown.

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Tips

This is a great low-fat, high protein meal.

Each portion is equal to 2 veggies, 2 lean protein portions, 1/2 low-fat dairy and 1/2 fat.

Add ham!

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