Slow Cooker Sausage and Black Eyed Bean Soup with Beet Greens

Happy New Year! What, it’s still January isn’t it? Here in Greece we say Happy New Year till February! I hope 2014 turns out to be the year we’ve all been waiting for.

I posted this recipe on The Foodie Corner a while ago, and it was the first recipe of the new year there too. I thought it was appropriate as it sort of represents a few of my goals for my Greek blog. Plus it’s got black eyed beans and greens in it, which are reminiscent of Hoppin’ John – a good luck dish eaten in the States. What better for a New Year’s recipe?

In case you’re wondering what those goals are and how they can be represented by a soup, I’ll explain. This soup is:
1. Healthy. I want to post more healthy recipes (you know, in amongst the chocolate cakes and baked brie).
2. Tasty but also frugal. Planning my food shopping, economising and avoiding waste; all happening in 2014.
3. The recipe is my own. I opened the fridge and let my imagination get a work out (I literally just put whatever I found, in the soup). I like that and want to do more of it.
4. It’s a slow cooker recipe. My slow cookers are going to be getting even more use this year.
5. Did I mention the black eyed beans and greens? Green as in the color of dollars? Yeah. Another goal. Preferably in euro but I won’t be picky.

So here’s my lucky soup recipe. It’s one of the good ones, you know, plop it all in the slow cooker and do something else for the rest of the day! Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 c. dried black eyed beans (no need to pre-soak… yay)
1 c. liquid from draining pumpkin puree (I told you, imagination! Obviously you can substitute with water)
3 c. hot water
200 gr. beef sausage, without casings, sliced
1 large handful of beet greens (I used the smaller ones with a thinner stalk, but you can use any of them, they cook for long enough to soften)
1 ½ celery stalk, sliced
½ yellow pepper, chopped
1 medium carrot, grated (I grated it to hide it from The Mister, you can just slice it)
1 ½ Tbs tomato paste (the thick puree that comes in a tube or small can)
1 tsp mixed dried herbs
½ tsp black pepper, freshly ground
½ tsp sweet paprika
1 parmesan rind
1 tsp coarse salt
extra grated parmesan for serving (optional)

Instructions

1. Add all the ingredients apart from the last three (parmesan rind, salt and extra parmesan) to the slow cooker. Turn on low and cook for at least 10 hours, or till the soup is thickened and the beans are soft.
2. Midway add the parmesan rind. (I forgot and added it for the last hour. This was not enough. If you’re going to be away add it in the beginning).
3. Towards the end of cooking, taste the soup and add salt if needed. The sausage may be salty enough (it wasn’t for me). Also they say that salt doesn’t help dry beans to cook, so I thought it would be best added after they have softened.
4. If you want you can use an immersion blender to thicken the soup more. Just pulse once or twice. Or transfer one cup of soup to a blender, pulse, and return to the slow cooker and stir in.
5. Serve with grated parmesan. Feta might be a nice alternative too.

Pastitsio. Need I Say More?

Tags

bechamel, bolognese, cheese, crockpot, Greek, meat sauce, minced meat, pasta bake, pastitsio, slow cooker, spaghetti

Hello! Well, yes, here I am! It’s been a while. Phew, a busy few weeks. I’ve just completed the last of a series of projects that popped up at the same time as my new Greek blog launch. One was a recipe contest for the restaurant chain TGI Friday’s, the other a guest post at a food related website (more on that in future) and the final one was another secret mission about which I can say that it involved making a Christmas recipe and photographing it. While it was 25C outside. Weirdest feeling!

All this at the time I was supposed to be building up the content of my own new blog. And practicing my new food styling and photography skills after a fabulous workshop in Holland at the end of September. Oh, and entertaining my gorgeous little nephews who came over for a week’s visit from the UK with my cousin and my uncle! Rather than try and do everything at once (I’m not good at that) I set myself a schedule (I’m better at that) and got all the projects done one after the other, while keeping a week in between completely free so I could enjoy the holiday with my family. It was my uncle’s first visit to Greece, after his sister (my mum) has lived here for 45 years! It was such a fab week!

Gazing at the sea on a one-day cruise
Swimming in a pool all to oneself
Being buried in the sand
Eating a huge ice-cream
Digging one’s way to China

Now I’m hoping to get into a rhythm with my posts, both for The Foodie Corner and OTO Spaghetti, and maybe show up here a little more often. That’s the plan anyway…

In order to celebrate all the above, and to make up for my disappearance, I am sharing a really good recipe. Not that all the rest aren’t really good… but this is a rather special dish. Pastitsio. Anyone who has been to Greece knows what it is. Its elements are I suppose –more or less- the same as those of lasagne, but somehow the taste is different. Equally yummy, but different. While lasagne is best made to be fairly sloppy, pastitsio should be able to proudly stand tall with each layer clearly visible on its mouthwateringly beautiful profile. Yes, I do love my pastitsio, is it that obvious?

Now, I know with lasagne lots of people go and add a cartful of veggies and make all sorts of adjustments. That would be fine here as well, but your end result would not be pastitsio. I’m sure it would be tasty, but I would have to object to the name being used in vain. The meat sauce has to be fairly simple, in fact even my recipe is quite a fancy version, and it has to be thick, not runny. It might be hard to find the proper pasta to use, it’s called bucatini (a thick spaghetti with a hole running through it), but it’s worth the search. If you really really really have to, use penne or rigatoni. I don’t think spaghetti is a good substitute. The béchamel, unlike lasagne, has egg in it which keeps it nice and thick (remember the standing tall thing).

Pastitsio is one of those with which you end up dirtying a hundred different pots and pans. That might have something to do with why I don’t make it that often… But it’s soo worth it. Here’s the recipe. It’s based on the one in the little Greek book “Recipes for children” by Mima Karvouni, a little gem of a book I use to find things to make for The Mister when I run out of ideas for food he might actually like rather than put up with (i.e. my usual blog experiment type cooking). For the meat sauce I use my slow cooker Bolognese recipe which is super tasty. Making it in the slow cooker is brilliant in this case, as you will see from all the steps below. You can make it the conventional way, there is a note in the same post for a stovetop method.

So, here goes… (ingredients are listed by order of appearance)

Pastitsio

Ingredients

500g bucatini pasta
2 Tbs margarine or butter or 1 Tbs oil (to keep the pasta from sticking)
1/2 c grated cheese (a hard yellow cheese would be best, like gruyere or parmesan or maybe manchego)
1 egg
salt & pepper
1 litre (approx. 4 cups) thick Bolognese sauce. Use this recipe BUT omit the stock to ensure a thicker consistency. It should be slightly thicker than what you would want from a sauce over a plate of pasta.

For the béchamel
100g margarine or butter
100g all purpose flour
1 litre milk
pinch of nutmeg
salt & white pepper (or black if not available)
1 egg

3/4 c grated cheese for topping
1/4 c breadcrumbs (not traditional, can be omitted)

Instructions

1. Boil pasta according to packet instructions, being careful not to overcook. Drain and add the 2 tablespoons of marge. Stir gently so that pasta is coated, then set aside to cool.
2. If you haven’t already made your meat sauce, do that now.
3. When the pasta has cooled a bit, add the egg and ½ cup of cheese, stirring gently till the pasta is coated with the mixture. Careful the egg doesn’t scramble.
4. Put half the pasta in a baking dish (mine is 30cm x 27cm – about 12”x10.5”), spread it around nicely and add the meat sauce in a layer on top. Then cover the meat sauce with the rest of the pasta, again spreading it out.
5. Make your béchamel. It’s important here that you have all the ingredients ready next to you. Melt the marge in a medium sized saucepan on medium to high heat, add the flour and mix well with a wooden spoon. You want the mixture to come together into a paste. Cook for a few minutes stirring constantly. Working quickly, switch the spoon for a whisk* (keep spoon next to you), lower heat to medium and add about half the milk while whisking quickly. Keep whisking till the mixture becomes smooth. It might thicken quickly, if it does then add the rest of the milk, without stopping the whisking. If it doesn’t, add the rest of the milk gradually (still whisking). When you are confident that the sauce is smooth, turn the heat up just a bit and switch back to your spoon. I find the spoon better at this stage as I can feel the bottom of the pan better and know if it’s catching. If it is, turn the heat back down to medium. Keep stirring, getting into the corners of the pan, till the sauce thickens a bit. It doesn’t need to be super thick as the egg will thicken it later. I stop when I can just see the bottom of the pan when the spoon swishes around during stirring.
6. Take the béchamel off the heat, add the nutmeg and some salt and pepper.
7. Preheat the oven to 200C (or 180C on fan).
8. When the béchamel has cooled just a bit, add the egg while stirring vigorously. Pour the sauce over the top layer of pasta in the dish.
9. Mix the ¾ cup cheese with the breadcrumbs and sprinkle over the top of the pastitsio.
10. Bake for about 45 to 50 minutes, until the top is nicely browned. Let the pastitsio rest before cutting and serving.

Note: (*) I find the best whisk for sauces and custards is the one pictured below. It gets into the corners of the pan better than the others, which are more suitable for bowls.

And a small announcement: In between writing steps 9 and 10 I found out that two of my recipes have made it to the final of the TGI Friday’s recipe competition. I’m a happy bunny!

Protein Packed Chicken & Egg Salad – Dukan Perfect

Tags

buttermilk, chicken, dressing, dukan, egg, low fat, protein, salad, tarragon, yogurt

Antique Russian silver spoon dating to 1845 – on kind loan by The Collector

I really should be packing right now. And I’m expecting 3 different repair people today, electrician, solar water heater fixer and handyman who will be taking over the evening ritual of watering my tomato plants. I haven’t even rummaged through our store room to find a suitcase. Where am I off to? The 5th Food Blogger Connect conference in London! I can’t believe it was November when I booked my place; where has the time gone?

I’m so looking forward to this gathering. I am hoping to experience, learn, taste, enjoy and make loads of foodie friends! And above all, fill my head with ideas for my blog! Do you know that amongst the speakers are David Lebovitz, Penny De Los Santos and Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen? Wow. Any food blogger reading will know that these are seriously interesting people! There are many more of course, like David Loftus (a photographer who works with Jamie Oliver), a team from the Food Network and a group of well known UK bloggers.

Right, on with the recipe so I can get on with the packing! I have been back on the Dukan for a couple of weeks now, trying to get into shape. This is so I can stuff my face without a second thought during the conference. Then it will probably be back to square one, but it will have been worth it!

I noticed this salad on The Perfect Pantry, a site which has inspired me more than once to adapt recipes for this particular diet. Lydia makes many lovely light dishes which, with minor alterations, are perfectly suitable and make a great change to the same old grilled chicken breasts.

Here we have a chicken and egg salad, with a gorgeous vinaigrette dressing which I have lightened up even more by using runny natural yogurt instead of olive oil. You could also use buttermilk. Make sure it’s under 2% fat though for the diet! Dukaners can also eat this on Protein Only days, limiting the parsley quantity (use as an aromatic herb rather than a vegetable). If you are on a Protein and Vegetable day, let your imagination run wild and add whatever you fancy! The original recipe includes celery leaves which sound lovely.

This is a great way to eat up leftover chicken. I usually make a whole one in the slow cooker, with just a few herbs rubbed onto to the skin (ok, I help them stick with a tsp or two of oil, but what’s that for a whole chicken, right?). I pop it in for 8 hours on low, no liquids or anything else added, and hey presto – rotisserie style chicken. Which leaves me with loads of lean protein to enjoy in my lunch for a couple of days.

Serves 1 hungry Dukaner

Ingredients

1 cup cooked chicken, chopped or torn into bite size pieces
2 hard boiled eggs, cut into bite size pieces
2 Tbs chopped parsley
3 Tbs runny natural yogurt or buttermilk (under 2%)
1 tsp mustard (I used Dijon)
¼ tsp dried tarragon
2 tsp white wine vinegar (it’s quite tart, use less if you don’t want that)
salt & pepper

Instructions

1. Add chicken, eggs and parsley to a bowl.
2. Add the dressing ingredients to a clean jam jar, cover and shake well.
3. Pour over salad, toss and dig in!

Notes: You can make more dressing and leave it in the jar for later or the next day. It is also lovely with smoked salmon.

Due to limited time today I’m not sharing the blog love. Click on the box “Food Blog Search” located on my side bar to search through loads of great recipes. See ya!

Dukan Moussaka – Fabulously Healthy Protein and Vegetable Dish

Tags

aubergine, beef, cauliflower, crockpot, Dukan diet friendly, eggplant, Greek, low fat, meat sauce, protein, red pepper, slow cooker, vegetables

This is a complicated recipe. It’s not at all difficult, but there are many steps to it. It’s not a throw-together-right-after-work meal, but you can make it in stages over a couple of days; and that makes life a lot easier. The seed for this idea was planted when I made the Healthier Mac & Cheese using a cauliflower béchamel. I started wondering if I could use this sauce in a lasagna, but then it occurred to me that it’s actually Dukan friendly. So my thoughts turned towards adapting a classic dish to suit this protein and veg based diet. Lasagna was out due to the pasta, so what else could I make? Moussaka of course! Sadly the potato had to be replaced, but layers of red peppers compensated by lending their sweetness and bright colour to the dish.

On my first go at this experiment I tried to dry fry slices of aubergine (no oil is allowed in the diet) so as to keep with the traditional layering of meat and veg. That didn’t really go too well; aubergines like their olive oil. Also, I made the cauliflower sauce based on the mac & cheese recipe, which turned out a bit too watery and meant the top layer was very thin. So the second time round, I cooked the aubergine (eggplant) together with the meat in order to overcome the dryness issue, and made a thicker cauli sauce without the addition of water. There were less layers than traditional moussaka, but everything held together much better, and the result was tastier and much prettier!

I used the slow cooker to make the meat part, since this is by far the best method for cooking without oil or any other kind of fat. It’s also a great way to make minced meat sauces in general, as they always benefit from long simmering on low heat. I always leave my Bolognese on for a good 10 hours. If you don’t have a slow cooker I’m sure it would work just fine on the stovetop. Use water to gently cook the onion, then add the meat, and don’t forget to drain the fat before adding the rest of the ingredients. You want the result to be quite thick so watch the amount of liquid you add.

Before it’s cooked , the aubergine needs a bit of alone time with a good sprinkling of salt (don’t worry, it’s rinsed off!). This helps get rid of the bitterness that sometimes comes with this vegetable. I recently heard an interesting tip for those who grow their own aubergines; apparently if you plant them next to basil they’ll be less bitter to begin with!

As regards the preparation of this dish, what I did was make the meat sauce the first day. Then in the evening I made the cauliflower puree. Both went in the fridge overnight. The next day I made the peppers, mixed the puree with the rest of the topping ingredients, layered it all up in the baking dish and baked it. Broken up like that it’s not that big a deal really. And it’s well worth it! Oh, you could also use store bought roasted red peppers, but since they are usually preserved in oil it would be cheating a bit.

If you are not on the Dukan Diet, this is still a recommended recipe. It’s super healthy, low in fat, and very tasty. I suggest you sprinkle some grated cheese on top before baking! (Also allowed in the Consolidation phase of the diet)

Step 1

Slow Cooker Meat Sauce with Aubergines (Eggplant)

Ingredients

1 medium onion, chopped
3 Tbs water
500g minced lean beef
2 Tbs water
2 Tbs white wine vinegar
400g chopped tomatoes with juice + 2 Tbs water to rinse tin
1/2 cup tomato passata
2 medium aubergines, cut into chunks
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly cracked pepper
1 bay leaf
Salt

Instructions

1. Prepare aubergines by putting the chunks into a colander and sprinkling with salt. Give them a shake and sprinkle again, so that all the pieces have salt on them. Leave for 20-30 minutes (on a plate, as the veg will release a bit of water).
2. Sautee the onion in the 3 tablespoons of water on medium low heat till softened. Add to the slow cooker. Or just put the raw onion in the slow cooker and save yourself a step – to be honest I doubt it makes much difference to the end result.
3. Put the pan back on the heat, turn it up to high, and add the 2 tablespoons of water followed by the minced meat. Stir continuously breaking up any clumps. The meat will release fat and juices and start bubbling. When it’s brown all over with no pink showing, add the vinegar. Stir well and let it all bubble till the liquid in the pan has reduced. Transfer meat to the slow cooker with a slotted spoon and discard the remaining fatty juices (this is a diet dish!).
4. Add the tomatoes, passata, cinnamon, bay leaf and pepper to the slow cooker. Stir well.
5. Rinse and strain the aubergine well. Add to the slow cooker and stir into the mixture.
6. Cook on low for 10 hours (I imagine it would be fine after 8, but I was out so I don’t know for sure!). If you are around give it a stir halfway through.

Step 2

Red Pepper Layer

Ingredients

2 red peppers (I used the long Greek ones, but bell peppers would be fine)

Instructions

1. Cut one side of a pepper from the stalk down to the bottom, then do the same on the opposite side. You want to end up with two big pieces, as wide and flat as possible. These will make up the layer that separates the meat from the topping. Don’t worry about the bottom or sides curling in, they will flatten a bit after they are softened. If necessary, measure the pepper pieces against the baking pan or dish that you will use. If needed, use another pepper.
2. Take a large frying pan with a lid, cover the bottom of the pan with water, lay the pepper pieces in it and turn the heat to medium. Cook covered till the peppers are well softened, turning once. Mine took about 30 minutes. My mum suggested that I try doing this in the microwave next time. I wish she’d said it earlier… Anyway, make sure they don’t catch on the bottom of the pan. If necessary turn the heat down a bit or add more water. Set aside.

Step 3

Cauliflower and Yogurt Topping – The Fake Béchamel

Ingredients

1 smallish head of cauliflower (I forgot to weigh it – I think it was probably about 600-700g). You want it to produce 2 cups of puree.
1 Tbs vinegar
1 tub (200g) Greek yogurt (2% fat)
2 eggs
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

1. Cut the cauliflower into florets and put in a pan with a fitted strainer. Add water to the bottom of the pan (don’t let it touch the bottom of the strainer), together with the vinegar. Cover with a tight fitting lid and steam the cauliflower till very soft. (Vinegar helps with the smell!)
2. Remove the cooked cauliflower and blend it well, till it’s very smooth. Let cool a little. You want two cups. If you have some leftover, use it as a healthy sauce for meat or fish (you can thin it out with milk if necessary).
3. Add the yogurt to the cooled cauliflower puree while stirring continuously, followed by the eggs, pepper, nutmeg and salt. Make sure it’s all well incorporated.

Step 4

The Dukan Moussaka – General Assembly!

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. In a baking tin or dish, evenly spread the meat and aubergine sauce.
2. Lay the peppers on top, creating a layer and trying to cover the meat as well as possible.
3. Spoon the cauliflower mixture on top of the peppers and level it out. The dish I used is 16x25cm and everything fit perfectly.
4. Bake in the hot oven for 50-60 minutes, till it’s bubbling at the sides and firm on top. It will probably start to brown on the top, but mostly around the sides. I couldn’t get mine to brown all over. It didn’t matter!

Other Moussaka recipes – but none of them Dukan!
Moussaka by Brown Eyed Baker
Vegetable Moussaka by The Shiksa in the Kitchen
Leek Moussaka by The Perfect Pantry
And something a little different… Mussaka by FatFree Vegan Kitchen

Slow Cooker Giouvarlakia – Meatballs in Egg-lemon Sauce or Soup

Tags

avgolemono, crockpot, egg lemon sauce, Giouvarlakia, Greek, lemon, meatballs, minced meat, potatoes, slow cooker, soup, vegetables

For a while now I’ve been meaning to try and adapt this classic Greek recipe for preparation in the slow cooker. It’s one of those things I usually remember at the wrong time, like when I haven’t defrosted the minced meat. Finally, on Saturday I remembered to take the meat out of the freezer, buy parsley, and properly plan my experiment for Sunday. This had to be a weekend endeavour for me, as I knew the meatballs wouldn’t need all day in the slow cooker, and my working hours have me away from home for at least 9.5 hours on weekdays.

Giouvarlakia are meatballs made with rice in the mixture, cooked in water or stock and served (traditionally) in egg-lemon soup (Avgolemono). If you don’t fancy soup, this version makes the juice just thick enough to act as a sauce (albeit a runny one), ideal for being mopped up with fresh crusty bread. Chips (French fries) are also good vessels to use for plate cleaning in this case. The resulting meatballs are similar to the insides of these stuffed courgettes, but are much easier to make.

I started by prepping the veg, cutting it into fairly small pieces to cook quicker, and getting it going in the Crockpot. I then made my Giouvarlakia, slightly on the large side so as to delay cooking time a bit and allow enough time for the potatoes and carrots to soften. They were bigger than golf ball size, with about 3-4 level tablespoons of mixture in each one. The amounts stated below gave me nine meatballs. I used a 4 quart Crockpot and the meat, perched on top of the veg, was partially submerged in the 3 cups of water.

Slow Cooker Giouvarlakia

Serves 3

Ingredients

1 medium sized potato, cut into smallish pieces (approx. 3-5 cm or 1-2 inches)
2 small carrots, sliced
1 celery stick cut into chunks
3 cups of water or stock
500g minced meat (I used a mix of beef and pork, you can use just beef if preferred)
1 small onion, chopped finely
2 Tbs parsley, chopped finely
5 Tbs rice for risotto (Arborio or similar)
2 tsp salt, divided
¼ tsp pepper (I used white)
1 tsp olive oil
2 eggs
1 large lemon, juice

Instructions

1. Place potatoes, carrots and celery in the bottom of the slow cooker insert and pour in the water. If you want to help things along and maybe shorten cooking time, you can use boiling water. I used 2 cups cold, 1 cup boiling. Sprinkle one teaspoon of salt over veg and water. Turn on slow cooker to low.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the meat, onion, parsley, rice, 1 teaspoon salt, pepper and oil. Mix well with your hands till it comes together, but don’t over mix so the meatballs aren’t too dense.
3. Shape the mixture into meatballs and place on top of the veg in the slow cooker. Some won’t be completely submerged, that’s fine.
4. Leave them to cook for about 6 hours and check for doneness. You can use a thermometer or break one in two and take a peek. I find that the thermometer is best, as sometimes meat in the slow cooker keeps a sort of pinky colour, even if it’s well over the required temperature. Mine were in for 6 ½ hours on low and were done, as was the veg. During cooking (after about 3 hours) I also turned them upside down once, using barbeque tongs, but I’m sure they would have been fine even if I hadn’t disturbed them at all.
5. When the meatballs are ready take them out of the slow cooker with a slotted spoon (keep them warm as best you can, but don’t worry too much). In a mixing bowl beat the eggs and lemon juice till well combined. Place the bowl next to the slow cooker, and using a ladle, slowly add small amounts of hot juice into the egg mixture, beating continuously. Start with about one tablespoon at a time, and gradually increase the amount of juice added to the bowl. This is called tempering the eggs and it needs to be done so they don’t scramble. When most of the juice from the Crockpot has been transferred to the egg mixture, and the bowl feels warm to the touch, pour the mixture back into the insert. Take the insert out of the base and move it round a bit, so the sauce goes all round the veg, and place it back into the slow cooker.
6. Put the meatballs back into the sauce (or soup!), cover and leave for about 5 minutes till it’s all warmed through again. Keep an eye on it so the egg doesn’t misbehave!
7. Serve with fresh crusty bread and feta cheese.

Note: If you want to enjoy this as a soup, I suggest you use 4 cups of stock instead of the 3 cups of water.

Slow Cooker Meatball Mania!
Slow Cooker Meatballs with Orange Marmalade, by The Chic Life
Slow Cooker Asian Meatballs, by Taste and Tell
Apple, Turkey and Cheddar Meatballs Crockpot Recipe, by A Year of Slow Cooking
Almost Dukan Friendly Slow Cooker Turkey Meatballs, by On Top of Spaghetti

Thanksgiving in Greece – My Dinner Party Menu

Tags

Dukan diet friendly, gravy, main, potatoes, side, starters, stuffing, sweet potatoes, Thanksgiving, turkey

Let me start by saying that I’m not really happy with the photos in this post. But I’ve decided to go ahead with it, because it was my biggest dinner party yet and the dishes were actually very tasty and therefore blogworthy.

Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Greece. However, since my main reading material is food blogs from the US, I got caught up in the excitement and all round frenzy that leads up to this big holiday across the pond. So I thought it would be fun to throw a dinner party and invite friends over for some traditional American Thanksgiving yumminess. I started planning the menu the previous Saturday, and spent quite a few hours in the kitchen that week preparing my feast. Thursday was a regular working day for all of us, so Friday was going to be our Greek Thanksgiving.

Many of my dishes were made following recipes from various blogs. I’m not going to share all of them here, as it would take about a week to write them up, and since I didn’t really make any changes I’ll just link to each accordingly.

Starters

So here goes! My starters were really just nibbles, laid out when the first guests arrived.
*Little squares of cheddar and another smoked cheese which I don’t know the English name of (sorry!) with two chutneys, my homemade Quince Chutney and a gorgeous store bought Tamarind Chutney. Cheese and chutney, I could have eaten just that…
*Cherry tomato and mozzarella ball kebabs with homemade oregano pesto with feta (pictured).
*Alton Brown’s Spinach and Artichoke Dip served with nachos and crackers (pictured). I used tinned artichoke and it worked fine.

As I was adding the finishing touches to all the main course dishes and feeling quite smug at how perfect my timing had been for everything, my friend was exploring my well stocked fridge for a drink. Suddenly she exclaimed “Ooh what are these?” My reply was also an exclamation which I will not repeat here in case children are reading… “These” were my stuffing patties which I had forgotten to put in the oven with the potatoes. Thankfully the roasties were only half-done, so in went the stuffing to join them and the crisis was averted. Anyway, let me tell you more about the mains.

Turkey

Of course. But, as I’m not that confident yet, I decided against roasting a whole bird. The perfect solution was to make a turkey breast in the slow cooker. Have you ever tried that? If not you have to. It is the perfect way to make turkey breast as it stays moist. It’s also fantastic to be able to stick it in the Crock-Pot in the morning and forget about it till it’s time to go on the table. Oh and the gravy it produces? Mm.
My turkey breast recipe is based on Stephanie O’Dea’s and goes something like this:

Ingredients

1 turkey breast (I could only find boneless skinless, but use bone-in if you can get it, it will stay even more succulent), mine was about 1.5 kg (approx. 3 lbs)
2 cups chicken stock
50g butter
1 leek
1 onion
2 tsp dried tarragon
Salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Peel the onion and halve it. Wash the leek well (greens bits too) and cut into three or four pieces. Arrange onion and leek in the bottom of the slow cooker.
2. Rinse the turkey breast and pat dry with kitchen paper. Rub it with salt, pepper and 1 teaspoon of tarragon and place it on top of the veg in the slow cooker.
3. Pour the chicken stock over it, watch the tarragon get washed away, and then sprinkle the 2nd teaspoon of tarragon on top of the meat.
4. Plonk the butter on top (no need to melt it).
5. Pop the lid on and cook on low for 8 hours.
Note: Omit the butter and you’ve got yourself a Dukan Diet friendly turkey recipe.

Gravy

To make the gravy, when the 8 hours are up lift the meat out of the slow cooker and transfer the drippings to a small saucepan. Discard the veg. Put the turkey back in the slow cooker to stay warm. Boil the liquid till it reduces and becomes more saucy. Add some gravy granules (if you like) and continue to boil till it reaches the consistency you want. It might take a while to thicken so if you want, use some cornflower to speed things up (you know the drill, mix cornflower with cold water first to make a slurry, then add to the hot liquid while off the hob. Return to the heat and stir till it thickens).

Sage and Onion Stuffing

My favourite part of the meal. This is my mum’s recipe. She makes this stuffing for Christmas Dinner, which is my favourite dinner in the whole wide world. I think it would be my choice for the “If you could have one last meal…” question. This was the first time I tried making it myself, and I’m happy to say it was great. A bit salty, and it could have done with more time in the oven (ahem) but still great. Recipe goes:

Ingredients

3 large onions, chopped (not minced)
125g margarine
360g breadcrumbs (not too fine)
5 ½ heaped tsp dried sage
Salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Cook onions gently over medium heat in a frying pan with some water. The water is just so the onion doesn’t stick, you only need about 2-3 tablespoons. Cook, stirring frequently, till onion starts to soften.
2. Add the margarine to the pan and continue cooking till onion is translucent.
3. In the meantime, in a large bowl, mix breadcrumbs with sage and salt and pepper.
4. Transfer onion (with pan liquids) to the bowl and mix well. It should come together into a fairly pliable mixture (like minced meat when you make burgers). At this point you can taste a bit to see if it needs seasoning. You might want to add a bit more sage, but keep in mind the flavour strengthens slightly while cooking.
5. Take about 2 tablespoons of mixture and form into a patty (a slightly flattened meatball, not as flat as a burger). Continue with the rest of the bread mixture.
6. Bake in the oven with the potatoes. Keep them on one side so you can cover them with tin foil if they brown too quickly.

Side Dishes

These were a bit of a strange mix. We had:
Roast potatoes. I boil them first, for about 8-10 minutes, then put them on a baking tray with a few tablespoons of olive oil, mix them so they’re all coated in oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper and a bit of paprika, and roast in a 200C oven for about 50’ to an hour. This makes them crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.
Sweet Potato Casserole. Yum. I used this recipe by CBSOP and of course baked the potatoes in the slow cooker the night before so they were ready to go in the casserole the next morning.
Green Beans with Tahini-Lemon Dressing. A wonderful side dish with a very light dressing, great to accompany “heavier” flavours such as stuffing and sweet potatoes. Recipe by Kalyn’s Kitchen.
Lentil Salad with Roast Beets and Almonds. Not quite traditional but very tasty! I love roast beetroot and it keeps well. Recipe by The Stone Soup. This would also be great with some crumbled feta on top.
Beer Bread with Cheddar and Rosemary. I based this on the recipe by Bake at 350, but used Newcastle Brown Ale instead of lager and cheddar instead of gruyere. I also skipped the melted butter to keep things lighter, but will definitely try it next time!

Dessert

For dessert I made these pumpkin-y brownies by Picky Palate, but because I thought they would be a flop, I also threw together an apple crisp (in record time may I add) just in case. The brownies weren’t a complete flop, but they weren’t as good as I’d hoped. I should have listened to my instinct while making them, because I had a feeling the chocolate I used was way too much for the one cup of flour. I don’t use chocolate chips as they cost twice as much, I just chop my own chocolate, and this might have been the reason the recipe didn’t work. There was definitely too much chocolate in there (yes, that is possible!).

For the Apple Crisp I put two apples (peeled, cored and chopped) into a pie dish, and topped it with the mixture of oats, flour, butter and brown sugar that Jessica from How Sweet It Is uses in this recipe. It’s really good! Especially with cream. But then everything is good with cream.

Phew. I think that’s everything! For those of you who are still with me after this looong post, thank you, I didn’t think you’d make it to the end 😉

Slow Cooker Turkey Sausages and Veg in the Red

Tags

aubergine, crockpot, dukan, eggplant, red pepper, slow cooker, tomato, tomato sauce, turkey sausages

The other day I was really stuck for ideas on what to make for dinner. I had some lovely aubergines (eggplant) in the fridge, from a friend’s garden, and really wanted to use them up. Then I remembered I also had red peppers, definitely on their last legs, so I wanted to combine the two. And then I had a light-bulb moment. I’m saying this because I rarely have light-bulb moments. Most of the time I have great ideas on what I should have made, after I’ve made something else. This results in an overflowing fridge and freezer, since the great ingredients I keep in there usually present themselves to me when it’s too late. This time, it was a genuine case of Eureka when I thought of the turkey sausages I’d just brought back from my mum’s where they were on holiday. Yes, all the contents of my fridge/freezer (well, the lucky ones anyway) took a recent vacation to my mum’s due to freezer problems I’ve mentioned in the past (too many times).

So, yes, happy days. I had sausages, I had lovely veg, and I had tinned tomatoes. Into the slow cooker they all went. The sausages were frozen but by the time I’d prepped the rest of the ingredients they were just thawed enough to slice into thick chunks (it’s summer in Greece, nothing stays frozen for long on the counter top). And to give credit where credit is due, I used this recipe for Mediterranean Eggplant Salad by Apron Strings as my base. Yum! Threw it all in with seasonings etc and voila! Heavenly smells served to create a huge appetite for a very tasty dinner. I was on a carbs-allowed-for-one-meal day of the Dukan Diet, and I was very good and made quinoa instead of pasta.

As there was a lot left over, The Mister got to try some the next day. (That sounded weird didn’t it? No he doesn’t only eat leftovers! He was away the first day. Glad we cleared that up before he reads this). This meal was quite interesting, because I combined it with white fish cooked in the frying pan with some low cal spray. Yes, it sounds weird eating turkey sausage with fish, but hey, you do what you gotta do when you’re eating the Dukan way. And it was actually very nice. Don’t ask what type of fish Ok I just looked it up on Google, and it seems that this fish (Glafkos in Greek) is in fact Blue Shark!! Wow, we had shark for dinner. Cool.

UPDATE ON 12TH FEBRUARY 2013
I’m updating this post today so I can enter it into the Recipes for Life blogger challenge over on Bangers & Mash. Vanesther is hosting this challenge for a charity organisation called SWALLOW, which supports adults with learning disabilities to lead more independent lives. I’m so happy to be posting something for such a good cause! SWALLOW organises cookery classes helping members learn to prepare simple, inexpensive and nutritious meals. I chose this recipe for two reasons. One, the ingredients are right, and two, when it comes to simple, inexpensive and nutritious you can’t go wrong with a slow cooker. For extra simplicity and lower cost, serve with rice or pasta. Also, ignore the onion flakes and use a proper onion – that was either me being very lazy or me being out of onions. Chop it up and add with everything else. Enjoy!

Serves 3-4

Ingredients

4 turkey sausages, thickly sliced (in Greece they’re called country style not sure if that’s the same in UK & US)
2 red bell peppers, cut into chunks
2 small aubergines (eggplants), cut into chunks
2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
1 Tbs onion flakes
1 Tbs sweet paprika
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp (ahem, Dukaners close your eyes) brown sugar
1 ½ tsp dried oregano
1 tsp coarse salt
Few grinds of pepper

Instructions

1. Chuck it all in the slow cooker. Stir as best you can.
2. Cook on high for about 5 hours, or on low for I imagine about 8 hours. I took the high option as I started late! It might be less on high if your sausages are fully thawed.
3. Enjoy with quinoa, cous cous, rice, or SHARK!

Slow Cooker Turkey Meatballs – Dukan Friendly (Almost!)

Tags

crockpot, dukan, meatballs, minced meat, slow cooker, tomato, tomato sauce, turkey

You know the name of my blog, On Top of Spaghetti, right? It’s from the children’s song where a poor meatball falls off a plate of spaghetti and rolls away to a terrifying, squishy death. My first post was a recipe for meatballs in tomato sauce, and I’ve just realised that it’s now 6 months since I started this blog. So for our first half-birthday it seems appropriate to post another tomato meatball recipe!

This time it’s a Dukan Diet friendly version, made with turkey minced meat. Now, the “almost” included in the title is because this is fine for the Consolidation phase (last phase) but it’s a tiny bit naughty if you’re still on the Cruise phase. For those who aren’t familiar with this jargon, on the Cruise phase dieters can enjoy days of lean meat and non-fat dairy (pure protein) and vegetables, alternating with days of just pure protein. After moving on to the Consolidation phase they can have some additional treats like two slices of brown bread, a piece of cheese and a piece of fruit each day. There’s a lot more to the diet than this description, but I won’t bore you with it. If anyone is interested in details please feel free to email me. So, the ingredient that makes these Consolidation friendly only, is a teensy bit of parmesan. However, it’s such a small amount… let’s just say I won’t judge if you’re feeling rebellious!

The great thing about this recipe (apart from its tastiness) is that it’s made in the slow cooker, so it won’t send your home’s temperature through the roof. And you don’t have to brown the meatballs first! You can just plop them in and forget them till dinner time. Giving you enough time to go out in search of a beach.

My inspiration for these meatballs came from Gina over at Skinnytaste; I tried her Crock Pot Italian Turkey Meatballs a while ago and really loved them. This time I switched the breadcrumbs with oat bran, which is a daily Dukan requirement, and changed the sauce and seasonings a bit according to what I had in my cupboard. They turned out really great, and The Mister ate them up happily too (always a good sign).

Turkey Meatballs in the Slow Cooker
Serves 3-4

What you need:
For the meatballs
450g minced turkey meat
2 ½ Tbs chopped parsley
2 Tbs oat bran
4 Tbs grated parmesan cheese
1 egg
1 pinch of sweet paprika
Salt and pepper to taste
For the tomato sauce
500g tomato passata
3 plum tomatoes, chopped
1 ½ tsp dried onion flakes (or ½ small onion chopped)
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp dried basil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp sugar or equivalent sweetener (note: I was planning on using stevia but I forgot. We didn’t eat these the day I cooked them, so I added some when I warmed them up the next day and it was fine.)

What you do:

1. Add all the meatball ingredients to a large bowl. Mix with your hands until incorporated, but don’t over mix.
2. Form small meatballs with your hands, being careful not to pack them very densely so they don’t toughen up (great advice from Gina). Put aside while you prep the slow cooker.
3. Pour the passata into the slow cooker, add the tomatoes and the rest of the sauce ingredients. Mix with a spoon.
4. Gently place the meatballs into the sauce. It doesn’t matter if you have to stack them a bit, or if the top ones are not submerged. When they start cooking and firm up slightly you can mix them around so the ones on top can spend some time in the sauce!
5. Cook on low for 4 to 6 hours. Check for doneness with a food thermometer or by cutting into a meatball and checking there’s no pinkness.

Note: Gina has a stovetop version as well, in case for some unfathomable reason you don’t own a slow cooker!

Turkey Burgers – Dukan. Again.

Tags

burgers, diet, dukan, grill, healthy, low fat, turkey

As you probably guessed from my inspired title, I’m getting a bit fed up with this whole diet thing. I can definitely see why most people give up during the Consolidation phase. It’s boring. Really boring. And looong. The worst part is that it’s still a diet but without the excitement of actually losing weight. Instead, the scales are disheartening as your body is retaining water and fighting hard to stock up its depleted reserves of fat, following the attack it underwent during the previous phases. But I’m sticking to it! It’s such a great workout for my willpower. Yesterday I made a Nutella Cheesecake for a friend’s BBQ without taste testing once!

Luckily, there are still some recipes that can cause some excitement during this period of kitchen boredom. In my last post I shared a recipe from The Perfect Pantry and mentioned that many of Lydia’s recipes are easily adaptable to the Dukan Diet. Well, this one doesn’t even need to be adapted. Everything in it is allowed in all phases. Turkey Burgers! Another healthy, tasty, non-fattening meal which you can literally throw together in minutes and stick on the grill. A great alternative to beef burgers if you’re cutting down on red meat or just want something lighter.

The first day I ate these with salad only, no sauces or anything. They are so juicy they don’t really need anything extra. For my leftovers however I made a quick yogurt sauce with curry, which unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of. Sorry! Lydia makes a yummy looking yogurt and feta sauce for these. Go over and check it out, if you’re not on the Dukan!

Greek Turkey Burgers by The Perfect Pantry
Serves 4

What you need:
450g minced turkey meat (breast has less fat)
3 Tbs Greek yogurt (0% for Dukan)
1 Tbs chopped parsley
¾ tsp lemon zest
¾ tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste

What you do:

1. Throw all the ingredients in a large bowl. Mix with your hands, just until evenly incorporated. Don’t over mix.
2. Make four burgers. Let them rest while you heat the grill.
3. Spray grill with low fat cooking spray and heat to medium high.
4. Place burgers on the grill and leave for about 7 minutes. Turn them over and continue grilling for another 5 minutes. Cooking time might depend on the thickness of the burgers so keep an eye on them.
5. Lydia suggests using a food thermometer which should read about 165F when they are done. This is a great idea, and saves you from having to cut into one of the burgers to see the colour!
6. Enjoy with salad or on a bun.

Simple Yogurt Sauce with Curry
Serves 1 or 2

What you need:
½ tsp curry powder
1 ½ – 2 tsp water
½ pot of Greek yogurt (0% for Dukan)

What you do:

1. Mix curry powder with water to form a smooth paste.
2. Mix paste into the yogurt.
3. Dollop over turkey or chicken burgers (or any turkey or chicken).

Light Slow Cooker Meatloaf and My Dukan Progress

Tags

crockpot, dukan, ground beef, meatloaf, minced beef, oat bran, slow cooker

I’m really happy today. I’m only 600 grams away from the target weight I set for myself only 2.5 weeks ago, which means I’ve lost 3 kilos (about 6 pounds)! That’s pretty amazing if you ask me. It hasn’t been particularly hard, apart from the one day I wanted sushi and could only have sashimi, and the evening The Mister and I went out for dinner and his plate of chips (French fries) was sitting under my nose while I was eating plain grilled chicken. Hopefully the next phase which for me will last just over a month, will be as easy. I think that’s where most people give in to temptation!

Last week I was feeling adventurous, and fancied something different for dinner. The Dukan book has a recipe for meatloaf in it, so that gave me the idea to try my own version of this classic dish. The book version seemed ok, but I wanted to add my required daily dose of oat bran to the mix, since meatloaf normally includes bread. I also wanted to make it in the slow cooker, as my oven is currently on holiday. Temperatures here these days are crazy high, or at least the feels-like factor is, so the heat from the slow cooker is about as much as I can handle. I looked up a few recipes, and in the end decided to follow this one from the Betty Crocker site as a guide but with a couple of changes.

The result made me very happy indeed! I really love it when I experiment and get good results, it makes me feel very creative. The meatloaf was just right, but because this is a light (diet) version it’s not overly moist. In terms of the Dukan Diet, this can be eaten in all phases. Just make sure you calculate how much extra oat bran you need to eat on that day, so you reach the required 1 ½ or 2 Tbs. This recipe uses 2 Tbs for the whole thing, so if you eat half of it, you’ll want another ½ or 1 Tbs depending on which phase you are on.

Before moving on to the recipe, I have to also mention the fab idea I got from Stephanie O’Dea’s website, in the comment section. A reader sent her an email suggesting she uses an upside-down aluminium pan with holes punched in, to put the meatloaf on inside the slow cooker so the fat drains away from the meat. I used throw away aluminium muffin cups, placed upside down! Even better than a pan, because they fit in the insert easier. I made some holes, but I think next time I won’t bother, as most of the fat will drain away down the sides of the cups.

I should also mention that The Mister ate this happily, with mashed potatoes (*sigh*) and gravy (which I made from granules – it can’t all be from scratch!). So it’s definitely good enough for non-dieters!

So, here is my
Light Slow Cooker Meatloaf aka Dukan Slow Cooker Meatloaf
Serves 2 hungry people, or 3 less so

What you need:
500g minced/ground beef (as lean as possible)
1 small onion, minced or finely chopped
1 egg
¾ Tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbs chopped parsley
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
1/3 tsp mustard powder
2 Tbs oat bran soaked in 3 Tbs milk (0% for Dukan dieters) for a couple of minutes

What you do:

1. In a large bowl mix beef, onion, egg, Worcestershire sauce, parsley, oregano, salt, pepper, mustard and oat bran (spooned out of milk). Knead with your hands until just incorporated. Don’t over knead because apparently this makes the meatloaf denser.
2. Check how moist the mixture is. If it’s not too wet, add a tablespoon or 2 of the milk which had the oat bran in.
3. Put a meatloaf insert or upside down aluminium muffin cups into the slow cooker.
4. Shape the meat mixture into a loaf and place on top of the insert/muffin cups. You can pop it directly into the slow cooker but there will be fatty juices accumulating around it during cooking. If you’re on a diet I suggest you elevate the meat so it’s drier.
5. Cook it on low for 6-8 hours. I cooked it for 1 hour on high then switched to low for another 5. The meat will brown a little but not too much; it won’t look like it does in the oven! Check doneness with a food thermometer, which should read at least 160F.
6. Let it rest for about half an hour before slicing.

Note: Most recipes I came across have ketchup or BBQ sauce spread on top during cooking. This wouldn’t be Dukan friendly so I didn’t do it. If you try it I’d love to know how it works out!