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!

Slow Cooker Balsamic Chicken & Summer Vegetables – Starting the Dukan

Tags

balsamic, chicken, crockpot, diet, dukan, slow cooker, vegetables

Last week I finally made a decision – to lose some weight. For a while now I’ve been complaining about how over the past 5 years of so my weight has crept up and how yucky it’s making me feel. I’m not overweight, but at the moment I’m suffering from a seriously challenging wardrobe. I’ve also felt the difference in my horse-riding, with low energy levels and too tight jodhpurs. So the moment came when I felt strong enough to step away from the chocolate cookie and do something other than whine. In the past I’d heard about the Dukan Diet, but thought it was a bit too drastic for my few extra pounds. However, it’s summer (shorts, bikinis etc… you know) and generally I’m much better at following exact instructions than just “watching what I eat”, so I read his book. It makes so much sense! I found myself really interested in the theory and actually quite excited to start.

Well, I’m now 6 days into it. The initial excitement has somewhat evaporated, but my resolve has not. For those of you who know a bit about it, I’m now on the Cruise phase, so I’m eating pure protein one day, and protein plus vegetables the next. This is how it goes on now, with alternating days, until I reach my desired weight. I’ve no idea how long it’s going to take but I’m hoping it won’t be too long.

To be honest when I started last Monday, I was a bit worried that my blog was going to suffer. But looking into it a bit more has eased my mind, as there seem to be many interesting recipes that have been designed especially for this diet, as well as others that by chance suit it perfectly. Like this one! Chicken is one of the main foods of this diet, as it is a lean meat and has plenty of protein. Ok, ideally you should eat it grilled, so any fat drains away, but I think I can get away with cooking it in the slow cooker since you don’t need any oil to do so. In this recipe by Stephanie O’Dea (the CrockPot Queen in my opinion), the chicken and veg are cooked in balsamic vinegar and a bit of Worcestershire sauce. So simple and yet so flavourful. Vinegar is allowed, as are certain condiments in small quantities. So this seemed an ideal choice. I made a few adjustments to suit our taste and the result was really good, especially the vegetables which were absolutely gorgeous. The chicken was good too, and the vinegar even gave it a slight brown colour which was quite appealing. It was very tender and tasty. The remaining sauce was a bit bland, but that’s because vegetables release a lot of water so the stock was largely diluted. I didn’t have any of it because the meat and veggies were juicy enough and I was worried it might have a higher fat content since the chicken had cooked in it. For The Mister however I saved some of the liquid, brought it to a boil in the microwave, and stuck a teaspoon of gravy granules in. That did the trick and voila… a lovely sauce to go over his chicken and rice. I really enjoyed this dinner, even though I was eyeing The Mister’s rice with envy the whole time!

Slow Cooker Balsamic Chicken with Summer Vegetables
Serves 3

What you need:
3 chicken legs, bone in (skin on or off, it’s up to you. I think the skin keeps the outer layer from drying out, but a lot of people don’t like the idea of the skin cooking in the slow cooker)
2 red peppers (I use a Greek type that’s a bit longer than bell pepper, but bell would be great)
1 green bell pepper
1 orange bell pepper
1 large courgette (zucchini)
1 onion
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

What you do:

1. Rinse the chicken pieces, pat dry with kitchen paper, and put in the slow cooker.
2. Chop the veggies into large pieces and put them in a bowl.
3. Mix the balsamic vinegar with the Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper and pour over the veggies.
4. Toss vegetables in the vinegar mix till they are well coated.
5. Place the veggies on top of the chicken in the slow cooker and pour the vinegar mix over it all.
6. Turn slow cooker to low and cook for 8 hours.
7. Serve with rice, quinoa or mashed potatoes, or eat as is if you’re on the Dukan Diet.

Note: Feel free to experiment with the vegetables. You could also try aubergines (eggplant) or summer squash. Carrots would be nice but I’m not sure if they’d soften in time. If you try them maybe put them under the chicken and let me know how it turns out!

Quinoa Stir Fry with Chicken

Tags

chicken, quinoa, stir fry, vegetables, wok

It’s only been a few months now since I discovered a new favourite ingredient; quinoa. I vaguely remember seeing it in health food shops during infrequent visits over the years, but I never gave it much attention. Here in Greece it’s not available in supermarkets yet, but I’m hoping people will catch on to how great this little seed is and hopefully it will be easier (and cheaper) to find eventually. Maybe by then we’ll be getting the name right as well! After reading on many websites the story of its origin and how the word is pronounced, it was funny to see the package with the name translated phonetically in Greek, reading the equivalent of KEENOA. I should get in touch with the importers and tell them 🙂 Apparently this little gem originates from South America, and was grown for human consumption as long as 3-4,000 years ago. Impressive!

So a few months back, I started coming across various recipes involving quinoa in all the blogs I read. The first one that actually made me go out and buy some, was this post on With a Side of Sneakers. It may sound strange, but a bit of cooked quinoa stirred into porridge just before it comes off the heat, gives it a gorgeous nutty taste and makes it an even better “fuel” for the day ahead due to the heaps of protein it provides. If you add a spoonful of honey or maple syrup… well that could be dessert for me! I love it.

Since then, I have found loads more recipes I really want to try, and no doubt they will all be making an appearance here at some point. When I made the chicken soup a few days ago (previous post), I left some of the cooked meat aside, with the intention of trying a very tasty looking stir fry dish from one of my favourite blogs, The Perfect Pantry.  I’m so glad I did! What a fantastic dinner. I used slightly different vegetables, because these are what I had in the fridge on the day I made it. And that’s the great thing about stir fry, it’s a great user-upper of odd bits of veg lurking at the back of the crisper drawer! Well, one of the great things. The main one being it’s just plain yummy. So, thank you Lydia for a wonderful recipe. (You should all take a visit to her site, it’s full of really interesting stuff!)

Quinoa Stir Fry with Chicken (slightly adapted from The Perfect Pantry’s Chicken and Vegetable Quinoa Stir-Fry)
Feeds 2 hungry people or makes a side dish for 3.

You’ll need:
½ cup quinoa
1 cup chicken stock or water
1 Tbs vegetable oil + 1 tsp toasted sesame oil (or use the same oil)
½ carrot, julienned (i.e. cut into matchstick-like strips)
½ red bell pepper, julienned
1 cup of broccoli (florets and julienned stalks)
3-4 small mushrooms, sliced
½ courgette (zucchini), julienned
½ tsp dried ginger (or use 1 or 2 tsp fresh, if you have it)
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
¼ tsp fresh black pepper
1 egg
100gr cooked chicken cut into bite sized chunks (er, no bones obviously!)
Juice of ½ a lime
1 spring onion or scallion, chopped
1 tsp dried coriander (cilantro) (or 1/4 cup fresh if you have it)
2 Tbs soy sauce

What you do:

1. Bring the stock or water to the boil in a small saucepan, and add the quinoa (check the packaging to see if you need to rinse it first). Give it a stir, turn the heat to low, and cover the pan leaving the quinoa to simmer for about 20 min, or until the water is absorbed. The quinoa is ready when it is soft and the little tail thingies come out of the seed. You’ll know what I mean when you see it! When it’s ready, take the pan off the heat and put a paper towel (or clean dish cloth) over it, and cover again with the lid. Set aside.
2. Heat the tablespoon of oil in a wok or non stick frying pan on medium high. Add the bell pepper, carrot and broccoli, and cook stirring occasionally till they soften a bit.
3. Add the mushrooms and courgette and stir fry for a bit longer (about another 2 minutes, depending on how soft you like your veg).
4. Add the ginger, red pepper flakes and black pepper. Continue to stir fry for a few seconds to release the aromas.
5. Remove the veg from the pan and set aside. Add the teaspoon of sesame oil (or same oil you used before) and return the pan to the heat. Add the cooked quinoa and break the egg over it. Stir so the egg cooks, about 30 seconds to a minute.
6. Add the chicken, veg, onion, coriander, soy sauce and lime juice. Mix well and continue to cook for a while, till the chicken warms through (about a minute or two)
7. Serve and enjoy!

For me, this made enough for one good dinner and one good lunch the next day!

Feed a cold… (Egg-lemon Chicken Soup)

Tags

avgolemono, chicken, egg-lemon, soup

So my second post is up much sooner than I thought it would be! The Mister has been attacked by a vicious cold and has been sitting hugging a box of tissues for the past couple of days. So yesterday we had egg-lemon chicken soup for dinner. A bowl full of goodness that’s great any day, but especially great if you’re feeling poorly. I was actually planning on making it soon anyway, since it fits in nicely with the healthy eating plan I’m following these days. Its nutrition comes from loads of veggies and chunks of juicy chicken, cooked in a lovely broth. I think the lemon also gives it an extra boost with its vitamin C.
Here in Greece this is a very popular dish; we call it “Avgolemono” meaning Egg (Avgo)-Lemon (Lemoni). Don’t ask why lemoni turns into lemono… Greek is a complicated language!
Normally, I would have cooked the chicken in the slow cooker, and then used the liquid produced from that to make the soup. However, since this was an emergency and the appropriate supermarket visit could only be made after work, I had to do it the traditional way. Which is fine, and still pretty easy!
Sometimes new cooks are a little intimidated by this soup, as you have to temper the eggs at the end. This is much easier than people think, you just have to be patient and a little organized! So, here goes…
(Oh, wait. This is actually my own recipe! Cool!)

Chicken Avgolemono (Egg-Lemon) Soup

You’ll need:
3 litres of water (see? easy)
1 small chicken, about 1.2 kg, bone in, cut into four or five pieces (um, let the butcher do that bit)
1 medium onion, peeled
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into medium sized pieces
2 carrots, peeled or scraped (or just washed!) and cut into smallish pieces
1 small celeriac (celery root) about 300gr, peeled and cut into medium sized pieces
½ bunch of celery (in Greece celery looks like parsley and comes in bunches) or 2 sticks of celery (the thick whiteish kind), chopped
½ bunch of parsley, chopped
Salt & Pepper
½ cup of rice
2 eggs
Juice of 1 or 2 lemons (depending on how lemony you like it)

What you do:

1. First of all, before you start, take the lemons and eggs out of the fridge. It’s best if they are at, or near, room temperature when you use them at the end.
2. Bring the water to the boil in a large saucepan. Remember that the level will rise when you add all the other ingredients. In the meantime rinse the chicken under cold water. Always be careful with poultry and clean all surfaces it has come into contact with, with warm soapy water (otherwise you might end up with a cold and salmonella!).
3. When the water is boiling add some salt, the onion (whole) and the chicken pieces. Let the meat boil on a medium high heat, and skim any foam off the surface. Or don’t bother, I didn’t and nothing bad happened!
4. Boil the chicken until the meat falls easily off the bone (take a piece out and test it by pulling apart with a fork, the meat should separate from the bone easily, if in doubt leave it in a bit longer!). This should take about 40 minutes.
5. Take the chicken pieces out of the pan and turn the heat down so it’s not bubbling away and evaporating. Let the meat cool (really, let it cool, the tips of my fingers still hurt) before picking it from the bones. If there was some skin, remove it and throw it away. My bones go straight into the slow cooker for overnight stock (more about that another time). Break the meat into chunks and set aside.
6. Bring the soup back to the boil and add all the vegetables, some more salt and some pepper. Now, depending on how soft you want the veggies, either let them boil for about 10 minutes before adding the rice, or add it straight away. Just remember each time you add something the liquid should be boiling, and then left to come back to the boil if it’s cooled down by whatever went in. Then turn the heat down to a good simmer.
7. When the rice is half done (after about 10 minutes), throw in the chicken chunks to warm through. Both the veggies and rice need a minimum of about 20 minutes each, so calculate your timings based on that. The great thing about soup is that you don’t have to be 100% precise!
8. At some point during all this you can take the onion out. Either mash it up and put it back in, or chuck it.
9. After the soup is ready (veg and rice cooked/soft, chicken warm) turn the heat right down. It’s time to do the egg-lemon mixture. Get organised. Bring all your utensils near (a tablespoon, a ladle and a whisk). In a medium sized bowl (not a small one) beat the eggs a bit. Pour in the lemon juice and continue beating. Bring your bowl near the stove top. Take the pan off the heat and put it next to the bowl. With a tablespoon, take a spoonful of soup (just the liquid) and add it to the bowl with the egg-lemon, beating continuously. Repeat with another spoonful. And again. And again. Keep beating! Basically you want to bring the temperature of the eggs up -slowly- so they cook without scrambling. Keep adding spoonfuls of the hot soup into the mixture (one spoonful at a time). Feel the side of the bowl. If it’s getting warm, switch to a ladle so you get larger quantities of soup into your eggs. When your mixture is looking more like the soup, and is warm/hot, you can carefully pour it into the pan, stirring continuously. There, that was it!

Serve the soup with extra lemon, freshly ground pepper and crusty bread. This makes enough for four people.

Tip: If you want to make the soup thicker, you can blend some or all of the veg before putting in the rice and chicken. This means it will take longer as you’ll have to wait for the veg to soften before you can blend the soup and continue with the rice. However, this helps if you have to hide certain vegetables that people think they don’t like 😉 Use an immersion blender, anything else would be too faffy and you’d get annoyed with me and stop reading my blog.

Enjoy! Or, Get well soon!