beef

Chilli Con Carne

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Haven’t shared a Slimming World friendly recipe for a while, so I thought I might as well post this one as I haven’t made this in such a long time and this is not in my recipe list!

If you follow me on Instagram you’ll know that I have been having some major house building work done since March this year and we have been without a kitchen all this time. Cooking has been extremely difficult! So this is how we have been coping. We have 3 bedrooms and a bathroom on the first floor. We turned the smallest bedroom (hubby’s office) into our kitchen with a table top electric hob, a small fridge (big enough just for the essentials like milk, cheese, butter), a microwave, slow cooker and my trusty Tefal Actifry. My youngest daughter’s bedroom has been turned into our living room. We moved her bed and most of her furniture away so we could put the sofas and TV there. Luckily we had our loft conversion done a couple of years ago so we gained two bedrooms and a bathroom there so all the kids (I have 3 daughters) share that space. Our main bedroom is also hubby’s office for the time being.

I have to admit the work has taken much longer than we anticipated, we did have a few problems along the way which delayed the work but it looks like it will be end of September/ early October before we can start using the downstairs space again and I cannot wait!

I can’t wait to share with you once it is complete, in the meantime, if you are on Instagram please follow me on there for my house renovation updates and other bits and bobs about me on @Rahema_m.

Anyway, back to the recipe! Hope you enjoy this simple chilli recipe. We had it served with boiled rice topped with cheese and jalapenos, but it is lovely on a jacket potato too. As always, if you make this or any other recipes featured on my blog, feel free to tag me in your creations. I love seeing your versions of them x

Serves: 4

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 60 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Chilli Con Carne

Chilli Con Carne

Ingredients

  • 2 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 1 tbsp garlic paste
  • 1 tbsp chilli flakes
  • 1/2 tbsp paprika
  • 1/2 tbsp ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp mixed herbs
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 500g lean beef mince
  • 1 beef stock cube
  • Tin chopped tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp tomato puree
  • Tin red kidney beans
  • Spray oil

Method

Spray a pan with spray oil of your choice and fry the onions until soft with the cumin seeds. Add hot water to the pan if needed to stop the onions from sticking to the pan.

Add the garlic, chilli flakes, paprika, ground cumin and mixed herbs. Stir well and cook for around 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the mince and brown it off on a high heat. Crumble the stock cube over it and mix well. Add the tin of chopped tomatoes and tomato puree and cook the mince on a low heat for around 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Drain and rinse the red kidney beans and stir them into the mince and cook for a further 10 minutes. Add some water to the mince if it is too dry and season to taste.

Serve with plain boiled rice.

Cottage Pie

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This is a comforting, warm dish perfect for the winter days and it is so versatile too. I use the same recipe (minus the mixed frozen veg) for spaghetti bolognaise. You can use chicken mince too but I prefer using beef.

Serves: 4

Syns: FREE

Time Taken:  60 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

  • 500g lean beef mince
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 large carrot, peeled and grated
  • 3 celery sticks, chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 400g tin chopped tomatoes
  • 500g carton passata
  • 4 tbsp tomato puree
  • 1 tsp dried mixed herbs
  • 1 tsp chilli flakes
  • 2 cubes of beef stock, crumbled
  • A cupful of mixed frozen veg (broccoli, carrots and peas), optional
  • 4 large baking potatoes, boiled and mashed
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • Cheese (optional)
Cottage Pie

Cottage Pie

Method

Spray a large pan with spray oil over a medium heat and stir fry the mince till it is browned. Then add the onion, carrot, celery, garlic and chilli and cook for another couple of minutes.

Add the chopped tomatoes, passata, tomato puree, mixed herbs and the crumbled stock cubes. Cook over a low heat for 30 minutes stirring occasionally.. Season to taste. If using frozen veg add the veg towards the last 10 minutes of cooking.

For the mash, peel and boil the potatoes and mash. Once the potatoes are mashed, add the beaten egg to it and keep stirring so there are no lumps in the mash.

Put the cooked mince into a shallow oven proof dish. Top with the mashed potato (and cheese if using) and bake at gas mark 6 until the top is golden (around 20 minutes).

Kheema Pilau

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Another extremely easy recipe to make, courtesy of Laziza spices! It makes life so much easier when you don’t have the time to measure out individual spices! You can replace the keema (mince meat) with any other type of meat or if you are vegetarian you can use chickpeas instead.

If you don’t want to use Fry Light you can use any other type of spray oil, just remember to count the number of sprays you use so you can work out the syn values. If you prefer, you can use 1 tbsp of oil (6 syns) and divide the syns by the number of portions you make. For instance, this should feed 4 people, so if you divide 6 (syns) by the number of portions, 4 you get 1.5 syns per portion which is still well within your daily allowance.

Pilau ingredients

Pilau ingredients

Serves: 4

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 60-75 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

  • 500g lean mince
  • 4 small onions, finely chopped
  • 2 small potatoes, peeled and cubed
  • handful of frozen peas
  • 2 tablespoons Laziza Yakhni Pilau Spice mix
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 4 tablespoons fat free natural yogurt
  • 1 tablespoon garam masala
  • 2 stock cubes
  • 2 cups rice
  • low calorie cooking spray

Method

Wash and soak the rice and keep it aside till needed.

Spray a pan with lots of Fry light and fry the onions in medium/high heat till they are a dark brown colour. Keep stirring your onions so they don’t burn and stick to the bottom of the pan! If you find they are starting to stick, you can add a little boiling water at a time. The browning of onions should take around 10-15 minutes.

Add the cumin seeds and fry for another couple of minutes before adding the meat and the potatoes. Fry for 5 minutes and then add the yogurt and the Laziza spice.

Let that cook on a low heat, covered for about 15 minutes or longer depending on the size of your potatoes.

Use double the amount of boiling water to the rice and add it to the meat and crumble your stock cubes in and add the garam masala. Check for seasoning, add chilli if needed.

Drain the water off the rice and place it in the pan. Once the water starts boiling again replace the lid and let it cook on low heat for about 15-20 minutes without stirring/mixing. After that time you can pick your pan up (with oven gloves!) and give the rice a good ‘shake’ while making sure the lid stays firmly on. All the water should be evaporated and it is ready to eat!

Keema Pilau

Keema Pilau

 

Caribbean Beef Pepperpot Stew

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I don’t know why it took me so long to try this recipe! This is absolutely delicious. You can replace the beef with chicken instead if you prefer and adjust cooking times as chicken will not take as long to cook. We had it served with boiled rice. Don’t let the long ingredients list put you off! It is really easy to make this.

Serves: 2

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 1.5 hours

Difficulty: Easy

ingredients

  • Low calorie cooking spray
  • 400g stewing beef, all visible fat removed, cut into bite-size pieces

    Caribbean Pepperpot Stew

    Caribbean Pepperpot Stew

  • 2 red peppers, deseeded and cut into bite-sized pieces
  • 1 small sweet potato, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
  • 200g green beans, trimmed and halved
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp jerk seasoning
  • ¼ tsp sweetener
  • 200g passata with onions and garlic
  • 200ml beef stock
  • 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 200g dried long-grain rice
  • A small handful of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped, to garnish

Method

Place a medium, flameproof casserole dish sprayed with low calorie cooking spray over a high heat. Add the beef and fry for 4-5 minutes, or until lightly browned, stirring occasionally.
Add the peppers, sweet potato, beans, garlic, jerk seasoning, wine vinegar, sweetener, passata, stock and Worcestershire sauce. Season and stir well. Cover and cook for 1½ hours, or until the beef is meltingly tender.

Caribbean Pepperpot Stew

Caribbean Pepperpot Stew

Tip: Make it serve 4: Increase the beef to 800g, add another red pepper and small sweet potato, increase the beans to 300g, add another garlic clove and double the amount of passata and stock. Cook for an extra 20-30 minutes, or until the beef is tender.

Kheema & Pea Curry

2 Comments

Love Kheema curry served with boiled rice and a raita. For extra Speed you can serve with cauliflower rice instead.

Serves: 4

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 30 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

  • Low calorie cooking spray

    Kheema curry

    Kheema curry

  • 450g lean beef mince (5% fat or less)
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 2 tsp chilli powder
  • 1 tsp garam masala
  • 400g can chopped plum tomatoes
  • 200g frozen peas
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp salt

Method

Spray a non-stick frying pan with low calorie cooking spray and brown the mince with onion and garlic. Add salt, turmeric, chilli powder, garam masala, and stir in.

Add tin of tomatoes and stir well. Half fill the tomato can with water and add this to the pan. Add the peas and stir well.

Bring to boil and simmer for about 45 minutes. Add more water if necessary.

Remove from heat. Add ground coriander and stir.