carrots

Hummus

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A super easy and syn free hummus recipe without all the oil and tahini paste. You can adjust the ingredients to suit your taste. Enjoy the hummus with some crudités or flatbreads like I did. I had mine with Ryvita flatbreads (1.5 syns each). If you don’t want to use any syns, you can opt for crispbread that can be counted as part of your healthy extra B choice. Have a look here for all the options available from Ryvita.

Hummus

Hummus

 

Ingredients

  • 1 tin chickpeas, drained
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • lemon juice to taste
  • 2 tbsp. 0% Greek yoghurt
  • Cayenne chilli to taste

Method

Blitz all ingredients together till it is smooth. If you find the hummus too thick for you, you can thin it down with a little water or more yogurt.

Carrot & Walnut Halwa Cake

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This is a recipe inspired by the super talented Saliha Mahmood Ahmed (Masterchef Winner 2017) from her latest recipe book ‘Khazana’. The original recipe contained a variety of different nuts as well as sultanas but I have adapted this slightly and used only walnuts in this recipe. The original recipe also asked for the cake to be cooked in 2 tins but I am quite lazy so ended up using only 1 deep cake tin (10′ round tin), which meant that the cooking time for my cake was a lot longer. If you split your cake batter into 2 tins, remember to reduce the cooking time accordingly.

Overall this was quite an easy cake to bake and it was enjoyed by everyone!

Carrot & Walnut Halwa Cake

Carrot & Walnut Halwa Cake

 

Ingredients

  • 200g light brown muscovado sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 250ml sunflower oil
  • 50ml milk
  • 300g plain flour, plus extra for coating cake tin
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 50g butter
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 400g finely grated carrots
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 100g walnuts, roughly chopped (plus extra for decorating)

Icing

  • 300g cream cheese
  • 125g icing sugar
  • 100ml double cream

Method

Pre heat the oven to gas mark 4 and grease a cake tin with spray oil and flour. Set aside till needed.

Mix the muscovado sugar, eggs, sunflower oil and milk in a large bowl and whisk until all ingredients are well combined. In a separate bowl, sift the flour with the baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and set aside.

Melt the butter and the caster sugar in a pan till all the sugar has dissolved. When the butter has foamed, add the grated carrots and mix thoroughly. Cook for about 5 minutes till the carrots have softened and add the spices, mixing it well into the carrots. Remove the pan from the heat and add the chopped walnuts and let it cool slightly.

To finish the cake batter, mix the bowl with flour into the bowl of wet ingredients alongside the cooked carrots. Mix it thoroughly with a wooden spoon and pour the batter into the prepared cake tin.

Bake in the oven for around 75 minutes. After that time is up, check if the cake is done by inserting a wooden skewer into the middle of the cake. The skewer should come out clean if its done, if it doesn’t, then bake for a further 10-15 minutes till it is done.

Once the cake is baked, let it rest in the tin for a few minutes before removing it from the tin and let it cool completely on a wire rack before icing it.

To make the icing, put the cream cheese in a bowl and mix till it is smooth (this only takes a few seconds, try not to be tempted to over mix it or you could end up with runny cream cheese!). Add the icing sugar and the double cream and mix till it starts to thicken and it is smooth. Again don’t be tempted to over mix as you could quickly end up with a very runny mixture and you won’t be able to ice your cake.

Once your cake is completely cool, cut it in half and add some icing to the middle. Sandwich the cake together and use the rest of the icing to spread all over the top and sides of the cake. Use a palette knife to create a smooth finish. Use more chopped walnuts to decorate the cake.

Minestrone Soup

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I came across this Jamie Oliver recipe the other day and thought I’d give it a go at making it Slimming World friendly. It was really easy to do and very filling. This recipe would work really well if you are following Extra Easy SP, all you need to do is skip the spaghetti as the rest of the ingredients are all Speed or Protein rich food.

Serves: 6

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 45-60 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Minestrone Soup

Minestrone Soup

 

Ingredients

  • 2 tins of chopped tomatoes (without the juice, save the juice for a curry/pasta based dish)
  • 3 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
  • 3 medium leeks, sliced
  • 5 sticks of celery, chopped
  • 2 red onions, chopped
  • 1 small white cabbage, sliced
  • 5 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 1tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
  • 1lt chicken/vegetable stock (use more if needed)
  • a handful of spaghetti, cut into small pieces
  • tin of mixed beans
  • a handful of chopped fresh basil
  • chilli flakes, optional
  • 1cal cooking spray oil

Method

Spray a large pan with plenty of 1cal spray oil and cook the carrots, leeks, celery, onion, garlic and rosemary over a medium heat for about 15 minutes.

Add the chopped tomatoes and cook for a further couple of minutes.

Add the stock and bring to the boil before adding the cabbage and cook for a further 10 minutes, covered on a low heat. Add the spaghetti, the mixed beans and the basil and cook for a further 8-10 minutes till the spaghetti is cooked. Add chilli flakes and season to taste.

 

 

 

Lentil & Chicken Soup

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In one of my groups yesterday one of my lovely members mentioned chicken soup as one of her family’s favourite meal this week. I normally just make this Chicken & Noodle Soup but thought I’d try something different. She said she added a load of different veggies to it, chicken and potatoes. So after I got home from group yesterday, I raided my fridge and checked what veg I had in to make chicken soup. I already had leftover cooked chicken from the day before which made it ideal to use up. I replaced the potatoes with red lentils to make this a high protein packed soup. It turned out amazing!

Serves: 2

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 45 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
  • 1 courgette, chopped
  • 1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped
  • Handful of fresh coriander, chopped
  • 1 veg stock pot
  • 600 ml hot chicken stock (make more if needed)
  • 1/2 cup red lentils
  • Cooked chicken, shredded
  • 1 tsp basar (curry powder)
  • 1/2 tsp red chilli flakes
Lentil & Chicken Soup

Lentil & Chicken Soup

Method

Spray a pan with low calorie cooking spray and add all the veg – onion, carrot, courgette and pepper. Cook for around 5-8 minutes till it starts to soften.

Add the fresh parley and the lentils with the spices and the stock. Let the stock come to a boil and reduce the heat and cover the lid on the pan to cook the lentils for about 20-25 minutes. If needed add more stock/water to cook the lentils. You can also add more hot water at the end of cooking if the soup is too thick.

Add the shredded chicken to the cooked lentils and cook for another 10 minutes till the chicken is heated through.