Ingredients
- 2 onions, chopped
- 1 tbsp cumin seeds
- Salt to taste
- 3 black cardamoms
- 3 cloves
- 1 green chilli, whole
- 1 tbsp ginger/garlic paste
- 1 tbsp garam masala
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 cups vegetable stock
- 1 tin chickpeas, drained
I love bulgur wheat and this is a very easy to make recipe. It is perfect for a picnic, lunchboxes or a side dish. You can add any fillings of your choice and change the herbs if you prefer. 40g of feta cheese is a healthy extra A choice, so bear that in mind when adding your cheese. As always, feel free to tag me in your creations. I love seeing my recipes recreated.
Serves: 4
Syns: FREE, when using cheese as part of your healthy extra A choice
Time Taken: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Put the bulgur wheat in a pan with the boiling water and crumble the oxo cube to it. Cook on a low heat, covered, until all the water has evaporated and the bulgur is cooked.
Whilst the bulgur wheat is cooking, prepare and your veg and herbs you want to add to it.
Once the bulgur is cooked, use a fork to fluff up the grains and let it cool completely before adding the veg and herbs.
Mix through some feta cheese and season to taste
I know a lot of people usually struggle to eat Suhoor (pre dawn meal during Ramadan) so here is a recipe that although is quite high in syns. it is still within the recommended daily syns allowance. I like to use unsweetened almond milk for this recipe for a nutty flavour but you can use any other milk of your choice. Just remember to check what the health extra allowance is for the milk you’re using. Top tip: try to use the ripest banana you have as this will make the smoothie even sweeter without having to add any extra syns for sweetening the smoothie.
Banana & Date Smoothie
Serves: 1
Syns: 13 syns plus part of healthy extra A choice
Time Taken: 5 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Remove the pit from the dates and mix all the ingredients together. Serve immediately.
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
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.
Hi lovelies, first of all apologies for the delay in writing this! I know many of you have been waiting for the syn values of the Ryvita goodies I was sent last week, so thank you for your patience. I have finally got around to finding them all out for you. I haven’t yet tried the whole range I was sent but I could not resist trying the new Sweet & Salted Rye Cakes – wow, they’re absolutely delicious! I had them plain and also had them topped with fruit and yogurt as well. I reckon these rye cakes would taste amazing with chocolate spread too, just remember to keep track of your syns! They’re currently available from Sainsbury’s and Waitrose only but I am pretty sure they will have them at other major supermarkets at some point too. Each rye cake is only 1 syn or you can enjoy 5 of these as your healthy extra (HE) B choice!
Ryvita
Thank you to the lovely Yessi from Ryvita for sending me all these goodies. I was not expecting such a beautiful range to try. I thought I was going to receive the new rye cakes only so when I opened the door for a huge delivery it was such a nice surprise! Thank you once again.
I will list the rest of the syn values below. Have you tried any of the Ryvita range? What’s your favourite? Comment below and feel free to share this with your fellow Slimming World friends.
A super easy dessert you can whip up in a few minutes. My family love this cheesecake and now they can make it themselves with this recipe! This isn’t a SW friendly recipe, you can however work out the syn values yourself by working out the syns for all the ingredients and dividing by the number of servings you get.
You can top the cheesecake with pretty much anything you want. When I am pressed for time, I add chopped chocolate (as pictured), or grate a couple of digestive biscuits over it. Other toppings I love to add to the cheesecake are: fresh strawberries pureed and sweetened with a little icing sugar and crushed meringues (best to do this just before serving), crushed oreos, Ferrero Rocher, mango or passion fruit. What do you like to top your cheesecake with? Comment below with your fave toppings.
You can vary the biscuits you use for the base to include your favourite one – if I am making an Oreo flavoured cheesecake, then I’d use Oreo biscuits for the base and I would also add crushed Oreos to the cream mixture too.
Enjoy and feel free to tag me in your creations x
No-Bake Cheesecake
Make the biscuit base first – crush the biscuits in a blender or you can crush them by hand. I usually get my kids to do it as they absolutely love bashing the biscuits with a rolling pin! Place the biscuits in a clean bag and bash it with a rolling pin until it is finally crushed. Add the melted butter and mix well. Place the biscuits in a flan dish and place it in the fridge for at least 15 minutes to firm up.
Mix the cream cheese with icing sugar (don’t overmix as the cream cheese will turn runny). Mix until the sugar is evenly mixed. Add the Elmlea cream and vanilla extract and mix till it makes soft peaks.
Add the cream to the biscuit base and chill. Add topping of your choice before serving.
This is one of my favourite curries I loved eating when I was younger. The version I used to have would be a lot higher in syns so this is a SW friendly version I’ve adapted. The way my mum used to make this was a lot more complicated and she used some more spices but I find this way works well too.
I had a few people messaging me saying this is an odd combo but I don’t see how it is odd. Maybe because of my background I’m used to having a variety of different foods from different parts of the world that this is just another meal for me. I don’t know where it originates from but I am sure this type of curry is eaten a lot!
It is easy and very economical to make too. We have this served with boiled rice and masala fish.
Black Eye Bean Curry with Coconut
Syns: 2.5 syns per serving
Time Taken: 30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Fry the onions with the cumin seeds and chilli flakes (if using) and the ginger/garlic till the onions have softened and are lightly golden.
Add the curry powder and salt to taste and fry for a further 5 minutes stirring constantly. If the spices start to stick to the pan, add a little hot water and keep stirring.
Add the tomato puree and the beans with the coconut milk and cook on a low heat for about 10 minutes.
Once the curry is done, you can garnish it with fresh, chopped coriander and serve it with boiled rice.
Skinny Dips
I came across these Skinny Dips whilst at the BBC Good Food Show a couple of weeks ago. There are a range of different sauces/dips to choose from and they are all gluten free, low in salt and sugar and also suitable for vegans. That doesn’t mean they are lacking in flavour though! They all taste delicious and are perfect for Slimming World members as they are very low in syns. The values below are for a serving of one level tablespoon.
Ketchup
BBQ Sauce
Curry Sauce
Peri Peri Mayo
Salad Dressing
The company has provided an exclusive discount code for Slimming World members – for an extra 25% off your purchases please use discount code ‘Slim25’. There is also free delivery for all purchases over £10.
You can buy them from here: http://www.salternativeseaweed.com/shop/
Paneer is one of my favourite foods! I don’t cook it often as it is quite high in syns so making it in Ramadan is perfect for me as I don’t tend to use syns like I normally would. There just isn’t enough time to eat any snacks!
25g of paneer is 4.5 syns, I used 150g in this recipe for 3 of us but there was enough to feed 4 people. I guess we just don’t eat as much as we normally would in Ramadan! If your serving is for more or less people then adjust the syns accordingly. We had this served with a pea pilau & salad.
Chickpea & Paneer Curry
Serves: 4
Syns: 7 syns
Time Taken: 25 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Spray a pan with low cal spray and fry the paneer till its lightly golden and set aside.
Fry the onions with the chilli flakes and cumin seeds till golden. Add water if the onions are starting to stick to the pan. Add the ginger/garlic paste, tomatoes, seasoning cubes and bassar. Cook for around 5-8 minutes (adding a bit of water if needed) till the tomatoes have soften. I then blitz this with a hand blender so that there aren’t any lumps in the sauce. You don’t have to this, it is completely optional but we prefer it this way.
Add the tinned chickpeas without draining the water, cook for a few minutes till the sauce reduces and then add the fried paneer.
This is such an easy and simple dish to put together and it tastes amazing! It is one of my daughter’s favourite dish. I have adapted the recipe slightly from the SW Veggie Deluxe recipe book and have made this quite cheesy (just the way we like it!). You can have 70g of reduced fat mozzarella cheese as healthy extra A choice but you can use less if you prefer or put a mixture of mozzarella and cheddar cheese, but remember to count the syns depending on how much you use. All the other ingredients in this recipe are Free.
Serves: 3
Syns: FREE (if using the cheese as healthy extra A choice)
Time Taken: 30-45 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Mozzarella & Chilli Pasta
Pre heat the oven to gas mark 4.
Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions, drain well and run the pasta under cold water to stop it sticking together. Set aside till needed.
Whilst the pasta is cooking, make the sauce. Fry the onion, garlic and chilli in a pan with low cal spray for about 5 minutes or until softened. If you find the onion is starting to stick to the pan, add some of the water that the pasta is cooking in (around a tbsp. at a time if needed).
Add the passata and the seasoning cubes, stir and simmer for 3 minutes. Add seasoning if needed. Add the frozen peas and cook for a further 2 minutes then remove from the heat.
Mix the cooked pasta into the sauce, ensuring the pasta is well coated. Tip the pasta into a medium sized baking dish sprayed with low cal spray. Top with the mozzarella and bake in the pre heated oven for around 12-15 minutes till all the cheese is melted.