A very good friend and fellow slimmer of mine came up with the majority of this recipe (and she will understand the title of this post!). This is one of those recipes that really shows the ease of Slimming World in that nothing apart from the cheese needs to be weighed or measured and so in theory this can serve as many or as few people as you like. The main flavours are simply cheese and tomato which helps to satiate my frequent cravings for the flavours of a good home baked pizza! The intense tomato flavour of the passata together with the distinct creamy intensity of the feta really help to make this a tasty and satisfying meal that can be put together with the minimum of effort. And, if you use the feta cheese as a Healthy Extra it’s completely Syn free!
Ingredients (I have given the quantities I use for 2 people but, apart from the cheese, add more to serve more or if you’re extra hungry!)
One pack of Tesco Mediterranean Roasting Vegetables (£1.50) or a courgette, a red onion and a handful of cherry tomatoes, all roughly chopped.
Fry Light spray
42g feta cheese per person (so 84g for 2 people here)
Dried pasta shapes (I don’t weigh this out but just go with what looks to be the right amount for how hungry I am – it’s all free on Extra Easy!)
Half a bottle of passata
1 tablespoon mixed herbs
Method
Preheat the oven to 220˚C.
Tip the tray of Tesco vegetables or the roughly chopped ones into a baking dish. Spray them liberally with Fry Light spray and put them in the oven for 30 minutes.
Chop the feta cheese into bite sized cubes.
After the vegetables have been cooking for 30 minutes, remove them from the oven and sprinkle over the cubed feta. Place them back in the oven for a further 10 minutes.
Whilst the vegetables have their last 10 minutes of cooking, place enough dried pasta for the number of people you are feeding into a pan of boiling water to cook.
In another pan, place the passata and mixed herbs. Leave the pan on a very low heat and stir occasionally.
Once the pasta has boiled for about 8 minutes (at which point it should be cooked!) drain the water away. Then, pour over the passata and mixed herbs and stir thoroughly through the pasta.
Remove the vegetables and feta from the oven and transfer to the pan with the pasta and sauce using a draining spoon and stir everything thoroughly.
This pie is delicious and you will probably want to devour the entire contents of the dish. However, the Syn value is quite high so, cook when you have 5 other people to feed or on a day when your will power can stand up to saying no to seconds (and thirds, and fourths…)!
Pics: Before and after baking!
I have been glued to The Great British Bake Off and have looked longingly at the offerings every week whilst the voice in my head reminds me that my Syn allowance and my appetite cannot realistically stand up to eating everything they bake. I have managed to keep it down to around one bake a week so far and have very sensibly tried a bit and sent the rest off to various other people whose metabolism seems to be able to deal with them! This week however, I wanted to make a pie and I wanted to eat it and enjoy it. So, given the flexibility of Slimming World, I found a way to do it.
Holly has been one of my favourites since GBBO week one – seriously her piping is brilliant. She also seems (as per her blog) to be rather partial to lots of cheese and red wine – two of my failings. So, when I saw her Three Cheese, Caramelised Onion and Potato Pie, I knew I had to give it a go.
I had decided to eat the pie regardless of whether it fitted into the Slimming World plan – I wanted it and I could take the hit at weigh in that week and get back of the wagon the week after. However, on investigating matters further…minus the pastry, the pie works out at only 8 Syns per serving, if you follow the rules below.
...but there are a few rules to enable us slimmers to eat it guilt free.
The Rules of Pie
Have a Green Day. If you do, you can have a triple cheese day. OK, so if you’re having 7 Green Days in your week you probably shouldn’t be using cheese as 3 of your 4 healthy extras but a Green Day Sunday with triple cheese for Sunday lunch is OK in my book. Technically, if you want to do this right, you should use 168g of each of the cheeses but speaking as a cheese fiend, you really don’t need any more than the 100g specified in the recipe. If you’re very worried about not having 28g of each cheese, have a bit of extra milk and another bite of bread!
Use reduced fat crème fraiche – I honestly can’t see that this would affect the end result that much.
Add the Syns on for the pastry. There are 8 Syns in 28g of cooked flaky pastry. I would quite happily eat the pie without the pastry (but I didn’t!) as the filling alone is so delicious. However, for those of you who want to indulge and who understandably have better things to do than weigh piping hot flaky pastry, as I guide I would say if you remove and discard the heart shapes from the top of the pastry as you eat, you are left with 28g per serving.
You MUST save some of your Syns from the rest of the week. If you want to eat the pastry and the filling in one day you CANNOT have maxed out on Syns already.
Eat as many superfree foods as you can with the pie as this will fill you up more and make you less likely to gorge on more pie! Cauliflower and broccoli go very well.
Notes on the recipe
1.I chose to cut out the heart shapes from my pastry off cuts and stick on the top with egg wash but you don’t have to do this.
2.If you can find the time, please make your own pastry and not shop bought stuff. The extra effort really is worth it.
3.I have the Bake Off book and the recipe in there says to cook for a further 25 to 30 minutes once the oven has been turned down. Mine was cooked after a further 30 minutes so I’d go with that rather than the hour suggested on the BBC website.
1.To make the pastry, place the butter and lard into a bowl and mash with a fork until soft and creamy. Divide the mixture into four equal portions.
2.Place the flour into a bowl and add the salt. Take one portion of the butter/lard mixture and rub into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the white wine vinegar and mix it in using a blunt knife. Add just enough cold water to form a dough then turn it out onto a floured work surface.
3.Shape the dough into a rectangle and roll it out to a thickness of about 1cm/½in. Gently lift the pastry with your fingers and allow it to shrink back a little.
4.Cut another portion of the butter/lard mixture into small pieces using a palette knife and dot it over the pastry, being careful not to get it too close to the edges. Fold the pastry into thirds, rubbing off any excess flour as you do so, cover in cling film and place in the fridge for five minutes.
5.Take the pastry from the fridge. Repeat steps 3 and 4 using the remaining butter/lard mixture. If any fat shows through the pastry, scatter over a little more flour.
6.Remove the pastry from the fridge, roll once more into a rectangle about 1cm/½in thick, fold into thirds and return to the fridge for 30 minutes.
7.Meanwhile, make the filling. Heat the butter in a wide pan and add the onions, salt and sugar. Fry over a low heat, stirring occasionally, for 5-6 minutes, or until the onions are lightly caramelised. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside.
8.Cook the potatoes in a large pan of boiling, salted water for eight minutes, drain well then set aside.
9.Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7, with a rack is just above the middle of the oven and a baking tray underneath to catch any filling that might escape during cooking.
10.Mix the crème fraîche, cream and cheddar in a small bowl. Mix together the Stilton and Gruyère in a separate bowl.
11.Layer one quarter of the potatoes, a third of the onions and a third of the Stilton/Gruyère mixture in the bottom of a large pie dish. Sprinkle with a little freshly ground black pepper and grated nutmeg.
12.Repeat step 11, working from the outside of the pie dish into the middle to achieve a domed effect, seasoning as you go, then pour over half the cream/cheddar mixture. Repeat this step then cover the filling with the remaining potato, ensuring none of the cream mixture is visible.
13.Take the pastry from the fridge and place on a floured work surface. Roll out in one direction only, turn 45 degrees and roll again until you have a piece of pastry that is a little larger than the pie dish. Lift the pastry with your fingers to allow it to shrink back a little.
14.Cut thin strips from each edge of the pastry and use a little egg wash to stick each one to the rim of the pie dish. Brush each strip with beaten egg and carefully place the pastry over the filling, pressing it down on the pastry strips to make a good seal.
15.Take a fork and press down gently around the edges of the pie. Use any off-cuts of pastry to decorate the pie then brush the top with the remaining egg wash. Cut a small cross in the top of the pie to let the steam escape.
Transfer the pie to the oven and bake for 30 minutes then reduce the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and bake the pie for one hour or until golden-brown.
I am a sucker for finger food – show me a buffet and I’m already 2lbs heavier from just looking at it. However, these little balls of spice are totally Syn free and would make a delicious addition to any buffet, lunchbox or Sunday (or any other day) curry.
These are technically more pakora like than onion bhajis (spelling?) but cutting the onion into thin half moons creates the bhaji-esque look of the recipe title so I’m sticking with that.
Ingredients
1 onion, sliced into thin half moons
1 carrot, peeled and grated
2 potatoes, peeled and chopped into chunks
1 tin chickpeas, drained
4 tbsps fat free natural yoghurt
2 - 3 tbsps curry powder (mild, medium or hot – up to you!)
This makes 12 reasonably large bites
Place the chopped potatoes into a pan of boiling water. Boil for about 10 minutes or until the chunks are tender enough to mash (the smaller the chunks the quicker this will be).
Preheat the oven to 200˚C (Gas mark 6).
Drain the potatoes and place into a large mixing bowl. Mash with a fork.
Add the grated carrot, sliced onion and drained chickpeas and mix everything together thoroughly.
Mix the curry powder and yoghurt together well. Add this mixture to the vegetables and mix thoroughly. This looks like a big sticky mess now but trust me – it will be OK!
Line a baking tray/sheet with baking paper. Take lumps of the mixture and roll into large balls, pressing together lightly as you go, and then place each ball on the baking sheet.
Bake the spicy bites in the oven for 40 minutes. They should be golden brown by this point. Remove from the oven and leave to firm up and settle for a good 10 minutes.
Carefully remove the bites from the baking paper, using a spatula or fish slice if needed and transfer to a plate.
I had a week off work last week and, after spending a windy and slightly damp few days in the Lake District, I was feeling suitably autumnal to need a warming lunch to take back to work with me.
Having commenced the bake fest that was my Sunday afternoon (see Wholemeal Bread and Spicy Bhaji-esque Bites) to improve my mood once the dread of going back to work had set in, I decided on soup as my lunch of choice so that I could use my rapidly rising dough (once it became a delicious wholemeal loaf!) to dunk into it. And, given the pie and cake fest that was my Lakes break, it had to be a soup packed with free and superfree foods to get me back on the Slimming World wagon (weigh in is tomorrow night and I’m terrified!).
The resulting soup is not too spicy but has a nicely warming kick. Thick enough to eat with a spoon without it dribbling down your chin and filling enough to mean that you don’t spend the afternoon fantasising about the crisps and chocolate that you are convinced would solve your hunger issues, this makes a good comforting workday lunch with the minimum of effort.
Ingredients
Fry light spray
1 – 2 inch piece of root ginger, peeled and grated
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 carrots, peeled and grated
150g red lentils
1 litre vegetable stock
Makes 4 hungry/greedy person’s servings (the greedy person is me)
Heat some fry light in a pan and add the ginger, cumin seeds and chilli flakes. Cook gently for a couple of minutes.
Add the onion and carrots and cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the lentils and then pour in the vegetable stock. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer gently, uncovered, for 15 minutes.
Using a hand blender, blend the soup until smooth. And you’re done.
I keep the soup in the fridge and use over 4 days. If you have a freezer (I don’t L) then you can freeze it and use up whenever you need a bit of spicy warmth!
I love freshly made bread – the smell, the taste, the texture and the feeling of satisfaction and virtuous delight I get when I manage to bake a half decent loaf! And, in strictly rationed proportions, I can still eat my bread on Slimming World. According to the Food Optimising rules, 57g of any wholemeal bread can be your Healthy Extra ‘b’ choice for the day. Or, if you want to use this on top of your Healthy Extra, 28g will be 3 Syns.
I normally put my faith in Delia when baking bread but when I consulted my well thumbed copy of ‘How to Cook’ for a wholemeal bread recipe, I have to admit I was slight disappointed. I’m sure the recipe works perfectly like most of Delia’s do but I am one of these insane people who actually enjoys kneading bread and in Delia’s recipe there’s no kneading. For me kneading is an essential part of the process and I can’t seem to reconcile the idea in my mind of an unkneaded loaf. I may be missing the point – maybe there is some complicated science behind not kneading certain loaves – but if I want to pummel away at my dough or slam it on the worktop to work the yeast whilst imagining it’s the head of the person annoying me on that particular day then I damn well will do! Rant over!
Anyway, so I started working on a variation and here’s what I came up with. This makes a 2lb wholemeal loaf.
Ingredients
500g very strong wholemeal bread flour
70g strong white bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon soft light brown sugar
1 sachet fast action dried yeast
About 400 ml warm water
2lb loaf tin (I used a silicone one but a metal one is fine)
Preheat the oven to the lowest setting you can (I did mine to 50˚C). Weight out the flours (wholemeal and white together) into an ovenproof bowl and then, when the oven is to temp, warm the flour gently for about 10 minutes.
Take the flour out of the oven and tip into a large mixing bowl. Place the sugar, salt and yeast in the bowl. NB Never put the salt and yeast one on top of the other. Salt kills yeast so you should add the salt at one side of the bowl and the yeast at the other. If you imagine the bowl as a clock face, I put the salt at 9, the sugar at 12 and the yeast at 3.
Using a wooden fork or spoon, mix all the ingredients together gently and then make a well in the centre. Gradually add the warm water a bit at a time, stirring the dough to bring it together in between each bit of water you add. You might not need all the water as all flours are different. If you get to the end of the water and the dough still isn’t quite coming together, add a few drops of water to your hands and then bring the dough together with your hands in the bowl. It’s really important not to add too much water or the dough will be too sticky to knead.
Bring the dough together in the bowl with your hands and, once it comes together nicely tip out onto a lightly floured surface.
Now comes the kneading. I knead by placing my hands in the centre of the dough, then I use the heel of one hand to push the dough up and out away from me whilst using the clenched fist of my other hand to pull the dough down and out towards me. Then I lift the edges back to the middle, give the dough a quarter turn and repeat. I knead the dough for a good 8 to 10 minutes.
Once the dough is kneaded, add the tiniest drop of oil to your mixing bowl (to stop the dough sticking) and place the bread back into the bowl. Cover the bowl with cling film and then leave at room temperature for about an hour.
At the end of this time the dough should have doubled in size (or almost!). Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and then give it a good few punches to knock out the air.
Stretch the dough out into a rectangle. Fold one edge and then the other into the middle to create a loaf shape and put the loaf into your loaf tin. Cover with a tea towel and leave in the kitchen to prove for 30 to 40 minutes.
Whilst the dough is proving, preheat the oven to 200˚C. Once the dough has proved, place the tin in the oven and bake for 40 minutes. Then, remove the loaf from the tin and place it back in the oven upside down directly on the oven shelf for a further 2 minutes to enable the crust underneath to crisp up.
Remove the loaf from the oven and allow to cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing!
This bread is really good with some homemade soup or, for a special comforting breakfast toast a 57g slice and top with butter (2 Syns per teaspoon and 5.5 Syns per tablespoon) and jam (0.5 Syns per teaspoon and 2 Syns per tablespoon). Enjoy!
I am a huge fan of Tex-Mex food. Before I began my Slimming World journey I could usually be found devouring an entire plate of nachos topped with grated cheese, chilli, salsa (and the rest) at least once a week. The truth is, it wasn’t really the tortilla chips I wanted, it was the spicy kick of all those wonderful Mexican flavours topped with the oozing flecks of burnished cheese making each mouthful more than worth the sticky fingers and general food debris left behind at the end.
I have tried to create a few different Mexican inspired recipes using the rules of Food Optimising and this is one of my favourites. Homemade burgers are, as far as I’m concerned, always preferable to shop bought but they can often be bland and lacking in flavour, leaving you wondering whether it was really worth the effort. Well, trust me – these truly are worth a few minutes of chopping, mixing and shaping!
The spices I’ve used are those I would put into a chilli con carne but just in greater quantities. The smoky subtle fire of the paprika mixed with the deeper, earthier flavours of the cumin and coriander followed by the ultimate kick of the hot chilli powder turn these burgers into a real treat for the tastebuds!
Ingredients
·500g extra lean mince
·1 red onion, finely diced
·1 teaspoon paprika
·1 teaspoon cumin
·1 teaspoon ground coriander
·½ teaspoon hot chilli powder
·Fry light spray
·28g grated cheddar cheese per person
·Sliced gherkins
·Wholemeal buns/rolls to serve
Makes 4 burgers
Method:
Put the finely diced onion and extra lean mince into a bowl and mash up with a fork.
Add the spices and mix everything thoroughly together.
Line a plate with some clingfilm. Take ¼ of the mince mixture and shape into a ball. Place on the cling film and flatten with your palm into a burger shape. Repeat until you have 4 burgers.
Put another sheet of cling film over the burgers and place in the fridge to chill and firm up for around 30 minutes.
Spray a non-stick frying pan with Fry Light spray. Turn the heat on and let the pan warm up. Place the burgers into the pan and cook for 5 minutes. Turn the burgers over and cook a further 5 minutes on the other side.
Burgers cooking away nicely
Whilst your burgers are cooking, slice open some wholemeal buns and place on a serving plate. Sprinkle 28g of cheddar cheese onto one half of each bun and place some sliced gerkhin on top of the cheese.
Lonely cheese and gherkins waiting for their burger!
When the burgers have cooked, place on top of the cheese and leave for a minute before serving.
Served…
You can serve these with anything you like really. I usually serve them with Slimming World chips or some sort of salad. I also like to dip the chips (OK…and the burgers!) in some chilli sauce (only ½ Syn per level tablespoon). Remember, if you’re not using the wholemeal bun/roll and the cheddar cheese as your healthy extra a and b choices for the day, this recipe would actually have 12 Syns per person in it (assuming each person only eats one burger!).
Notes:
If you don’t have time to let the burgers chill and firm up before cooking, add a whisked egg to help bind the mixture together and prevent it breaking up whilst frying.
If you’re in the mood for an extra kick, add a few drops of Tabasco sauce (Syn Free). Don’t get carried away as this stuff could really make your eyes water!
If you want to add a bit of salsa either on the top or the side or your burgers, keep back some of the red onion, add 1 chopped tomato and some coriander leaf and lime juice to taste. All Syn free!
