Lentil Ragù (serves 4-6)

March 19, 2017August 4, 20181 Comment

Lentil Ragù by The Fat Foodie

In Italy, Sicilians make a pasta sauce that’s much like a bolognese, but instead of making it with minced meat they make it with lentils. This creates a deliciously thick and ‘meaty’ lentil ragù that’s incredible over pasta.

When Jen from Your Birth Scotland tasked me with developing some recipes for her pregnant and postpartum clients the first thing I thought of was a dish that would be primarily based on green lentils because they’re one of the most incredibly nutritious and healthy pulses available. They’re also unbelievably cheap to buy and can be used in a myriad of dishes.

There are four main types of lentil which are used in cooking. Green and brown lentils hold their shape after cooking, so are suitable for using in stuffings, casseroles and warm salads. Yellow lentils break down into a pulp and tend to be used for making recipes like pease pudding or split pea soup. Puy lentils are beautiful greeny-slate coloured lentils that are grown in the Le Puy region in France and are prized for their high quality taste and their ability to retain their texture after cooking. These lentils tend to be used alongside fish and meat, such as in sausage casseroles. And lastly, we have the humble common red lentil, the most versatile lentil of all, which breaks down upon cooking to create a rich, thick puree that can be used to add texture to any dish while soaking up the flavours you wish to impart.

Aside from being highly fibrous and high in protein and carbohydrates, green lentils are packed full of vitamins and minerals, including iron, folate, calcium, phosphorous and essential B vitamins. All of these support good overall health for everyone, but are particularly useful for women who are either pregnant or postpartum because they help to maintain healthy iron levels and prevent anemia while also supporting good metabolism operation to ensure your energy levels remain stable. As you can see, green lentils are a win-win really!

One of the benefits to this lentil ragù (aside from the fact that it’s delicious!) is that it’s made in the slow cooker, allowing you to focus on other things throughout your day. It simply is a case of throwing all of your ingredients into the slow cooker pot, setting it on low, and getting on with your day. This lentil ragu is also brilliant for freezing.

This lentil ragù is fat free, iron rich and is packed full of lots of vegetables, making it a very healthy dish indeed. If you have a partner who insists on having meat every day then you could throw some diced casserole beef in alongside the lentils and it would taste just as good. I think the lentils are quite substantial enough as they are without having to add meat to the recipe, but each to their own, I say. Also, if you’d like to give it a smokey flavoured kick, a half teaspoon of smoked paprika would do the trick. If you make this and enjoy it you could try making The Happy Pear’s Dahl recipe in your slow cooker, which is also packed full of healthy, nutritious little lentils and is lovely served with rice and naans or poppadums.

Serve your lentil ragù on a bed of tender gluten-free tagliatelle and scatter with fresh basil leaves and grated parmesan (or a vegan alternative).

Ingredients:

½ tsp of asafoetida powder

1 tbsp of garlic-infused oil

3 large carrots (cut into small pieces)

180g of tinned lentils (drained and rinsed well)

360g of tinned chopped tomatoes

2 tsps. of dried oregano

4 vegetable stock cubes

500ml of boiling water

20 pitted black olives (halved)

300g gluten-free tagliatelle

Fresh basil

Parmesan (or a vegan alternative)

Method:

Dissolve your stock cubes in a jug containing 500ml of boiling water.

Prepare the ingredients as directed and put them all in your slow cooker.

Pour the stock over the ingredients, adding more hot water if necessary so that all of the ingredients are just covered by the liquid. (This depends on the size of your slow cooker, so if you’ve got a large slow cooker you might need to add more stock.)

Let it cook for the day (if you’re in the house you could give it a stir once an hour, but it’s fine to just leave it if you’re going out).

About half an hour before you’re ready to eat, check the seasoning. If it needs it, then add salt and pepper or another stock cube or two. It’s very much down to personal taste.

Cook your tagliatelle as directed on the pack, drain, portion onto plates and top with the lentil ragù, basil and parmesan. Enjoy!

Lentil Ragù by The Fat Foodie About to be Slow Cooked

Lentil Ragù by The Fat Foodie

Vegan Pancakes (serves 2-3)

February 27, 2017August 4, 2018Leave a comment

Vegan Pancakes by The Fat Foodie with Lemon and Golden Syrup

When I was a kid I loved pancake day because it was a day in which you were legitimately allowed to eat dessert for dinner. Dad was always the designated pancake maker and, apart from the first one which is always a dud anyway, they were consistently outstanding. We’d wait patiently (or impatiently) to receive each individually made pancake from the frying pan and eat them piping hot, sprinkled with Jif lemon juice and drizzled with a generous coating of Tate and Lyle’s golden syrup. Delicious!

Although nowadays my adult palate baulks at the idea of solely eating sweet pancakes for dinner on Shrove Tuesday, I do insist on following tradition and I tend to make them after a small sensible dinner as a tasty dessert. The topping choices seem endless in today’s day and age, but the first pancake on my plate is always decorated with lemon juice and golden syrup. Any other topping just seems out of place until I’ve had my citrus-laden, tart, but sweet one.

I was a bit apprehensive about trying to create a recipe for vegan pancakes because I was unsure whether an eggless, milk-free pancake mix would yield the same results as a standard pancake mix would, but I have to say, vegan pancakes taste exactly the same as ‘normal’ pancakes. I’ve never liked really thick, dense pancakes (unless they’re fluffy little Scotch pancakes) and have always preferred a thin, crispy crêpe. Thankfully, this vegan pancake recipe makes lovely light crêpes that have just the right tasty crispiness to fold around your chosen fillings.

On the subject of pancake fillings, the list of possibilities is endless: lemon juice; golden syrup; maple syrup; honey; nuts; whipped cream or coconut cream; melted chocolate; or fresh fruit. Another option is to leave the sugar out of the mix which would allow you to use the crêpes with savoury fillings, such as cream cheese (or vegan alternatives), cooked meats, grated cheddar, crispy bacon, roasted vegetables, or sundried tomatoes and pesto.

Whether you want to make pancakes to celebrate Shrove Tuesday or simply to worship the joy that is the humble pancake, give these a go. You won’t be disappointed.

Ingredients for the vegan pancakes:

200g gluten-free flour (I use Dove’s Farm G/F Plain Flour)

2 tbsps of sugar

1 tsp xanthan gum

400ml of rice milk (or normal milk)

2 tbsps of sunflower oil (or 1 egg, if non-vegan) (plus more oil for frying)

Toppings can include: Lemon juice; Golden Syrup; Maple syrup; Jam; fresh fruit; Nutella (or vegan alt.); Nuts, etc.

Method:

Put all of your pancake ingredients (without the toppings, obviously!) in a jug and whisk together until it is smooth.

Put a non-stick pancake pan or frying pan on a medium heat with a little sunflower oil (around 1 tsp).

Once the oil is hot, slowly pour some of the pancake mix into the centre of the pancake pan, tilting the pan as you pour so the mixture spreads into a thin disc. (They don’t have to be perfect, so don’t stress if they’re weird shapes. Trust me, they’ll still taste amazing.)

Let the pancake cook on one side until it’s crispy and golden brown when you lift the edge up with a fish slice.

Flip the pancake over and cook the other side until it’s also crisp and brown.

Remove from the pancake pan and place on a baking tray. Keep the pancakes warm in the oven until you’re ready to serve them and carry on making more until all of the mix is used up.

Adorn your pancakes with your chosen toppings and serve.

Freshly Made Vegan Pancakes by The Fat Foodie

Vegan Pancakes by The Fat Foodie Drizzled with Melted Chocolate

Vegan Pancakes by The Fat Foodie

Vegan Pancakes by The Fat Foodie with Lemon and Golden Syrup

Orange Cake (serves 8)

December 11, 2016January 22, 2018Leave a comment

Orange Cake by The Fat Foodie

As much as I love a good fudgy, chocolate cake sometimes a lighter, fruitier cake, such as this gluten-free orange cake, can be much more satisfying because it’s less heavy overall. A while ago I picked up a reduced bottle of Valencian orange extract and I knew I wouldn’t struggle to find a use for it. This turned out to be an accurate assessment because I used it when I made my French Fancies and because there was plenty of orange French fancy buttercream left over to use up I figured I’d pop it in the freezer to put it to use again. It turned out quite handy for the orange cake.

This orange cake is just a standard victoria sponge recipe that has a teaspoon of orange extract added to it, so it’s really simple to whip up. In fact, because I only made a small cake I just mixed it all up in a jug with an electric whisk and then poured it into my prepared bundt tin. It’s that easy.

This orange cake turns out light, soft and zesty, with a nice ‘zing’ of orange which hits the nose and tastebuds from the sponge itself as well as the buttercream. I just decorated my orange cake with some orange icing, a bit of orange zest and some walnuts, but you could easily decorate it with lime zest or coconut. And if you fancied a chocolate orange cake all it’d take is the addition of 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder into your cake mixture and a little less flour.

I’ve spoken to a lot of people recently who are intimidated by baking because they think it’s really complex and tricky, but baking’s not hard as long as you follow the recipe. And once you’ve mastered the basics, such as plain victoria sponge, you can adapt the flavours that you use in your cakes to suit yourself. When it comes to baking, the world’s your oyster! Although I’d avoid that as a potential cake flavouring. Eww! That’d be gross.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

100g butter (or non-dairy version)

100g of sugar

2 eggs

4 tbsps of rice milk

100g gluten-free self-raising flour (I use Dove’s Farm G/F flour because it’s made with low FODMAP ingredients whereas many other gluten-free flours are made with high FODMAP options.)

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp orange extract or flavouring

For the filling:

75g of soft butter (or non-dairy version)

50g icing sugar

½ tsp of orange extract or flavouring

1 tsp. of water

For the decoration:

50g icing sugar

1-2 tsps. of water

Orange food colouring

50g chopped walnuts

Method:

To make the cake:

Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F/Gas mark 4.

Grease and flour a Bundt tin.

Measure your butter and sugar into a mixing bowl or jug and mix.

Add the 2 eggs, rice milk and 1 tsp. of orange extract and mix.

Add the flour and xanthan gum and mix well. (Gluten-free flour can be very dry, so add more rice milk if you feel the mix is too thick.)

Pour into your Bundt tin and bake for approximately 25-30 mins. (You’ll know the cake is fully baked when a skewer poked into the middle of the cake comes out completely clean.)

To make the buttercream filling:

Whisk the butter, icing sugar, orange extract and water together until it forms a light, fluffy buttercream. (If you need to add a dash more water to loosen the buttercream more, do so).

To make the icing:

Mix the icing sugar and a dash of orange food colouring with a little bit of water, adding more water as required until it is just thin enough to fall off the spoon.

To build the cake:

Once the cake is cool, slice the cake in half horizontally, spread the bottom of the cake with buttercream and put the top back on. If you’ve any buttercream left, feel free to spread it on top of the cake.

Drizzle the top of the cake with the orange icing and then top with walnuts. Serve.

Orange Cake by The Fat Foodie

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Orange and White Chocolate Pavlova (serves 10-12)

October 26, 2016August 4, 2018Leave a comment

Orange and White Chocolate Pavlova by The Fat Foodie

This orange and white chocolate pavlova is one of the easiest desserts you could ever make and I’ll bet it’s one that’ll be eaten the quickest too. I don’t know about your house, but few sweet things are demolished faster in our household than a pavlova, particularly one which merges a good zesty fruit with sweet sugary shards of meringue and rich, lightly whipped cream.

The combination of creamy orange curd spread over layers of thick meringue which is crisp, but still just slightly chewy, and sandwiched by silky whipped cream is a great marriage altogether. Although I’ve used orange in my curd you could easily opt to use lemon, lime or even passionfruit instead and any of them would give you a great result.

As this was made as a treat for my family I didn’t make it a dairy-free version, but if you can’t tolerate dairy you could easily adapt the recipe by using non-dairy versions of the ingredients such as oat cream, coconut cream, non-dairy butter and dark chocolate instead of white chocolate.

Orange and White Chocolate Pavlova by The Fat Foodie

As easy as this orange and white chocolate pavlova is to make there are just a few small, but important, rules you must follow in order to get the best results:

1.) Don’t get any fat in the egg whites. Egg whites will not whisk properly if there is any fat in them whatsoever, so crack each of your eggs into a small bowl before tipping the egg whites one at a time into the bowl you’ll be whisking them up in. That way if you accidentally break an egg yolk you’re only throwing away one egg rather than the whole bowlful. Also, make sure your bowl and electric whisk beaters are spotlessly clean of any residual fats.

2.) Use room temperature eggs as they will be much more voluminous than fridge-cold ones.

3.) Use caster sugar. The egg white bubbles are so delicate that they’ll break more easily if they’re in contact with large pieces of granulated sugar. Therefore, using the smaller sized caster sugar granules will help to retain as much air within the egg whites as possible.

4.) Add a little cornflour to stabilise the egg whites and to create a slightly chewy texture to your meringue.

I made my meringues the night before I was intending to make the pavlova which meant that they could cool down slowly in the oven overnight, ensuring their crust did not crack very much, but you could just use them immediately once they’ve been cooked and have cooled down. Trust me, if you follow these tips you’ll be rewarded with beautiful, big meringues that’ll be just begging to be topped with whipped cream and an assortment of fruits.

Ingredients:

For the meringues:

6 egg whites

375g caster sugar

2 tsps cornflour

For the orange curd:

1 large orange

The zest and juice of 1 orange

6 egg yolks

150g butter (or a non-dairy version)

225g caster sugar

For decoration:

A carton of lactose-free double cream (about 284ml) or a non-dairy version

100g white chocolate (you could use dark chocolate if you prefer)

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F/Gas mark 4.

Put greaseproof paper on two large baking sheets.

Separate 6 eggs and put the egg whites in a large mixing bowl. Whisk until firm and then whisk in the cornflour and sugar.

Spread three equal circles of meringue mixture onto the baking sheets.

Put in the oven and then turn the oven down to 150C/130C Fan/300F/ Gas mark 2. Bake for 1 hour and then leave the meringues to cool.

To make the curd:

Put all of the curd ingredients into a small saucepan and over a low heat gently whisk it together until it is hot and the curd leaves a thick coat on the back of a spoon dipped into it.

Strain it through a sieve into a bowl and leave it to cool.

To assemble the pavlova:

Break your white chocolate into small pieces and place in a bowl. Leave the chocolate to melt by putting this bowl into a larger one filled with hot water. (Make sure no water gets into the chocolate though, otherwise it’ll seize and will be unworkable.)

Whip the double cream.

Put the first meringue on a serving plate and spread it with the cooled orange curd and then a layer of double cream.

Put the second meringue on top and put the rest of the curd on it, followed by another layer of cream (reserving a little cream for the top).

Put the top meringue on and spread with the last of the cream.

Put the melted white chocolate into a piping bag and drizzle over the top of the pavlova. You could just use a spoon to drizzle it over the cake though if you don’t have a piping bag.

Serve with aplomb to the astonishment and adoration of those around your dinner table and be prepared for people to come back for seconds or even thirds.

Orange and White Chocolate Pavlova by The Fat Foodie

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The Fat Foodie

Making Low FODMAP Food Good!

Tag: #thefatfoodie.co.uk

Lentil Ragù (serves 4-6)

Vegan Pancakes (serves 2-3)

Orange Cake (serves 8)

Orange and White Chocolate Pavlova (serves 10-12)