Lamb and Cypriot New Potato Pittas

Most of the time I don't miss vegetables that aren't in season but one thing I'd love to eat all year round is new potatoes. I'm sorry to say I get quite excited when I see new potatoes in Tesco and can enjoy them with melted butter and mint or as part of a potato salad.

 

Well, now you can get new potatoes in winter, courtesy of the sun-soaked island of Cyprus. Tesco have started stocking the 'spunta' variety which are really versatile - they can be boiled, steamed, roasted or baked and you don't need to peel them so preparation is minimal!

You can even grate them, as I have done in this recipe; even when par-boiled the potatoes are still nice and firm. For this recipe I thought about what I associated with Cyprus, thinking back to a holiday I had there about 12 or 13 years ago. The things that stood out to me were lamb, feta cheese and pitta breads, so I decided to make some lamb and Cypriot new potato patties and serve them with feta cheese inside homemade pitta breads.

You can buy read-made pitta breads for this recipe but don't be afraid to have a go at making your own pitta bread if you haven't before, it's super easy and they taste amazing straight from the oven!

Ingredients (serves 4):

 

250g Cypriot new potatoes
1 egg
1 onion, grated
1 clove garlic, crushed
300g minced lamb
salt, pepper
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
100g breadcrumbs
Oil or low-fat cooking spray
75g feta cheese, crumbled
2 tbsp. plain natural yogurt

for the pitta bread:
560g strong white flour

10g salt

300ml tepid water

20ml oil

5g dried yeast or 10g fresh yeast

Method:

Begin by making the pitta bread. If you have a freestanding food mixer with a dough hook, put all the ingredients for the pitta breads in the bowl of the mixer and run it for ten minutes until you have a pliable ball of dough. Alternatively, mix the ingredients in a bowl and knead on a lightly floured surface for 15 minutes then return to the bowl.

Cover the bowl with clingfilm and put in a warm place for an hour until the dough has doubled in size.

While the dough is proving, make the lamb and potato patties. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and simmer the potatoes for 15 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and cover with cold water and leave to cool; change the water a couple of times as you feel it getting hot as this is the quickest way to cool the potatoes.

Grate the parboiled potatoes - you don't need to peel them - into a bowl. Beat the egg and mix in.

Grate the onion and crush the garlic and stir in, then stir in the minced lamb. Season with salt and pepper. Finally mix in the oregano, cumin and coriander until well combined.

Put the breadcrumbs into a shallow bowl. Form the mixture into small balls and roll in the breadcrumbs, then gently flatten the balls until you have patties about three quarters of an inch thick. Press each side in the breadcrumbs again to coat.

Repeat until all the lamb and potato mixture is used up.

When the dough for the pitta bread has had 40-45 minutes to prove, pre-heat your oven to its highest setting and place a pizza stone or flat baking sheet into the bottom of the oven.

When your dough is ready to use, separate into 6-8 pieces of the same size and roll out flat on a lightly floured surface into the shape of pitta breads. Place them (you will need to do this in two or three batches) onto the hot pizza stone or baking sheet and bake for 5-10 minutes until risen. You will literally see them puffing up in the oven and start to brown then they are done. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Heat the oil or low-fat cooking spray in a frying pan and fry the lamb and potato patties on each side until golden brown.

Slice open the pitta breads (careful of the steam that will escape!) and spread 1/2 tbsp. plain yogurt into each one. Fill each pitta with a couple of the lamb and potato patties and crumbled feta cheese. Enjoy hot with a green salad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my entry into the Tesco Cypriot new potatoes recipe challenge. I received a £10 voucher from Tesco to pay towards the ingredients. Cypriot new potatoes are available in Tesco now

 

 

 

 

 

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Restaurant review: Sizzle 'n' Shake, Wallington

 

I really wanted to write a positive review of Sizzle ‘n’ Shake, I really did. But much as I love the concept, the décor, the little touches – the service was terrible and the food wasn’t a whole lot better.

 

Sizzle ‘n’ Shake is a 50s style diner in Wallington and something really different, in an area that seems to be predominantly Indian and Italian restaurants or pubs. I’ve been twice now as we had a mixed experience the first time and wanted to give it a second chance – it was better second time around, but still disappointing. It could have been such a great place!

 

 

Here’s what I loved about Sizzle ‘n’ Shake:

•  The 50s diner styling. The booth tables, the red bar stool chairs at the front window, the pictures on the walls and records hanging from the ceiling, the jukebox playing 50s (and 60s) music with an invitation to bring your own records for them to put on and the menus themselves, which are printed on 12 inch LPs – each diner gets a different record sleeve at random which is a bit of a talking point if that’s your musical era.

 

• The milkshakes, especially the alcoholic ones. Not cheap - £5.50 for 350ml or £9.50 for 700ml but delicious. I had the Monk's Butt (!) which was made with Frangelico, butterscotch, vanilla ice cream and whipped cream.

• The chips- there is a choice of chunky, skinny or (for an extra £1.50) sweet potato fries which means everyone can have exactly what they want
• They do kids portions at roughly half price which is good.

• The huge choice on the menu (as long as you are not vegetarian) and even the names of the dishes
• -       The personal touch from the man I think is the owner or manager – he was there on both our visits and came over to speak to us both times

 

Here’s what I didn’t love so much:

• -       The location: part-way down Stafford Road opposite a furniture shop with no parking other than the odd space in a side street. Not their fault, and I’m sure they would have loved to have been on the high street, but it is a little awkward
• -       The restaurant itself is also very small; again not their fault but this a great concept and clearly popular. Tables are squeezed in; the non-movable seats in the booths are so close to the table you can barely squeeze in, and it would be nice to have a bit more space.
• -       The prices. The Rebel Rouser which is basically a double cheese and bacon burger cost £14.50; for that my husband was expecting a huge burger that he (almost) wouldn’t be able to finish but it was distinctly average in size. My macaroni cheese burger was £12.80 and was just a plain 6oz burger with a bit of penne pasta.
• -       The burgers themselves: I appreciate that they are homemade and mass produced but they were not particularly flavoursome, not at all juicy and on our first visit, completely overcooked and chewy. On our second visit I made sure to ask for my burger cooked ‘medium’ – they don’t ask how you would like them, but I wanted to make sure it wasn’t overdone again. This time the burger was edible and not well done, but not medium either.
• -       The mac and cheese burger I tried on my first visit: I was excited about this as it’s not something you often get on a menu but I’ve had a couple of amazing mac and cheese burgers in the past. In this case, the macaroni cheese was penne pasta that had been mixed with a cheese sauce; there were 5 or 6 tubes of penne just sitting on top of the burger inside the bun, and rolled out as soon as I picked up the burger. I managed to put a couple back in but they didn’t even really taste that great.

• -       The BBQ burger I had on my second visit was better but still didn’t stand out and you can get a better burger pretty much anywhere. I’d put this one on a par with Wetherspoons I think, but it costs a lot more.
• -       I didn’t have a dessert the first time and the second time was really looking forward to the chocolate orange truffle bar, but they had run out. My husband had the waffle with maple syrup which was a plain waffle with a tiny amount of syrup, so very dry – it would have been better served with ice cream or cream or at least more syrup.

 

• -       The service: extremely slow. On our first visit there was only one other couple eating (it was quite late on a Tuesday night) and we felt service was a bit slow. On our second visit on a Saturday at 6pm, the place was packed – but as mentioned above, it’s not that big and there couldn’t have been more than 50 covers. So that’s no excuse for the fact that we arrived at 6pm and didn’t even get our drinks until 6.40 – at which point we noticed two other tables who came in after us had already received their food. 

It’s a shame as the restaurant is a great idea and everything apart from the food and service is brilliant – but it’s the food and the service that will keep people coming back, and I’m not sure that I would.

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Meal Planning Monday 2017 - Week 6

Monday
Lunch The baked potato soup I made last week then froze
Dinner Greggs sausage and bean melt with mashed potato for him and leftover lemon chicken which I froze last week for me

Tuesday I'm working from home
Lunch coronation chicken jacket potato from Slimming World 100 extra easy days
Dinner lamb and potato cakes with pitta bread, beef meatballs for him

Wednesday
Lunch The baked potato soup I made last week then froze
Dinner chicken chargrills for him, leftover homemade lasagne from the freezer for me

Thursday
Lunch  I'm possibly on a course and not in the office so will have to buy something
Dinner sweet potato and goat's cheese lattice pie for me (bought in the supermarket from the reduced section, thought it looked interesting!) and chicken pie for him

Friday
Lunch I'm possibly on a course and not in the office so will have to buy something
Dinner Out with an old friend I haven't seen in many years

Saturday
Lunch bacon and cheese omelette for him, tuna nicoise with leftover pitta for me based on this recipe
Dinner beef medallion steaks

Sunday
Lunch ham and leek hash with creamy onion sauce from Slimming World Little Book of Sauces for me, bacon sandwich for him
Dinner chicken with garlic and herb sauce for him, lamb grillsteak for me that I meant to do last week but didn't, with roast potatoes

This is a blog hop, join in!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Chocolate Crumble

I love apple crumble but as my husband doesn't eat apple I almost never make it - because I feel like I'd have to make him an equivalent dessert at the same time and I can never think of anything similar! My problem  was solved when I found this Tesco recipe for chocolate crumble - it has a gooey chocolate base with a delicious crumble topping.

I feel that I should echo Tesco's comment that "This pudding is very rich and indulgent so it shouldn't be eaten too often. But it's perfect for those special occasions!"

To serve 4, you need:
for the filling:
200g plain chocolate, chopped
150ml whipping cream
1 tbsp. cornflour

for the topping:
100g caster sugar
icing sugar for dusting
100g unsalted butter
150g plain flour

Preheat the oven to 190C. Bring the cream to the boil in a saucepan then remove from the heat, and stir in the chopped chocolate until it has melted. Whisk in the cornflour until smooth.

Pour into an oven proof baking or casserole dish and leave to cool for ten minutes.

Meanwhile rub the butter and flour between your fingertips to make 'breadcrumbs' then mix in the sugar. Alternatively put the butter, sugar and flour in a food processor and pulse. Spoon the crumble on top of the chocolate filling and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes and dust with icing sugar before serving.

 

 

I'm sharing this with We Should Cocoa, hosted by Choclette at Tin and Thyme.

 

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Restaurant Review: Isolabella, Holborn, London

Holborn is an area that I don't know very well - I used to go to a choir rehearsal in a church not far away, and occasionally got something to eat at Subway on the way, but it's not somewhere I ever really go out - or an area you ever really see in restaurant guides. It's sort of half way between the City and the West End (though don't quote me on exact distances), is the nearest tube to the British Museum (though for me the British Museum is in Bloomsbury, not Holborn) - and is apparently part of the Borough of Camden but couldn't be further from the image I have of Camden, which is basicall the market.

I'm sure that like many places once you scratch below the surface you will find all sorts of things to do. One thing that Holborn does seem to have is a large number of Italian restaurants all in one space and with a few exceptions I don't mean chain restaurants. Just before Christmas I went to one of these with a friend - Isolabella.

She chose the restaurant, from looking through places on Opentable with special offers, and I have to admit I was a bit dubious initially when she suggested Holborn. But I trust my friend's taste in restaurants - we have had some great meals out together including the only tasting menu I've ever tried. And once again, she came up trumps.

The restaurant wasn't particularly busy but service wasn't very fast, which isn't usually a problem as we do like to have a good natter! The menu is extensive with pizza, pasta, meat and fish. I do like to have a lot of choice but sometimes wonder about restaurants that have huge menus if they are able to cook everything to the same high standard  - they have 16 desserts for instance which is a lot to be made fresh every day so I wondered whether they get them from a catering supplier or if they do actually make them on site.

The food that I had though was very good - beef ravioli in a tomato sauce (a good-sized portion) and for dessert, apple tart with vanilla ice cream. I think it would have been a little pricey for what it was at £14.50 for the main (especially given it's pasta in tomato sauce, albeit with minced beef) and £6.50 for the dessert (I've had better apple pies for less) - but with the 50% off discount it was definitely worth doing!

 

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Meal Planning Monday 2017 - Week 5

My parents are visiting this weekend and I'm taking them to Ripley's Believe It Or Not - as the weather is meant to be bad and it's indoor, and I think they would like it. What's your favourite thing to do in London when it's wet or cold?

Monday
Lunch: sandwich
Dinner: spaghetti Bolognese with Quorn mince for me, beef for him

Tuesday - I'm working from home
Lunch: leftover spaghetti bolognese
Dinner: Slow Cooker lemon chilli chicken

Wednesday
Lunch: baked potato soup from this recipe
Dinner: My husband is out, I will have a Weight Watchers ready meal as they have some new ones I want to try

Thursday
Lunch: rest of the homemade soup
Dinner: chicken with garlic and herb sauce for him, lamb grillsteak for me

Friday - my parents are coming to stay and will be here when we get home in the evening
Lunch: out with a work colleague
Dinner: chicken kievs and chips, Mars ice cream bar for dessert

Saturday
Lunch: sausages, bacon, toast, baked beans etc
Dinner: out with my parents and mother-in-law

Sunday
Lunch: eggs benedict
Dinner: pork medallions, with chilli, lemon and crème fraiche from this recipe

This is a blog hop, join in!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Dino-Mite Dinosaur Birthday Card

I made this card for an 8-year old girl who is mad about dinosaurs at the moment. Ages ago I bought a pack of silver dinosaur outline stickers for another birthday card and have found it hard to use them up - as they are small silver stickers, sometimes solid and sometimes outlines, they don't work on a lot of backgrounds but putting them on a plain card doesn't look very good either.

I decided to do the best I could with them, and started by sticking the dinosaur outline sticker onto a small square or rectangle of pink paper. I edged that with a silver outline edging sticker and did the same with two smaller dinosaur stickers.

Using a thin rectangular card blank I turned it on its side, covered it in textured pink paper and stuck a strip of pink patterned paper down the middle. I then mounted the dinosaur pieces onto this to make it look a bit more interesting.

Finally I added a slogan I'd seen somewhere: have a dino-mite birthday! I typed it on the computer in pink and printed it out on pink paper. It doesn't have enough space around it to look professional so if I made this again I would use a wider card, but I still quite like it.

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WeightWatchers Chicken Basque

This a great one-pot meal which can feed a whole family. It's actually a WeightWatchers recipe as it's fairly low in fat if you use skinless boneless chicken breasts or thighs - I used thighs for this recipe so it's good value as well. If you left the chorizo out it would be lower in fat but wouldn't taste as good!

According to the recipe which I found in an old WeightWatchers magazine, this has 9 and a half points per person. It involved scattering olives and orange slices over the top at the end which I didn't do, so I have left these out of the recipe.

To serve 4, you need:
8 skinless boneless chicken thighs
low fat cooking spray
1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, cut into thin wedges
2 red peppers, de-seeded and sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
75g chorizo sausage, skinned and sliced
50g semi-dried tomatoes (I used sun-dried, drained of oil on kitchen paper)
175g brown basmati rice
1 chicken stock cube, mixed with 225ml water
125ml dry white wine
1 tbsp. tomato puree
1/2 tsp paprika
2 tsp chopped fresh parsley

 

Season the chicken. Use an oven proof dish that can also go on the hob if you have one, and spray with low fat cooking spray. Brown the chicken on both sides - alternatively you can do this in a frying pan. Heat the olive oil in the casserole dish or frying pan and brown the onion and peppers, then after about 5 minutes add the garlic, chorizo and tomatoes.

Preheat the oven to 180C. If you're using a frying pan, at this point transfer the ingredients into the casserole dish. Stir in the rice until it's coated in oil then add the stock, wine, tomato puree and paprika. Put the chicken on top, making sure the rice is still covered by liquid, and put the lid on top.

Bake in the oven for about an hour until the rice has cooked and the liquid absorbed and the chicken is cooked through. Sprinkle with parsley to serve.

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Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Chicken

It's Chinese New Year and the Year of the Rooster is about to begin so what better meal to cook for your family or friends than sweet and sour chicken? The great thing about this recipe is that because you make it in a slow cooker, it's really easy. Put it on and forget about it until you are ready to eat - at least if you use microwave pouches of rice like I do, you really don't need to do a lot!

The recipe comes from the Betty Crocker website - which I associate more with cakes than savoury dishes. I don't think it needs the cornstarch you add at the end though as I found most of the liquid had evaporated in the slow cooker by the time it had finished cooking.

To serve 2, you need:
200g tin pineapple, chopped (juice from the tin reserved)
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
half an onion, peeled and chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
4 skinless boneless chicken thighs, diced
3 tbsp. soy sauce
3 tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 red pepper, seeds removed and chopped
1/2 green pepper, seeds removed and chopped
1/4 cup water
rice or noodles to serve    

Put the pineapple, carrots, onion, garlic and ginger in the slow cooker. Top with the chicken.

Mix the pineapple juice, soy sauce and sugar and pour over the chicken.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on high for 2-3 hours. For the last 30 minutes add the pineapple and peppers. Serve with rice or noodles.

 

 

 

 

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Meal Planning Monday 2017 - Week 4

This week's train strikes have been called off and apparently normal service will resume on Tuesday - which would be the first time in about four months that my normal train to work is running! So it means I won't be working from home as much this week, though I have still agreed one day working from home while I have coursework to do for a professional qualification, so I can use the time when I would normally be commuting to study.

Monday
Lunch: going to try an Itsu chicken noodle cup from Ocado with extra chicken added
Dinner: working late as I'm at a work event so will grab something quick when I get in

Tuesday - I'm working from home
Lunch: toasted ham and cheese sandwich
Dinner: my husband is out at work drinks so I will have sweet and sour chicken which he doesn't like

Wednesday
Lunch: leftover sweet and sour chicken
Dinner: Slimming World sausage casserole with mashed potato for him and a baked sweet potato for me

Thursday
Lunch: slow cooker Thai coconut chicken soup
Dinner: chicken lattice with mashed potato for him, lamb grillsteak with veg for me

Friday
Lunch: slow cooker Thai coconut chicken soup
Dinner: something from the freezer with chips

Saturday
Lunch: bacon sandwich
Dinner: TBA - ran out of time to plan anything

Sunday
Brunch: I'm going to try making this hash brown casserole
Mid-afternoon: going for a pub lunch with the in-laws at 3pm, hence having brunch as it is a weird time for me to eat, so I don't think we will want anything else in the evening but I'm not sure!

This is a blog hop, join in!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Traditional Poinsettia Decoupage Christmas Card

Poinsettia is a winter-flowering plant, associated with Christmas perhaps because of its red petals. Apparently the star-shaped leaves are thought to be a symbol of the star of Bethlehem that the three wise men followed, with their colour symbolising the blood of Christ.

The plant is commonly seen on Christmas cards, like this one that I made. The kit came free with Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine, with die cuts in different designs including the ones I used to make this card.

I covered a square white card blank with red backing paper then stuck on a square die cut with scalloped edges that filled almost the entire card. It had a circular hole in the middle, into which I stuck the round topper, raising it off the card with adhesive pads. And that's it - really quick and easy to make but a nice looking card for someone who is more of a traditionalist about Christmas.

I'm sharing this with the Crafty Catz weekly cardmaking challenge and Trimmies craft challenge.

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WeightWatchers Curried Fish Pie

Fish pie is a comforting family staple and is usually topped with mashed potato or puff pastry. The former is carb-heavy and the latter high in fat, so using filo pastry is a much lighter option.

I adapted a recipe in an old WeightWatchers magazine to make this, which tasted really good and made a nice change from the usual kind of fish pie. The WeightWatchers recipe had 6.5 syns per serving and I don't think my changes will have affected that.

To serve 2 you need:

175g white fish like cod or haddock, cut into cubes
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
75ml double cream (the WeightWatchers recipe calls for less than 55% fat double cream)
100g cooked and peeled prawns
1/2 tbsp. mild curry powder
zest of 1/2 a lime
4 x 15g sheets filo pastry
low fat cooking spray (I use Fry Light)

Preheat oven to 180C. Place the cubed fish and prawns in the bottom of an ovenproof dish and mix with the cream, curry powder and lime zest.

Cut each sheet of filo pastry in half to make 8 squares. Spray one side of the pastry with cooking spray and crumble up each piece of pastry and sit it on top of the pie dish until it is covered. Once you have used all the pastry, spray over them all with cooking spray.

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes until golden brown.

 

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Restaurant review: Grapeshots, Artillery Passage, London

My work Christmas meal for the past two years has been a curry so this year I lobbied hard for a proper Christmas dinner- and luckily enough of my colleagues agreed. We'd left it relatively last minute to book - at least, we were booking several weeks in advance, for a weekday in mid-December, but places still get booked up really fast!

Not that Grapeshots wasn't my first choice, but.... well, it wasn't my first choice. I wasn't actually familiar with the pub even though it is only a few minutes from my office. But after I rung around a couple of other places I had in mind and found they were fully booked, a colleague suggested Grapeshots, and as they had a festive menu and enough space, that was good enough!

The Christmas menu offered two courses for £24.95 or three for £29.95 and we pre-ordered at the pub's request; I had  a nice starter of crayfish, prawn and smoked salmon cocktail, which was served on a plate with a thick slice of tomato as its base.

 

The main course had a generous portion of meat, a lot of gravy, but only a couple of small-ish roast potatoes, and we were brought two small dishes of vegetables to share between 7. There was barely enough for everyone and one of my colleagues asked if there was more coming, only to be told no.

 

 

My dessert of sticky toffee Christmas pudding was nice - the Christmas pudding was a stronger flavour than the toffee in the cake, but the toffee sauce tipped the balance deliciously the other way.

The pub seemed nice - the ladies is tiny with barely enough room to get through the door - and the food was pretty good, if a little expensive.

 

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Meal Planning Monday 2017 - Week 3

Another week where I am not in the office very much! This time I have taken three days annual leave to do some coursework then will be in Edinburgh for a day with a very early start, and flying back early the next day and going straight into work that day.

Join in the blog hop below.

Monday - I'm off, my husband is at work
Lunch: jacket potato
Dinner: Stir-fried cauliflower and cashews for me, chicken lattice and mash for him

Tuesday - I'm off, my husband is at work
Lunch: tuna risotto
Dinner: slow cooker macaroni cheese with sausages from this recipe or maybe hidden veg from this recipe

Wednesday - I'm off, my husband is at work
Lunch: leftover macaroni cheese
Dinner: maple mustard chicken thighs from this recipe with mashed potato

Thursday
I'm in Edinburgh for work with a very early start, out for both lunch and dinner

Friday -
Lunch: back at work so straight from the airport so will have to buy lunch
Dinner: peppered beef steaks and chips

Saturday
Lunch: quesadillas
Dinner: chicken wings in old bay seasoning (from this site) with chicken breast for him, with potato croquettes

Sunday
Lunch: hotdogs
Dinner: Tex Mex chicken tacos from this recipe

Join in the blog hop!

An InLinkz Link-up

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10 Reasons to be Addicted to Soup - Winter Soup Recipes

 

This time of year there can sometimes be nothing better than a steaming bowl of soup - especially if it's one you've made yourself. Whether you're using up leftover veg or trying to persuade yourself to eat more veg (it's much easier blended, trust me!) or you on a diet and looking for a low fat recipe, there is so much you can do.

Here are ten of my favourite soup recipes. Check out number 7, it's something a bit different!

1. Chicken mulligatawny - adapted from a Weightwatchers recipe, really filling and robust

 

2. Slimming World cauliflower cheese soup - like cauliflower cheese? Then you will love this!

 

 

3. French onion soup - a classic. I made this after watching a film called Delicatessen. Using cider in the stock is an extra treat!

 

4. Cauliflower soup - a summertime recipe that works well in winter. Moomin flask optional!

 

 

5. Butternut squash soup - a very simple recipe using only a few ingredients - and what's more it's Slimming World.

 

6. Broccoli courgette and Stilton soup - how to sneak some hidden veg into your food!

 

 

7. Zuppa Toscana - a hearty Italian soup that I adapted to make lower in fat. With the sausages it's easily a meal in itself.

 

8. Spiced pumpkin soup  - another very simple recipe that uses leftover pumpkin from Halloween. Admittedly you probably can't get pumpkin at this time of year but if you have any in the freezer you can make this now, otherwise it might have to wait!

 

 

9. Mixed vegetable soup plus a recipe for homemade chilli and cheese bread. This is the easiest soup you can possibly make!

 

10. Slow cooker ham and potato soup - you can also make this on the hob. A great way to use up leftover ham or gammon from a roast.

 

 

What's your favourite kind of soup?

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WeightWatchers Rosemary and Butterbean Soup

I've been trying to avoid bread and at the very least not taking sandwiches into work for lunch, which at this time of year means soups instead. I am a pretty fussy eater (for those who hadn't figured that out yet!) and often skip over recipes because they have ingredients I don't like. But, I figured, when you are blending everything together in a soup, you don't really know you are eating it, right? Especially if it isn't an ingredient with a strong overpowering taste.

So I decided to make this rosemary and bean soup from an old WeightWatchers recipe book called Simply Autumn. I used butterbeans, though you can also use cannellini or borlotti beans. I added a little plain yogurt at the end to thicken the soup but if you don't do this, it would be vegan - great for anyone doing #veganuary.

According to the WeightWatchers recipe book this has 3 points per portion.

To make two portions, here's what I did:

 

You need:
Fry Light (low-fat cooking spray)
2 cloves garlic with the skins left on
400g tin butter beans or cannellini beans
1/2 an onion, peeled and chopped into wedges
1/2 a lemon, cut in half
1 small handful rosemary
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 pint vegetable stock
2 tbsp. low fat plain yogurt (optional - no longer vegan if you use this)
salt, pepper

Preheat oven to 200C. Spray a roasting tin with Fry Light or similar. Put the garlic, butter beans, onion, lemon, rosemary and oregano into the pan, spray with more Fry Light, toss together and roast in the oven for 20 mins.

Take out of the oven and use a fork or wooden spoon to crush the softened garlic and lemon. Remove the garlic skin and lemon peel and discard.

Scrape everything into a blender and add the stock. Liquidize to make a soup; stir in the yogurt if desired and serve.

I'm sending this to Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes for her veggie soup challenge No Croutons Required.

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