A healthy, filling veggie supper

This is a one picture post chums!! Scandalous I know but I was so hungry I forgot to take any pics!

I think this is one of my favourite 'feel good' evening meals, you know when you've had a bit of exercise in the morning and you spend the rest of the day feeling that little bit more positive? 

This is quite simple, Quorn burgers with sweet potato wedge/chip things and some salad (cheese is optional).

I love sweet potato wedges and they are so easy to make.  

*Get a sweet potato, give it a good scrub and a wash under a running tap.
*Chop it up into chips or wedges (whichever you can master, the sweet potato is an oddly shaped fellow!).  
*Now, toss the chips/wedges around in some oil, can be olive, sunflower or whichever you have to hand, some salt and pepper and any other spices you may fancy, I always end up with smoked paprika.

*Once each individual chip is lightly coated, arrange them on an oven tray, try not to let them touch each other.
*Heat your oven up to about 200C  and when ready, pop your tray of chips in for about 20 minutes or so.  I like to turn mine halfway through. 

I buy my Quorn products (such as mince for my chilli, see here) from farmfoods as they are usually less expensive.  I much prefer the Quorn burgers to normal burger as I'm not that big a fan of eating meat. 

This was so yummy and so filling and didn't have half the guilt a run-of-the-mill burger and fries would give you, can you say winning?!

Have you tried Quorn Burgers before?

Hugs,

Jodi

xxx

Guilt free chilli - kinda!

I never used to like Chilli, I never used to be able to tolerate spice in any way shape of form but for some reason, my palette has 'grown a pair' albeit a small pair but it means I can enjoy much more flavour in my food.

There was a recipe that I liked from the BBC website here.  I made it and my boyfriend loved it, I thought it was okay but needed a few tweaks.

I now follow the basic recipe as above but make a few adjustments as I go a.k.a. I wing it! 

I heat up some coconut oil (about a teaspoon) in a big pan and once that is melted I add a chopped onion and cook for about 5 minutes until its soft.

I mix all my spices together in one little bowl just so they can mix together better. I use mild chilli powder, dried crushed chillies, paprika and ground cumin.

I chopped up one pepper (orange or yellow because I don't like red) and about 4 cloves of garlic.

The goggles in the picture are for the chopping of onions as my eyes are useless puddles before I can get the skin off usually!

Add the peppers and garlic to the pan and then add the spices to let some of the 'rawness' cook out.

You can use tinned kidney beans, supermarket market own brand ones are fine and usually less than about 50p a tin.  I have a bag of dried ones, which is fine for adjusting the amount you use and therefore reducing wastage but you do have to remeber to soak them for a good 12 hours and rinse them thoroughly before use. 

At this stage is where it gets CRAZY! Instead of adding minced meat of some form, I use Quorn mince - controversial, I know!

I added a carton/tin of chopped tomatoes, some tomato puree (two tablespoons ish) and some beef stock (about 200 ml) and let it come to the boil. Once it has begun to boil, reduce the temperature and let it simmer, the longer it simmers the more of the flavour the quorn will absorb.

You might have noticed in the picture above that my tomato puree is in the form of a star, tomato puree can be frozen so once you open a jar or tube and take out the amount you need you can freeze the rest in ice cube trays.

Once the chilli has reached a gently simmering stage you can then add some dried marjoram, salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar if you wish (you can add dark chocolate nearer the end rather than sugar if you prefer). Leave to simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Add the kidney beans, these are great for giving texture to this dish and this would be the stage you would add the dark chocolate.  Bring to the boil again and then reduce to a simmer and that's pretty much it.

I like this served with rice but the other half loves it with those taco trays and cheese and soured cream and all the rest!

I find, especially with the quorn, that this is a great dish to make on a sunday and eat on the monday after a long day at work, by then all the flavours have really blended in together and have been soaked into the quorn.

Do you have a favourite recipe that you can prepare in advance?

How do you feel about spicy foods?

Hugs,

Jodi 

xxx