Cauliflower couscous

I’ve heard a lot about this, as it’s good for dieters due to having very few calories. It definitely didn’t fool me into thinking it was couscous, but it did make quite a nice salad that we are having with a barbecue tomorrow, and that I would make again.

Put he basic idea is to chop cauliflower really small so it looks like couscous, apparently you can keep it raw for couscous, or fry it in a bit of oil for cauliflower rice. I figured the fried version would be loads more flavourful, although obviously a lot more calories, so I fried it in avocado oil, which was delicious. To make the salad I then added seasoning, Cajun spice mix and a tin of sweetcorn. It is pretty tasty, but not the same as a proper carb accompaniment. However, I would definitely include it as a barbecue salad again.

Nb. I chopped my cauliflower with the proper grater setting, and ended up with some big lumps. Better to use the normal chopper blade I reckon.

Spanish chicken traybake

I’ve been planning to do this for years! It’s a hairy dieters recipe which appeared in good food magazine one time, and I never got round to cooking it. You can find a more authentic version of the recipe here, I winged it a bit!

Chicken thighs, skinless and boneless (should be 2 per serving, but a packet in morrisons has 6 thighs, so I guess this then serves 2 adults and 2 children)
Chorizo (half a loop)
500g new potatoes (not too big, mine didn’t all cook through)
1-2 green peppers (could be other colours, but might as well use up green if you have them)
Tomatoes (I only had 2 but ideally about 6 big ones)
1-2 onions
8 ish cloves garlic, just as they are
Paprika (I used smoked)
Oregano

Essentially, do something every 20 minutes and you can’t go wrong. I cooked this in a lasagne dish which was a good size.

Step 1
Chop onion and tomato
Toss potatoes, garlic, onion and tomato together and put in dish
Roast in oven
20 mins later
Slash chicken on top
Slice the chorizo (you could use more, but original calorie info only counts 75g in total and it’s quite calorific)
Put the chicken on top of the veg
Nestle the chorizo in with the potatoes
Sprinkle the herbs and season! (I forgot)
Put in oven
20 mins later
Slice the pepper and nestle it in with the veg
Decant any juices and drizzle back over chicken (great idea as will flavour it with chorizo… But I was too lazy this time!)

We didn’t serve anything with this as we were having fondue for pudding, but it would be delicious with a bit of bread.

Original recipe is only 370 calories so pretty good for you!