Jamie's Griddled Kinda Nicoise

My infatuation with Jamie Oliver is escalating. What started as mild disinterest is now a full-on passion. I was very kindly given Comfort Food for Christmas and am gearing up to cook something from that soon (pregnancy makes everything very slow) but the other night I was cooking for my mother and husband both of whom are trying to be virtuous in January and I'm very aware that the bump isn't getting its 5 a day so I randomly picked this Salad Nicoise from 15 minute meals. No potatoes and no egg but supremely delicious and finished by three of us and pretty easy to cook (and no it didn't take me 15 minutes but I'm a pretty slack cooker). Will be cooking this again and again - nice tuna steaks aren't cheap but the rest of the ingredients are and you can use what veg you have in your fridge.

There were quite a few things I tinkered with on this recipe, for example I'm not a huge fan of green beans and couldn't get the mixed green and yellow from the recipe so I used half beans and half broccoli tips.Where I've made changes I hope I've made them clear - I think the thing with salads is they are endlessly adaptable depending on what you have and like. I also refuse to serve anything on a board so I did this on one big platter... as you can see from the picture.

Griddle Tuna Salad
Serves 4

350g mixed green and yellow beans (or half green and half broccoli tips)
½ a baguette (I used a small one from Sainsburys)
12 black olives (Jamie says stone in, I say stone out)
3 ripe mixed-colour tomatoes (or red ones)
1 romaine lettuce
20g feta cheese
1 lemon

Tuna and Dressing
1 big bunch of fresh basil
6 anchovy fillets
1 lemon
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 x 200g tuna steaks (about 2.4cm thick)
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 heaped tsp wholegrain mustard
1 tsp runny honey

You will need a medium sized saucepan with a lid, a griddle pan and a liquidiser/magimix.

1. Line the beans up and cut off the stalks, put them into a pan of salted boiling water and put on a lid (I did my broccoli and beans for the same length of time).

2. Slice the baguette into 2cm chunks and, if you are following Jamie put onto the hot griddle pan. I think basting them in a tiny big of garlic oil pre-griddle would be lovely. Turn when golden.

3. Pick and reserve 10 baby sprigs of basil then rip off the rest of the leaves and blitz in the liquidiser with the anchovies, juice of 1 lemon, the extra virgin olive oil and a splash of water.

4. Pour about 40% of the dressing on to a nice serving platter (Jamie uses a separate one for the dressing and tuna and then places the whole lot on a board with the salad. I used one big platter and it worked very well).

5. Rub 10% of the dressing into the tun and season with salt and pepper. Pour the rest of the dressing into a big bowl with the vinegar, mustard and honey then mix together. Drain the cooked beans, remove the stones from the olives. roughly chop the tomatoes and add to the dressing and mix together.

6. Put the tuna on the griddle pan and cook for 2 minutes on each side or until blushing in the middle. How you cook your tuna is a matter of personal preference.

7. Chop the lettuce into 2cm chunks, tear the toasts into croutons and arrange over a large board (or on the platter) with the lettuce. I think it's nice to toss half the croutons in the bowl of tomatoes and dressing so they get a bit soggy.

8. Scatter the dressed beans, olives and tomatoes over the top. Tear each tuna steak in half or more and add to the dressing platter (or put on top of the dressing in the centre of the platter if you are not using a board).

9. Scatter over the reserved basil leaves, crumble over the feta and serve with lemon wedges (if you remember).

Jamie Oliver's Incredibly Delicious Chicken Salad

As you may know my latest love is Jamie's 15-Minute Meals and anyone who's been coming to our house has been getting fed from it. I could do each recipe as I try them but as I've yet to try a dud this would be a bit of a one theme blog and I would be in trouble with the publishers. So I thought I would go for this one because so far it has been the one that Joe made the most excitable noises over and it's the one I thought he'd like least because it has 'salad' in the title and he's a boy.

It didn't take me 15 mins but not far off and it was really filling. We finished it between three of us but we're quite gluttonous - it would do four (as the recipe suggests) for lunch or if you had a pudding. I left out the lemons though because I hate them and THIS IS MY HOUSE JAMIE. And the cress. I just can't be doing with cress.

Incredibly Delicious Chicken Salad

Serves 4

for the salad:
1 head of broccoli
4 x 120g skinless chicken breasts
1 heaped tsp ground coriander
olive oil
1 mug (300g) Bulgar wheat
2 preserved lemons
1 bunch radishes
2 spring onions
½ a bunch fresh mint
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp sunflower seeds
1 punnet of cress

to serve:
4 tbsp fat-free natural yoghurt
2 tsp harissa
1 lemon

1. Fill up a medium pan with a lid, with boiling, salted water. Trim the end off the broccoli and cut the head to florets and add to the pan., cover and boil for 4 minutes.

2. On a large sheet of greaseproof paper, toss the chicken with the salt, pepper and ground coriander, then fold the paper over and bash with a rolling pin til it's about 1.5cm thick. Put into a large frying pan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil on a high heat turning after 3 or 4 minutes until golden and cooked through.

3. With tongs, remove and drain the broccoli (leaving the water in the pan on the heat) and put on a hot griddle until nicely charred.

4. Cook the Bulgar wheat according to the instructions on the packet in the broccoli water with the preserved lemons if you are using them.

5. Halve or crush the radishes, trim and finely slice the spring onions and the top leafy half of the mint then toss it all in a bowl with the extra virgin olive oil and vinegar and season to taste.

6. Drain the Bulgar wheat and tip into a large serving bowl, then mash and mix in the preserved lemons and arrange the broccoli on top.

7. Toss the sunflower seeds in the chicken pan, then slice the chicken and add to the salad scattering over the seeds and snipping over the cress.

8. Serve dolloped with the yoghurt and drizzles of harissa and with lemon wedges on the side.

Healthy Salmon Burgers

Another recipe from Good Housekeeping magazine. Was very easy to make and yummy served with a green salad. Perfect for when you need to eat later than usual as it's really light - do make sure you add enough salt otherwise these won't taste as good as they should. I halved the amount to make enough for two.

Healthy Salmon Burgers

Serves 4

4 Salmon fillets
1 tbsp Thai green or red curry paste
4cm (1½) fresh root ginger, peeled and grated
Zest of 1 lime, finely grated
Fresh coriander, small handful
1 tsp vegetable oil

I used my magimix for this, as instructed by the recipe but you could probably do it all by hand if you don't have one.

1. Put half the salmon in a food processor and whizz until completely smooth.

2. Add the remaining fish, curry paste, ginger, lime and coriander, season and whizz until combined but still retaining some texture.

3. Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Form the salmon mixture into four equal patties and fry for 8-10 minutes or until cooked through, turning once.

4. Serve with salad, sweet chili dipping sauce and lime wedges.

Chicken and Greens Salad

My wonderful friend Joy has a reputation for leading me astray. 'I'll be back on the last tube... it's just kitchen supper' I say breezily to my husband as I leave. 'I got carried away' I say croakily as I return in a taxi we can't afford at 5am. So I think we were both a little concerned about what would happen to me if I turned up there pregnant. However, Joy has her own offspring, is trainer, councillor and all round healthy eater so I was in safe hands and she made this most fantastic salad for my supper that contained a billion things that I'm supposed to eat but don't get round to and gave me some for my lunch the next day.

She very kindly gave me the recipe as my cooking has been a bit lax recently... unless you count eating pepperami dipped in cream cheese cooking.

Joy's Chicken and Greens Salad

Serves 3-4

1 bag baby red potatoes
1 packet broccoli stems
1 packet dwarf green beans
1 packet wild rocket
1 packet of mini chicken breast fillets
2 good sized tomatoes, sliced
1 packet fresh basil
1 packet fresh chives
1 packet feta cheese
1 handful toasted pine nuts
1 fresh lemons
ground pepper
Worcestershire sauce

For the dressing:
olive oil
pinch of salt
ground pepper
juice of 1 lemon

1. Boil 2/3rds of the baby red potatoes, drain and let them cool.

2. Steam the broccoli and green beans until still slightly crunchy and then cut in half. Set aside to cool.

3. Stir-fry the chicken in olive oil until cooked through. In a dish squeezing over the juice of 1 lemon, a grind of pepper and a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce. Toss together and leave to cool.

4. Cube the feta cheese.

5. Finely chop most of the basil and chives - how much you use is up to use. Most of each packet is good.

6. When the chicken is cool, chop roughly and add to a bowl with the rest of the ingredients. 

7. Whisk together the dressing ingredients, add to the salad and let it sit for half an hour.

Couscous and Feta Salad

I'm always a bit meh about couscous... it either tastes of nothing, or of stock, or of pesto but I've finally found a way to not only make it taste nice but I actually find this salad incredibly moreish and pretty hard to stop eating but lovely to have in the fridge as a yummy lunch. This does have pesto in it but not too much and if you cube the feta quite small and add it when the couscous is warm then it becomes all soft and yummy.


Couscous and Feta salad

Serves 2

100g couscous
200ml hot vegetable stock
2 spring onions
1 red pepper
1/2 cucumber
1/2 block feta cheese, cut into small-ish cubes
2 tbsp pesto, ideally the fresh stuff
2 tbsp toasted pine nuts
4 or 5 large fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped or torn

You just need a bowl to make the couscous in and a chopping board and you can do all the chopping while the couscous is brewing.

1. Put the couscous in a large bowl, pour over the hot stock, cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave for 10 minutes until all the stock has been absorbed.

2. While the couscous is cooking slice the onions, peppers and dice the cucumber. Cube the feta and toast the pine nuts.

3. When the couscous is ready, fluff it up with a fork then add the vegetables and mix, then the pesto and finally add the feta, basil and pine nuts.

Vietnamese Steak Salad

This is loosely based on the recipe from Spooning with Rosie by Rosie Lovell which I have to say I have had for years and have yet to cook anything from. I did do quite a lot of tweaking to this and it is completely adaptable - you can you as much or as little of any of the vegetables that you like - I added a bit more fish sauce and soy sauce that she recommends but again this dressing is really a taste and tweak kind of thing.

VIETNAMESE STEAK SALAD
Serves 2

For the salad:
3 medium carrots, sliced
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
1 yellow pepper, thinly sliced
3 spring onions, thinly sliced
3 tbsp lightly salted peanuts
3tsp fish sauce
2 tbsp peanut oil
2 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1tsp sugar
lime juice
A large handful of coriander, roughly chopped
A large handful of mint, roughly chopped

For the steak:
2 fillet steaks, about 180g each
5 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp peanut oil
freshly ground black pepper

Rosie uses a mandolin to slice everything but I just chopped by hand because I don't have one because I'm just too scared!

1. Marinade the steak in the soy sauce and lots of black pepper - I use a zip lock freezer bag - in the fridge for at least an hour.

2. Slice the carrots, pepper, and spring onions and put in the big bowl you want to use.

Sliced veg

3. Smash the peanuts up either in a magimix or in a freezer bag bashed with a rolling pin. You don't want dust you want nice bite size bits. Chop the herbs and mix these and the peanuts together with the veg.

4. In a heavy bottomed frying pan, I use a griddle, add the steaks and fry on a medium heat for about 4 minutes on each side. After the first side add the rest of the soy from the marinade. I like my steak just done so they are nothing a good vet couldn't bring round but you can cook yours as long as you like but this salad is really nicer with pinker meat.

5. Put the steaks on a board to stand and mix together the salad dressing - fish sauce, lime juice , peanut oil, rice vinegar, soy and sugar - and tip over the salad.

6. Thinly slice the steaks and add to the salad. Toss together and top with a few whole leaves of coriander and mint and serve.

Spicy Spinach Cannelloni

It's not that we're jumping on the whole January diet bandwagon... we're always trying to lose weight so that is why I have a WeightWatchers cookbook. It does actually have some great recipes in there but when Joe declared that we eat too much meat (is that possible?) we decided to try WeightWatchers Spicy Spinach Cannelloni. I duly bought the ingredients, was far from optimistic and assumed I'd make it, it would be gross and we would end the eating cutting massive chunks off the chorizo sausage that somehow made its way into our fridge. To add more pressure a friend of mine decided to come for dinner... oh the shame of cooking bland diet food.

However, bland it was not and I'm really pleased we tried it. I have ear marked it for next time my unadventurous friend and his veggie girlfriend come round.

SPICY SPINACH CANNELLONI
Serves 3-4

1 x can 400g chopped tomatoes with onions and herbs (I added my own)
100ml vegetable stock
1 x 250g pot Quark or Marscapone
1 egg yolk
1 red chili, de-seeded and chopped finely
375g frozen spinach, defrosted
150g low fat soft cheese with garlic and herbs
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
125g cannelloni tubes
2 tbsps roughly chopped fresh coriander

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/Gas Mark 6. Now I know - what the hell is Quark?? from what I can work out it's basically a cheese substitute. Sainsburys do stock it but then it didn't arrive with my delivery so I used marscapone instead which was absolutely fine. I would also recommend a naughty grate of cheddar on top to make this absolutely perfect but that obviously goes against the whole low fat point of this recipe. For those of  you who care or indeed understand these things this recipe apparently has just 267 calories per serving. Also if you don't have a piping bag you can use a teaspoon it'll just be more time consuming.


1. In a jug, mix together the tomatoes, onions and herbs and vegetable stock. Set aside.

2. In a bowl mix together the Quark (or Marscapone), egg yolk and chili. Set aside.

3. Squeeze out the excess water from the spinach and put into a large bowl. Mix with the soft cheese and cayenne pepper. Using a piping bag (with a 2cm nozzle), pipe the mixture into the cannelloni tubes and arrange in a 3 pint ovenproof dish. Pour over the tomato sauce.

4. Dollop the Quark mixture over the top and smooth out using the back of the spoon.

5. Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes until golden and the pasta is cooked.

6. Scatter over the coriander and serve immediately.

Good Girls Chicken Laksa

This is one of my favourite recipes when I want to be healthy but need a little excitement. You can substitute all the good things for bad things if you want. I even use low fat cooking spray but I know some of you will just draw the line at that. It is also great if you are having a girlfriend round who is dieting or a bit of an annoying eater - it looks great but is very non-dangerous on the calorie and fuss front and for this reason I've found it very useful every time wedding season approaches.

CHICKEN LAKSA
Serves 2

Low fat cooking spray (if I were being naughty I'd use stir-fry oil)
2 chicken breasts without the skin

1/2 Onion sliced finely

1/2 red pepper

1tbsp tom yum paste

200ml light coconut milk

225ml chicken stock

60g sugar snap peas

150g rice noodles, I use the straight-to-wok kind because I'm lazy

110g bamboo shoots

Handful of coriander to sprinkle on top

Lime wedges, to go on the side



Now this is a really adaptable recipe as you can use any vegetables you like but I think the red pepper and green beans look great in this.

Red pepper, green beans and onion



1. I brown the chicken pieces first just for five mins in the wok with a spray or two of the low fat cooking oil and then put them to one side.

2. Then I re-spray the wok and add the onions and peppers and cook for 3ish minutes until they are softened.

3. Add the tom yum paste and cook for 2 minutes - I stir a lot at this point to make sure the onions and peppers get a good coating. 

4. Return the chicken pieces add the stock and coconut milk, bring to the boil then put a lid on turn the heat down to a simmer and cook for 15-20 mins.

Pre-simmer

5. Add the bamboo shoots, sugar snap peas and noodles and cook for another 4 or so minutes stirring every now and again to break the noodles up (straight to wok noodles break up pretty much by themselves after a couple of minutes of cooking - don't plonk them in and then try to force them apart as you'll break them).

Dish up, sprinkle with coriander and serve. Ta da!