28/70
The second pizza we have trialled from the Quorn cookbook and Mr O took the reins again on this one (I think he secretly likes cooking from time to time, he used to work as a chef in his local pub in the holidays).
So, this recipe is much more complicated than the quorn balls pizza and requires a bolognese sauce to be made first in a pan then spread across the base before adding the cheese. In the interests of this blog I insisted Mr O followed the recipe (much to his annoyance) and I watched him make it.
I have to say I think I prefer the quorn balls pizza in terms of flavour - but the method here could certainly be adapted to improve on this.
Here is the pizza when cooked:
You will notice that the sauce looks almost burnt here - but it isn't, in effect the sauce gets cooked twice and takes on a dark hue, but it certainly does not taste burnt.
The bolognese sauce is a fairly standard combination of onions, garlic, quorn mince, chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, vegetable stock and seasoning. The recipe calls for both mozzarella and cheddar on the top which unfortunately bulks out the fat content.
Points wise this is even higher for half a pizza than the quorn balls version, this is 18 propoints per portion made up as follows: base (7), quorn mince (2), oil (1), mozzarella (5), cheddar (3). This is a pretty high point count even though I used a lower fat version of the mozzarella. I would suggest this does not actually need both types of cheese and could work with smaller pizza bases to decrease the portion size.
Overall, this was quite enjoyable but I think I preferred the quorn balls pizza. I would give this a 7/10, I would add a bit of spice to the bolognese sauce if we made it again but it is a good way of making an interesting meal with quorn mince.
27/70
I made this recipe for our lunch yesterday and was not entirely convinced it was my kind of meal as I am not a fan of blue cheese at all. I had bought Dolcelatte as the wrapper promised that it was 'mild' and I could not have faced using stilton or shropshire blue. I have to say I think I did right because it was still slightly too intense for me but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
Basically the premise here is simply to cook off some chicken or steak style quorn pieces (I used chicken style), put them onto some upturned large flat mushrooms (I used portobellos as they are lovely and meaty in texture) then crumble over the cheese and some breadcrumbs and bake in the oven for about 8 minutes.
It does have some major plus points because it is one of those magic recipes which is incredibly quick and simple but looks pretty impressive and fancy on the plate, like this:
I think this dish would make an ideal starter for a nice meal, I served it on a bed of rocket as was suggested in the recipe and it was lovely as a light lunch dish.
I was surprised how much I did like it (although I am certain I would not have felt the same if I had used a stronger blue cheese). I am still not overly keen on the distinctive blue cheese flavour but it does work with the quorn and the mushroom.
Points wise this is not too bad. It works out at 7 propoints per portion, broken down as follows, quorn (2), blue cheese (3), oil (1), breadcrumbs (1).
Something a bit different here and my husband really liked it, we give it an 8 out of 10.
26/70
Hello people, hope you have all had a good week. Just as a heads up, planned recipes coming up over the next week or so include the bolognese pizza, blue cheese mushrooms and steak supper in a flash. I have just ordered my groceries online for next week and so for once have been organised enough to decide ahead of time which ones to attempt and make sure I have everything in!
On to Spaghetti Bolognese - again, as with the cottage pie, this is a meal I frequently make but not to this specific recipe. To be honest I do not actually have a 'formal' recipe for spaghetti bolognese I just ad lib it with whatever is to hand and my husband loves it. The recipe for this was interesting because it seemed an unusual method of cooking off the sauce before adding the quorn.
Basically the base sauce is as you would expect, carrot, onion and celery softened with garlic, tinned tomatoes, puree and a splash of red wine plus some stock and herbs. Oh and unusually a tablespoon of tomato ketchup as well. The sauce actually smelled amazing while cooking and then once it has simmered for a while you bung in the quorn mince at the end (I used frozen).
The texture of the sauce was exactly as you might expect and tasted good while I was cooking and testing the seasoning. I followed the recipe's suggestion of cooking the pasta once the mince had been added and the timings worked well.
Here is a picture of the served dish:
So, what did it taste like? Well, I have to say we were both a bit disappointed that the flavour was no where near as exciting or vivid as we were expecting. It was *nice* but just not anything more than that. I almost felt like I must have screwed up the seasoning but I think it has more to do with the fact that I generally always add a pinch of chilli flakes to my own version and had not done so here. I could not really taste the red wine either and if I made it again I might increase that from 100ml to 150ml to see if it made a difference.
I would not go so far as to say this was bland, it was perfectly edible but just did not particularly inspire me. My favourite thing about this is the method of cooking which I will adapt in to my own recipe for the future.
Points wise, each portion of this has 12 propoints which includes allowing for a 60g portion of pasta and half a tablespoon of grated parmesan. This is therefore a pretty good deal in terms of points. They are broken down fully as follows: pasta (6), quorn mince (2), oil (2), red wine (1) and grated parmesan (1).
We gave this a 6/10, it is nice enough but we prefer my version - although the method of cooking is interesting and gives me a new way to try. If I made it again I think I would tinker with the seasoning and quantities in this one, but if you like your food less spicy then this may well be ideal for you.
25/70
So here we are, one third of the way through the Quorn Cookbook. I have to say I am really enjoying this project and finding that it is teaching me new and interesting ways of cooking with Quorn; this is not to say that every recipe is amazing but every recipe certainly seems to be providing new creative ideas. And some of the recipes are absolutely brilliant and will no doubt become regular features in our lives.
I was interested in this cottage pie recipe because I already make my own version of this dish which we really enjoy. The main differences between my version and this recipe are that I tend to use half sweet potato mash (instead of half parsnip) and I do not add soy sauce to the mix. Other than this it is basically quite similar.
We really enjoyed this, although I was keener on the parsnip mash than my husband who says he prefers my version (looking for brownie points maybe!?). This is what it looks like when served:
You will see I have added sweetcorn to mine. This was for two reasons, firstly the recipe says 100g of frozen peas or other frozen veg so I decided to do half and half because I like sweetcorn. Secondly, the recipe asks for 350g of mince but I only had the frozen 300g portion, I therefore chucked in an extra handful of sweetcorn to make up for this shortfall.
I have to say it makes four portions but they are not the biggest. I would generally eat cottage pie on its own although this recipe suggests you serve it with fresh veg. I can see why it might benefit from a side portion of veg because the portions are not exactly generous. My husband was still hungry after finishing his.
It is great on the points front though, only 9 points per portion, split as follows: quorn mince (2), oil (1), sweetcorn (1), frozen peas (1), mashed potato and parsnip (4). Pretty healthy and yet enjoyable, this does not feel like a low fat recipe and does not taste like it either (in my opinion). This is pretty much a classic where the use of quorn mince works very well.
I like the addition of soy sauce to the cottage pie and felt that it gave it a bit more 'zing', because of the use of stock granules and soy sauce in the recipe I did not add further salt when seasoning and it did not require it either.
We liked this recipe and I would give it an 8/10, I would, in future serve it with some veg on the side though to make sure it provides a filling meal.
24/70
Good evening Quorn fans! Tonight marked a complete change from the normal routine as my husband insisted on cooking the next recipe - Pizza with Quorn Italian Balls.
He had inferred that he intended on doing so when I mentioned this was one of the next recipes I fancied trying. I had duly bought all the ingredients in the weekly shop and low and behold, tonight he actually followed the recipe and narrated through it so I could still blog about it for you all. It is safe to say that our first quorn pizza has indeed been a success!
One of the great things about this recipe is that it is quick and easy. I have never attempted to put quorn on a pizza before, although we do frequently create our own at home. I think it has just never occurred to me. But we will definitely be doing this again. This is what the finished pizza looked like, quite impressive I think you will agree:
I bought a fresh stonebaked pizza base from the pizza counter in my local Asda and it was just right for this recipe. I tweaked it a little by buying low fat mozzarella to cut the points down but other than that Mr O followed the recipe, spreading the base with tomato pizza topper, quartering the microwaved quorn balls and scattering along with the combined mozzarella and grated cheddar, adding a dash of oregano and shoving in the oven for 15 minutes, eh voila!
Taste wise it was indeed very enjoyable, the quorn balls work surprisingly well in the topping (I used Swedish rather than Italian as that was the only choice in my local supermarket).
Points wise this is a bit of a big hitter, even with the lower fat mozzarella. Half of a pizza with a large base is 16 points broken down as follows: base (7), mozzarella (3), tomato sauce (2), quorn balls (2) grated cheddar (2).
This is therefore a meal you would need to factor into your daily points or save/earn some extra for. But it is tasty and feels quite indulgent, you could even omit the cheddar and I reckon it would still be pretty good.
Lovely for me to have a night off from the cooking too, I give this an 8/10. Husband gives it a 9/10 but I think he might be just a tiny bit biased.
23/70
First of all I will point you to this page on the Quorn website where the full recipe details for this are.
This is a pasta dish using Quorn steak strips (which I do think are one of the best quorn products available). Unfortunately, I am not particularly enamoured with this recipe and I think (much like with the Lemon Chilli Linguine) that part of the reason is that it uses lemon in a savoury dish again and I am just not that keen on it.
Basically, the steak strips are fried off with onion, garlic and then the green beans and sweetcorn are added. The pasta is cooked alongside this so it is a fairly speedy dish to make. The 'sauce' as it were is a combination of creme fraiche (I used half fat), wholegrain mustard and lemon zest.
This is what the dish looks like when served:
You can probably tell from this photo that the dish is fairly dry (another similarity with the Lemon Chilli Linguine). But the flavours are quite strong. Unfortunately I found them a bit overwhelming and not in a particularly good way.
The recipe advises 1-2tbsp of mustard should be stirred into the creme fraiche, I generally quite like wholegrain mustard to I bunged in 2tbsp. Mistake. It was simply too strong. If I ever did make it again I would definitely err on the side of caution.
The lemon zest shines through as another very vivid element. I think I just do not really like lemon flavouring in anything other than cakes, puddings and pancakes. My husband likes it even less and proclaimed that he scored this dish 3/10. I was not that harsh, I give it a 4/10.
Points wise this is a fairly good bet. Based on the recipe serving 4, each portion contains 8 propoints, made up as follows: quorn steak (2), pasta (4), half fat creme fraiche (1), oil (1).
This is a nice simple recipe and the premise is good - I like the idea of using the creme fraiche as a base for a creamy sauce but for me the overwhelming lemon flavour stopped it from being particularly enjoyable. Oh well, you can't like them all!
22/70
I tried this recipe midweek and have to say I quite liked it although the premise is very simple. Yet again it reinforced my newfound abilities with fillets and I do think the Quorn Cookbook has been particularly strong with this particular product, I wish I had been more imaginative with them long ago!
This is quite a basic dish really but the seasoning works well. I had never used Herbes de Provence before but duly purchased a jar for this recipe. The quorn fillets are then rubbed in a mixture of the herbs and oil and left to marinade until needed. The rest of the recipe is basically a pepper ratatouille which is virtually free on weight watchers apart from the oil.
This is what it looks like at the end when the fillets (which have been browned off in a separate pan) are added to the cooked veg and allowed to simmer for a couple of minutes:
You can see the herbs have stayed attached to the fillets and this is because they have been cooked separately. I quite liked the flavour of this seasoning which is heavily thyme and rosemary based to my nose.
The colours of this dish are bright and appealing and it looks quite mouthwatering on the plate, this is it when served (I chose to serve it with crusty bread as per the recipe suggestion):
The recipe makes 3 portions at 2 fillets and plenty of veg each. Based on 3 portions the points are quite low at 6, made up of only two elements - the oil (4) and the fillets (2). There is a lot of oil in this recipe because the herbs are mixed with it to use as a marinade and then both pans (for the veg and browning the fillets) require an extra tablespoon.
Although it is a lot of oil to use, it is still a low point recipe and so I did not attempt to slice anymore off it. You could, I suppose, use fry light for the veg and browning if needs be.
Healthy and very tasty, full of great flavour and very simple to make, this is a dish I will be repeating. It is not fantastically exciting but it is enjoyable and satisfying and yet again does something interesting with quorn fillets.
We gave it a 7/10.
