63/70
This is the first soup I have attempted from the Quorn cookbook. It's pretty easy to make but the recipe is not on the Quorn website as yet so I will talk through it in more detail than normal.
The method is the usual one for any soup base, a chopped onion is sweated until soft and then 2 cloves of crushed garlic are added, next 3 tblsp of tomato puree along with a teaspoon each of dried thyme and marjoram and a tbslp of fresh chopped rosemary are added.
Next the wet stuff goes in, a tin of chopped tomatoes, a tin of canellini beans and 1.5litres of veg stock. Give it a good stir, season to taste and bring it to boiling point then turn down the heat and add the quorn pieces (175g) and simmer for 12 minutes (I chucked them in frozen). Lastly add the pasta shells (100g) and simmer for a further 12-14 minutes until the pasta is cooked.
What you end up with is a very hearty and thick stew like soup. The step I have missed out above is that is asks you to remove half of the soup before you add the quorn pieces and blend it until smooth and then add it back to the pan. This seemed like way too much hassle to me so I used a stick blender in the pan itself and just blitzed away until I judged that about half was liquidized.
This is what it looked like during the simmering:
And here it is served:
It was actually very tasty indeed and so thick and substantial that it felt more like a filling meal than a soup usually would. This was a nice way to use the pieces and I would probably use this as a base recipe for creating other soups with whatever I have in the fridge.
In terms of pro-points, if you base this on 4 substantial portions each one works out at 6 - this is broken down as follows: quorn (1), pasta (2), beans (2), oil (1). This is high for a soup but considering how filling this is it makes sense. I do think it is worth 6 points as it leaves you feeling very full!
We would give this a 7 out of 10, it's not the most exciting of recipes but it is easy to make and very tasty. Great on a cold winters day.
62/70
I should probably start by saying that I am, in general, not really a fan of salad per se. I have, therefore, pretty much left the salad section to do last and therefore unfortunately I am now faced with the 'salad days' of this experiment....
So, this weekend I attempted the Ceasar Salad - a salad which I am fairly familiar with as I have had it previously in restaurants. My knowledge of it was only that it is a creamy cheese flavoured dressing and that it contains raw egg. I am not overly fond of it but needs must so off we set...
For a start I tweaked the cheese content because 100g of grated parmesan is just EXCEPTIONALLY high. I actually used 75g of cheese of which 25g was my precious (bought back from Lucca) parmesan and 50g was finely grated cheddar, I figured the stronger flavour of the cheddar would make up for the smaller quantity of cheese and I was right, the cheese taste was definitely the strongest.
The dressing is made by blitzing the cheese, egg yolk, clove of garlic, white wine vinegar and lemon juice and then adding the olive oil with the blender still switched on until smooth. The recipe suggests 200ml of olive oil but again I ignored this measurement and just used enough until it was the consistency I wanted (about 125ml).
You end up with a stunningly pretty buttercream yellow dressing which smells quite strongly of the cheese and lemon. To my mind it did indeed smell like a ceasar salad as I remember it.
Effectively you then just toss the fried off quorn pieces with some lettuce leaves and the dressing and top with ciabatta croutons. Simple.
This is the salad as served - you can see I burnt my croutons by trying to do too many things at once....
So, in terms of propoints, this is the points for the version I made with less cheese and oil. Based on using a quarter of the dressing per portion this is a calorie laden nightmare of 14 PROPOINTS!!!! FOR A SALAD!!!!
Yes, I had to recalculate twice just to check. It is because it is still a huge amount of oil and cheese per portion, the points break down as follows: cheese (2), oil (7), quorn pieces (2), croutons (2) egg yolk (1).
To my mind it did taste quite nice (for a salad) but at these points values there is no way in hell I will recreate it! If I am going to spend that many points on a meal it has to be something that feels like it is worth it and for me this just does not do it. If you are a fan of ceasar salad then my guess is that you will like this because it is a great quorn version of the standard chicken dish but if you are trying to eat healthy then it is probably one to avoid!
For me this is a 5/10 - I can see what the recipe is trying to do but for me it is just not that enjoyable for the amount of points in it.
61/70
Hello all, hope your January is not proving too bleak and depressing!
I attempted to cheer up our weekend by making Fruity Quorn Burgers which is the second of two recipes within the book for home made burgers. The other recipe (Cheese & Onion Burgers which you can find on this blog here) was a resounding success and I was therefore hoping for a repeat with this one - I was a little less confident about it being so though, based on two things - the amount of ingredients (substantial) and the amount of sweet things on it.
Don't get me wrong, I do like some sweet and sour combinations (pineapple on pizza for instance) but I could see that the balance in these burgers was towards the sweet, not the savoury, elements. A huge amount of grated carrot, apricots and sultanas are the driving force of the sweetness. The quorn mince is minimal in context.
Anyway, it is actually a very straightforward recipe, once the carrots are cooked and mashed literally everything is mixed together in one bowl. Some very pretty colours as you can see here:
In the bowl is the quorn mince (right at the bottom), the mashed carrots, spring onions, breadcrumbs, chopped rosemary and parsley, chopped apricots and sultanas, chilli flakes, seasoning, orange zest and fresh chopped mint. The final thing added next was a beaten egg although to be honest you do not really need this to bind the mixture as the moisture from the mashed carrots is enough to hold it together easily.
I used a cookie cutter to help me shape the burgers, because the mixture is very wet it takes a lot of packing to hold it together tightly and I therefore transferred each burger to the hot frying pan in the cutter with a fish slice underneath to ensure they made it to the pan without incident!
I cooked four at a time in the pan, the recipe states it makes 10-12 burgers but these would be tiny, I made 8 and these were a standard size, comparable to a normal quorn burger. This is them in the pan after an initial 6 minutes and a very careful turning over!
You can see that despite my best efforts one of my burgers has started to dissemble a bit in the pan. This is one of the most annoying things about this recipe - it is a lot of faff!
Anyway, once cooked I served them in the traditional way and I apologise for the less than glam presentation here, I had no salad to hand and this looks rather dull!
I calculated propoints for this recipe as a whole and then deduced that a 'portion' would be a quarter as it is intended to serve 4 - from the burgers I made this meant a portion would be two burgers. Amazingly a portion is only 4 propoints (I note no propoints are up on the Quorn website yet but this is my calculation). As most of the ingredients are zero points it worked out like this per portion: quorn mince (1), breadcrumbs (1), apricots and sultanas (1) and oil for frying (1).
This is amazingly low for a burger but disappointingly for me it did not really taste like a burger or give the same effect. I much prefer the cheese and onion burgers to these ones - both for the simplicity of the recipe and the taste/effect. These are VERY fruity so if you like your sweet/savoury combinations maybe this is one for you - of course the low propoints are handy, even with a roll it makes these acceptable as a main meal. In fact I did not fancy my second burger after I had eaten the first, these were just too sweet for me.
On balance this is not one of my favourite recipes, a lot of prep and faff to make burgers I did not overly enjoy. Notably though the burgers which were chilled in the fridge overnight were easier to cook and held together better the next day so maybe that is the trick as regards keeping them together. Personally I do not think I will be making these again!
We would give these a 4/10.
60/70
Happy new year!
I hope you have all had a restful festive period and not overindulged too much on the junk food! (I have a little!) I do apologise for the prolonged absence on this blog, I had a particularly busy run up to Christmas with a couple of business trips away and various things going on, I am now properly back on the horse however and have made this amazeballs Thai curry tonight.
I only have 10 recipes left to the end of the cookbook! Eeek....I wonder if 2012 will be the year of the 2nd Quorn cookbook - that would be lovely! I am also considering carrying on this blog with a different book as the focus so watch this space - it will still be veggie focussed of course.
You will notice if you use the link below to the actual recipe that the Quorn website has changed quite radically! I like the new website and the best thing about the new version is that each recipe has fat and calorie details and....WUHOO!!!! The propoints calculations per portion!! I wonder where they got that idea from....hmmmm...anyway my calculation is different for this recipe as I always try to make it skinnier too so I will still include my calculation and then you have the option.
Tonight I thoroughly enjoyed this Thai green curry which was a nice surprise as this is another dish which I frequently make at home anyway so it was weird to cook it in a different way with a different set of ingredients.
This curry follows the same basic premise as every other Thai curry I have ever made, you cook off the paste in some oil, add chopped shallots, garlic and chilli, the soy-sauce-marinated quorn pieces and then a can of coconut milk (I used reduced fat - hence the point difference between my version and theirs), bring it to a simmer and you effectively have your sauce. At this stage you could add whatever you like (chicken, tofu, veggies etc) but this version calls for blanched asparagus tips, baby corn cobs and green beans plus fresh, thinly sliced courgette and pepper.
It only needs about 4 minutes from here before you add fresh lime juice and chopped coriander, this is what it looked like in the pan before serving:
You can see it is colourful and bursting with veggies - I think this is why we enjoyed it so much, it is incredibly filling and tasty!
This is it served over steamed basmati rice and garnished with chopped spring onions and some more coriander:
Here you can see that this is a typical Thai curry with a very abundant and watery sauce. I actually added half a can of water to the wok after the coconut milk as I know my husband absolutely loves the sauce and this would give us extra.
Although this is a slightly different curry to the one I would normally make because it is more faff (due to more ingredients and therefore prep time) it tastes amazing and is well worth the extra effort. The dish is perfect for a January tea time as it is zinging with flavour and bursting with lots of fresh veg, it was just the ticket for us tonight!
Using reduced fat coconut milk reduces the propoints value by 2 and so a portion works out at 6 propoints (8 with full fat coconut milk as per the Quorn website) the six points is broken down as follows: oil (2), quorn (2), coconut milk (2), soy sauce (1), Thai curry paste (1). This means if you then add a portion of weighed rice for another 6 points you have a blindingly tasty and filling meal for the grand total of 12 propoints - definitely a winner for me!
We give this meal an 8 out of 10 and I will definitely be making it again in the future - another successful Thia meal from Quorn!
59/70
How I wish I had tried this recipe ages ago - I didn't because I have been making my own Phad Thai for years based around a traditional Thai recipe which took much perfecting and tweaking before it was exactly how we like it. I was therefore unconvinced that this version would be any good at all, especially when I saw the minimal ingredients list. I was wrong!
Effectively this tasty phad thai is based around the staples of chilli and garlic and a sauce of lime juice and soy sauce, the fresh garnish of chopped spring onions, coriander and dry roasted peanuts is what really brings the flavours alive and my only negative comment is that it is a very dry version of a phad thai (probably due to the lack of tamarind paste and fish sauce which are key features in my other recipe).
This is a very quick recipe to make and one way in which it beats my other version hands down is that it is speedy and takes a lot less prep - I had this on the table within 20 minutes of starting to cook and considering how good it is that's pretty amazing!
I used some rice noodles as suggested in the recipe but actually this would work as well with any thin 'straight to wok' noodles and this would make the recipe even quicker and more convenient.
This is the dish served:
After stir-frying the red onion (1), chilli (3) and garlic (2 cloves) for a few minutes you simply brown off the quorn pieces before adding the lime juice (1) and soy sauce (4 tblsp), you then add the cooked noodles and tip over 2 beaten eggs, stirring into the noodles until cooked and 'bitty' (how it looks in egg fried rice) then serve and scatter over as much or as little of the fresh garnish as you like.
In terms of weight watchers propoints, each portion (based on a 6 point portion of noodles included) is worth 12 points broken down as follows: quorn (2), peanut garnish (2), oil (1), soy sauce (1), noodles (6). This is a pretty filling meal with some stunningly fresh flavours and I am pleased that it is also pretty healthy too.
This is an impressively easy version of a phad thai dish which works really well with the quorn pieces, I may adapt it with a splash of fish sauce and tamarind paste next time I make it as actually those additions would not affect the speedy convenience of this recipe but might add further depth to the flavour.
As a real fan of Thai food and a frequent and interested sampler of Phad Thai I think this is a clever and impressive recipe, the combination of cooked and raw ingredients works together to give an authentic texture and I know for a fact I will be making this recipe again!
We would give this an 8/10.
58/70
I was dreading making this recipe as I am not really a fan of pate at all, neither the consistency or the taste. But I happened to have a lone leek in my fridge at the weekend which needed using before it turned and everything else was on hand so I figured it was time to bit the bullet and make this.
It was not, in fact, as foul as I was thinking it would be and actually I did manage to enjoy it as a base for a wrap (spread on in place of butter or houmous which I would normally use). It is quite simple and quick to make and I was surprised that the flavours worked so well.
The basis for this recipe is quorn chicken style pieces, these are browned off with a quarter of the cooked leeks (sauteed in butter) and the thyme and then some white wine is added and cooked off before the whole lot is blended and stirred into some soft cheese and the other three quarters of softened leeks. This does mean that there are 'lumps' of leek in the finished dish but actually because they are softened it does not ruin the texture.
The flavours of leek and thyme are definitely prevailant here and to be honest the quorn just seems to fill it out - but I would serve this as a great veggie alternative to pate as it tastes lovely and serves as a convincing substitute. It is nice with slices of pitta bread as a dip and we have also been eating it spead on crusty bread.
This is the pate part way through making and stored ready to chill:
In terms of propoints, it is hard to gauge what a portion size would be as it would depend on what you wanted to do with the finished product, this is not a meal so much as an accompaniment. The whole dish is 16 points so based on an average serving of a quarter of this (although that is quite a lot as you can tell from the photos) it works out at around 4 points per portion based on quorn (1), white wine (1), butter (1) and lighter soft cheese (1).
A pretty healthy alternative to usually fat heavy pates. I have to say I have no overwhelming urge to repeat this for us as it is not the kind of thing we would ever really eat, but it is a useful way of creating a veggie version of a standard pate if you were having a buffet.
An innovative way to use quorn if nothing else, we would give this a 6/10.
57/70
I am struggling at the moment to fit in recipes from this experiment, life has been so busy over recent months that remembering to buy in the right ingredients has become a chore! Hopefully things will start to calm down between now and Christmas.
Anyway, last week I had to buy a bottle of sherry for the christmas cake and therefore I happened to have everything in to make the marinade for this particular Quorn recipe. I am not a fan of sweet and sour when it comes to Oriental cuisine but I was ready to give this recipe a go. I have to say I was actually pleasently surprised.
I used steak strips instead of chicken style pieces and personally I really think the steak strips worked better than the pieces would but needless to say it will work with whichever type you happen to have in.
The marinade is fairly simple, consisting of dry sherry, fresh orange juice, oil, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce and chopped garlic. The recipe stated to leave the quorn soaking in this for around 20 minutes, I actually left it for a couple of hours as I always think the longer you can leave these kinds of marinade for the better the effect will be.
The actual cooking is fairly quick and straightforward, one of the things I like best about this recipe. You soften the onion in half the remaining oil, remove from the pan, brown the quorn pieces (removed from the marinade) then take these out of the pan aswell, cook the vegetables in the same wok and then add everything back in, tweak the marinade (with honey and cornflour) and pour it over and bob's your uncle!
This is what the dish looked like finished with noodles:
The next night I served the remainder with boiled rice, personally I think I preferred it with the rice and it was certainly easier to eat (noodles are always a nightmare for me, for some reason).
I thought the stir-fry was tasty and I was surprised that I enjoyed it so much, I think it is because unlike standard sweet and sour sauces, which can be overwhelmingly sweet, this was balanced and although you could certainly taste both the sweetness of the orange juice and the tang of the vinegar and sherry, no particular flavour was overwhelming.
I would make this again, it was easy, quick and very satisfying and best of all, due to using zero point veg, this can be very low points value for the Propoints plan. One portion (based on peppers and carrots as the veg) is only 4 points broken down as follows: quorn pieces/strips (2), oil (1), sherry (1). You can then add noodles or rice for another 6 points (weighed portions) so this is a very tasty and low point main meal.
This makes 4 generous portions and keeps well chilled in the fridge overnight. We would give it a 7/10.
