Bean and chicken casserole

This warming casserole is adapted from a Domini Kemp recipe. Her’s is vegetarian, mine is not.

Bean and chicken casserole

Once everything was in the pot, I left it simmering for about an hour, but that was just because I was doing other things and wasn’t in a rush to get to the table. You will happily feed four people with this.

a tablespoon of olive oil

one red onion

as much garlic as you like

a good knob of ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

some chilli, again, what you like and how hot you want your dinner

2 chicken breasts

a tin of tomatoes

a couple of stock cubes

1 tin cannellini beans (I found these in the cupboard, possibly bought in the GB at Merode. Use whatever you can find in the local shop)

1 tin chick peas

a persevered lemon

coriander and spring onions

I served this with some cous cous mixed with coriander and spring onions, and Greek yogurt.

I just discovered I left out a couple of the ingredients, such as the curry powder and the orange stated in the original recipe. A lesson in re-reading through the recipe at the end if ever I heard one! Nonetheless, it was really good.

Heat a little oil in a pot and sweat the chopped onions. I grated the ginger and crushed the garlic and added both to the onions for a few minutes to cook for another couple of minutes. Add the spices and cook all of this for about five minutes, making sure it doesn’t burn.

Chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces and toss it into the onion spice mixture to colour the outside. Pour in a tin of tomatoes and about half a tin of water. I added the chopped up preserved lemon at this stage and the stock cubes together with a little salt and pepper.

Rinse all the beans under cold water, drain and set aside. Leave the tomato mixture to cook and simmer gently for as long as you have (make sure the chicken is cooked through so at least 20 minutes. I left it bubbling gently for about an hour), before adding the beans. Cook for about 10 minutes and check the seasoning. You can sharpen up the flavours with some lemon juice and Tabasco sauce. 

Dining al desko

It happens to all of us. End of the month budgetary restrictions (even at the beginning of the month), a busy month at work or self-imposed social exclusion (aka a ‘Greta Garbo moment' (“I want to be alone”)), we all, sometimes, have occasion to have lunch in the office. Hopefully your place of work has a somewhere you can bring food in and spend some time away from your computer if even for 15 minutes.

There are lots of options for dining al desko (or al officio if you have a desk all to yourself) without resorting to the local (and expensive) sandwich shop. Of course, the easiest option is to cook a little extra the night before and take the left overs into work the next day. The next easiest option is to cook a little extra the night before and use up the leftovers in a different way, like leftover roast in salads or sandwiches.

The third option is to soup. Soup is “soup-er” simple and cost-effective, and it hates waste. Also, it’s great for the waist – as long as you don’t add cartons of cream. I make a batch of soup most weekends and freeze it in portions to use over the following week. And, you can use whatever you have around the kitchen, including sad-looking or leftover vegetables. It’s also a great way to get essential vitamins and minerals and to introduce pulses to your diet (which are full of things which are great for you, like vegetable protein and fibre). All you need is a pot and a stick blender (which cost about €20) if you don’t have a jug blender. Freezing your soup first makes it easier to transport too. 

These are some of the regulars that I whip up, which may inspire you.

Red lentil, chickpea and chili soup or try this tomato and lentil soup with corn bread

Carrot and coriander soup

Moroccan chickpea soup

Pea soup (without the croutons, and you can use low fat cream or natural yogurt)

Italian vegetable soup (you don’t even need a blender for this one)

Mulligatawny soup (use whatever veg you have around, a sprinkle of curry powder and add a cupful of rice)

Tuscan bean soup (I usually add a packet of lardons…)

Cauliflower cheese soup

Make cauliflower n cheese with your next roast. With the leftovers (make double if you have to), add sauce and all to a pot with some water and simmer for a bit (until the veg is tender). Blend with your stick blender or in a liquidiser and add more water until you have a soupy consistency. You could also add some toasted cumin seeds for extra warmth.  

Courgette soup

Chop one onion, one clove of garlic and two courgettes roughly and sweat over a medium heat in a small knob of butter for five minutes. Add about one and a half litres of water, a stock cube and salt and pepper and cook for about 20-25 minutes. Blend until smooth.

101 Tomato soups

Chop an onion (red, white, whatever you have in the veggie basket) and a bit of garlic and sweat in a bit of butter for five minutes over a medium heat. Add a tin of tomatoes and another two tins of water, a stock cube and some salt and pepper.

From this you can add a chopped up pepper, or a range of other vegetables, a tin of drained lentils, a cupful of quinoa (pronounced “keen-wa”. It’s a source of protein, magnesium (great for de-stressing as it relaxes the blood vessels), fibre and copper) or bulgur wheat (an anti-inflammatory; it also contains protein and fibre). Spice it up with basil and chunks of mozzarella when it’s done cooking or while its cooking add whatever spices are hiding at the back of the cupboard, like cumin, coriander seeds, chilli, paprika, turmeric, bay, oregano, thyme, rosemary… When you’ve got a good tasting soup, blend it up and freeze.

Domini Kemp had an article in the Irish Times recently with more desk-friendly recipes. You can find them here.

I did a post last year on breakfast muffins. You can get it here.

Post-Christmas soups

January has been a slow month in my kitchen, between gearing down after Christmas and trying to clear out cupboards and the freezer. We’ve been sticking to low-ish fat food in an effort to get rid of the Christmas excesses. Some of what I’ve been making includes:

• Pea soup (I used mascarpone instead of cream, only because that’s what I had in the fridge. I also didn’t make the croutons; if you want a meaty element to is, either fry up some rashers and chop them up or add fried lardoons. Don’t forget that this tends to counteract the low-fatness of the soup!).
• Corn soup (from the February edition of the BBC Good Food magazine – it’s not on line just yet) - tastier than it sounds, next time I will add more chilli, and it’s not as radio-active yellow as it looks in the photo). I also realised that I’ve never seen a packet of frozen corn in a Belgian supermarket – three large tins of the stuff will fit the bill however.
• And this very low fat and tasty soup from the Hairy Bikers series that’s currently on tv – the ‘Best of British’. I didn’t have any chicken mince, so I used chicken breast (cook in the soup to make a sort of stock) and sliced it up once cooked.

I will be trying out lots of new recipes this weekend, and I will post the outcomes – good or bad – here.

Low fat fruity crumble muffins

These low fat muffins come from a good food recipe. I tweaked it and then forgot to add the melted butter (to replace the oil) and they turned out brilliant, and even more low fat.

For the muffins

175g caster sugar

175g fruit (I’ve used rhubarb and ginger, raspberries, blueberries. I guess that grated apple, mashed banana and anything else that is going cheap at the shops will work)

1 egg

A sprinkle of vanilla (if you have vanilla sugar use that and leave this out)

125ml milk

200g flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

For the topping

50g of muesli or oats

A bit of cinnamon if you feel so inclined, mixed with the oats

Heat the oven to 220 degrees and line a muffin tin. I get 10 muffins out of this mixture, although it’s supposed to do 12.

Mix the egg, vanilla and milk together lightly. Add the vanilla, flour, bicarbonate and baking powder and the fruit.

This bit is really important. Mix everything just enough to combine it, no more.

Spoon it into the muffin tin and top with a teaspoonful of the oat topping. Bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes.  Remove from the oven and leave in the tin for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Pan-fried fish

ok, ok, I've been a bit remiss on filling in my blog recently. Part of this is due to not taking photos of my food. My new month resolution is to take more photos of my food.


Last night I made a super low-fat pan-fried fish. I don't have any other name for it. Its a 365things original dish. Maybe.


For two people, you'll need:
120g white fish per person - I use monkfish or pangasius (catfish)
150g potatoes per person (or less potato and more root veg)
1 pepper (any colour)
2 large tomatoes or several smaller ones
1 onion
salt n pepper
various herbs


Peel and cut the potatoes (and the other veg if you're using) into pieces. Boil in some water for about 20 mins until soft. Drain and add about 50ml milk and 10g butter and mash until smooth.


While your potatoes are cooking, chop the onion into 8ths, the pepper into strips and the tomatoes into chunks. Cook these in a frying pan (I do this without oil) in a bit of water. Add whatever herbs and spices you like, and a little salt and pepper. These should take about 15 minutes to become soft and cooked through.


When your veg are all cooked, remove them from the pan and add your fish. Cook for about 4 minutes on the first side and about 3 on the other. Fish varies in thickness so use your judgement - it's cooked when it becomes opaque.


To plate up, put some of the vegetable mixture on first and the fish on top. The mash can be served on the side. Or, if you're otherwise inclined, pop the fish onto the mash and serve the vegetables on the side.