Very rich, very easy, and yummy…
Ingredients
- 1 kg beef, trimmed of fat & cubed
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 onions, peeled & quartered
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled & chopped finely
- 4-5 carrots, peeled & cut into chunks
- 1 tin crushed tomatoes
- 100 gms dates, pitted but kept whole
- 150 gms prunes, pitted but kept whole
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 cup beef stock
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 teaspoons cumin powder
- 2 teaspoons coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- salt & pepper
- toasted slithered almonds
- fresh coriander, chopped
Directions
Par-boil the carrots in boiling water for about 3 -5 minutes. Preheat the Tagine or crock pot to High.
Heat up half of the olive oil in a large frying pan and quickly brown the onion quarters over a fairly high heat until well charred. Tip them into the crock pot. Add the chopped garlic & par-boiled carrots to the onions in the crock pot.
Add the honey to the the stock & ALL the dried spices. Tip the honey & spiced stock into the crock pot & mix well. Add the cinnamon stick. Add the tinned tomatoes, dates & prunes to the crock pot – mix well.
Heat up the remaining olive oil and brown the beef cubes in small batches to sear & seal them. As you finish browning them, add the beef to the crock pot. When you have finished browning all the beef, give the whole mixture a good stir & season with salt & pepper. Cook on high for between 6 & 10 hours depending on your crock pot’s wattage & settings.
Serve the beef tagine with fluffy couscous and garnish with the chopped fresh coriander & toasted flaked almonds.
I know it sounds odd. But I had it in a restaurant and it was STUNNING, and the chef gave me the recipe 
Tops! So here it is! It is an unusual soup, but absolutely ‘delish’.
1x butternut pumpkin
1/2 x brown onion
1 tsp garlic
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 tsp ground cumin
1 ltr chicken stock (homemade always best I think!)
4 rashers bacon
Dice pumpkin and onion, slice bacon, and put everything into an oven tray. Cover, and bake for 1 hour at 180degrees C. Remove foil/lid, and bake at 220degrees for 20 minutes, then puree.
Yum!
I used to eat this back in my creamy dairy days but hadn’t ventured into trying it dairy free until my genius husband satisfied my craving and made it up And it’s brilliant! And so, so simple.
I make snow pea, chicken pasta – but you can use whatever you like obviously. Pumpkin/pine nut also works well. Whatever!
Brown chicken pieces and set aside.
Using dairy free marg (eg nuttelex) fry off half a finely chopped onion and 1 clove garlic, also finely chopped. When onion is browning, add a dash of white wine and let it settle.
Add 1 tblspn plain flour, then slowly add soy milk (I use BONSOY for everything, the taste is so mild) until it has thickened to a consistency that you are happy with. Add the chicken back in, cooked pasta and snow peas….
season with pepper and “whalllaaaa”. It’s yummy and creamy
Ok so most people can work out how to make lasagne, but it can be hard to do dairy free…
Basically I use the same lasagne principles…I tend to not like red meat too much so I use eggplant, roast capsicum, roast slithers of pumpkin, spinach leaves (baby spinach tastes much better I think!), red onion, grilled zuchinni.
Layer all this with a napolitana sauce (tinned tomatoes/garlic/salt/pepper/oregano…add mince meat if you like) and the lasagne sheets.
On top of each lasagne sheet you really need something creamy. THis is where it gets tough. It’s hard to get that cheesy taste, but I generally heat together TOFUTTI (tofu cream cheese) which is remarkably good, and some silken tofu. Add in nutmeg or whatever flavourings you like, but the tofu base will definitely give the creamy texture to your lasagne.
Bake as normal
Filed under: Main meals | Tags: aborio rice, Chicken mushroom leek risotto, chicken stock
Risottos don’t have to be creamy! This one is absolutely scoffable. If that’s a word.
Chicken risotto
- 1 chicken breast, chopped into bite size pieces
- 1 leek, chopped (just the white bit)
- 4-5 mushrooms, diced (depends how much you like mushroom
- Dairy free margarine (olive oil spread/nuttelex etc)
- olive oil
- white wine
- balsamic vinegar
- fresh thyme
- pepper and salt
- 1 cup aborio rice (this is important for a good risotto
- up to 1 Litre hot chicken stock (I make my own stock, it has much MUCH less salt than bought. Will post how below)
So! With a little margarine and/or a splash of olive oil, brown the chicken and remove from pan. Cook the leeks for a couple of minutes before adding the mushrooms. Add the rice and make sure it gets coated in the marg/oil. Then add a splash of white wine and 2 tblspns balsamic vinegar and as the wine cooks off, pour in 1 cup of chicken stock.
Risotto can take a LOT of liquid. Sometimes I use all chicken stock, sometimes I add in some water as well if I think it’s getting too strong a flavour. The trick with risotto is to keep stirring and never add stock that is cooler than the rice itself. Make sure it is hot!
Keep tasting it and you will know when it is done. i.e. when the rice isn’t crunchy anymore.
Then add in the seasoning, the thyme and the cooked chicken to warm through before serving.
MMMMM
Chicken stock:
If you are ever inclined to eat a BBQ chicken, keep the carcus and boil it up with salt, pepper, and whatever veggie scraps you have: i.e. carrot, celery, onion are great. Use a couple of litres of water, and boil the *** out of it.
Strain, and if you find it is particularly fatty, skim the surface of the stock to get the chicken fat off. I tend to not put too much skin or fat into boil so I don’t usually have this problem.
You can freeze the stock in 1 cup bags so it is easy to use in future too.
