Marching into Spring with Freda
Hi everyone, I’m delighted to bring you my March favourites.
Well Spring has definitely sprung and the budding cherry blossoms, lighter evenings and spring produce are everything we need right now.
With all my recipes, my emphasis is always on creating nutritious meals for ourselves and our families that don’t have to be labour intensive or expensive. You can pick up all the ingredients from your local greengrocers and supermarkets and all will suit your budget, wherever you like to shop. This months’ recipes also have an emphasis of wellbeing both inside and out and wherever possible, incorporate herbs and spices that do just that……..
So, without further ado, here goes and Happy March everyone!!
Orange and poppy seed cake
Starting off this month with a little sweet treat; a brilliant combination of flavours, this cake is so easy to create. Did you know poppy seeds are a rich source of minerals including calcium and iron and they’re known to relieve exhaustion decrease anxiety and aid a good night’s sleep. There’s also a hit of vitamin C from oranges in here, so this has to be a healthy cake after all!
Ingredients
80g unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons finely grated orange rind
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup self-raising flour
2 eggs
2 tbsp poppy seeds
100ml whole milk
Grated orange rind to serve
Method
Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C
Line a 6cm-deep, 19cm square cake pan with baking paper
Place all ingredients- butter, orange rind, sugar, eggs, flour, poppy seeds and milk in a large bowl and combine with a hand held whisk.
Carefully place mixture into the baking tin. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until a skewer comes out clean
Stand cake in pan for a few minutes
Place onto a wire rack to cool.
Garnish with orange rind and serve immediately
Mixed spicy lentils with fresh kale
A brilliant recipe for our inner vegan! With so many of us turning to either more plant based dinners (like myself) and many becoming fully vegetarian or vegan, this dish offers balanced nutrition, full bodied flavour and some very healthy spices and herbs to support digestion. Kale is loaded with powerful antioxidants; it’s also a fabulous source of vitamin K. Lentils and beans, as we know are full of nutrition and protein, and good particularly if you’re living on a meat free diet. Garnish with fresh sliced ginger for extra goodness and served with steamed basmati rice it’s the best way to enjoy legumes and leaf!
Ingredients
1 x 400g tin chick peas or 1 cup pre-soaked
1 x 400g tin black eyed beans or 1 cup black pre-soaked
1 medium onion diced
3 tomatoes finely diced
1 tsp tomato purée
2 tbsp fresh ginger garlic paste
2 cups kale roughly chopped
Spices:
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp mild chilli powder/ Kashmiri red chilli powder or 1/4 tsp hot chilli powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
Salt to taste
5-6 tbsp Oil / ghee to stir fry
Fresh coriander and sliced fresh ginger to garnish
Method
Soak the lentils together in a large bowl overnight (Unless using canned beans; use straight from the can). Place a generous glug of oil into a medium sized sauce pan on high heat. Add onions, cumin seeds, (make sure they’re covered in oil) and stir fry until onions are translucent. Add the chopped tomatoes and purée and fry for another minute. Add all spices and salt and fry for a further 5-6 mins until a thick paste is formed. Add the soaked lentils; ensure they’re soft from being soaked. Cover the lentils with the sauce. Add enough water to cover the lentils. Turn down the heat and add the kale; let it simmer for 45 mins to 1 hour. Once ready, garnish with fresh coriander and ginger sliced thinly. Add some extra black pepper too for more spiciness.
Serve with steamed rice or naan bread .
Roast Chicken and Thai Massaman curry
It might sound like an unlikely combination, but it’s a brilliant way to spruce up a roast dinner. When you add a sauce of some description to any roast meat, it takes it up to a whole new level of yum. Thai curries are fresh and fragrant and have some of my favourite herbs. Did you know that fresh herbs such as coriander contain a variety of vitamins including Vitamin C, A and K.
This roast chicken Massaman is an easy short-cut recipe (a great hack!) which is not only tasty but looks pretty impressive when it comes to the table.
Ingredients
1 whole chicken preferably organic
300g baby new potatoes skin on and par boiled
100g butter cubed
Salt and pepper to season the roast chicken
150g Massaman curry paste (available from many supermarkets in the Thai section)
1 cinnamon stick - about 5 cm length
2 bay leaves
Fresh coriander
Method
Start by roasting the chicken. Place the cubed butter under the skin of the chicken. Season with salt and pepper and place into a pre-heated oven 180C for 1.5 hours until the skin is crisp and golden. Baste regularly to achieve the crispy skin. Place par boiled baby new potatoes into the oven for 20 minutes (towards the end of the cooking of the chicken) Bake until their skin also becomes golden brown.
Massaman Curry
Heat the coconut milk in a wide bottomed frying pan, sauté it for a few minutes then add the curry paste and continue to sauté on low heat until it turns fragrant. Stir constantly to keep the mixture from sticking to the pan. Add the Thai fish sauce. Taste and adjust the flavour with more fish sauce if necessary. Add the cinnamon stick, and bay leaves, bring it to the boil then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes until it thickens. Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the oven and transfer it straight to onto the curry sauce. Also add the potatoes and let both chicken and potatoes absorb the sauce on a low heat for approximately 10 minutes. Garnish with roasted peanuts coriander leaves and serve immediately
Moroccan Lamb Tagine with dates, apricots and pomegranate
Vegetarian option, see below*
With spring lamb in the butchers now, it’s a great way to take advantage of this meat and the Moroccan spices add such a flavourful addition when cooked this way. I love apricots and dates both fresh and dried, and when added to a sauce they being such a wonderful sweet and savoury complexity and get the children acquainted with diverse flavours and tastes on their palette. Nutritionally, dates are a source of antioxidants, good for blood sugar and blood pressure balance and also a great brain booster; so if you’re feeling a little brain fog, add dates to your dinner!
Make this dish in a large pot and you’ll find it’s enough to feed the whole family for a couple of days; because we all need a day off making dinner on a school night!
*Replace lamb with butternut squash for a vegetarian option.
Ingredients
1kg boneless lamb roast, cut into 2.5cm pieces
800ml chicken or vegetable stock
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, sliced
2 tsp. freshly crushed ginger
200 g dried apricots
80g medjool dates chopped
4 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 cinnamon stick
Small pinch of saffron (optional)
1tsp. ground turmeric
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1/4 tsp. ground cardamom
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
Freshly ground black pepper
Salt to taste
Garnish
5 g freshly chopped coriander
Pomegranate
Torn mint leaves
Cooked couscous, for serving
Method
In a large bowl, toss lamb with about 2 teaspoons salt. Let sit at room temperature
In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, bring chicken stock to a boil. Remove from heat and add dried apricots and dates.
Let sit at least 15 minutes.
In a tagine or heat proof ceramic pot, heat, heat oil over medium-high. Add the diced lamb and cook until golden brown, approximately 3 minutes per side. Place lamb on a plate to one side. Reduce heat and add the chopped onion to the pot. Cook until translucent, approximately 4- 5 minutes. Add garlic and ginger together and cook them until fragrant then add tomato paste and stir through until coated. Add the cinnamon stick, saffron, and spices and cook until toasted, approximately 1 minute more.
Add the par cooked lamb, dried apricots, and chicken or vegetable stock to pot and season with salt and pepper. Sir through and bring it to boil, then let simmer on a low heat. Cover the pot and leave to simmer until the lamb is tender and the sauce is thickened. This takes around an hour and half.
To serve, sprinkle with coriander or parsley and mint.
Serve over couscous.
Classic pancakes
We love our weekend breakfasts and the children race to the kitchen to help out with this one! With so many varieties to choose from, the classic pancake can become quite an epic feast and a brilliant way to use up ingredients from the fridge as creative toppings.
A great way to get a dose of protein from eggs, and the toppings add extra goodness, particularly if you cut out the sugar (as I have here) and replace it with Manuka honey and fresh seasonal fruits and berries. Pancake Day could quite easily be every weekend for us!
Here are some images to get you inspired to spruce up your pancakes
Classic pancake recipe
Makes 6 small pancakes
Ingredients
4 eggs
2 tbsp. plain flour
200ml whole milk
80 ml double cream (optional)
Butter to fry
Garnishes
Sugar, cinnamon, fresh fruit (see images for further ideas)
In a medium bowl, place the milk and flour and whisk using a hand held whisk (I use a regular non- electric hand whisk). Beat until a paste is formed then add all the eggs and further beat / whisk until a consistent paste is created.
Place a medium non-stick frying pan, on a medium to high heat, then place a knob of butter to melt. When sizzling, add 5-6 tbsp of the mixture into the pan and spread it evenly by holding the pan and gently rocking it from side to side. After a minute, you’ll see the edges curl inwards. Flip the pancake by either tossing it (if you’re brave enough!) or use a spatula to turn it.
Once cooked to a light golden brown, place the pancake into a large dish and stack or fold them around the plate.
Add the toppings of your choice and by all means allow the children to partake in decorating their own and eating to their hearts desire!
Hope you enjoy all trying out this month’s recipes. For more daily inspiration and recipes, head over to my Instagram: Fredashafi_spiceitup
