Category: Pescatarians

Fishy supper yummyness

Hot and Healthy Korma

Laura NanaLeave a comment

Honestly, this is one of the most satisfying currys we make at home, it’s a great way to build up your chilli heat tolerance if you tend to prefer creamy mild currys. Let me know how you get on!

  • 4 Chicken breasts, sliced or 300g Raw King Prawns
  • 100g Ground almonds
  • 1 can Coconut milk
  • 250g yoghurt

For the ‘massalla’

  • Coriander stalks chopped
  • 1 onion
  • 1 thumb ginger
  • 6-8 cloves garlic
  • 2-3 chillis – depends how hot you want it

Hard Spices

  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 5-6 cloves
  • 4-5 cardamom pods
  • 1 stick of cinnamon

Dry Spices

  • 2 tsp curry powder
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground coriander

To Serve

  • Toasted Flaked almonds
  • Toasted desiccated coconut
  • Coriander leaves, chopped

Method

If you’re making this with Chicken, fry the diced pieces in extra virgin coconut oil until nice and brown and set aside – it doesn’t need to be fully cooked through at this point.

Blitz the onion, coriander stalks, garlic, ginger and chilli in a blender with 1 tbsp oil and some salt and pepper. This is your massalla.

In a frying pan, warm some more coconut oil and add the cloves, cardamom, cumin seeds and cinnamon stick until they start to give off a nice aroma. Then add your massalla. Allow this to cook down on a medium heat for about 10 minutes – once most of the water has evaporated.

Then add your dry spice ingredients and the ground almonds. This will make the pan very dry so turn the heat down and let it cook for a minute or so until the aromas start to fill the room and your belly grumbles. Then add the coconut milk and yoghurt.

Give it a taste and adjust accordingly – it may need a little more curry powder, ground cumin or ground coriander at this point and make sure you check for seasoning. If its not sweet enough, drizzle in a teaspoon of honey – but be careful how much you put in.

Add the browned chicken or raw prawns at this point and cook down for 5-10 minutes or so.

Top with a mixture of toasted desiccated coconut, flaked almonds and coriander leaves and serve with rice or chapattis.

Meal Plan 3 Laura of London

Breakfast, a couple of dinners and a new meal plan – you lucky sods!

Laura NanaLeave a comment

Morning all,

I’ve recently started a new job hence the radio silence for a week or two but I’ve got some beauties for you this morning and more to come soon, including (hopefully) a wonderful guest blog from my lovely friend Nicola French!

Cashew cream on toast
Cashew cream on toast

Breakfast this morning is gluten free toast with cashew cream, which you’ll know having read my ‘Game Changer‘ post, this is my new and most favourite sweet treat!

Its been a pretty busy week as I’ve also started going back to the gym. I’m like a kid in a sweet shop with all the class options and had my first PT consult with one of the trainers, I’m really looking forward to getting fitter and leaner over the coming months, make sure you follow my Laura_of_London Instagram to track my progress!

Vietnamese Prawn Rolls Laura of London
Vietnamese Prawn Rolls

We’ve had a couple of nice new recipes this week as well as some good classics – my Vietnamese prawn rolls went down a storm last night with the family, they always taste so clean, healthy and fresh and adding a bit of spice to the dipping sauce makes all the difference!

I also tried to make a couple of new salads, first was a Goats Cheese and Grain salad with a honey lemon dressing and then we had a Steak and roasted veg salad with a lovely peppery mustard dressing.

I’ve made another meal plan for you to try, I really would urge you to try these for a week or to – most of the recipes are available on my site, they’re all clean eating and I’m always available to help chat through any questions you have. I’d love to have any feedback from people who have tried them as I want to make sure they work!

Have a super fantabulous weekend everyone, if you’re in London, it looks to be a nice hot BBQ-tastic one!

Meal Plan 3 Laura of London
Meal Plan 3

Meal Plan 3

Frittata-ta-ta-ta-ta

Laura NanaLeave a comment

I haven’t had a frittata for well over a year, I’m not a big egg eater you see but my family are and I’m on a mission to keep our meals cheap at the moment. 

 

Spanish Frittata Laura of london
Spanish Frittata

This is a Spanish frittata with a summery salad topping, I’ve  given some optional extras depending on how much veg you have in and whether you want to make it vegescarian, meaty or fishy! You’ll need a really good non-stick pan for this dish. 

Ingredients 

  • 4 eggs
  • 1tsp coconut oil
  • 1 leek or onion or 3-4 spring onions
  • 1 pepper, red, green or orange is fine
  • 100g chestnut mushrooms 
  • Handful of peas
  • 1 tsp thyme leaves
  • 2 medium size white potatoes 
  • 1/2 avocado, scoop lumps with a teaspoon
  • 2 ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
  • Salad leaves – I used lambs lettuce

Optional extras

  • 100g diced chorizo
  • 50g grated cheese
  • 200g shrimp/small prawns
  • 1 tsp chilli flakes

  

Method

  1. Finely dice the onion/leek and pepper. Strip the thyme leaves from their stalks. Thinly slice the mushrooms and the potatoes.
  2. Put the potatoes in a pan of boiling water for 7 minutes and drain. Leave to cool a little.
  3. Heat the coconut oil in the pan and add the onion/leeks and cook well for 5 minutes. Then add chorizo or prawns (if using) and cook for a further 2 minutes. Add the red peppers, thyme, paprika and mushrooms and allow to cook down. Add the potatoes and season well.
  4. Turn the oven on to the grill or the oven/grill function at about 180.
  5. In a bowl, crack two of the eggs. With the other two eggs, separate the whites and the yolks. Add the yolks to the bowl containing the other two cracked eggs and whisk. Then whisk up the separated egg whites well until white and frothy. Pour the egg whites into the egg mix and whisk all together. This will make it lighter and it’ll puff up a bit under the grill. 
  6. Pour the egg mix into the saucepan containing all your lovely veg and leave for a minute to set around the edges. Add the handful of peas. 
  7. Add the grated cheese and place under the grill for 5-7 minutes until brown and crispy on top. 
  8. Remove from the oven and loosen around the edges with a palette knife.
  9. Shuffle it onto a plate and top with your salad and a spritz of lemon juice.

  

I served mine with a little chilli sauce mixed into some mayonnaise as a little treat.

  


Crab Courgetti with Seeds and Rocket Laura of London

Another 10 minute wonder

Laura Nana2 Comments

Yesterday we had a fab day celebrating the lovely Hishal’s 4th Birthday in East London, it was lovely to see D’s cousins and eat lots of lovely BBQ food by the lovely Yogesh and Veerusha and her cake baking skills are second to none!

I wanted to make something really light and meat-free for dinner, and after such a long drive it had to be quick! So I made myself a little apéritif of rose, soda and ice and got to work…

A little Apéritif Laura of London
A little Apéritif – rose wine, soda and ice

As you’ve probably seen from my recent posts, I’m a bit of a fan of my new spiraliser (Zoodle Chef, £15 on Amazon) and so I decided to make some ‘pasta’ otherwise known as courgetti. This is where you spiralise courgette and use it as a replacement for spaghetti. If you don’t have a sprialiser, you can just shave the courgette using a peeler and either have it as ‘papardelle’ or use a knife to slice it into thin, ‘pasta’ strips.

Spiralise 5 courgettes
Spiralise 5 courgettes

Once you’ve got the courgette ready this is a pretty fast recipe so get everything laid out and ready to go.

Ingredients

5 Courgettes
2 tins of crab meat
Handful parsley and basil
3-4 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 tbsp cold water
Juice of 1 lemon
400g tin of Cheery tomatoes (or normal tinned tomatoes + handful of fresh cherry tomatoes)
50g pine nuts
Rocket and mixed seeds to decorate

Crab Courgetti with Seeds and Rocket Laura of London
Crab Courgetti with Seeds and Rocket

Method

Spiralise your courgetti and put it in a bowl.

Make the pesto by adding the basil, pine nuts, parsley, water, oil and lemon juice to a blender and let it go for a minute or two

Add the pesto to a saucepan with the tinned cherry tomatoes – this will look a weird colour but don’t worry! Warm it through on quite a low to medium heat. You can add a small teaspoon of honey at this point to offset the acidity of the tomatoes but this isn’t vital.

Add the tinned cherry tomatoes Laura of London
Add the tinned cherry tomatoes

In a separate pan with a lid, put as much of the courgette in as will fit and 2 tbsp of water. Put the lid on and warm it through for a couple of minutes, remove the lid – if it is soft enough, drain it and do the same again with the next batch of courgette – depending on the size of the pan, repeat as necessary until all of the courgette is cooked.

Add the crab to the pesto/tomato sauce mix and season and stir well. Then add the courgetti to the sauce mix and stir/toss and allow it to warm through for a minute or two.

Mix the courgetti with the crab sauce Laura of London
Mix the courgetti with the crab sauce

Serve in warmed bowls with a drizzle of olive oil and a topping of lemon juice, rocket and mixed seeds.

Crab Courgetti with Seeds and Rocket Laura of London
Crab Courgetti with Seeds and Rocket
Oriental Chicken Salad with Nutty Dressing Laura of London Laura Nana

Family Salad – a quick meal to get in the mood for Summer

Laura Nana4 Comments

Summer is just around the corner, I can almost touch it! So I’m testing out lots of new salad ideas, packing as much nutritional punch as I possibly can. I try and add lots of additional beneficial extras  – things like mixed seeds, nuts, bee pollen, flax seeds – you barely notice they’re there but they do heaps of good for your insides! You can easily omit the chicken in this recipe or replace it with rare cooked tune or steak or seafood – its really versatile.

Oriental Chicken Salad with Nutty Dressing Laura of London Laura Nana
Oriental Chicken Salad with Nutty Dressing

I’ve used a spiraliser on my salad vegetables to get nice long thin curly pieces but you can easily just use a peeler to shave them into your salad bowl.

The vegetables in my salad, using a spiraliser Laura Nana
The vegetables in my salad, using a spiraliser

Ingredients

1/2 pack of bean sprouts
Buckwheat/Soba Noodles
500g Chicken mini-fillets
Mixed seeds or nuts
2 spring onions, finely chopped
Finely chopped coriander, basil and mint – it doesn’t matter if you don’t have all of these

Herbs needed for Oriental Chicken Salad Laura of London
Herbivores unite! Basil, Coriander and Mint

any or all of the following
Carrots
Cucumber
Mooli
Peppers, sliced

for the dressing

2 tbsp Tahini
Juice of 1/2 a lime
1 tbsp Fish sauce
1-2 tbsp dark soy sauce or tamari
1 tsp chilli flakes or fresh chilli
1 tbsp honey or agave
You can also add a bit of fresh chopped ginger and garlic to the dressing, if you want/have it in

Nutty Dressing - Laura of London
Nutty Dressing

Method

Ok a lot of this is going to be prep work for the vegetables and then pulling it all together at the end.

Put some coconut oil in a pan and add your chicken mini fillets – I cook just a couple at a time on a high heat – this means that they will get super crispy on the outside which is lovely for some added texture to your salad – you can’t have a crowded pan to do this. Once it is all cooked, chop it up into bitesize pieces. Set the chicken aside to cool.

Prep all your vegetables, using a peeler or a spiraliser and set aside. This may take a while – play some music, dance around, get family to help.

Boil your noodles for 5 minutes, drain and run under a cold tap to cool quickly. Mix with your salad vegetables and bean sprouts.

Pop all the dressing ingredients into a saucepan and warm through gently until the sesame paste (tahini) has melted down. I add my spring onions to the dressing because I think warming them through takes away that sharp bite they can have when they’re completely raw.

Now just put it all together, its nice to put this on a big serving platter or a chopping board and everyone can get stuck in at the table. Lay out the veg, bean sprout and noodle mix first, then put the chicken over the top, drizzle over your dressing and then add seeds/nuts and your mixed herbs.

I really enjoy this salad, we’re having it once a week at the moment because everyone likes it so much. I think this would be lovely as a side salad for a BBQ – one for me to test further down the road.

Let me know what you think xxx Have a great weekend all xxx

Laura of London

Oriental Chicken Salad with Nutty Dressing Laura of London Laura Nana
Oriental Chicken Salad with Nutty Dressing

Who wouldn’t want dinner ready in 15 minutes?

Laura Nana3 Comments

I’m a big fan of fast cooking during the weekday, I have a regimental order post-5.30pm that must be followed otherwise we’re heading for a meltdown (mine, not my son). I learned this Vietnamese salad as part of a cookery lesson at Recipease a couple of months back and realised its a great little ‘go to’ dish when you need something quick and super healthy to make you feel good. Most of it is just prep work with a final flourish at the end to pull it all together.

Laura of London Delicious Vietnamese Prawn Salad Laura Nana
Vietnamese Prawn Salad

You can also prep the salad and wrap it in soaked rice paper and then use the dressing as a dipping sauce – Vietnamese Rolls – this is quite a nice ‘fancy’ starter when you have friends round.

If you’re not big on prawns, leave it out or replace with chicken, mackerel or beef strips just make sure they’re cool before you add to the salad/rolls.

Laura of London wrapping Vietnamese Rolls Laura Nana
Laura wrapping Vietnamese Prawn Rolls
Laura of London Vietnamese Prawn Rolls Laura Nana
Vietnamese Prawn Rolls

 

Ingredients

Packet of cooked prawns
Vegetable stir fry packet including bean sprouts
Buckwheat/Soba noodles
10cm piece of Mooli (if you can get it)
1 carrot
10cm piece of cucumber
3 spring onions
Good handful of nuts – cashews or peanuts

For the salad dressing/dipping sauce
1/4 cup of Fish Sauce
1/3 cup of either Rice wine vinegar, red wine vinegar or white wine vinegar (I tend to use whatever I have in the cupboard)
Approx 4 tbsp Honey – depends on your taste
Juice of 1/2 a lime
2 cloves of garlic
2cm piece of ginger, cut into matchsticks
At least 2 fresh chillies split lengthways

Optional
Pack of Rice Paper Sheets
Extra chopped chillies in the salad

Method

Put all the ingredients for the salad dressing (or dipping sauce) in a saucepan and heat gently for 5-6 minutes then take off the heat and leave to cool. Taste it with a bit of salad from your bowl – its meant to be quite strong – add more of the fish sauce, vinegar, lime or honey depending on what you think it needs. Go for less sweetness than you think it needs.

Put the stir fry packet in a large bowl. Peel the skin off the carrot and then proceed to use your peeler to peel the carrot into the salad bowl so you end up with nice thin ribbons of carrot. Do the same with the mooli and the cucumber. Alternatively you can cut them up into matchsticks if you prefer. Boil the soba/buckwheat noodles in water for 3-4 minutes and drain, leave to cool then add to your salad bowl.

Slice the prawns lengthways and slice the spring onions finely at an angle and add to the bowl. Chop up your nuts and leave to one side.

Once your dressing/sauce has cooled, pour 4-5 tablespoons of it over your salad, toss and taste to see if it needs more of anything. Add a final squeeze of lime juice then throw on your nuts and munch away!

If you’re turning these into rolls then just soak a paper sheet in warm water, as per packet instructions, put it on a clean kitchen towel and then put 1-2 tablespoons of the salad into the middle. Wrap it up and put any left over salad on the side or save it for lunch the next day. Keep the dipping sauce on the side otherwise the sheets will go too mushy.

Let me know how it goes!

Lazy Sundays and feeling Virtuous 

Laura Nana2 Comments

We went to the Syon Food Festival yesterday and although delicious, the majority of the food was not clean so today I want to have a bit of a kick restart. We got up late and had a simple smoothie with some added natural nutritional additions:

  • Natural yoghurt
  • Frozen berries
  • Ripe pear
  • Milled hemp seeds
  • Milled bee pollen
  • Flax seeds with goji berries and sunflower seeds

   
 Bee pollen is a great addition to smoothies and salads, I got mine from a local health food shop but you can order it online too. Its a complete food and contains proteins, vitamins, minerals, lipids and carbohydrates.

Hemp seeds are a really good source of essential fatty acids including Omega 3, 6 and GLA, it’s a more digestible protein than meat and is rich in Vitamin E. 

For the rest of the day I’m going to snack on fruit and nuts and lunch today will be oven roasted salmon fillets with Mediterranean vegetables and some fresh zingy lemon and basil new potatoes.

I love Sunday’s, they’re my favourite day. We try not to plan much and just spend the day pottering, shopping or walking the dog. 

One thing I’ve started to enjoy doing is prepping a few food bits to make my life easier during the week.

Depending on my food menu for the week, I will make my own breakfast cereal, blitz up some fresh nut butter or make some sauces for dinners, such as fresh, Parmesan-free pesto. I’ll blog recipes for all of these today/tomorrow for you. 

Happy Sunday!