Risotto with Chicken

As mentioned a few times, a very clearly evident if you are following my blog, I am a huge rice-lover. I could practically live on the stuff. 

The below recipe is one my mother used to make for me as a child, and also one I could probably never get bored of. It was one of my favorites when i was younger and continues to rank high in my list of favorite's till today. 

It is easy to make as it does not quite require much prep (especially if you using pre-cooked chicken strips which is what I usually tend to do most of the time). 

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Ingredients: 

- 1 tbsp olive oil 
- 100 g bacon, chopped 
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 100 g peas
- 100 g sweetcorn 
- 100 g mushrooms, sliced
- 300 g risotto rice 
- 900 ml chicken stock 
- Chicken strips, grilled 
- 2 tbsp Parmesan Cheese
- salt & pepper, to season 

Method: 

Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the onion and bacon and fry for 2 minutes until softened & browned. Add the peas and sweetcorn (I generally do so from frozen), mix in the rice and coat with the oil. Add the stock, a ladle at a time, stirring continuously. Allow to cook until all the stock has been absorbed. 

Heat a griddle pan and drizzle with olive oil. Grill the chicken strips until cooked through. 

Stir the Parmesan cheese into the rice. Ladle into shallow bowls and top with the grilled chicken. Season well. 

Note: You may choose to add a little bit of white wine to the rice, before adding the stock. 

Pull Apart Bread Rolls

Here's another recipe for home-made gluten free bread rolls for you. This is the first time I've tried this recipe and unfortunately I did not have the right sized cake tin so they did not turn out the way they should have.  

If you use the correct size (8 inches round), the dough will rise and the bread rolls will expand into one another. This will add the 'pull-apart' twist to the baked rolls :) !

Even though they did not quite need to be pulled apart since there was too much room in the baking tray - they still tasted great! I've frozen the majority of the rolls and pop one out of the freezer whenever needed. 

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Ingredients: 

- 2 ¾ cups Bread Flour

- 1½ tsp xanthan gum 

- 2 tsp instant dried yeast

- ¼ cup sugar

- 1 tsp salt 

- 1 cup warm water

- 2 tbsp butter, melted 

- 1 egg

- 1 tsp cider vinegar

- cooking spray

Method: 

In a mixing bowl combine the bread flour, xanthan gum, dried yest, sugar and salt. With the mixer running on low speed, gradually add the water, melted butter, egg and cider vinegar. Mix on high speed for 3 minutes. 

Spray an 8-inch cake tin with cooking spray. Using a ½ cup measuring cup, scoop up the dough into 8 moulds. Place one scoop in the middle of your cake tin, and the rest side by side around the tin. Cover with a dry cloth and leave to rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size. 

Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees. Once risen, bake the rolls in the oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown. 

Sicilian Eggplant Rolls

A few years ago, before being diagnosed as a Coeliac, I had started to follow a slimming program. I found that the majority of recipes suggested by the nutritionist seemed to revolve around the same ingredient: Ricotta. 

Ricotta is quite popular here in Malta. Probably the only time I used to ever eat ricotta was in the traditional 'Qassatat'. For those who are not Maltese, these are small pies which come in a variety of fillings, the most popular with Ricotta cheese or Spinach.  On this recommended diet, I slowly introduced ricotta as an alternative to butter, spread on bread. Eventually, it evolved into quite a large part of my every day diet as I slowly began experimenting with recipes using ricotta, I started to take more and more of a liking to it. 

I came across this recipe a few months ago and decided to give it a go. I actually quite liked the dish considering I'm not the biggest fan of aubergines. It's a light meal full of flavour!  

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Ingredients: 

- 1 medium eggplant, peeled

- ground sea salt 

- 1 cup rice flour

- garlic flavored olive oil, for frying

- 1 cup gluten free ricotta cheese

- pinch of nutmeg 

- 1 clove garlic, chopped 

- 400 g chopped tomatoes 

- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese

- ¼ cup Mozzarella cheese

- 1 egg, beaten

- salt & pepper

Method: 

Cut the eggplant in very thin slices. Salt the slices and stack them on a plate; let them sit under a weight for 30 minutes to let the brown juices out. 

Pat the eggplant slices dry with paper towels and dip in rice flour. Heat the oil in a large griddle pan and fry the eggplant slices for about 2 minutes on each side, until crisp. Place on a plate with a napkin to drain the excess oil. 

In a bowl mix the ricotta cheese, garlic, nutmeg and Parmesan cheese. Place a spoonful of the ricotta mixture on the end of each slice. Roll and place in a greased baking dish, with a layer of chopped tomatoes on the bottom. Roll each slice of eggplant until the dish is full. Top with more chopped tomatoes and finally add grated mozzarella and sprinkle of grated Parmesan on top. Season and bake in a pre-heated oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until browned.

Serve warm. 

Mushroom Cappucino

Back in the day when I refused to eat vegetables, mushrooms was one of the very few exceptions, closely behind potatoes. Admittedly now, mushrooms are one of my favourite ingredients and I use them in most recipes. 

If you haven't guessed already, I am a huge soup lover. Regardless whether it's winter or summer, I'd never reject a nice hot bowl of soup. It's hard to say which is my favourite soup, and don't think I would actually be able to choose if I'm honest, but mushroom soup definitely makes it to the top 5! 

This recipe is so easy and simple and takes so little time too. I usually make this when I don't have much time too cook. It's also great to serve as a starter. I like to serve this in little Cappucino cups when entertaining friends. This always adds a bit of fun to the dish. 

You can serve this with a side of bread, garlic bread or croutons. Today I've chosen garlic bread as I find that the garlic compliments the soup exceptionally well. 

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Ingredients:  

- 100 g mushrooms 
- 1 tbsp olive oil 
- 1 garlic clove, crushed 
- handful spring onions, chopped 
- 25 g butter 
- 75 ml single cream 
- 100 ml vegetable stock 
- pinch of nutmeg
- salt & pepper 

Method: 

Heat the butter and oil in a saucepan. Add the mushrooms, garlic and spring onion and cook for 3 minutes or until softened. 

Mix in the stock and cook for a further 5 minutes. Add the cream and nutmeg and season well. 

Blend until mixture is frothy and serve hot with a side of garlic bread for dipping. 

White Chilli Chicken with Rice

                                                  
Ingredients: 

- 1 tbsp vegetable oil 
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed 
- 1 green pepper, deseeded and diced
- 1 small jalapeno pepper, deseeded and diced
- 2 tsp chilli powder 
- 2 tsp dried oregano 
- 1 tsp ground cumin 
- 400g canned cannellini beans, rinsed
- 700ml gluten free vegetable stock
- 450g cooked chicken breast, shredded
- juice of 1 lime 
- 2 tbsp fresh coriander, finely chopped 
- 1 cup basmati rice, boiled

Method: 

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, pepper, and jalapeno and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft. Add the chilli powder, oregano, cumin and salt and cook while stirring for about 30 seconds. Add the cannellini beans and stock and bring to the boil. Reduce to a medium-low heat and simmer gently, uncovered, for about 20 minutes. 

Ladle about half the mixture into a blender and process until smooth. Return the puree` mixture to the pan and add the shredded chicken. Simmer for about 10 minutes or until heated through. Just before serving, stir in the lime and coriander. 

Serve immediately with a side of rice. 

Roasted Veggie & Quinoa Salad

One of my favourite sides has always been couscous salad, especially in the summer months when hosting barbeques or lunches. So I was quite thrilled when I discovered quinoa and that I was able to use it as a substitute for couscous. Quinoa is something I had never heard of until only recently. I’m not even sure if it’s always been so well known but I seem to hear it being mentioned everywhere these days.

My cousins and I are extremely close. We are a big family who meet every Sunday evening at my nan’s house, and god bless her, nan always prepares enough food the feed an army. At least I’m not the only cousin in the family who is a celiac so I don’t suffer alone watching my other cousins, aunts and uncles indulge in pizza and sandwiches and other delicious gluten-filled food. The evening always ends with the same comments, ‘Oh my God I ate so much I might be sick’ or ‘I always eat too much when I come here’, selfishly sometimes I think ‘HA! Serves you right for eating gluten!’ but that jealousy getting to me I guess. These comments always lead to the topic of diets and eating healthy. Whilst discussing diets and listening to family members making the same commitment every Sunday (Tomorrow Diet!), I recently discovered that there is more than one kind of quinoa and my cousin suggested that the red quinoa is even more tasty than the ordinary one.

Curious to taste the difference, I took a stroll down to the supermarket to buy some red quinoa, no idea how I had never noticed it there on the shelf before. I decided to prepare a roasted vegetable & quinoa salad for work today and was surprised to find that my cousin was in fact right, it is in fact tastier! Try it out, let me know if you agree. 

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Ingredients: 

- 1 courgette, cut into chunks
- 1 coloured pepper, cut into chunks 
- 1 red onion, cut into chunks 
- ½ an aubergine, cut into chunks 
- 1 tomato, cut into chunks
- 3 mushrooms, quartered
- 1 garlic clove, peeled 
- 2 tbsp olive oil 
- 100 g red quinoa
- 1 tbsp green pesto (or sun-dried tomato paste)
- 1 tsp balsamic vinegar 
- 50g rocket leaves 
- ⅓ cup flaked almonds
- salt & pepper to season

Method: 

Preheat oven to 220 degrees. Place all the chopped vegetables and garlic on a large baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and place in oven for 20-25 minutes until tender. 

In the meantime, cook the quinoa in a saucepan of boiling water according to the pack instructions. 

Whisk together the pesto (or tomato paste) and vinegar in a small bowl. Place the roasted vegetables, quinoa, almonds and rocket in a large bowl and stir in the dressing. 

Can be served warm or cold. 

Recommendation: You can add on any vegetables you like to this dish or even remove any you don't like. It's a matter of taste really. You could even choose to add some feta cheese to the dish. 

Wild Rice & Grilled Chicken Salad

I love rice, and I love chicken, so I was quite intrigued when i came across this recipe. 

As I've mentioned before, I was never quite a fan of vegetables or salads and rarely considered eating them. However, after discovering that salads can actually be quite delicious with the right dressing and ingredients, I started to make these more often. 

Admittedly however, I don't really like dishing up the same salad over and over again. When I see a recipe for a salad I think I'd like I always give it a go by the book first. Then, the next time I make the salad I tweak it a little here and there according to my taste using the same basis but ending with a different result. They say change is good, and I agree. It's nice to not always take the same salad to work. At the end of the day I love food, and I'd hate to be bored of what I'm eating!

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Ingredients: 

- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 tsp olive oil 
- ½ tsp balsamic vinegar 
- 1 small chicken breast
- 75 g mixed wild & long grain rice
- 1 red pepper, chopped 
- ½ onion, chopped 
- 50 g cherry tomatoes, quartered
- 50 g rocket leaves 
- 50 g goat's cheese, crumbled 

Dressing: 
- juice of ½ lemon 
- 1 tsp gluten free mustard
- 1 tsp honey 
- 1 tbsp olive oil 


Method: 

Mix the garlic, oil and vinegar together in a bowl and add the chicken and coat. Cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for a minimum of 30 minutes. 

In the meantime, cook the rice then let cool. In a small pan fry the onions and pepper (unless preferred raw) and let cool. Mix the peppers and onions with the rice and add the tomatoes, rocket and goat's cheese. 

Whisk together the dressing ingredients in a bowl and stir into the rice salad. 

Heat a griddle pan and cook the chicken for 3-4 minutes on each side until cooked through. Immediately before serving, slice the chicken and arrange on top of the salad.