The Hairy Dieters: How to Love Food and Lose Weight (10 page)

429 calories per portion

Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a low heat and add the onion and crushed garlic. Fry gently for 5 minutes until the onion is softened, but not coloured, stirring occasionally. Add the leek and cook for 1 minute more, stirring constantly.

Pour over the white wine and 100ml of the water. Dissolve the stock cube in the pan by squishing it with a wooden spoon. Keep simmering on a high heat and stir constantly until the liquid has reduced by about half, then remove the pan from the heat.

Strip off the skin from the chicken and tear the meat off the bones and into bite-sized pieces. Place them in a large bowl. Cut the ham into strips about 1.5cm wide and add them to the bowl. Sprinkle the flour on top and toss lightly together.

Add the onion and stock mixture, the rest of the water and the crème fraiche. Season with lots of freshly ground black pepper and stir all the ingredients together until just combined. Spoon into a 1.5-litre pie dish. Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6.

Pile the filo sheets on the work surface, one on top of the other, and divide into 9 rectangles, cutting through all the layers. Put the oil into a small bowl.

One at a time, brush each pastry rectangle lightly with a little oil and very loosely scrunch it up. You’ll need to just dip the tip of the pastry brush in the oil to make sure the oil lasts for all the pastry. Place the scrunched-up filo on top of the filling, putting the pieces close together until the surface of the pie is completely covered.

Bake the pie for 30–35 minutes or until the pastry is crisp and golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Serve with some green vegetables – no need to add extra potatoes or rice.

Top tip:

If you can’t get hold of a whole chicken, use about 500g of cooked chicken breast meat instead.

SKINNY BEEF LASAGNE

Who would have thought you could eat lasagne when on a diet? Well, thanks to our amazingly clever recipe, you can. The pasta is replaced with sheets of blanched leeks so you have all the deliciousness without the high calorie count. Fools your eyes as well as your belly – magic!

SERVES 6

2 large leeks, each about 300g

1 medium onion

2 celery sticks, trimmed

2 smallish carrots, peeled

500g lean minced beef

2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

150g chestnut mushrooms, wiped and chopped

2 tbsp plain flour

150ml red wine

400ml beef stock, made with 1 beef stock cube

400g can of chopped tomatoes

2 tbsp tomato purée

1 heaped tsp dried oregano

2 bay leaves

500ml semi-skimmed milk

3 tbsp cornflour

freshly grated nutmeg, to taste

50g extra-mature Cheddar, grated

25g Parmesan, finely grated

3 medium vine tomatoes, sliced

freshly ground black pepper

354 calories per portion

Trim the leeks until they are about the same width as your lasagne dish. Cut the leeks lengthways through to the middle but no further. Open out and remove 5 or 6 of the narrow leaves from the centre of each leek. Thinly slice these inner leaves. Separate the larger leaves – these will become your ‘lasagne’. Finely chop half the onion and cut the other half into wedges. Thinly slice the celery and dice the carrots.

Put the minced beef in a large non-stick frying pan or sauté pan with the sliced leeks, chopped onion, celery, carrots and garlic. Place over a medium-high heat and fry without added fat for about 10 minutes until lightly coloured. You’ll need to break up the mince with a couple of wooden spatulas or spoons as it cooks. Stir in the chopped mushrooms and cook for 2–3 minutes more. The pan should look fairly dry at this point.

Sprinkle over the plain flour and stir it thoroughly into the mince and vegetables. Slowly stir in the red wine and stock. Add the canned tomatoes, tomato purée and dried oregano, then drop a bay leaf into the pan and bring it to a simmer. Season with lots of freshly ground black pepper. Turn down the heat slightly and leave the mince to simmer for 20–30 minutes until rich and thick, stirring occasionally.

While the mince is cooking, put the onion wedges in a saucepan with the remaining bay leaf. Mix 3 tablespoons of the milk with the cornflour in a small bowl. Pour the rest of the milk into the pan with the onion wedges and set it over a low heat. Bring to a very gentle simmer and cook for 2–3 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave the milk to infuse for 10 minutes.

Half fill a large saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Add the leek ‘lasagne’ and bring the water back to the boil. Cook for 5 minutes or until very tender. It is important that the leeks are tender or the lasagne will be tricky to cut later. Drain in a colander under running water until cold. Drain on kitchen paper or a clean tea towel.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6. Remove the onion wedges and bay leaf from the infused milk with a slotted spoon, then return the pan to the heat. Give the cornflour and milk mixture a good stir until it is smooth once more and pour it into the pan with the infused milk.

Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes, stirring regularly with a silicone whisk until the sauce is smooth and thick. Season with a good grating of nutmeg to taste and plenty of ground black pepper. If the sauce is a little too thick to pour easily, whisk in a couple more tablespoons of milk.

Spoon a third of the mince mixture into a 2.5-litre lasagne dish. Top with a layer of blanched leeks. Repeat the layers twice more, finishing with leeks. Pour the white sauce over the leeks and top with the sliced tomatoes. Mix the Cheddar and Parmesan cheese and sprinkle all over the top. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown and bubbling.

Divide into portions with your sharpest knife. Serve with a freshly dressed green salad.

LOW-FAT MINCED BEEF AND POTATO PIES

As you all know, we love our pies and we hated the idea of giving them up while we’re trying to lose weight. Fortunately, we got this idea for a low-fat ‘pastry’ cases from our clever friend Justine and meat pies are back on the menu. You’ll need some small individual foil pie dishes.

MAKES 6

1 medium onion, finely diced

2 small carrots, peeled and diced

2 celery sticks, trimmed and finely sliced

250g lean minced beef (less than 10% fat)

1 tbsp tomato ketchup

1 tbsp brown sauce

½ tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp plain flour

½ tsp hot chilli powder

½ tsp dried chilli flakes (optional)

½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

200g floury potatoes, preferably King Edwards or Maris Pipers, peeled and cut into 1.5cm cubes

300ml beef stock, made with 1 beef stock cube

75g frozen peas

Pastry

2 x 145g packets of pizza base mix

about 200ml lukewarm water

plain flour, for kneading and rolling

1–2 tbsp semi-skimmed milk

335 calories per portion

Put the onion, carrots, celery and beef together in a large non-stick saucepan and dry-fry over a high heat for 2–3 minutes, until the beef is no longer pink. Keep stirring with a couple of wooden spoons to break up the mince. 

Reduce the heat and add the ketchup, brown sauce, Worcestershire sauce, flour, chilli powder and chilli flakes (if using) and black pepper.  Cook for 1 minute, then add the potatoes and stock. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and cover loosely. Simmer for 25 minutes until the potatoes are tender, stirring occasionally. If necessary, remove the lid for the last 5 minutes and stir more regularly until the mixture is thick. Remove from the heat, stir in the frozen peas and leave to cool completely.

To make the pastry, put the pizza base mixes in a large bowl and mix with lukewarm water according to the packet instructions. Turn out on to a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Preheat the oven to 200°C/ Fan 180°C/Gas 6.

Using scales, divide the dough into 6 even portions – each will be about 80g. From each portion, take off 35g of the dough to use for the pie lids. Roll out the larger piece of each portion on a lightly floured surface until it is about 3mm thick and large enough to line your foil pie dish, leaving a little overhanging the sides. Lift into a pie dish and press down well into the base and sides. This can be a little tricky first time round, but the dough is very forgiving, so take it slowly until you’ve got the hang of the method.

Spoon a sixth of the mince and potato mixture into the pie case. Brush the overhanging edges with a little milk. Roll out the smaller portion of pastry until it is large enough to cover the pie dish. Lift it on top of the pie and pinch the pastry firmly together. Trim with kitchen scissors – using scissors will stop the dough stretching.

Repeat exactly the same process to make the other 5 pies and place them on a baking tray. Snip once in the centre of each pastry lid with scissors to create a large hole for steam to escape. Brush the pies generously with more milk.

Bake the pies for 15 minutes, then remove them from the oven and cover each one fairly tightly with foil. Put them back in the oven for a further 15 minutes or until the pies are pale golden brown and the filling is piping hot. Leave to stand for 5 minutes before removing the foil, then tuck in!

COTTAGE PIE

Cottage pie is a hearty dish and one that we love to eat. Happily, this version is lower in calories than usual so we can continue to enjoy one of our favourite meals. Use lean beef, cook it without fat and bulk out the mash with leeks to reduce the calories.

SERVES 6–8

400g lean minced beef

2 medium onions, chopped

2 celery sticks, finely sliced

2 medium carrots, diced

400g can of chopped tomatoes

2 tbsp tomato purée

500ml beef stock, made with 1 beef stock cube