Mooli Dauphinois

In my ongoing love affair with mooli, and my post exam return to keto I decided to see if they would live upto the task of being a dauphinois potato substitute. I have to say I honestly couldn't tell the difference, something I haven't had yet with a keto food. I will warn you of two things, if you don't cook these for long enough you will be able to taste the difference, and they also smell really spicy when you cut them up so ignore that because you can't taste it after cooking.

Ingredients (makes 2 portions)

200g Mooli/ Daikon (I used 250g but it was actually too much for just two portions hence the lovely ramekin)

100ml Thick cream (you can replace this is single cream so you don't need the milk)

50ml Unsweetened Almond Milk ( thins out the cream)

20g Mature Cheddar

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C.
2. Slice the mooli into thin disks, I used the mandolin slicer on my food processor but a knife will work just as well.
3. Heat the cream and milk in a pan.
4. Add the sliced mooli to the milk and allow them to simmer in the liquid for roughly 5 minutes. Don't let it boil or spill over as this will burn the liquid.
5. Fish the mooli out of the liquid and layer them in your dish. Sprinkle salt, pepper and nutmeg on each layer.
6. Pour the leftover liquid all over the mooli in the dish.
7. Cook for 30 minutes until the liquid has reduced by half and the top has started to go crunchy.
8. Remove from the oven and add the grated cheese to the top of the dish.
9. Put back in the oven and cook for a further 10 minutes.

 Enjoy the sweet fake potatoey goodness!

Note: I made this in a 6 portion dish last week, it took nearly 2 hours to be cooked all the way through, so make sure you allow for extra time if you want to use it for a dinner party.

Nutritional Information

Calories  283 kcal
Fat  28g
Protein  4.4g
Carbs  3.3g
Fibre  1.1g

Meatloaf..nearly

I'm giving you this recipe with a massive disclaimer, I have never had meatloaf before so have no idea if this is close to what it is supposed to taste like. But I thought it was pretty tasty and can even look past the massive bowl of grease and oil I poured off halfway through cooking. There is an added bonus that it is HUGE!! This will feed 8 very hungry people and combine it with my cheesy creamy vegetables you've got yourself a dinner party meal.

Ingredients

400g Beef mince
500g Turkey thigh mince
500g Lean pork mince
100g Red Pesto
100g Hard grated cheese
1 large onion finely chopped (about 100g)
2 large eggs

1. Preheat your oven to 190 degrees celsius.
2. In a very large bowl mix all of the ingredients, most easily done with your hands so make sure they are clean!
3. Plonk the meat mix in a large enough ceramic or glass dish squash it right into the edges.
4. Cook the meatloaf in the middle of your oven for 1hr 15 minutes

As the meatloaf cooks quite a lot of fat will come off due to the meats used and a rather unpleasant looking foam will appear (thats the turkey I don't know why it does it). Every 15 minutes or so just pour the fat into a bowl or the meatloaf will be really greasy and unpleasant, however much keto is meant to be high fat I don't want to feel the grease!


Nutritional Information

Calories  480 kcal
Fat 31.4g
Protein 45.9g
Carbs 2.9g

The rather lovely bowl of extra fat I collected...

Mooli Chips

I could and would wax lyrical about Mooli/Daikon all day if I was allowed. It recently snuck into sainsburys and I've been cooking with it ever since. Mainly as chips, sometimes as mock potato cubes, I've yet to make mash with them but they are proving to be a great substitute for potatoes with much lower carbs.

To make the chunky chips seen below I actually repurposed my old pasta saucepan and it is now a deep fat fryer! The key with making chips is to get the oil really really hot before putting the cage in, I used olive oil to fry them because I find it doesn't alter the taste of the mooli too much.

What you'll need

Something to fry the mooli in.

A liberal supply of kitchen towel.

1. Heat the oil in your pan at a consistent temperature.
2. Cut your mooli into thick slices, leave the skin on if you desire.
3. Once the oil has heated enough- a good trick is to quickly drop the cage into the oil if it bubbles up straight away the oil is hot enough.
4. Fry the mooli until they have gone brown evenly.
5. Remove the mooli from the oil onto kitchen towel to get rid of any unwanted greasiness.

Nutritional Information (per 100g Mooli deep fried in olive oil)

Calories 38 kcal

Fat  3g

Carbohydrate  2g

Fiber 1g

Protein 0.7g

I know this seems quite low, but there isn't actually that much oil used up when you deep fry it is mainly a cooking process rather than a way to add tonnes and tonnes of extra fat.

Cheesy Chorizo Greens

 Signalling my return to full-on hardcore keto the above meal was born, so tonight is a double feature of creamy chorizo greens and mooli/daikon chips.

I've been meaning to find a new side dish that isn't cauliflower mash, that I can make 6 portions of on one night and keep re-heating it. As with many of my dishes I had things to use up: chorizo, philladelphia, broccoli, sprouts, spinach and my cheese box was overflowing with cheddar!

Ingredients (makes 6 portions)

200g Brussels Sprouts (I used frozen)

200g Frozen Chopped Spinach

200g Chopped Broccoli

100g Sliced white onion

100g Chorizo finely diced

200g Philadelphia- or any full fat cream cheese

100g Mature Cheddar

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
2. In a saucepan heat the veggies and chorizo on a low heat until all the spinach has melted and is mixed in thoroughly. 
3. Once the veggies have started to fry add the cream cheese and remove from the heat.
4. Stir in the cream cheese thoroughly and transfer the mix to an ovenproof dish.
5. Cover the top of the mixture in thickly grated cheddar.
6. Cook for 10-15 minutes at 200 degrees or until the cheese bubbles.
7. Enjoy! 

Nutritional Information

Calories 276 kcal
Fat 22g
Carbohydrate 4.5g
Fibre 3.3g
Protein 14.2g

Sugar free jelly sweets

After somewhat of an absence I will be posting a bit more frequently. My exams are over and I have about 40 recipes waiting to try out and perfect in my own little way. Meanwhile I shall leave you with the delight that is sugar free sweets!

Ingredients

2 packets of Sugar Free Jelly Powder

1 Sachet of Gelatine

200ml water

Also need- one sweet mould (I used an ice cube tray), 1 jug or pipette, 1 saucepan.

1. Empty the jelly and gelatine into a small saucepan
2. Add the water to the powders and mix into a paste.
3. Heat the paste on low with continual stirring.
4. Carry on heating until the powders have all dissolved and the solution is completely clear.
5. Pour the liquid equally into each of your moulds.
6. Place the mould in the freezer for 15-20 minutes.
7. Take your sweets out of the mould and store in a festive jar (I repurposed an old coconut oil jar for this)

So far I have made the following flavour sweets:

Blackcurrant and raspberry

Orange and raspberry

Strawberry and lime

Blackcurrant and orange

Raspberry and lime

Orange and raspberry

If you split the mixture into 21 portions they average 5 calories and 0.1g carbs per portion. I'm waiting for a smaller mould to arrive because these sweets are a little bit big for my liking, but at 0.1g each it does take awhile for the carbs to add up.