Low-Fat Arancini | Porcini Mushroom and Mozzarella Arancini | Risotto Balls

Posted on by gloriouslygoodfood
Low-Fat Arancini | Porcini Mushroom Arancini | Reflux Recipe | Low Fat Recipe

Arancini (‘Risotto Balls’) are a delicious light meal, buffet food item for parties or as a starter

This is a recipe for low-fat, reflux-friendly baked porcini mushroom arancini

These arancini are baked, not fried.  This makes quite a few arancini – you can either reduce the quantities or you can freeze leftover ones and then re-heat them in the oven.

This recipe should suit most reflux* sufferers, but if you’re following the very rigid reflux induction diet from the ‘Dropping Acid‘ book, you will need to make the following changes:

  • Make the changes in the risotto as indicated in the risotto recipe
  • Do not use mozzarella – these arancini are equally delicious without the gooey cheese filling

Ingredients (this will make approximately 60-65 arancini)

  • Porcini mushroom risotto (see recipe), cooled & refrigerated – this works best if you make the risotto the previous day so it can be refrigerated overnight, but if you don’t have time to do this, make the risotto in the morning and give it as long as possible in the fridge.  If it’s still warm, it will be harder to shape into balls that don’t fall apart
  • 5 slices wholemeal bread, toasted
  • 40g porridge oats
  • A sprinkling of fine sea salt
  • 150g mozzarella, torn into small pieces (approx. 1cm squared)
  • Spray cooking oil (e.g. Frylight Olive)

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C (fan) or 220° if it’s not fan-assisted.

While the oven is pre-heated, prepare your ingredients: 

Toast the slices of bread, let them cool a little, then tear them and place them in a food processor with the porridge oats and a generous sprinkling of salt.  Blitz them to a medium-fine consistency (not a powder, but not too big and lumpy either).

Drain the mozzarella and tear into small pieces, about 1cm squared.

Now it’s time to start making the arancini: 

Take a small amount of rice into your hand (use vinyl or latex gloves to stop the rice sticking to your hands).  The amount will be something you develop a ‘feel’ for – you’re aiming for risotto balls that are approximately the size of a golf ball. Squeeze the risotto a little bit, to help it stick together, then make a well in the palm of your hand.

Place a small piece of mozzarella into the well, close up the well and roll the risotto into a ball, ensuring the mozzarella is fully enclosed in rice so it doesn’t leak out.

Once you have shaped a risotto ball, roll it into the breadcrumbs and place onto a non-stick oven tray.

Repeat until you have made all the risotto balls (you will need 2-3 large oven trays).

Spray all the arancini with 1 cal spray cooking oil and place in the pre-heated oven.

Cook for 30 mins and serve – if you have them as a starter, you would typically have these on their own, but they also go nicely with a side salad.

Gloriously Simple, Gloriously Reflux-Friendly, Gloriously Low-Fat, Gloriously Good

*Please note I am not a doctor, speech therapist or in any way medically qualified.  The recipes are a combination of my interpretation of the rules outlined in the ‘Dropping Acid – The Reflux Diet’ book and ingredients that work for my reflux.  If you believe you suffer from reflux, please seek advice from a medical professional to confirm your diagnosis and work out the best course of treatment/management for you.  I hope that my recipes can help you as part of this management.  The recipes are, by their nature, very low in fat, so are also suitable for anyone wishing to follow a low-fat diet. 

Advertisement

Low-Fat Porcini Mushroom Risotto | Low Fat Recipe | Reflux Recipe

Posted on by gloriouslygoodfood

This low-fat, reflux-friendly porcini mushroom risotto is delicious on its own

or when you make it into low-fat baked arancini (risotto balls)

This recipe should suit most reflux* sufferers, but if you’re following the very rigid reflux induction diet from the ‘Dropping Acid‘ book, you will need to make the following changes:

  • Substitute the butter with a tablespoon of olive oil
  • Do not use any parmesan cheese

The quantities below make 8 generous portions, as I like to make lots and turn some or all of the risotto into arancini (risotto balls) – any leftover arancini can be frozen and re-heated.

Ingredients (for 8 generous portions)

  • 700g arborio rice
  • 100g dried porcini mushrooms
  • 1l boiling water
  • 100ml semi-skimmed milk
  • 20g butter
  • 2.5l chicken stock (or vegetable stock), made with the strained mushroom soak (milk & water), topped up with biling water to 2.5l, plus 5 Knorr Stockpots (or the equivalent amount of good quality stock cubes to make 2.5l of stock)
  • 40g grated parmesan

Method

Soak the mushrooms for 20 mins in 1 litre of boiling water mixed with 100ml cold semi-skimmed milk.

Heat the butter in a large stock-pot (cooking the risotto is even easier if you use a non-stick stock pot).  Remove the mushrooms from the water/milk soak and squeeze all liquid out with your hands.

Tip: Lift the mushrooms out of their soak without going to the bottom of the bowl you’ve soaked them in, as there will be lots of sediment settled in the bottom.  The soak will still be very hot, so take care not to burn yourself.  Wearing latex/vinyl gloves may help and will also stop your nails discolouring from the mushroom soak. 

Add the mushrooms to the stockpot with the butter, along with a generous pinch of salt.  Keep the heat high but stir frequently to make sure the mushrooms don’t stick or burn.

Meanwhile, make the stock: Strain all sediment out of the mushroom soak (water/milk), top it up with boiling water to make 2.5l of liquid and add 5 stockpots (or enough stock cubes to make 2.5l of stock).  Stir vigorously for the stockpots to dissolve in the water.

After a minute or so, add the rice and stir to let it absorb the butter and mushroom flavour.  Stir to make sure it doesn’t stick and once the rice looks slightly glossy from the butter (should take no longer than a minute), add the stock.

Pour enough stock onto the rice to cover it, stir gently and once it’s started simmering, turn down the heat to keep it simmering gently.  Leave it to simmer, keeping a close eye on it but resisting the temptation to over-stir as you don’t want to break the rice grains.

Top up with more stock every time most of the stock has been absorbed.

Keep this going until the rice is cooked, but still with a bit of bite (‘al dente’).  This should take approximately 20 minutes, but as rice is a natural ingredient, how long it takes and much stock you end up using is variable.

Make sure the risotto isn’t too dry at the end (so add very little stock each time as you’re nearing the end of cooking).  You want it to be slightly wet as it will absorb more as it stands and, when you add the parmesan, this will also make it drier.

Stir in the grated parmesan and leave to stand for a few minutes before serving.

For those not on a low-fat diet / reflux diet, you can serve this with more parmesan to grate onto each dish at the table.

Gloriously Simple, Gloriously Reflux-Friendly, Gloriously Low-Fat, Gloriously Good

*Please note I am not a doctor, speech therapist or in any way medically qualified.  The recipes are a combination of my interpretation of the rules outlined in the ‘Dropping Acid – The Reflux Diet’ book and ingredients that work for my reflux.  If you believe you suffer from reflux, please seek advice from a medical professional to confirm your diagnosis and work out the best course of treatment/management for you.  I hope that my recipes can help you as part of this management.  The recipes are, by their nature, very low in fat, so are also suitable for anyone wishing to follow a low-fat diet. 

Turkey and Apple Burgers | Low-Fat Turkey Burgers | Reflux Recipes

Posted on by gloriouslygoodfood

Low-Fat Turkey and Apple Burgers

Reflux-friendly* burgers with a nod to the Middle East

Turkey and Apple Burgers | Reflux-friendly Burgers | Low-Fat Burgers
Turkey and Apple (Reflux-friendly) Burger, served with Yoghurt and Cucumber dressing and a fennel side salad

I have listed this recipe in the ‘Induction Reflux Diet’ category, but if you are following the two-week ‘Induction Reflux Diet’, please do not include the yoghurt dressing. 

For the Burgers (makes 8 generously sized burgers): 

  • 800 g turkey mince (to stick rigidly to the ‘Induction Reflux Diet’, use turkey breast mince, otherwise you can also use lean turkey leg mince)
  • 20g porridge oats
  • 2 slices wholemeal bread
  • 1 sweet red apple (e.g. pink lady), finely grated
  • 2tsp ground mixed spice (an off-the-shelf spice mix containing cinnamon, coriander seed, dill, ginger, cloves and nutmeg)
  • 1tsp fine sea salt (I salt my food very generously and of course realise that there are potential issues with a high salt intake, so adjust as necessary to suit your taste or health requirements)
  • To serve: Wholemeal flatbread or burger buns

For the cucumber sauce: 

  • 1 small pot (150g) 0% fat plain yoghurt
  • 100g cucumber, finely diced
  • 1/4 tsp fine sea solt
  • 2tbsp firm Silken Tofu, previously blitzed to a creamy consistency in a food processor – I do this in my Nutribullet (this ingredient is optional but makes the sauce a bit thicker/creamier)

For the Fennel Salad:

  • 1 head of fennel per person, trimmed and thinly sliced horizontally
  • 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil per person
  • sea salt (fine or flakes) to taste

Method: 

Pre-heat oven to 200°C (fan) – adjust temperature settings according to your type of oven.

Toast the two slices of wholemeal bread, then blitz them in a food processor with the porridge oats so you obtain a reasonably fine breadcrumb mix.

In a large bowl, combine the turkey mince, breadcrumbs, spice mix, grated apple and salt and mix well by hand, to ensure the seasoning is well distributed amongst the meat.

Separate the meat mixture into 8 equal portions and flatten these into burger shapes and place them onto a non-stick oven tray (I love using my Pampered Chef rectangle stone and, having now realised that Pampered Chef have discontinued their UK operations, hope nothing happens to it as it is my most used kitchen accessory!).

Place into pre-heated oven and cook for 20 minutes.

While the burgers are cooking, prepare your sauce and fennel salad: 

For the sauce, finely dice the cucumber, mix with the yoghurt and Tofu and season with salt.

For the fennel salad, simply trim and thinly slice (horizontally) the fennel, add oil and salt – if you do this early on in the cooking of the burgers and leave it to stand, the fennel will release some of its juices and make for a moister salad, requiring less oil.

Once the burgers are ready, serve them in your choice of wholemeal bread/bread buns/flatbread and enjoy!

Gloriously Simple, Gloriously Good!

*Please note I am not a doctor, speech therapist or in any way medically qualified.  The recipes are a combination of my interpretation of the rules outlined in the ‘Dropping Acid – The Reflux Diet’ book and ingredients that work for my reflux.  If you believe you suffer from reflux, please seek advice from a medical professional to confirm your diagnosis and work out the best course of treatment/management for you.  I hope that my recipes can help you as part of this management.  The recipes are, by their nature, very low in fat, so are also suitable for anyone wishing to follow a low-fat diet.