This indulgent, creamy-tasting soup is an even more low-fat adaptation of my reflux-friendly chicken and sweetcorn chowder, liquidised to be suitable for the post-bariatric surgery liquid diet phase. It stands up as a new soup in its own right as it is absolutely delicious and suitable for the whole family! Please note changes to my original recipe, below.
replace the butter with a few sprays of spray-cooking oil, if you want to make it even more low-fat
do not add ANY flour
once the soup is cooked, liquidise it all in a fine blender, then pass it through a fine sieve – this is really important on the liquid diet, to ensure no sweetcorn hulls or other small ‘bits’ are left behind
Serve and enjoy!
Gloriously simple, gloriously good!
Disclaimer: I am not a dietitian or medical professional. These are simply ideas based on meals I have created to suit my own dietary needs and, as I’ve enjoyed them, I wanted to share them. If you are unsure about the suitability of any ingredients or recipes on my blog for your own requirements, please check with a health professional first.
sweet potato, caramelised onion & sundried tomato with a chilli kick!
As I recently embarked on a sausage-making spree, my vegetarian friends asked me if I’d make some vegetarian sausages for them. I love cooking and I’m always up for a culinary challenge, so I came up with not one, but two vegetarian sausage recipes:
Sweet potato, caramelised onion & sundried tomato AND
3 bean, lentil & mushroom (recipe coming soon)
I’m actually delighted with the results – though a word of warning: the vegetarian / vegan sausage casings are ok and easy enough to use, but although they cooked fine under the grill, they exploded somewhat on the BBQ. They’re quite delicate in the cooking process!
Note: These vegetarian sausages can also be made into vegetarian burgers / patties without the vegetarian sausage casings. Simply shape into a burger / patty and fry with a little oil in a non-stick pan.
In their casings, ready to ‘cook’
Ingredients for 8 vegetarian sausages (makes approx. 8 sausages plus what’s invariably left in the sausage-filling funnel & mechanism)
2 sweet potatoes – approx. 340680g , prepared as described below
4 fresh red chilli peppers, de-seeded & finely chopped
60g sundried tomatoes in oil, loosely drained, roughly chopped
2 large onions, prepared as described below
2tbsp olive oil
4tsp light brown soft sugar
salt (to taste)
Vegetarian / Vegan Sausage casings (I found these online – available from various retailers)
Method
Prepare the sweet potato:
Sweet Potato cubes ready for roasting
Peel the sweet potatoes and chop them into squares (approx. 2cm squared)
Drizzle on a little olive oil and sprinkle on some fine/ground sea salt
Place onto a non-stick baking tray in a pre-heated fan-assisted oven at 200°C and cook for approx. 20 mins until soft and slightly caramelised but not too much – you want them sweet, not bitter (higher temp or cook for longer if your oven isn’t fan-assisted). I use Pampered Chef’s Rectangular Stone to bake the sweet potatoes on and this requires minimal use of oil. Depending on what you use, you may have to adjust your oil quantities to avoid sticking.
Prepare the onion:
Peel the onions and cut it in half, then finely slice
Place 2 tbsp of olive oil (or use some of the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes) in a non-stick pan, pre-heat, then add the onions
Cook on a high heat, stirring frequently to avoid burning, until the onions are soft and browned and have become quite sweet
Add 2tsp of light brown soft sugar, stir in and quickly remove from the heat before the sugar burns
Remove the sweet potato cubes from the oven once they’re ready and mash them with a fork or potato masher, adding some of the oil from the tomatoes
Mix in the caramelised onions and wait until the sweet potato mash and caramelised onion mixture has cooled down to ambient temperature
Mix in the finely chopped chilli peppers and roughly chopped sun-dried tomatoes
Vegetarian Sausage mixture waiting to go into casings
Season to taste with a little fine sea salt
If the mixture is too dry, add a little oil from the sundried tomatoes
Push the mixture into the vegetarian sausage casings using a sausage-making machine/funnel (note that when you twist the ends, unlike with natural casings, they won’t remain properly twisted…leave enough room at the end to allow for a bit of expansion of the contents during cooking and prevent all the filling from escaping from the ends)
Grill or fry (careful if you BBQ – the vegetarian sausage casings have a tendency to tear open / explode on the high heat!) and serve with accompaniments of your choice
This is my quick and easy take on a Thai-Style Prawn Soup
If you buy stir-fry ready-chopped ingredients, like I did, it takes literally 5 minutes to make from start to finish!
Cooking Time:
5mins
Serves:
1
Approx. calories per serving (if you eat all of it, 2 bowls):
160
Ingredients (makes 2 small bowls – either one generous portion as a meal, or two small portions as a starter)
Sainsbury’s Mushroom Stir-Fry (calories shown on pack include addition of 15ml oil, which you won’t use in this recipe, so disregard those). If you don’t want to buy the stir-fry vegetables ready-to-cook like this, or you don’t have access to Sainsbury’s Supermarket, finely slice 50g common mushrooms, 25g white cabbage, 25g green cabbage, 25g carrots, 25g white onion and add 25g beansprouts.
100g King Prawns (cooked, peeled & ready to eat)
1Cal spray cooking oil (a few sprays to coat the Wok)
A little squeeze of ginger paste (will depend on your preference, but approx half a cm squeezed out of the tube…or 1/3rd of a teaspoon). You can use finely-chopped fresh ginger if you prefer, of course.
A little squeeze of lemongrass paste (again, this will depend on your preference, but about twice as much as the quantity of ginger you used, so about 1cm squeezed out of the tube, or just over half a teaspoon). Again, you can use fresh lemongrass if you prefer – cut it into lengths to flavour your soup but it can be a bit tough to eat, so I prefer to leave it big enough to pick out.
A generous sprinkling of ground dried chilli flakes (I leave the quantity up to your tastebuds!) – or a few slices of de-seeded fresh red chilli, if you prefer fresh ingredients
Half a fish stock cube, crumbled
A dash of fish sauce (half to a full tablespoon)
300ml boiling water (approx. quantity – judge by taste and how much stock you want in your soup)
Method
Spray the 1Cal cooking spray oil onto a wok, heat until smoking, keep the heat on high throughout
Add the stir-fry vegetables and stir
Add the fish sauce, lemongrass paste, ginger paste and chilli flakes and stir for a minute or so
Sprinkle on the crumbled stock cube and pour on the boiling water – the veg and water will now boil in the Wok
After about half a minute, add the king prawns
Boil for a further minute to ensure the prawns are heated through
Gloriously Good Food 