Left over turkey middle eastern meatballs

Like everyone else across the country – we had enough left over turkey to do Christmas again three times over! I was flicking around on the internet trying to find interesting ways to use up the leftovers. I always like a bit of bubble and squeak, but after boxing day I always want something that’s not just turkey and potatoes and veg all mushed in different ways. I usually crave something a little lighter, maybe slightly spicy and something that doesn’t come with a side portion of sprouts (although don’t get me wrong – I’m a sprout lover, not a hater!).

This year I decided to make a recipe for middle eastern turkey meatballs – mostly because we have ridiculous amounts of hummus in the house (odd, I know – who buys hummus at Christmas!?). These meatballs were perfection (even if I do say so myself!) – the family gave them rave reviews and I’m planning to make some more to use up the last bit of leftovers! They were also super easy to make and require very little prep or washing up.

This recipe contains a good handful of mint – perfect for the post Christmas bloat! Mint is well known for promoting digestion, soothing indigestion and inflammation.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

1 hand full of mint

1 hand full of parsley

350g turkey

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

½ tsp paprika

1 egg

 1 spring onion

1 clove garlic

Method:

1. Add all the ingredients into a blender and blend until the mixture turns into a paste – it doesn’t need to be smooth, in fact, it’s better if it isn’t!
2. Using a table spoon, take the mixture and roll into small meat balls
3. In a non stick frying pan, fry on a medium heat, turning after 5 minutes
4. Cook until brown on the outside and warm on the inside

Serve! I served mine with hummus, sour cream and chive dip, salad and a piece of gf bread with olive oil – delicious!

Roasted Broccoli, pine nut and feta salad

I’m not quite sure where the inspiration for this recipe came from. It may be the tender steam broccoli, manchego cheese and pine nut pizza from Yard Sale pizza, it could be from one of the recipes in the four cook books I was flicking through the night before, or it could have been the feta I had for breakfast the day before. Anyway, some how I came up with this recipe and it was lovely! Super healthy, really filing and a taste sensation.

This recipe features a whole broccoli and a handful of pine nuts. Although broccoli is seen to be just another normal veg you eat all the time…its actually packed full of goodness.

• Broccoli has an unusually strong combination of vitamin A and vitamin K. This is particularly important for coeliacs and this combination can help keep out vitamin D metabolism in balance. As coeliacs may not be able to absorb as much vitamin D as other people, it’ important to eat foods with plenty of it, or that can help boost the absorption.
• Broccoli contains anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer phytonutrients such as sulforaphane which helps the body to get rid of potentially carcinogenic compounds. This is great for coeliacs – I try to fill my diet with as many anti-inflammatory foods as possible
• Broccoli can help lower your cholesterol

Pine nuts are also great for you. They have many of the same benefits as other nuts including:

•               Suppress your appetite due to the good fats and protein

•               Boost energy due to protein and iron content

•               Reduce risk of heart disease

•               Anti-aging oxidant

I would recommend trying this out, it’s not as simple as other salads, but its really delicious!

Ingredients:

2 hand fulls spinach

1 spring onion

1 yellow pepper

1 broccoli

1 inch square piece feta

1 large tomato

1 handful pine nuts

1 piece gf bread

Meathod:

1.     Place the spinach on the plate, chop the spring onion and the tomato and place on top

2.     Chop the broccoli and pepper, place onto a foil lined baking tray and brush olive oil over vegetables – roast in the oven for 20 mins on 200 oc

3.     In a pan, add 1 tbs olive oil

4.     Chop the gf bread into the pan and lightly fry

5.     Once golden brown place to one side

6.     Add the pine nuts into the pan, turn down onto a medium heat

7.     Keep moving the pine nut so they don’t burn

8.     Once golden brown, remove from heat

9.     Once the broccoli and pepper has been roasted, place on top of the spinach, then add the croutons, pine nuts and finally sprinkle the feta over the top

Enjoy!

A gluten free day in Bath

It’s the first weekend in December, so I decided that it was time to get out of London and go and visit another Christmassy city. I decided on Bath. I haven’t been since a child, but I have heard wonderful things and it was rated to have one of the best Christmas markets in the country!

So off we went...early start on Saturday morning to make the most of the day. We decided to grab breakfast in the station so we didn’t have to faff around at home. We did double check before we made that decision that there was somewhere I could get food (obviously). I knew there was a Pret in Paddington, which meant there was a gf breakfast. 

I have previously tried the Pret porridge which is gluten free. Although I was incredibly pleased to see they had introduced gf porridge, I was really disappointed with the bland taste and odd texture (sorry Pret!). I’d have it again if it was the only thing there, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a tasty breakfast option.

This time I noticed they did another gf option – the veggie power pot. It is made up of beans, mushroom and a poached egg, so I thought I would try this as it would probably make for a filling breakfast. Oh man it was good! Way better than the tasteless gruel that is the gf porridge. The power pot was delicious. The egg was perfectly poached (although concerningly small…Pret...should we be concerned by the ridiculously small eggs?) the beans were a delicious mix of beans, tomato, onion and mushroom and it as big enough to keep me full until lunch! All in all, a good breakfast.

We got on the most crazily busy train to bath and off we went! An hour and a half later,we had arrived. First stop was the Christmas markets. I can understand why they are voted one of the best in the country – it was great! Mostly because a lot of the produce was local. I’m a big fan of buying local produce wherever possible and supporting small businesses, so the market was perfect! From gin to soaps to honey, all from Bath. Buskers were playing Christmas music, the streets were full of cheery people, smell of mulled wine in the air – it was a perfect way to kick of the day of festive fun!

After walking around pretty much most of Bath we decided to try and find some lunch. We walked around seeing if we could find anywhere that was gf that did a good pizza or something equally treat like but I couldn’t find anywhere that wasn’t packed and that did gf food. While walking around we stumbled upon a bagel shop called the Whole Bagel. Usually bagel shops don’t do gluten free so my hopes weren’t too high…but how wrong I was! They actually did do gluten free bread and they told me they use a different toaster and clean knives to make the sandwiches! Amazing! I was so pleased! I ordered a brie, bacon and tomato chutney sandwich, oh it was delicious! We decided to take them away and eat them in the park near the crescent in Bath. It was perfect, surrounded by autumn leaves, beautiful architecture and eating one of the best sandwiches I’ve had in a long time.

After our sandwiches we has a walk around the crescent, through the park and had a poke around the shops (the sales were on so when I say a poke around, I mean I bought more Christmas presents than I could actually carry!). After a spot of shopping we decided to go on a hunt for cake.

Will and I are a big fans of coffee and cake – wherever we go we like to find a good cafe. Will is becoming a bit of a coffee geek and I’m becoming more obsessed with cake as the days go by. The unfortunate thing about Bath is that a lot of the cafes and restaurants seemed to be chains. But after walking into a few coffee shops and deciding it wasn’t for us we found the most perfect coffee shop for us - Cascara! It sold only gf cakes and delicious coffee. We decided on a Columbian chocolate cake and a raspberry and marshmallow cake. I had a cappuccino and will had a late.

The cake was actually to die for! Now, not to blow my own horn, but because I do bake a lot and can bake good cakes, sometimes the cake we have in cafes can be a bit of a let down. Not this time…the cake was so good! The cholate cake was moist, rich and full of chocolate chips. The marshmallow and raspberry cake was like no other cake I have had – the marshmallows provided a great texture and the raspberries cut through the sweetness. I would highly recommend Cascara to anyone, not just gluten free people!

We finished the day with a walk around the Christmas markets, a glass of red in a cozy pub and then headed back to London for dinner. I wasn’t blown away by the dinner options in Bath and it seemed to be getting busier and busier. We decided we were better off going back to London and heading out to my fave local pizzeria Zia Luccia.

Overall, I would say that Bath didn’t have the biggest choice of gluten free options, but they few they did have were fab! I would definitely go back just for the café and bagel shop!