Chicken Chickpea Chorizo Casserole

 After an easy, delicious, protein packed, crowd pleasing, dinner in a hurry? This is the answer. If you're not feeding a crowd, don't worry, it tastes just as good, if not better the next day, and freezes well. Even better. It's all cooked in the same pan, so less dishes! You can serve it with any type of carb, mash, bread, rice or pasta. I like it with bread so that you can soak up all the delicious juices. 



Ingredients

• 2 tbsp oil (rice bran or olive oil) 
• 400-500grams of free-range chicken
• 50grams chorizo sausage 
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika 
• 1 can chickpeas
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup diced green capsicum 
• 1 onion, lyonnaise sliced*
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 cup of thickly sliced button mushrooms
• 1 can of chopped tomatoes
• 3 tbsp tomato paste
• salt and pepper to taste
• carbs to serve: Italian bread, mash, pasta or rice. Personally, I like the way that bread and mash mop up the juices. 

Method

Slice chicken and dice chorizo. 

Heat a large deep frying pan that has a lid. Add oil, and cook chicken and chorizo, stirring, for a few minutes till beginning to brown. 

Drain and rinse chickpeas. Add to pan with balsamic, oregano, basil, and smoked paprika (if you don't have smoked, regular will be fine). Stir and cook a few more minutes. 

Add onions, mushrooms, capsicum and garlic. Stir for a few more minutes before adding tomatoes and tomato paste. 

Reduce heat, season with salt and pepper, cover and leave to simmer for 15 minutes. Check and stir occasionally during this time. If you're cooking mash, rice or pasta, get these on now. Finally, remove the lid and increase heat for about 5 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken a little before serving. 

Serve with carbs and dig in. 

*To lyonnaise onion, watch this short video, basically you top and tail each half and slice on an angle along the lines that naturally form in the onion. 

Cannellini and Spinach Pesto Spaghetti with Tomato Feta and Pumpkin Seeds.

Following the very festive season I felt like I needed to take a break from meat, and was craving some simple, wholesome and vegetarian meals. In particular, cannellini beans. Also, with all the time away the fridge was rather bare. So after a little inspiration from a recipe I found on foodandwine.com  I concocted this delicious simple pasta meal.

It was ready in 20 minutes and made a fantastic lunch cold the next day. 

I've been enjoying my new food processor and am interested to dabble with other pesto/sauce recipes, so please feel free to suggest other ideas. 

You could also make this meal vegan by omitting the feta, or gluten free by using gluten free pasta. 

Ingredients

• 150g baby spinach
• 1 can cannellini beans
• 2 clove garlic
• juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• salt and pepper to taste
• 400g dried spaghetti
• 2 tomatoes
• 200g feta
• ¼ c pumpkin seeds

Method

1. Place spinach and peeled and roughly chopped garlic in food processor.  Pour boiling water over the spinach, leave for 1 minute, then pour out water, squeezing out most of the excess.
2. Add drained and rinsed cannellini beans with lemon juice, olive oil and oregano. Blend until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Boil spaghetti in salted water according to packet directions. Meanwhile, heat a dry pan and toast pumpkin seeds until some begin to pop.
4. Drain pasta and toss through pesto.  Divide pasta among four bowls. Sprinkle with diced tomato, crumbled feta and pumpkin seeds on top. Finally drizzle with more olive oil and salt and pepper.

Thank you for reading my recipes.

Stef

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