curried chicken meatballs + yoghurt dipping sauce

I am not a patient person. So I'm often deterred from rolling things into little balls (unless it's bliss balls or a dessert, in which case I suck it up). So why the meatball recipe? Well, these are baked. You roll them into balls, place on a tray, then it's into the oven and that's it. No fiddling around trying to turn them in a frypan without breaking them (which usually leaves me cursing).

The meatballs are nice warm or cold, so handy as a starter dish if you're having a dinner party. I also pick at them from the fridge as a snack or post-workout protein source. Leftovers are also good thrown into a roast vegetable salad, with some of the yoghurt sauce drizzled on top. If you can't do dairy, you could use tahini in place of the yoghurt.

To make the meatballs, I use free-range chicken thigh mince (from Cannings Free Range Butchers) and Ayam Curry Powder. I'm a fan of Ayam Curry Powder because it doesn't contain any fillers, preservatives, sugar or MSG (which can often be found in off-the-shelf spice mixes). It just contains coriander seed, dried chilli, aniseed, cumin seed, turmeric, cinnamon, star anise, white pepper, fenugreek, nutmeg and cardamom. I keep a tin of it in my pantry for times when I can't be bothered concocting my own mix of spices.

ingredients

For the meatballs

• 500g free-range chicken mince
• 2 tsp curry powder or spice mix
• 1 egg
• pinch of sea salt

For the yoghurt sauce

• 1/2 cup thick Greek or natural yoghurt, organic if possible
• 1/4 - 1/2 clove of garlic
• squeeze of lemon juice
• sea salt

preparation

1. Preheat your oven to 200�C and line a baking tray with baking paper.  

2. To make the meatballs, mix the mince, curry powder, egg and sea salt in a large bowl until everything is well combined. I start off with a spoon and then get my hands in there to really massage it all together. Wet your hands first so they don't get too sticky. 

3. Roll the mixture into balls (about a tablespoon of mixture per ball) and place on the tray. I wet my hands after rolling every couple of balls to stop the mixture from sticking to my hands.

4. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes until browned.

5. To make the yogurt sauce, tip the yoghurt into a bowl and grate or crush about a 1/4 clove of garlic into the bowl. Go easy on the garlic to start with, as it can sneak up on you. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and pinch of sea salt and stir together. Taste and add more garlic, lemon juice and sea salt if needed. 

roast chicken with garlic

Have you ever spatchcocked a whole chicken? It sounds wrong. But spatchcocking (which involves �flattening� out the chicken) is a great technique to speed up the cooking time when roasting a chicken and it exposes more skin for crisping potential.

I roast a chicken like this quite often. It's what I call 'laissez-faire' cooking because it requires minimal preparation and then you just throw it in the oven, leaving you free to do other things. I love the addition of roasted garlic. The flavour permeates the chicken while it�s cooking and then you�re left with the little cloves of soft and sweet roasted garlic (which you can just squeeze out of their skins to enjoy with the chicken).

ingredients 

• 1 whole chicken * 
• 1-2 heads of garlic
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Salad leaves (or other vegetables) to serve

preparation

1. Preheat your oven to 180�C.

2. Rinse the chicken and pat dry with a paper towel. Place the chicken breast-side down on a chopping board with the legs facing you. Cut down both sides of the spine and discard the spine (or keep it for making stock). I do this using a pair of sharp kitchen scissors. Turn the chicken over and press down on the breastbone to flatten.

3. Separate the cloves of garlic, but leave them in their skins. Place the cloves in a roasting tray (large enough to fit the flattened chicken), drizzle with some olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

4. Place the flattened chicken, breast-side up, on top of the garlic. Drizzle a little olive oil over the chicken, rub it into the skin and season with salt and pepper.

5. Roast in the preheated oven for about 1 hour - 1 hour 30 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the skin is crispy. The cooking time will vary depending on the weight of your chicken. A 1.8kg chicken takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes in my oven. Towards the end of the cooking time, push the cloves of garlic out from under the chicken to the sides of the tray (you�ll need to carefully lift up one side of the chicken with tongs or a spatula to do this � take it out of the oven if you need to, just make sure you don�t burn yourself!).

6. Serve the chicken with the garlic cloves and some salad leaves, which I dress with the garlicky chicken juices from the tray.

* I have an embarrassing confession - the first time I bought a whole chicken and held it in my hands to start preparing it, I randomly started crying . It had hit me that it was a real animal before it ended up in my kitchen (of course my boyfriend got home right at that moment to find me standing at the sink, crying while holding the chicken. It was a bit awkward to explain). It's easy to forget where your meat has come from when you're just dealing with the separate parts. I eat meat because personally, my body requires it to function well. I buy meat that I feel confident has been raised and killed as humanely as possible. Free-range and grass-fed (without any added hormones or antibiotics) is best. 

quick lemon + garlic chicken with kale

This meal takes me 15 minutes to make and it only uses one pan. Sometimes the thought of having to wash multiple pots and pans puts me off cooking, and I'll end up eating a less than ideal "picked from the pantry" dinner consisting of handfuls of whatever I can find (usually eaten whilst still standing in the pantry). 

When I'm in a cooking mood, I'm all for marinating a chicken for a few hours. But when you need a quick dinner, this recipe provides the lemon/garlic flavour in a very short amount of time. I like to serve it with kale because it's incredibly nutrient dense (I used curly kale in the photo above), but you could substitute silver-beet or spinach. 

I cook this meal in olive oil because I cook it over a medium heat only and I prefer the flavour of olive oil with lemon and garlic. (When cooking over a higher heat, I use saturated fats like coconut oil because they remain stable at high temperatures).

ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts (or a few thighs)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Half a lemon
• Salt
• Pepper
• Bunch of kale
• Handful of flaked almonds
• Handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped
• Olive oil

preparation

1. Cut the chicken into strips about 2cm thick (this speeds up the cooking time).

2. Heat a frypan over a medium heat and finely slice the garlic. Fry the garlic in a teaspoon of olive oil in the pan for a minute or so, then add the chicken. 

3. Sear the chicken pieces on both sides, squeeze in the juice of half a lemon and season with salt and pepper. Cover the pan with a lid or some foil and leave it to simmer until the chicken is just cooked through. 

4. While chicken is cooking, remove the stalks from the kale and tear the leaves into bite sized pieces.

5. Once the chicken is cooked through, remove the chicken and the garlic from the pan, leaving the juices in the pan. (I tip the chicken and garlic onto the plate I'm going to eat off - more saving on dishes).

6. Throw the kale into the pan, adding a little more olive oil if needed, and move it around the pan in the chicken juices until it is slightly tender and wilted. Throw the chicken and garlic back into the pan and stir everything around. Top with the flaked almonds and parsley.

Serves 2.

grain-free tacos

These grain-free tacos are a regular on my dinner circuit. They aren't authentic, but you get all the nice fillings and flavours without the grains. I keep it quick and simple with spicy beef, red cabbage, seasoned mashed avocado and fresh herbs. But if you have more time, you can get creative with different meats, marinades and a proper guacamole.

ingredients

 

• 400g beef mince *
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• Pinch of cayenne pepper (or more if you like things really spicy)
• Salt
• Pepper
• 2 baby gem lettuces
• � red cabbage
• 1 ripe avocado
• Handful of fresh parsley or coriander
• Fresh lime wedges to serve (optional)

 

preparation

 

1. Heat a frypan on a high heat. Once hot, throw in the mince and start breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Add the paprika, cumin, cayenne pepper and a good sprinkling of salt and pepper. Continue to fry until the mince is cooked through.

 

2. Snap off the gem lettuce leaves and give them a good rinse. Finely slice the red cabbage and roughly chop the parsley or coriander. Mash the avocado in a bowl with a fork, then season with salt.

 

3. To serve, place a gem lettuce leaf on a plate and top with some of the spicy mince, then some red cabbage, a dollop of avocado and a sprinkling of the fresh parsley or coriander. They're also nice with a squeeze of lime. I find it easiest to put all the ingredients out on the table so everyone can construct their own tacos.

 

Serves 2

(Potentially with some leftover mince, which could be added to an omelette, frittata, salad or scrambled eggs for breakfast the next morning).

 

* Grass-fed meat is best if you can get it.

 

basic frittata

I'm a frittata fiend. I make them a lot because they are easy, portable, nice hot or cold, cheap to make (although I always buy organic, free-range eggs for ethical reasons), they result in leftovers (unless you're ravenous or have an unusually small frypan) and you can throw in whatever you have lying around. 

 

I like to add vegetables into the mix and often mince, chicken or salmon as well for added flavour and protein. This one includes broccolini, beef mince and artichoke. But throw in whatever you have. The frittata is very forgiving.

ingredients

• 400g beef mince *
• Bunch of broccolini, rinsed and roughly chopped
• 8 eggs
• 4-5 marinated artichoke hearts, roughly chopped
• Salt
• Pepper

preparation

1. Preheat your oven to 180�C and heat an ovenproof frypan on a medium heat. I use a 24cm frypan. Once the pan is hot, throw in the beef mince and fry, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until cooked through. I don't use any cooking oil, but if your mince is very lean, you could fry it in a teaspoon of coconut oil.

2. Remove the mince from the pan, then throw the broccolini into the pan and briefly saut� it in the leftover mince juices.

3. Whisk the eggs together in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Add the mince back into the pan and stir it around with the broccolini so that everything is evenly distributed.

4. Pour the whisked eggs over the mince and broccolini, tilting the pan slightly to evenly distribute the eggs. Leave the pan on a medium heat for about 10 minutes.

5. Sprinkle the chopped artichoke hearts over the frittata, then place the pan in the preheated oven for a final 10 minutes until the top of the frittata is set.

* Grass-fed meat is best if you can get it.