Healthy

Lighten Up: Sunday Dinner

10/19/2007 09:09:00 PM

Tonight I present to you the first few recipes I've tried from Jill Dupleix's Lighten Up. We had the whole family home for dinner on Saturday, and I thought it was time I put the Nigella recipes aside for a (very) short while and try something a bit healthier.

A Healthy yet Celebratory Meal for 5

Cevapcici with Avjar (Lighten Up)
Domadorizo (Greek Insight Website)
Greek Salad
Garlic Bread
Coconut and Pineapple Soufflés (Lighten Up)


The cevapcici and soufflés are from Jill's book, whilst the rest came from the internet and other crafty sources. Cevapcici are skinless spicy grilled Greek sausages. I'd never had them before, but according to a friend of mine, they are all the rage in Greek restaurants in Germany, and are always served with tomato rice and spicy sauce. (Avjar, a spicy Croatian sauce, is Jill's suggested accompaniment which I managed to find at the supermarket). We made a Greek salad to add some much needed lightness to the meal, and we made garlic bread to use up a massive loaf of sourdough that I'd acquired that morning. To garlic-ify the bread, I made a mixture of minced garlic, parsley, and buttery-yet-heart-healthy rapeseed oil and brushed it onto the bread slices. We found a recipe for the tomato rice on the internet - link here. This recipes calls for you to cook rice via the absorption method, with a LOT of sautéed onions, tomato juice and a tin of tomatoes. It's very easy, and very flavourful.

The lunch took 2 of us the better part of the afternoon to prepare, but was a fun and relaxing way to spend a quiet day.
Domatorizo
Cevapcici. They are vastly healthier than conventional sausages, being made with lean beef and lamb, without preservatives, skins or filler. Wonderful. Incidentally, we all found them quite filling, and most of us only had 2 sausages with all the accompaniments.

Now, onto dessert. This is a very simple recipe, containing only eggs, crushed pineapple, shredded coconut and sugar. Lots of sugar. As Jill says in her introduction, they are an unintimidating, easy soufflé - stir, whisk, fold, bake. Done.

In the oven. You know, the main reason I made soufflés was to test out these gorgeous dishes my good friend Lisa sent me as a graduation gift. They're Pillivuyt, (my fave brand!), and are technically 'condiment' pots, but they can be used for anything. They come in a set of 5, with a cute wooden paddle for each one, and a porcelain base to keep them all together. (More photos to come). I love how petite they are, and that they look like baby latté cups. Thank-you so much Lisa!!

FYI, they are very miniature, cute pots, and make a delectable-sized dessert!

Of course, using such small containers meant that there was a lot of mixture left over, and as you can see in the first photo, meant I used a bunch of random ramekins to cook the excess. I have to say, as much as I loved the cevapcici, I was really disappointed by the dessert. They were just too sweet - incredibly so, and we could only manage the tiniest amount before giving up. Oh well, plenty more recipes where they came from!

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