Blend and Go...

Vegetable and Fruit Smoothie

Ingredients

1 sharon fruit

2 small carrots

Handful baby spinach

5 cubes frozen pineapple

3 frozen strawberries

1 cup soya milk

1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lime juice

Instructions

Place all ingredients in a blender or nutribullet

Blend until smooth.

Pour in a glass and enjoy.

Coconut Cream Chicken Legs

Ingredients

4 chicken legs 

6 garlic cloves 

Thumb sized ginger

2 star anise

160 ml coconut cream

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon dry thyme

2 tablespoons soy sauce 

1 teaspoon hot smoked paprika

2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice. 

1 teaspoon olive oil 

Instructions

• Combine all ingredients except the chicken legs in a nutribullet or a blender, blend until smooth. 
• Place the chicken legs in a bowl and pour over the spice mix. Cover and  marinate overnight. 
• Preheat oven at 140 degrees. Transfer marinated chicken legs onto an oven tray or cast iron pan. 
• Bake until chicken is properly cooked. Takes like 45minutes to an hour. 
• Enjoy.

Honey Chicken

I love experimenting with different ingredients to vamp up a basic chicken drumstick recipe. I found that this one in particular gave them the right amount of stickiness (so mind your fingers) and right amount of sweetness that I was just hoping for. Honey can be used in both sweet and savory dishes and it has been hailed for its numerous health benefits. It may seem scary at first to start dousing your chicken in honey, but I can assure you’ll never be a great cook unless you get out of your comfort zone and try something new. Soy sauce is very good for creating depth in the flavor so I also used a combination of salt and soy sauce, which eliminated the use Knorr cube seasoning. 

Ingredients

1kg Chicken legs/thighs

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

1 teaspoon hot paprika

Fresh thyme

1 tablespoon sunflower oil

1 teaspoon ground garlic

1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary

1 and 1/2 tablespoon clear honey

Instructions

Mix all ingredients together and leave in the fridge to marinate for about 30 minutes to an hour 

Set the oven at 120 degrees Celsius  

Place the chicken on a baking tray or a deep pan and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. 

Within this cooking time, be sure to turn the chicken so they can be coated in the flavoursome marinade and cook thoroughly.

Once the kitchen starts to linger with the sweet smell of the chicken and they have a deep brown colour, the chicken is ready. 

They can be served hot or cold.

Enjoy!

Edited by Pearl Okeke

@pearlify_xo 

Savoy Cabbage Wraps

Have you ever been in a rush, you have a list of things to do, your daughter’s hair is calling your name, but you just can’t tame the hunger in you stomach? That was my exact predicament, before that birthed this beautiful recipe. I wanted something light, something that I could munch, something that could serve as an ‘in-between snack’ before family dinner later on; Savoy Cabbage Wraps.

Another sneaky way to make your eating less calorific is by exchanging the average buns or pitta breads that are used to envelope your wraps with and replace it with something a little lighter; cabbage! Savoy cabbage is incredibly delicious and low in fat and calories. If you want a quick snack or something that won’t make you feel heavy, try out this cabbage wrap recipe.

Ingredients 

500g chicken breasts (cut in strips)

1 ripe plantain (sliced and fried)

1 red chili (sliced)

1 pointed pepper (sliced)

Handful basil leaves (finely chopped)

1 cup king prawns 

2 garlic cloves (crushed)

1 teaspoon maple syrup

1 tablespoon coconut oil

 ½ teaspoon of salt

avocado 

Wraps

 

3 Savoy Cabbage Leaves

Instructions

Season the chicken strips with the salt and maple syrup.

In a non-stick frying pan, add coconut oil and the crushed garlic.

Allow it to heat up then add the seasoned chicken strips.

Stir-fry for about 4 minutes or until they are cooked through.

Add the prawns (if prawns are frozen, thaw by microwaving and discard the water from it) and the peppers and continue to fry for 3 minutes.

Then throw in the chopped basil leaves and the previously fried plantain.

Now turn off the heat.

Place the savoy cabbage leaves on a board and carefully place one spoon size of the chicken stir-fry mix inside and add avocado slices.

Wrap up the cabbage and enjoy!

The beauty of this recipe is that you can mix and match whatever ingredients you want to include. Why not try some healthy fats like our good green avocado, or another type of protein by using beef strips. Use the ingredients you love.

Edited by Pearl Okeke 

Instagram: @pearlify_xo  

Foodace's style Okra Soup

INGREDIENTS REQUIRED

1kg fresh Okra (finely sliced)

goat meat or any meat of choice (about 500g)

stock from goat meat and stockfish)

1 large Onion (finely diced)

A cup of Palm oil

stock fish (I sock mine in warm water and salt overnight and its softens)

1 small pointed pepper (tatahse)

spinach leaves or kale (washed and sliced)

3 knorr chicken seasoning cubes or any of choice

Salt

TO GET YOUR STOCK

In a small pot, add the goat meat, 2 knorr chicken seasoning cubes, 1/4 diced onions, little salt, water (up to the level of meat) and bring to boil. Once boiling, add the stock, reduce gas heat to the lowest point and allow to slowly cook until meat is soft or completely cooked. Then turn of gas and set aside.

COOKING OKRA SOUP

Divide the finely sliced fresh okra in 2 batches. Add one into a food processor and  further cut them by using the PULSE and STOP method. Do this couple of times, for like 4 times. The reason for this is that, when cooked the okra becomes more slimy.

In a pot, add the palm oil, 1/3 of the remaining diced onion and heat up. Once it starts sizzling, add finely sliced okra (the one in the food processor). Also,  add the remaining knorr seasoning cube. Fry for about 3 - 5 minutes, then add the cooked meat and stock fish and also the stock. Stir, cover pot with lid and allow to cook for another 3 -5  minutes. 

Then add the remaining okra, diced onion and sliced pointed pepper. Turn very well and add salt to taste, if need be.  Also add extra oil if need be and bring to boil.

Once it starts bubbling, add the sliced spinach or kale, stir in and allow to cook for a minute and turn of the gas. 

Enjoy... 

NOTE:

I estimated most of the ingredients as I did not weight them but this is exactly how I cook okra soup. It will be updated once I make another batch. Many thanks for your understanding.  

FOODACE

Plaintain chips made with semi ripe plantain

Ingredients

2 semi ripe Plantains

Frying oil for deep frying

Preparations

Peel the back of the plantains. Watch how you can do that here

slice using a mandolin slicer

Heat up the oil and then fry in small batches until crunchy

Allow to cool, then serve.

Yam Stir Fry - Ji agworu agwo

Yam is not a frequent meal on my menu but whenever I cook it, I try to make it very interesting, not just for me but for the family as well. Living in the UK, it is difficult to buy everything I need for my African dishes. This is why I always seem to cook most of our dishes with fewer ingredients but they still come out very beautiful! So here is my take on yam porridge (Ji ngwo-ngwo)!

Ingredients

1medium size yam

spinach leaves

Green vegetable/callaloo (any quantity)

1 large red onion (chopped)

1/2  cup of Palm oil

1 Cup ukpaka or ugba 

2 scotch bonnet

2 knorr cubes

Salt

PREPARATIONS

  Pluck out the leaves of the vegetable from the stem and discard the stem;wash the leaves, cut and set aside. Peel the yam, slice and then cut each slice into 4 . 

In medium pot, put in yam cubes and then add water. The yam should be completely covered with water. 

Add a teaspoon of salt, cook until yam is soft or cooked. Once cooked, drain the water and set aside.

In a clean pot, pour in the oil and  onion, Then heat up for couple of seconds, add the ugba. Fry for a minute.

Now, add the yam and sprinkle half of the knorr cube, so that the yam will be tasty. Turn, reduce the gas and cover the pot, this enables the yam soak up a little bit of the palm oil. 

You could allow this for over a minute; then add the vegetables and the remaining cube; turn, turn again and again…

The reason for turning as much as one can, is to enable the yam bring out its crumbs, which in turn helps make the yam more "ngwongwo"

Serve hot and enjoy…