Blazing Bonfire Bariatric Food

 

 

As a child I loved Bonfire Night (5th November) – we would wrap up warm, head outside and relish the delights of the fire-cooked specials like jacket potatoes and roasted chestnuts cooked in the embers of the fire and toasted marshmallows cooked on long toasting forks or skewers. Such food was always supplemented with some soup; sausages in rolls; one-pot dish, like a chilli, in a bowl; toffee apples; sticky gingerbread; and Yorkshire parkin cake. Add to that mix, the thrill of sparklers, sky-bound rockets, spinning Catherine wheels and unexpected if alarming firework ‘bangers’ and we had the makings of a pretty memorable seasonable event.

 

These days our Bonfire events tend to be more organised rather than impromptu back garden/yard affairs and can be so much better and safer for being so. But the food at such can be disappointing, costly and non wls-surgery friendly. So we mix and match – do the food at home for both before and after but leave the bonfire and firework extravaganza to the experts. We’ll be using the best of autumn produce – pumpkins, squash, apples and nuts.

 

 

So what will we be having? Well the usual toasted marshmallows (maybe sugar-free ones); toffee apples for those who haven’t had surgery but chocolate dribbled for those who have (using just a bit of no-sugar added chocolate); soup for sure (maybe using pumpkin made from last week’s Hallowe’en pumpkin); sausages in all their guises (and variety since this is the start of Sausage Week in the UK so there are great bargains to be had and umpteen variations to sample); and I am offering two more recipes for those who can’t tolerate sausages or who want something different to the usual hog-fest! I like both and will check out the bargains tomorrow (with another eye on numbers to cater for) to make my final choice.

 

 

 

 

So for starters look at a soup. Here I am chopping up some of our own pumpkins and squash for a special soup, now in my freezer and ready for Wednesday night.

 

 

 

See from left to right:  Bonfire night Pumpkin Soup (recipe here); Shallot and Pumpkin Soup (recipe here); and Spiced Pumpkin Soup (recipe here)

 

 

 

Forget the teeth-rotting (and cracking) toffee apples and just drizzle your favourites with some melted no-sugar added white or plain chocolate.

 

And if sausages are still on your ‘wanted’ list then consider these:

 

From left to right: Spooky sausage Wraps (recipe here); Low-Fat Sausage and Pink Lady Casserole (from ‘Return 2 Slender … Second Helpings bariatric cookery book) book here and pdf download here; and Sausages with Asparagus, Squash and Courgette Ribbons (recipe here)

 

 

 And finally here are two ideas for a special Bonfire Night dish that are a bit different to the usual banger/sausage affair:

 

Beef Lomo Saltado is one of the darlings of Peruvian home cooking. It’s a type of South American stir-fry made with beef and often served with fries. This variation uses roasted sweet potatoes instead for a healthier and bariatric-friendly version. Please note that the recipes serves 3 but can be doubled or halved quite easily. Serve with vegetable rice for a more substantial dish.

 

 

 

 

BEEF LOMO SALTADO

Ingredients

METRIC/US

225g/8 oz lean beef sirloin or good quality steak, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 cove garlic, crushed

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 medium sweet potato, cut into cubes

low-fat cooking spray or mist

250g/8 oz Tenderstem broccoli

1 small red chilli pepper, seeded and finely sliced

1/2 medium red onion, finely sliced

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tbsp beef stock/bouillon

150g/5 oz cherry tomatoes, cut in half

1 spring onion/scallion, cut into small pieces

handful of coriander/cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped

 

METHOD

1.  Preheat the oven to 200 C/400F/gas mark 6.

2.  Mix the steak with the garlic and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and set aside.

3.  Place the sweet potato on a tray and spritz liberally with low-fat cooking spray or mist. Roast in the oven for 20-25 minutes until tender.

4.  Meanwhile, steam the broccoli until tender crisp and set aside.

5.  To cook, liberally spritz a wok or large frying pan with low-fat cooking spray or mist. Add the beef and cook quickly until it browns. Add the chilli, onion, vinegar and stock/bouillon and simmer for 30 seconds, stirring frequently.

6.  Add the tomatoes, broccoli and spring onion/scallion.

7.  Remove from the heat and sprinkle with the sweet potato cubes and coriander/cilantro to serve.

 

SERVES 3

WLS PORTION 3/4-1

 

CALORIES PER PORTION: 205

PROTEIN: 22.9g

CARBOHYDRATE: 19.4g

FAT: 4.4g

 

Image courtesy of Tenderstem Broccoli www.tenderstem.co.uk

 

The second new offering is a salmon recipe that is guaranteed to cause an explosion on the taste buds. It is a warming, spicy dish but you can omit the chillies if you can’t tolerate them too well. Firecracker Salmon makes for a great colourful eye-catching dish and I feel sure if you don’t want to use salmon then some thin tender fillets of chicken would work just as well in the dish.

 

 

FIRECRACKER SALMON

 

Ingredients

METRIC/US

4 X 125g/4 oz fillets of Wild Alaska salmon

2 tbsp light soy sauce

2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

2 small red or green chillies, seeded and thinly sliced (optional)

2 tsp grated root ginger or lazy ginger

finely grated zest and juice of 1 lime

2 yellow or red peppers/capsicums, sliced

1 red onion, thinly sliced

low-fat cooking spray or mist

4 small bunches of cherry tomatoes on the vine

salt and freshly ground black pepper

lime wedges and chopped flat leaf parsley to garnish

 

METHOD

1.  Preheat the oven to 200 C/400F/gas mark 6.

2.  Put the salmon in a shallow dish. Mix the soy sauce with the chilli sauce, chillies if used, ginger, lime zest and lime juice. Pour over the salmon, cover and leave to marinate for at least 20 minutes.

3.  Put the peppers/capsicums and red onion in a non-stick baking dish. Spritz liberally with the low-fat cooking spray. Top with the salmon and drizzle with the marinade. Cook, uncovered, in the oven for 10 minutes.

4.  Add the tomatoes and cook for a further 10 minutes until the salmon is cooked. Serve with lime wedges and sprinkled with chopped flat leaf parsley.

 

SERVES 4

WLS PORTION: 1/2

 

CALORIES PER PORTION: 235

PROTEIN: 29.5g

CARBOHYDRATE: 15.9g

FAT:  6.2g

 

Image courtesy of Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute