Tag Archives: low-fat

Greek Lentil & Spinach Soup with Lemon

23 Apr

Lentil soup Greek

Hi friends! I hope you haven’t given up on me although I’ve been MIA for several months. First we were getting ready to move, and then we moved, and then we got locked down. So now that we’re unpacked and as settled as we can be without going out to do any of the things we need to do, we have time to do some cooking. We just made this rather complex lentil soup (complex because of so many ingredients, which took us awhile to assemble), and it was deelish! It’s vegan, gluten-free and low fat too! Hope you enjoy.

Ingredients:

1 lb. brown lentils, rinsed and picked over
10 cups vegetable broth or water
1 jalapeno pepper, stemmed, seeded and chopped
2 tsp. whole coriander seeds
1½ tsp. cumin seeds
2½ tsp. dried oregano
2 bay leaves
2 medium potatoes ( 1¼ lb.), scrubbed and cut into ½-inch dice
10 oz. baby spinach, chopped
1 small butternut squash (1 lb.) peeled and cut into ½-inch dice (about 3 cups)
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, with leaves, sliced
3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp. kosher salt (or more to taste)
½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper (or more to taste)
⅓ cup lemon juice
1 lemon, sliced

Directions:

In a large soup pot over medium-high heat, combine the lentils, stock or water, jalapeno, coriander, cumin, oregano and bay leaves. Bring to the boil and then reduce heat to low. Simmer, partly covered, about 30 minutes, until lentils are tender.

Add the potatoes, spinach and butternut squash, re-cover and cook another 20 minutes, until the potatoes and squash are tender.

In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the olive oil and cook the onion, stirring, until it starts to soften, about 3 or 4 minutes. Add the celery and garlic and cook, stirring often, until they soften, about 3 minutes. Add the mixture to the soup; deglaze the pan if necessary with a little of the soup liquid. Add the salt and pepper. Discard the bay leaves.

Just before serving, stir the lemon juice into the soup. Serve the soup hot, with a lemon slice floating atop each bowl.

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Chicken with apples and caramelized onions

6 May

Adapted from a recipe in the Detroit Free Press (many years ago), which says it was “from and tested by the Chicago Tribune.”

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. olive oil
1 medium onion, halved and sliced thin
1 medium tart apple, cored, halved and thinly sliced
1 Tbs. balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. honey
1 tsp. minced ginger
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat the broiler or a grill pan.

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion softens, about 5 minutes. Add the apple, balsamic vinegar, honey and ginger. Cook, stirring frequently, until the apple slices soften and the onions caramelize, about 10 minutes.

While the onions and apples are cooking, season the chicken and broil, turning halfway through cooking, until cooked through, about 12 minutes total.

Cut the chicken lengthwise into slices and transfer to plates. Top with the onion-apple mixture.

Serves 2

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Almond and Mushroom Chicken

5 Aug

almond chickenHere’s a recipe that’s been in my collection forever — the newspaper clipping is yellowed — but I never made it until last week. It originally came from the Detroit Free Press as part of their Heart Smart collection in conjunction with Henry Ford Health System. Another way I know it’s old is it says it was “tested in the Free Press Tower Kitchen,” and the Freep has been gone from their tower office building for many years. The dish low-cal, low-fat and low-sodium. I modified the original just a bit, because cooking it as long as the recipe suggested resulted in slightly dry chicken.

It’s easier if you buy dry toasted slivered almonds, which are available at Trader Joe and other stores. If you have raw slivered almonds, toast them in a 325-degree oven for about 10 minutes; after five minutes, shake the pan every minute or so and check to make sure the nuts aren’t getting too brown. They should be slightly brown and fragrant.

This is good served with rice, which helps sop up the extra juices.

Ingredients:

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Black pepper to taste
Paprika to taste
1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted
1 Tbs. vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
4 oz. fresh mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 Tbs. lemon juice
1/4 cup sherry
Parsley for garnish

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place the chicken breasts in a 9 x 13-inch baking dish and sprinkle with black pepper and paprika.

Heat the oil in a large skillet and saute the onion and mushrooms for 3 minutes.

Add the lemon juice, sherry and almonds and stir well.Spoon the mixture over the chicken pieces.

Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the thickness of the chicken breasts.

Garnish with chopped parsley, if desired, and serve.

Serves 6

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Chicken Piccante with Artichokes

4 Jun

Chicken Piccante With ArtichokesYou’ll be seeing a lot of recipes from me using boneless, skinless chicken breast this summer. There are three reasons for this. First of all, chicken breasts are the basis for many quick, easy summer meals. Many of them call for grilling or broiling the chicken breasts, which is a nice way to cook when it’s hot. (Today’s recipe uses poached chicken which is finished in the oven — but for only 15 minutes.)

Secondly, those who have been following my blog since the beginning know that a big reason I started it was to get my humongous collection of recipe clippings in order, and I’m discovering a lot of chicken breast recipes that I clipped but never made. I’ll be trying them out over the summer and sharing the results.

Finally, and I blush to admit this, every time I go to Costco I seem unable to leave without a package of Empire frozen skinless, boneless chicken breasts. Consequently, I have three such packages in my freezer — and need to use them up!

This recipe came from a newspaper, and I’m guessing it was the Detroit Free Press because there’s a little heart next to the title and they used to print recipes from Henry Ford Hospital’s Heart Smart program. It has only 236 calories and 2 grams of fat per serving, so it’s a great  recipe for weight watchers as well as cholesterol watchers – yet it’s tasty and elegant enough to serve for company.

Ingredients:

2 cups chicken broth
6 skinless boneless chicken breasts (approx. 4 oz. each), washed and patted dry
1 whole lemon,  cut into 8 wedges and seeded
¼ cup scallions, chopped
30 baby mushroom caps, cleaned (if you have larger mushrooms, halve or quarter them)
6 canned artichoke hearts in water, drained
3 cloves garlic, minced
Pinch white pepper
3 Tbs. cornstarch
½ cup dry white wine
3 cups rice or noodles, cooked

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bring the chicken broth to a boil in a large skillet. Add the chicken breasts, reduce heat to a simmer and cover; poach the chicken breasts for 10 minutes.

Remove the chicken to a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Squeeze the lemon juice into the broth and place the wedges in the broth. Add the scallions, mushrooms, artichokes, garlic and white pepper and simmer for 5 minutes.

Mix the cornstarch and the wine in a small bowl, stirring until it is smooth. Add to the broth a little at a time, stirring until thick and smooth. Remove lemon and discard. Pour the sauce and vegetable mixture over the chicken breasts and heat in the oven for 15 minutes. Serve over rice or noodles.

Serves 6

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Jo-Ann’s Chinese Chicken Salad

1 Mar

Jo-Ann's Chinese Chicken SALAD We recently ate for half a week from one Empire kosher Cornish roasting chicken! We roasted the chicken for Shabbat dinner, eating the wings, a bit of the breast, and the meat that clung to the carcass after we carved the pieces off.  (Of course we froze the carcass so we could make Cheater’s Chicken Soup later!) We used the leftover dark meat for Chicken Pilaf (recipe to come), which made enough for a dinner and a lunch. Then we used the leftover breast for this lovely chicken salad. We used half the amounts given in this recipe, and it made two huge portions.

This recipe comes from Jane Brody’s Good Food Gourmet, an excellent cookbook. Brody, in turn, says she got it from her friend, and founder of the Jane Brody Fan Club, Jo-Ann Friedman. The only change I made is to increase the dressing amounts a bit because I found that using the stated amount of dressing left the salad a little dry (and I don’t like a lot of dressing; if I change the amount given in a recipe it’s usually to decrease it!)

You can substitute some of the vegetables if you like; I have made this using bean sprouts instead of zucchini. You can use leftover chicken  breast or cook chicken breasts just for this salad.

Here is Jane Brody’s method for cooking the chicken breasts if you start with raw chicken. Place the chicken breasts in a medium-sized saucepan and add 1½ cups of water, 1 Tbs. vinegar, ½ tsp. salt and ¼ tsp. red pepper flakes. Bring the liquid to a boil, remove the pan from the heat, cover the pan and let the chicken stand for 10 minutes. Remove from the liquid and cool before making the salad (and save the liquid to use for making chicken soup!)

Ingredients:

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cut into strips about 1½ x ¼ inches
½ lb. snow peas or sugar snap peas, trimmed and steamed for 2 minutes
½ lb. broccoli flowerets, steamed for 5 minutes
1 small zucchini, unpeeled, julienned
½ sweet red pepper, cored, seeded and julienned
½ sweet yellow pepper or the rest of the rest pepper, cored, seeded and julienned
2 scallions, slivered diagonally
⅓ cup rice vinegar
1½ Tbs. Oriental sesame oil
1½ Tbs. soy sauce
1½ tsp. grated gingerroot
Cayenne pepper – several dashes to taste
1 Tbs. toasted sesame seeds
Lettuce or salad greens (optional)

Directions:

In a serving bowl, combine the chicken and vegetables.

In a small jar or bowl, shake or whisk together the vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, gingerroot and cayenne pepper.

Just before serving, stir the dressing and pour it over the salad. Sprinkle the sesame seeds on the salad and toss gently. Serve on a bed of lettuce or salad greens if you like.

Serves 4

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