March 2015 - Spiced Up By Bilal

Browse Month by March 2015

Mighty Mung

ByBilalBham | On March 28,15 | 4 Comments

Mung, or moong, is a green bean that’s popular over the Asian subcontinent, and very popular in our household! Mung is a good mix of proteins, carbs and fibre and is a staple food in India, where my family come from. It is popular among those who are vegetarian and vegan, so if you want a nutritional punch without the meat and dairy, this is the dish for you!

Growing up here in England, we had mung at least once a week! Traditionally, we had it with my mum’s delicious chappati, and my dad and I used to lap it up, by breaking the chappati up into little pieces and mixing it in the mung and digging in! My mum would also add yoghurt to the mung for thickness and taste, so I have continued with that but changed from dairy to soya yoghurt because of my lactose intolerance, acid reflux and IBS – believe me, the payback is definitely not worth it, not even a little bit… Think the film Bridesmaids…!

Nowadays, I am off the refined carbs due to my digestive issues with carbs and also my health and fitness reasons – there is a reason this is fitness food blog – which is my quest for a 6-pack! I am not that far off currently but I am going to motor on with this no refined carb and no dairy diet, it’s working for me both in terms of my health and fitness 🙂

One of the things I am trying to do is increase the nutritional value of all of our traditional dishes whilst removing the refined carbs. In this case I decided to add coloured vegetables in the form of chilli and peppers to increase the complex carbs and upped the protein by adding some tofu! The result is a delicious mix that has surprised me over and over again by how tasty it turned out, and it impressed my dear mother too! With my modifications, you get your protein, carbs and fibre, spice and taste all in one dish, what more could you ask for? 🙂

INGREDIENTS

1/2 onion

1/2 red onion

2 spring onions

3 cloves of garlic (I love garlic in my food)

1 cm of ginger

1 cm haldi (not tamarind as I say in the video, my apologies!)

1 red chilli

1 green chilli

1/2 long red pepper

1 long green pepper

1 fresh tomato

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

200g tofu

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

1 tablespoon dried coriander

100ml soya yoghurt

1 litre of filtered and boiled water

First full fresh coriander

2 saucepans, 1 medium, 1 small

INSTRUCTIONS

In the large saucepan, add 500mL filtered boiling water and add in the 100 g mung. Stir, cover with lid and allow to boil on ¾ heat for at least 30 minutes, or until all the mung have split;
Continue to check on the large saucepan every 10 minutes or so for water and stir (add more water if you need, and trust me, you will need to! With the rest of the boiled water in the kettle, prepare a cup of tea!);
In the small saucepan slice and dice in the onions (hold back the green leaves of the spring onions until the end), add 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds and allow the onions to turn brown whilst stirring;
Once the onions brown, add the garlic (I cut the garlic knobs up, press them in a garlic crusher and add them directly into the saucepan), chopped ginger, haldi and tomatoes, curry leaves and dried coriander;
Continue to stir gently until the tomato cooks through;
Check on the mung (should be done around the 30-minute mark), and if the mung beans have popped, add in the contents of the small saucepan, chop in the red and green chillies (add them later at point 8 if you want your mung less spicy) add ½ teaspoon of salt and stir;
Turn the heat down to a quarter, taste the mung and add salt and black pepper to taste;
Chop in the red and green peppers, stir and cover with the lid and to cook for about 5 minutes;
Add the chopped tofu and spring onion leaves and cover for 5 minutes;
Feel free to add any coriander to finish and you are ready to eat!

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Eating time: 15 minutes

Serves up to 4 people

I made enough for the next day as we had a busy weekend ahead!

Let me know how you get on and please feel free to provide feedback J

Dinner, Lunch

Spicy Green Prawns

Spicy Green Prawn Curry With Quinoa

ByBilalBham | On March 21,15 | 0 Comment

My mum’s prawn curry has to be one of my all-time favourite dishes that I look forward to every month! We tend to limit the amount of prawns we eat because of the high level of LDL cholesterol in prawns but once or twice a month we can’t go wrong!

I looooove the delicious sauce my mother makes, it is absolutely divine, and back when I was eating chappati, I could have 1 or 2 easily by dipping then piece by piece into the sauce and devouring, without even having touched the prawns! Mum usually adds potatoes but I felt that wasn’t enough for what I wanted to achieve.

I believe in serving you up the tastiest, healthiest, most nutrient-rich and of course spicy, food as possible to help you continue to make fitness gains without compromising on taste! Who said Indian food was unhealthy?! As you may already know, I am off the chappati and my mission is to create spicy, tasty, healthy, complex-carb rich food without the need for refined carbs, which block my plumbing and, well, I really am not going back to that painful place! Therefore, protein-rich pillau quinoa, with the method we use to cook pillau rice, is the way forward for me and for you if you want!

Now my mother uses fresh unpeeled and uncooked king prawns which I love because their shell adds to the gorgeous sauce, however, being someone who doesn’t like to get his hands dirty whilst eating (call me lazy and particular if you wish!), I decided to go for the easier option of shelled and cooked prawns!

INGREDIENTS

Spicy Green Prawns

1 onion

1 red onion

3 spring onions

4 cloves of garlic (I love garlic in my food!)

1 cm of ginger

1 cm haldi (not tamarind as I say in the video, my apologies!)

1 red chilli

1 green chilli

1 long red pepper

1 long green pepper

1 medium cauliflower

2 heads broccoli

1 carrot

150g cooked king prawns/300g fresh king prawns

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

1 tablespoon dried coriander

1 litre of filtered and boiled water

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

200ml of filtered water, boiled

INGREDIENTS

Pillau Quinoa

100g quinoa

1 onion

4 cardamom seeds

8 cloves

8 black pepper seeds

200ml of filtered water, boiled.

Salt

Olive oil

INSTRUCTIONS

Spicy Green Prawns

In a saucepan on ¾ heat, add 3 tablespoons of olive oil (put the water on to boil for the quinoa);
Slice and dice the onions (hold back the green leaves of the spring onions until the end), garlic (I cut the garlic knobs up, press them in a garlic crusher and add them directly into the saucepan) and ginger and add to the saucepan to sauté. Stir regularly until the mix starts to bronze;
To the onions, add in the tin of chopped tomatoes, dried coriander, tamarind and a half a teaspoon of salt and chop in the chillies (if you want your dish less spicy, add the chillies in with the other vegetables in point 7);
Allow to simmer and continue to stir gently until the water evaporates;
Slice the carrots, and cut the broccoli and cauliflower into manageable chunks;
Add the boiling water to the saucepan and then add in the carrots, broccoli and cauliflower (and stir gently for a couple of minutes);
Turn the heat down to a quarter, taste the soup and add salt and pepper to taste;
Cover with the lid and leave the mix to cook for about 10 minutes;
Add the prawns and chopped spring onion leaves and cover for 5 minutes;
Feel free to add any coriander to finish and you are ready to eat!

Pillau Quinoa

Begin making your quinoa preparations at point 6 of cooking the spicy green prawns;
In a saucepan on ¾ heat, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil (put the water on to boil);
Slice and dice in the onion and stir, sauté until the onions caramelise;
Add in the spice mix of cardamom, black pepper, cloves and cinnamon sticks;
Add in the boiling water and a ½ teaspoon of salt;
Add the quinoa and stir gently. I gently rinse the quinoa first in lukewarm water and then drain it before adding it to the saucepan;
Allow the quinoa to simmer, turn the heat down to a quarter, and cover with the lid;
Check on it 3 to 5 minutes later and gently turn the quinoa over with a plastic or wooden spoon to ensure you keep your quinoa seeds in tact;
Repeat step 8 until the quinoa is cooked and all the water evaporates;
You are now ready to eat!

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Eating time: 15 minutes

Serves up to 4 people

I made enough curry to last us another day and my mother and I like to eat our quinoa fresh!

Let me know how you get on and please feel free to provide feedback 🙂

Breakfast, Snack, Teatime

Spicy Masala Chai

ByBilalBham | On March 18,15 | 0 Comment

If you go to an Indian (or any Asian subcontinent) household you won’t simply be offered tea, but a choice of “English or Indian/Desi tea”!

What is the difference you may ask? Well, English tea is what we are accustomed to here in the UK: boil water, add to the kettle/mug with teabag, add milk, sweeten to taste, and voila!

Indian tea on the other hand requires a bit more than just hot water! First of all we use spices to help create that familiar scentsational aroma and up the antioxidants…. and then, depending how milky you like it, you can have 100% milk, 50-50 milk and water or 100% water and add some milk at the end. As you may know, I am lactose intolerant so use alternative non-dairy milk, and use sweetener from the stevia plant instead of sugar because it’s healthier!

You can purchase a quick and cheap version of this on the high street in coffee chains. On of them calls their version of it “Chai Tea Latte”, Chai means tea and latte is Italian for milk, so they are advertising “Tea Tea Milk”! Urgh! One of my pedantic gripes!

Here is how we make Indian tea in our home which serves 2 people.

INGREDIENTS

3 mugs of soya milk/almond/hazelnut/coconut milk

Stevia according to desired sweetness

4 small cinnamon sticks

4 cardamom seeds

8 whole black pepper

8 clove seeds

Small shaving of nutmeg seed

2 tea bags/4 spoons of loose tea (tea bags are easier to clean up!)

INSTRUCTIONS

1) On 3/4 heat, add all ingredients into a saucepan.

2) Stir until your tea to ensure good mixing – the darker your the, the stronger it will be!

3) Let the tea cook for about 5 mins.

4) Bring your tea to the boil a couple of times by increasing and then decreasing the heat, all the time ensuring you continue to stir – make sure you don’t let your tea overflow!

5) Breakfast or teatime, your Spicy Masala Chai is served!

Let me know how you get on and please feel free to provide feedback 🙂

Dinner

Lady’s Chicken Tikka Masala and Pillau Quinoa

Ladys' Chicken Tikka Masala with Pillau Quinoa

ByBilalBham | On March 15,15 | 0 Comment

I love chicken curry! It is in my top 5 for meals I love to enjoy! However, I am not a big fan of having to prepare an entire chicken when the only part I enjoy is the breast! My mum noticed that I only enjoyed chicken breast when I was a teenager, so around the late 1990’s, my mum, my late father and I began experimenting in the kitchen with chicken tikka masala. My dad had friends who ran Indian restaurants and after some advice, we decided to have some fun in the kitchen!

Coming from a family and culture based on a daily staple of spicy and tasty Indian food, I knew I had to learn from the best, my parents, and so chicken tikka masala was the first dish I ever created with them!

For me, chicken tikka masala is probably the easiest dish to prepare. Having lived away from home in both the UK and Germany, I could rustle it up with pillau rice in about 45 minutes. Living on my own, I also developed my own way of cooking it with some tweaks here and there to help give it a sweeter base for taste through using a mix of onions to adding in vegetables to increase the nutritional value.

Since it was International Ladies Day on Sunday 8^th March 2015 and today is Sunday 15^th March 2015, i.e. Mother’s Day here in the UK, I decided to add some greens in the form of okra aka lady’s fingers, hence the name, Lady’s’ Chicken Tikka Masala!

Traditionally, all Indian dishes are served with rice or chappati. Since I am off both due to health reasons, I decided to spice up the quinoa just like we spice up our pillau rice!

You will be seeing my favourite ingredients today which are onions, red onions, spring onions, garlic, ginger and of course chilli! Give me those ingredients, and depend on the order they are used, I can cook you Indian, Italian and Turkish dish!

Here is my first ever cooking video! It’s very long at 23 minutes but my aim is to create videos of about 5 to 10 minutes in length to keep you informed and entertained!

INGREDIENTS

Chicken Tikka Masala

2 chicken breasts

1 onion

1 red onion

3 spring onions

4 cloves of garlic (I love garlic in my food)

1 cm of ginger

1 red chilli

1 green chilli (I didn’t have any to hand but do use one for colour and extra spice!)

1 long red pepper

1 long green pepper

6 okra aka lady’s fingers

1 tablespoon dried coriander

¼ teaspoon powdered tamarind

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

1 litre of filtered and boiled water

1 tin of chopped tomatoes (you can use fresh if you wish but it’s quicker and easier to use a can!)

200ml of filtered water, boiled.

Pillau Quinoa

100g quinoa

1 onion

4 cardamom seeds

8 cloves

8 black pepper seeds

200ml of filtered water, boiled.

Salt

Olive oil

INSTRUCTIONS

Chicken Tikka Masala

In a saucepan on ¾ heat, add 3 tablespoons of olive oil (put the water on to boil);
Slice and dice the onions (hold back the green leaves of the spring onions until the end), garlic (I cut the garlic knobs up, press them in a garlic crusher and add them directly into the saucepan) and ginger to the saucepan to sauté. Stir regularly until the mix starts to bronze;
To the onions, add in the tin of chopped tomatoes, dried coriander, tamarind and a half a teaspoon of salt and chop in the chillies (if you want your dish less spicy, add the chillies in with the other vegetables in point 7);
Allow to simmer and continue to stir gently until the water evaporates;
Cut the chicken breasts into cubes, add to the saucepan and cook until all raw bits disappear, keep stirring gently;
Add the boiling water and then add in the okra and chopped peppers and stir gently for a couple of minutes;
Turn the heat down to a quarter, taste the soup and add salt and pepper to taste;
Cover with the lid and leave the mix to cook for about 10 minutes;
Add the chopped spring onion leaves and cover for 5 minutes
Feel free to add any coriander to finish and you are ready to eat!

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Serves up to 4 people

Pillau Quiona

Begin making your quinoa preparations at point 6 of cooking the chicken tikka masala;
In a saucepan on ¾ heat, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil (put the water on to boil);
Slice and dice in the onion and stir, sauté until the onions caramelise;
Add in the spice mix of cardamom, black pepper, cloves and cinnamon sticks;
Add in the boiling water and a ½ teaspoon of salt;
Add the quinoa and stir gently. I gently rinse the quinoa first in lukewarm water and then drain it before adding it to the saucepan;
Allow the quinoa to simmer, turn the heat down to a quarter, and cover with the lid;
Check on it 3 to 5 minutes later and gently turn the quinoa over with a plastic or wooden spoon to ensure you keep your quinoa seeds in tact;
Repeat step 8 until the quinoa is cooked and all the water evaporates;
You are now ready to eat!

Ladys' Chicken Tikka Masala with Pillau Quinoa! — Ladys’ Chicken Tikka Masala with Pillau Quinoa!

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Serves up to 2 people –I made enough chicken to last us another day and my mother and I like to eat our quinoa fresh!

Let me know how you get on and please feel free to provide feedback 🙂

Dinner, Lunch, Soup

Spicy Winter Soup

ByBilalBham | On March 11,15 | 0 Comment

During the winter months, we are particularly prone to picking up colds and chest infections. For me, winter is THE season to ensure my diet is nutrient rich to help stave off those nasty bacteria and viruses! To do this, keeping warm is absolutely essential, and there is nothing better at raising the body temperature than a hot’n’spicy winter soup!

Soups are a great way of getting vitamins and minerals quickly into your body. The nutrients from the plethora of ingredients seep into the water which packs a powerful nutritional punch!

So, onto my Spicy Winter Soup for up to 4 people!

I have some favourite ingredients which you will see over and over again in my main dishes and those are onions, red onions, spring onions, garlic, ginger and of course chilli! Give me those ingredients, and depending on the order in which I use them, I can cook you an Indian, Italian or Turkish dish!

INGREDIENTS

1 onion

1 red onion

3 spring onions

4 cloves of garlic (I love garlic in my food)

1 cm of ginger

1 large tomato or 6 cherry tomatoes

1 red chilli

1 green chilli

1 long red pepper

1 long green pepper

1 Parsnip

1 Leek

1 Sweet Potato

1 Carrot

1 Chicken Breast

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

1 litre of filtered and boiled water

INSTRUCTIONS

In a saucepan on ¾ heat, add 3 tablespoons of olive oil (put the water on to boil in a kettle);
Slice and dice the onions (hold back the green leaves of the spring onions until the end), garlic (I cut the garlic knobs up, press them in a garlic crusher and add them directly into the saucepan) and ginger and add to the saucepan to sauté. Stir regularly until the mix starts to bronze;
Chop in the tomato(es) and cook until they soften;
Cut the chicken breast into cubes, add to the saucepan and cook (and stir!) until all raw bits disappear;
Chop in the parsnip, leek, sweet potato and carrot and add them to the boiling water for 5 minutes;
Chop in the chillies and peppers (if you want your soup spicier, add the chillies with the boiling water);
Taste the soup and add salt and pepper according to your preference;
Cover with the lid and leave the soup to simmer on a medium heat for around 10 minutes;
Add the chopped spring onion leaves and cover for 5 minutes;
Feel free to add any coriander to garnish and you are ready to !

Soup with Vegetables — Add boiling water and chopped vegetables

The last bit before we can finally eat! — Spring Onion Green Leaves

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Eating time: 5-10 minutes

Serves up to 4 people

Do let me know how you get on and please feel free to provide me with your feedback!

In the meantime, enjoy your Spicy Winter Soup!

Uncategorised

Welcome to Spiced Up By Bilal!

Hi! My name is Bilal Bham and I would like to welcome you to my blog, Spiced Up By Bilal!

I decided to create this blog because:

I have some big health challenges which are lactose intolerance which means I can’t digest any dairy products like milk, cheese or yoghurt; and I have issues digesting refined carbs like bread, chapatti, rice and pasta. So I need to make food without dairy and refined carbs – no pizza for me! I also suffer from acid reflux and IBS (irritable bowel syndrome).
I have some big fitness goals and lead a healthy and active lifestyle by going to the gym 5 times a week and dancing salsa in the evenings – so I need food that will provide me with a lot of energy and also help me keep making gains in the gym!
I have some big taste needs! Much of the healthy food I see out there is pretty bland and boring and coming from an Indian background, I need a daily dose of tasty and mildly spicy food!

I know there are many people out there like me who have similar health challenges and lifestyle needs but still want to enjoy healthy tasty and spicy food!

So, I hope you enjoy what I will be serving up to you via Spiced Up By Bilal!