Salt Archives - Spiced Up By Bilal

I love eggs! Free-range mind. And I eat 4 every morning for breakfast! I get my daily dose of post-gym protein and healthy fats without fail! Hard boiled, scrambled or as an omelette, I eat eggs! The omelette is ubiquitous throughout the world and comes in many different forms such as the frittata (Italian omelette) in Italy, tortilla in Spain (Spanish omelette) or the tamagoyaki in Japan (Japanese omelette).

In Gujarat, India, the birthplace of my parents, the omelette is called a pura. As you can expect, Indian omelettes are spiced up to the high heavens! If there’s no chilli, it isn’t Indian! I loved the omelettes my mum and dad made for me and sometimes mum does still make them. In our household, and I am sure many households, it is the default go-to dish when you are hungry, don’t want to make a fuss in the kitchen and enjoy a filling meal.

Now, I do love my mum’s omelettes, but they tend to leave me feeling a little hungry – must be my big appetite! So, about 3 months ago, after a big morning workout, when I felt hungry enough to eat a cow, I decided to experiment (much to the chagrin of my mother’s traditionalist attitude in the kitchen) with a tin of tuna, and half a tin of mixed vegetables, along with the regular spice, and coconut oil! Up until this point, mum was using olive oil (and vegetable or sunflower oils before that, which play havoc with my immune system) for her omelettes, even though we’d switched to coconut oil – something about frying and “proper” oil ;). Anyway, I ended up cooking a deliciously healthy, tasty, quick and easy meal, rich in protein, good fats and healthy carbs, which was rustled up in 15 mins, and eaten in about 5! You can have this omelette for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and if you reduce the ingredients, a hearty snack! Oh, and if you want to up your greens, this omelette goes perfectly with salad!

I cooked this without the half tin of mixed vegetables because it was late and I wasn’t as hungry as I am after the gym! However, don’t be scared to experiment, have a bit of fun in the kitchen and see what you can come up with!

INGREDIENTS

4 free range eggs

4 cloves garlic (I used a bag we’d frozen before)

2 cm ginger (I used a bag we’d frozen before)

2 green chillies (I used a bag we’d frozen before)

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional: Red chilli powder

Optional: ½ can of mixed vegetables

1 can of tuna (remove the brine)

½ teaspoon dried corriander

1 teaspoon coconut oil

RECIPE

In a bowl, whisk up the eggs, garlic, ginger, chilli, salt, pepper, seasoning and tuna (and mixed vegetables);
Heat up a teaspoon of coconut oil in a large non-stick frying pan;
Pour the mix into the frying pan and cook on a medium heat for about 5 minutes, the bottom is cooked;
Turn on the solar grill to full and place the frying pan in there for about 5 minutes whilst the top of the omelette cooks. If you don’t have a solar grill and/or want to flip the omelette, good luck!
Once it cooks to your taste, place a large plate over the frying pan, carefully flip over, and you are ready to eat!

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Eating time: 15 minutes

Serves up to 2 people

This was a meal for me, but it could easily feed 2! My rule of thumb is 2 eggs per person 🙂

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

As part of my little experiment to go meat free, I decided to get mum in to help me out when I decided to cook! She suggested I cook her dish Spicy Spinach, which I have enjoyed for many years. The only thing we have changed recently is using coconut oil instead of other oils.

Traditionally, we ate this with every other Saturday with yellow rice, (mum uses turmeric for the colour!), and kurhi, a heated watered down yogurt, not great for my digestive system! Mum also enjoys this with chapati, naan or pitta bread, however, with my gluten intolerances, I guess I could handle wholemeal or jasmine rice, but I went with my tried and trust quinoa, made Indian style!

This dish is perfect for a light lunch or dinner, contains potatoes for some carbs (mum said sweet potato or butternut squash would make the dish too sweet, so I went with starchy potatoes!), iron and zinc from spinach and other spices to up antioxidants. You will also receive a decent amount of protein from 40 g of quinoa!

INGREDIENTS

Spicy Spinach

200 g spinach (we used a bag we’d frozen before)

50 g peas (we used a bag we’d frozen before)

¼ tin chopped tomatoes

4 charlotte potatoes

4 cloves garlic (we used a bag we’d frozen before)

2 cm ginger (we used a bag we’d frozen before)

2 green chillies (we used a bag we’d frozen before)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon dried coriander

1 teaspoon red chilli powder

1 teaspoon

2 teaspoon coconut oil

Pillau Quinoa

40 g quinoa

¼ onion

2 cinnamon sticks

200 mL of filtered water, boiled.

¼ teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Coconut oil

INSTRUCTIONS

Spicy Spinach

In a large saucepan, add in ¾ chopped onion, 2 teaspoon coconut oil peas, garlic, ginger, chilli, ¼ tin tomatoes, chopped potatoes, spices and seasoning, place on ½ heat and cover for 5 minutes whether ingredient are frozen or not due to moisture from the spinach;
Simmer on ¼ heat for 20 minutes and stir occasionally to mix;
Spicy Spinach is served! Yes really!

Pillau Quinoa

You can begin cooking this simultaneously with the Spicy Spinach;
In a saucepan on ¾ heat, add 1 tablespoon of coconut oil (put the water on to boil);
Slice and dice in the ¼ onion and stir, sauté until the onion caramelises;
Add in the cinnamon sticks;
Add in the boiling water and a ¼ teaspoon of salt;
Add the quinoa and stir gently;
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: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Eating time: 15 minutes

Serves up to 2 people

I made enough just for mum and I!

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