Fresh & Healthy Meals Everyone Will Love

To kick things off, my chopped chicken salad with a bacon XO sauce. This is a perfect example of taking something really simple like a chicken salad and taking it up a level using something very simple like this guy. Combine the rice wine vinegar, soy sauce and sesame oil in a glass bowl. Shred the Chinese cabbage by placing it on its side and slicing it finely. Pop it into a large bowl and do the same with the red cabbage. Ribbon the carrots with a vegetable peeler, add them to a large bowl with the dressing and give it all a good toss. Season the chicken on one side with sea salt and black pepper and get a pan on a high heat. Add some oil to the pan and get the chicken in there quick. While it starts to brown, season the other side. Once it's golden, flip it over and get started on the sauce. The secret ingredient for this sauce is a good dollop of bacon jam, followed by rice wine vinegar, fish sauce, soy sauce and diced chili with the seeds left in. Let it cook out while you chop up the perfectly cooked chicken. Add it to the salad and then toss it all in that unctuous bacon jam sauce. It's bright, it's fragrant, but most important of all, it's seriously, seriously tasty. How good does that look? And you'd never guess the secret ingredient. Next up, a kale cacio pepe. This is five ingredients to silky peppery pasta success. If you're a fan of black pepper, you're going to love this one. Get the kale chopped, removing the thicker stalks. Grate the pecorino cheese in advance so that when the time comes, you're ready to go. Salt a pot of boiling water and then get in there with the spaghetti. At the same time, put the butter in a high sided pan with the black pepper. Once it's melted and combined, pour it into a bowl. Add the grated pecorino and then for the magic sauce, slowly add some of the water from the boiling pasta. Now this is going to add some essential starchy goodness. Give it a good stir until all that cheese has melted. When the pasta is just tender, add the kale to the pot and give it another three or four minutes before draining. Now for the main event, add the pasta and kale to the cheese and pepper sauce and give it a really good mix through until the pasta is glossy and coated all over. Look at that. Seriously cheesy cracking pasta that will have you begging for more kale and I bet you never thought you'd say that. Today I have an absolute belter. This is a gorgeous sticky halloumi with a tabbouleh salad and it is phenomenal to make. Really simple, really quick and we are going to get five minutes on the clock. Let's click start and let's get cooking. Right, first job, let's get some stuff out of the fridge. I got some spring onions, some cucumber and some halloumi cheese. If you've not cooked this, it is a spectacular ingredient that is quite unusual in that you cook cheese. It goes nice and squeaky when you cook it and we're just going to slice it into kind of about half a centimeter pieces. About half this block should do us quite nicely for an individual portion. We're going to get the pan on nice and hot with a little bit of oil going in here. This is a bit of a cheat's tabbouleh because we are going to use cauliflower rice rather than couscous. So I'm going to add some key ingredients in here which are some cucumber, some spring onion, a little bit of sun-dried tomato and some fresh herbs, some parsley and mint. So slice your cucumber in half and then we're going to basically clack this into nice chunks. Clack is an interesting word that I didn't think I'd be using in this five-minute meal challenge but there you go. You never know what's going to come out when you're alive like this. So nice little pieces of cucumber is what we're looking for. Our oil is coming up to temperature so I'm going to get our halloumi in just once I have this sliced into pieces. Straight in there with our halloumi and if it's not sizzling it's not hot enough so make sure that you have a sizzling hot pan before you get your halloumi in there otherwise you're not going to get gorgeous golden brown on this. So back to our cucumber. Just nice little cubes of your cucumber here. So this is really where you can kind of mix it up and use whatever veggies you have and just slice them up nice and fine and they go in really nicely with this cauliflower rice. To a bowl we've got our cucumber. We're going to get in there with our herbs as well because otherwise I'm going to forget. So it's straight in there with some mint leaves and a little bit of flat leaf parsley as well to just basically break those herbs in there. Stalks. Don't worry about them if they're too hardy you can leave them out otherwise if they're nice and fine like these I've just kept them in. So back to our spring onions. Slice off the ends and slice off the tops. Get rid of any little rubber bands and then we're just going to slice these into nice little rounds. So it gives you that kind of fresh bite and I do think adding a little bit of raw spring onion in here is just really quite nice. The great thing about this recipe is that it works quite well as a lunchbox filler. Even if you have the halloumi cold it still has loads of flavour and the great thing about it is that we're going to do a little trick that's going to make things a little bit more interesting. I've got 2 minutes and 42 seconds on the clock. I'm going to try and get my halloumi turned. So let's get over here and we're just going to pop these very gently over. Look at that. Gorgeous golden. A little bit more than I would possibly like but hey hey hey we've got 5 minutes on the clock you gotta keep going. Turn that heat down. Go in there. This is the trick. Get in there with a little bit of balsamic vinegar. About a teaspoon or so. In there with some sweet honey. This is going to give you this gorgeous sticky acidic glaze and just get shuffling in the pan. This is where it's at and this is where you're going to get really different and altogether gorgeous halloumi. Now let's talk about our cauliflower. This is a really great way with cauliflower. If you have a beautiful piece on our head of cauliflower like this we're just going to take off the edges any of those stalks and we're going to turn this into what will be our couscous. With 1 minute and 59 seconds on the clock this is the key pieces of kitchen equipment you're going to need. A little box grater and you're going to just rub that up against the sort of wide setting and look at that gorgeous little cauliflower rice that you've done in no time at all. You don't need a food processor. You don't need to buy it from the shops. You've done it all by hand. You can pat yourself on the back after this and know you've done a good job. It might feel like it's a strange thing to have raw cauliflower but I can promise you it's the bite and it's the sort of rawness that is quite nice with brassica in general which works quite well here. So a little bit of cauliflower rice. I'm kind of getting that all over the counter with 1 minute and 24 seconds to go but I promise you this really does leave you with a really interesting tabule. So grate up as much as you can and with the time I have left I'm going to turn off the heat on this before it goes completely on it. Give it a quick toss and look at that really gorgeous sticky action going on here. We're going to get in there. Oh Jamie hold on to it. Get your lovely rice in there. We're going to get our tomatoes in as well. Where have they gone? Oh my goodness they're in a bowl. So we're going to slice these up. Take those sun-dried tomatoes and just give them a little rattle through till you have nice little slices. These are a powerhouse of flavour. A really great superfood in minutes. Right we've got loads of great things going on there but I do need to dress this. My pan is off at this point so we've got sticky halloumi. We've got 42 seconds left. We've got a little bit of lemon juice to go in here. Where's my lemons? Oh my goodness they're over here. Hang on. Right a little squeeze of this for a bit of acidity is going to help you. So get that sliced up and you're going to squeeze this through your hands just so that you don't get any pits. 27 seconds. Jamie back a load of breath at this point. But it's time to serve up. So get your plate out. Grab up a spoon and give it a good toss through. Little salt and pepper. Don't forget your seasoning otherwise there's no point. So give it a good toss through and look at that. Great flavours. Great vibrancy. Nine seconds. Stick with me lads. Stick with me. So get that onto your plate. We're out of time. I in three, two, one. But just about there. Everything's cooked so stick with me. We're going to add this last little bit of sticky halloumi over the top. You can just imagine what that tastes like. Beautiful acidity. Great little sweetness and then that salty kick from the halloumi. Have a look at that. This is a real winner and it's something that I hope you hope you try. Please give it a go. That is my gorgeous sticky halloumi salad with a gorgeous tabbouleh. It's an absolute winner. Give it a try. Mushrooms can split a household in half. Some love them and some hate them. I love them. My wife hates them. Get some butter into a large pan on a medium heat. Add some thinly sliced garlic with half the oyster mushrooms. Even at half it might look like a lot but they will reduce very quickly and soak up all that buttery goodness. Let them fry until they start to brown and then add some paprika and give it a good stir. Set that batch aside and repeat exactly the same steps for the rest of the mushrooms in the bowl. Add a little more oil to the same pan. Get in there with some kale that has the toughest parts of the stem removed. Season with salt and black pepper and then stir it until it wilts down. Put the kale in the bowl with the mushrooms. Now on a clean board chop some parsley with dill and add it to the bowl of pre-cooked grains. Add a glug of olive oil and some seasoning. For some brightness get in there with some lemon juice. Give it all a good mix through and serve it straight to a plate. Now it's time for the mushrooms and kale. Garnish with a dollop of sour cream, sprinkle some extra paprika over the top and serve it straight to the table. A very tidy, some might say meaty, mushroom meal in minutes. Next up I'm going to show you how to rev up some mince with some big flavour. This is my harissa lamb with an epic feta sauce. I always feel that lamb is a bit of an underrated meat and lamb mince is a fantastic thing to use. I'm going to form up some little patties with the help and the addition of some spicy sauce. This is harissa paste. I'm sure you might have seen it before. You can get it in most supermarkets now. It's this gorgeous, earthy, heady North African spice paste that just adds really great fragrance to anything you add it to and it works particularly well with lamb mince. So I'm going to add this straight into our bowl. Straight in with a teaspoon of this to your mix. We're going to toast off some cumin seeds and if you have cumin seeds or any sort of spices like this sitting in your store cupboard, by adding them to a pan like this you're just going to awaken all the fragrance and the flavour. So about a teaspoon or so of cumin seeds in here. Cumin and lamb, really great flavour friends. I like how that works together. We're also going to add some freshness from some flat leaf parsley. So a good handful of that which I'm just going to finely chop. It's the combination of ingredients that work here. You've got sweet lamb, you've got those earthy toasted cumin seeds and then you have the spice from the harissa and these are toasting up beautifully. The minute you start to see them smoking, get them straight out of the pan and into the meat. Give it a little season with some salt and pepper and then just get your hands in there and form these into nice patties. It's literally a minute or two on the pan and you've got gorgeous golden patties. These are fantastic. Right, they're looking good and while they're continuing to cook off, I'm going to turn down the heat as I flip them to the other side. Gives us a bit of time to talk about the salad element of this. Now I have a bag of washed kale here so I'm just ripping it off the stalk and you can be pretty rough about this because we're going to do all the hard work in the bowl. Kale is jam-packed full of nutrients. It is a fantastic superfood and it's a great one to kind of include in your diet quite regularly. Any of these brassicas that have those really rich green colours, you know you're in a good place in terms of nutrients. So I have my big bowl of kale. We're going to add a good glug of extra virgin olive oil, a little seasoning of some sea salt and black pepper and just for a little bit of acidity, I'm going to go in there with some lemon juice. So give it a roll on the board first. You need about the juice of I'd say like half a lemon in here. It's just that acidity that helps break it down. Get your hands in there and just squeeze the bejesus out of it. And the great thing about massaging it like this is that it actually takes away a little bit of the bitterness from kale as well. So if you've had bitter kale, it's probably because it hasn't been massaged and had a little bit of love. Okay, our greens are looking good. And now I'm going to cheat a little bit by using some ready cooked lentils. I'm just going to pop these in the microwave. They're only going to take about 45 seconds. Now while they're heating up, we need to talk about the sauce that brings this all together. This is a whipped feta and this is the new way that I am obsessed with using feta cheese. Feta has that gorgeous salty bite. We're going to mellow that out with a little bit of yogurt and then ramp up the heat with some of that harissa paste. So just crumble it in. Add a few dollops of some plain yogurt. And then just using the spoon, give it a good mash up until that feta is nice and smooth and you've got a really smooth sauce. Once it's nice and smooth, get a little whisk in there and just keep whisking. Okay, this is looking pretty good. Actually, it's not really. Let's give it another second. Right, we've massaged the kale. We've whipped the feta. We have our lamb cooked through. And now it's time to stir through some of that rich and spicy harissa paste. So get that in there and just fold it through. That's it. Three very simple components. Don't forget the lentils in the microwave. Now it's time to build this plate. Now that for me is super food in minutes. You have gorgeous spicy lamb, tender kale, which I never knew I'd be so excited about, and some lentils and that sauce. Simple ingredients brought to the next level with spice, heat, and serious flavor. Try it. A real crowd-pleasing meal packed full of freshness and spiky feta. In my book, breakfast for dinner is always a win. So take two breakfast classics and give them a superfood twist with a tasty French salad. We're starting this one off with some water on the boil and some oil going into a frying pan. Add the bacon to the pan and let it fry. Now, top tip for this recipe is to pop a dash of white wine vinegar into the water and give it a stir. The force of the flow of the pan helps keep the egg together and form a perfect poach. Repeat the process with a few more eggs. When the bacon is ready, scoop it out of the pan into a bowl with the lettuce. Leave the heat on the pan and scatter over the bread cubes. While it toasts, soaking up all the juices from the bacon, chop up some tarragon and mix it with some mustard, white wine vinegar, and season with sea salt and black pepper. Give it all a good whisk up and then emulsify with some good quality olive oil. Pour it over the salad and then we're on to final flourishes. Some freshly chopped chives, a good toss, and plate it up. Add the croutons and the egg and get it onto the table hot. Oh yeah!