FAIL: Lentil Cutlets

This recipe caught my eye from instagram, user: rubeewoop, check out her instagram page [here]!

This was the picture she posted of the Lentil Cutlets- you can see why it caught my eye!

I asked her for the recipe which I'm going to post here!

Ingredients (word for word)

• 1 cup of mung beans
• 1 Medium sized onion
• Green chillies amount is according to your liking (I used 3 large green chillies)
• 1tsp Ginger n garlic paste- Salt to taste
• Coriander leaves as desired
• Oil to bond beans together- 1 tsp of baking powder

Method

1. Soak mung beans in water for 2 hours, this helps remove the indigestible sugars contained within the beans itself.
2. Next, drain the beans n scatter out on to a flat surface to dry- allow 15-20 mins for this.
3. Once dry, pop the beans in to any working grinding machine, add in the onion- chopped in to ours, green chillies, Coriander leaves and ginger and garlic paste. Grind the contents together until the onion has completely disappeared. (If you would like the end product to come out smoother just continue grinding until the mixtures visibly smooth.)
4. Once grinded, empty out mixture in a bowl and add some salt to taste, baking powder and a little oil (approx 1/2 tsp) to hold the mixture together and mix.
5. Now, grab a small amount of the mixture and pinch down until it forms a flat rounded form. These can be as big or as small as you like, but please be aware that the bigger they are the more likely they are to be undercooked.
6. Fry in a pan, on medium heat until golden brown and crisp. The shell should be crispy and the inside should be soft.
7. Enjoy :)

Soooo as you may have guessed from my title, I completely failed making the lovely crispy treats as rubeewoop's picture XD

I altered the ingredients alot so it's kinda all my fault- that's what you get for improvising! Instead of using mung beans, I went for canned chickpeas and canned lentils.

 Yes, I used both cans! Fresh lentils? Soak for hours? Hoooo, I've got lazy fever, can opener I choose you!

I put the full can of lentils, chickpeas, chopped 3 large green chillies, chopped medium onion, 3 cloves of garlic,  1 tsp of oil, 2 tsp of baking powder (altered from Rubeewoop's as I added extra dry ingredients to the original recipe) salt and pepper and mashed it all together. 

Oh I also added some chia seeds in the mix to spice things up a little! These little sachets are cute and handy!

Originally I was trying to crush with a fork and spoon in a big bowl. My blender broke a long time ago, so I decided to go old skool with this one. Put a little elbow grease in there! (and love of course :) ) 

The fork and spoon weren't doing a good job of turning the mixture to a fine texture, so in the end I ended up tipping the mixture onto my chopping board and wacking it like a mad woman with a large knife- professional! It took half an hour but after all that love I got a nice smooth paste! 

The mixture is just like my baby, put in love from the start and it will grow up well nurtured! 

  I added some oil to heat on the pan and spooned some of the mixture onto the pan. 

  I don't know what happened from here on out, but my mixture just crumbled apart and did not stick together! I gave up trying to keep the balls separate and ended up tipping the whole thing to fry in the pan!

 A nice bowl of mush! XD It did taste delicious though!! 

  In trying to make this more presentable, I served this on baby gem lettuce and cucumbers. 

 This was the end result. I really liked it!! The crisp cool lettuce balanced out the heat of the lentil mixture very well. Even though it wasn't what I was trying to make I liked the meal I made anyway. Babies all grow up to be different, Rubeewoop's baby grew to be different to mine for sure, I'm pretty sure her baby ended up being a doctor and my baby to be a hippy.

I would defo make this recipe again, but perhaps I should invest in a new blender for next time! And also do something about the mixture not sticking together!

Thai Massaman & Sweet Potato Soup with Crispy Chicken

My third recipe from my Hello Fresh box- read about my unboxing blog post [here]

Ingredients

Recipe for 2 persons

• 3 pieces of thicken thigh 
• 2 Spring Onions, Chopped
• 1 Garlic Clove, Grated
• 1 Tbsp of Massaman Curry Paste
• 1/3 Cup of Coconut Milk
• 1 Chicken Stock Pot
• 1 1/2 cups of Sweet Potato
• 1/2 Tbsp of Peanut Butter
• 1/2 Lime
• 1/2 Bunch of Coriander, Chopped (and screwed, yeah yeah screwed, juuuust messing, t pain bringing out my musical side :P)

This was the recipe I was probably most looking forward to making! 

Instructions

1. Trim any fatty bits from the chicken thighs. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a non-stick pan on medium-high heat. Press the chicken between kitchen towel to dry then season well with salt and pepper. Once the pan is hot, add the chicken and cook for around 4-5 minutes on each side then remove.

2. Thinly slice the chicken once it is cool 

3. Bring 700ml of water to the boil in a kettle. 

4. Finely chop the spring onion widthways into 1/2cm discs, separate the white from the green parts. 

5. Finely chop the garlic.

6. Peel the ginger using the edge of a spoon and then grate or chop it very finely. 

7. Heat a tbsp of oil on medium-low heat in a saucepan big enough to hold the soup. Add in the whites of the spring onions, the ginger an the garlic. 

8. After one minute add the massaman curry paste and stir. Tip: If you are sensitive to spice add the paste bit by bit to taste. 

9. After another minute add in the coconut milk and stir until smooth. Add the stock pot with the 700ml of boiled water and bring to a simmer. 

10. Peel and chop the sweet potato into 2cm chunks.

11. Add the peanut butter and the sweet potato chunks. 

12. Roll the lime firmly between the flat of your hand and the work surface. Once you've loosened it up, cut it in half and squeeze half of the lime juice into the soup. 

13. Simmer gently for 10 mins.

14. After 10 mins test the sweet potatoes to see if they are soft enough to eat. Test for seasoning and add a little more salt if needed. 

15. Serve into big bowls with a topping of chopped coriander and the greens of the spring onion.

And of course being a typical Asian, for I had to have a bowl of rice! How can you have this without rice or bread?! The soup is pretty much a curry!

I really liked this 'soup' It was very rich and tasteful and I would defo make this again. 

And that is the end of my journey with Hello Fresh. I enjoyed cooking the recipes that they gave me, I wouldn't have made these recipes otherwise and be introduced to the ingredients. After making the feta cheese and mint burger recipe, I have been loving feta cheese and mint combo! And I would not have known to put them together otherwise! My kitchen skills are ah building! 

Read about the other 2 Hello Fresh recipes I tried: 

• [Sizzling Steak Stir Fry with Egg Noodles and Bok Choy]
• [Minted Lamb and Feta Burgers with Crunchy Summer Salad]

Sizzling Steak Stir Fry with Egg Noodles and Bok Choy

My second recipe I am trying from my Hello Fresh Box- Read bout my unboxing blog post [here]

You can see exactly how my ingredients came like as well, if you are unsure of the size of any of the ingredients!

Ingredients

(Recipe for 2 persons)

• 300g Flank Steak, Sliced
• 1 Tbsp of Cornflour
• 1 Red Chilli, Sliced
• 2 Spring Onion, Sliced
• 1 Garlic Clove, Chopped
• 1/2 Cup of Oyster Mushrooms, Chopped
• 1 Tbsp of Cashew Nuts, Crushed
• 2 Bok Choy
• 2 Nests of Egg Noodles
• 1 Tbsp of Soy Sauce
• 1/3 Pot of Beef Stock
• 1 Tsp of Chinese Five Spice
• 1 Tsp of Muscovado Sugar
• 1/2 Lime

I wasn't particularly keen to try this recipe out as I am not one to order egg noodles ever in a restaurant, but the bok choy were beginning to wilt in the fridge, so I thought I better do this recipe while the ingredients are still fresh!

Instructions

1. Boil a pot of water with 1/2 tsp of salt for your noodles. 

2. Cut your steak into really thin ribbons. 

 I wasn't impressed with my 'fresh meat', it seemed slightly 'cooked' on the outside?! And this was when I received my Hello Fresh Box on a Sunday and I made this on Wednesday. 

3. Coat the steak ribbons in corn flour and pinch of salt and pepper. Tip: The cornflour is a natural tenderiser so your met will be deliciously soft. 

4. Slice the chilli in half length-ways, remove the seeds and slice thinly. 

5. Thinly slice your spring onions diagonally and finely chop up the garlic. 

6. Roughly chop the mushrooms, and crush your nuts. Cut the root off the bok choy and separate the leaves. 

7. Put the noodles in the boiling water for 3 mins then drain them. Refill the pain with cold water, put the noodles back in and keep the pan to the side. Tip: This will stop them cooking and keep them from sticking together. 

 8. Heat up 1/2 tbsp of olive oil in a non-stick pan on high heat until it is almost smoking. Fry the beef in small batches so that the outside is browned off but the inside remains rare. Take the meat out of the pan and keep to the side for later.

I found this step slightly difficult, as the flour kept on sticking to my pan, I don't think my non stick pan was good enough! 

 9. Add another 1/2 tbsp of olive oil into the pain. Fry off the garlic, chilli, mushrooms and spring onions for a couple of mins. Add in the beef, soy sauce and 1/3 of the stock pot. Add 100ml of water, the bok choy, five spice and sugar. 

10. Once the bok choy has wilted and the sauce has thickened up (which only takes 2 mins), add the noodles (once drained) back into the pan. 

11. Toss everything together with a good squeeze of lime juice. 

12. To present the dish, simply put your noodles in a bowl, grate on a little bit of lime zest and top with your crushed nuts.

13. Take two chopsticks and wrap an elastic band tightly around the ends to keep them together. Next, take a small piece of paper and wedge this inbetween them so that you have essentially created a pair of tweezers. The height of Hello Fresh technology!

I did omit step 13, the step with the chop sticks though, cause I am a chopstick pro! :D

All in all I would not make this dish again, maybe its cause I am not a fan of egg noodles to start off with, but I found the noodle to ingredient ratio too high, in that there could have been more bok choy in there or beef! I also found the noodles to be very bland. The pot lasted me for 4 meals however, which is twice as much as it said it would serve! 

So far I've had 6 meals in total with this Hello Fresh box, and I still have one more recipe to cook. It's turning out to be some bargain hunt grocery shop!

Minted Lamb and Feta Burgers with Crunchy Summer Salad

So the first recipe I tried from my Hello Fresh box- see my last Hello Fresh unboxing blog post [here]

Meal for 2 persons

Ingredients: 

• 1 Cup of Onion Sliced
• 1 Baby Gem Lettuce, Chopped
• 3 Radish, Sliced
• 250g of Minced Lamb
• 3 Tbsp of Mint, Chopped
• 2 Spring Onion, Sliced
• 3 Tbsp of Feta Cheese, Crumbled
• 2 Demi Brioche Bun's 

Method

1. Peel your onion and chop in half lengthways through the root.

 Not a very good start!! Looks like a gone off onion to me! Lucky my flatmate had a handy onion spare for me to rob and replace before she knew about it :P

2. Slice the onion as thinly as possible. 

 3. Roughtly chop the gem lettuce. Very finely slice the radishes and spring onion and chop the mint. 

4. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a small pan on low heat. Add in the onion with 1/4 tsp of salt and 1/4 of sugar (if you have some). Put a lid on and slowly stew for 20 mins at least. Tip: The onion is ready when it is soft and sweet. 

5. In a bowl mix the lamb mince with 2 tbsp of chopped mint and 3/4 of the spring onions. Crumble in the feta and season with 1/4 tsp salt and lots of black pepper. 

 6. Mix everything thoroughly with your hands to incorporate all the ingredients. Divide the mixture in half and make 2 big burgers. Tip: When making the burgers, try not to squash the meat like a snowball- you need the burger to stick together but equally it tastes better when not too dense. 

 7. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a non-stick pan on medium heat. Once hot, add in the burgers and cook for 4 mins on each side. Tip: Only turn the burgers once and do so gently so as not to break them. 

8. Pre-heat your grill to high to toast the brioche buns. 

9. In a bowl mix your remaining spring onion with radishes and lettuce. Sprinkle over a tsp of olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Add the remaining 1 tbsp of mint and lightly toss with your finger tips. 

 7. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a non-stick pan on medium heat. Once hot, add in the burgers and cook for 4 mins on each side. Tip: Only turn the burgers once and do so gently so as not to break them. 

8. Pre-heat your grill to high to toast the brioche buns. 

9. In a bowl mix your remaining spring onion with radishes and lettuce. Sprinkle over a tsp of olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Add the remaining 1 tbsp of mint and lightly toss with your finger tips. 

 The burger really surprised me- in a good way that is! I was bringing my plate to my table totally expecting to get my ketchup bottle out, but this burger needed none at all! With it having no sauce or marinade or anything I thought it would be dry n tasteless as! But I guess the feta cheese n the mint did its part to juice the big boy up! It was heavenly! The salad was a bit boring, but then again most salads are, it went well with the burger. I had toasted the brioche bun perfectly too, it was lovely n crisp on the outside n soft and bouncy on the inside. I know I'm totally bigging myself up here (top chef Aoki :P) but ok, I guess I have to give Hello Fresh a lil mention (side cred :D) thanks to Hello Fresh for supplying me with this recipe!

I would definitely make this again!

After polishing off one burger, I defo would have been able to eat another, but with one serving having a whooping total of  1050 calories I retreated. 

Don't forget about that close up inspection- hey it pass the test!

Hello Fresh Unboxing

  Aiii Yeeeeee! Parcels always make me so excited!

This parcel came from Hello Fresh- It is a box full of fresh ingredients, the exact quantities to make the recipes Hello Fresh have put together for you. I chose the box that has 3 meals for 2 people- and since I cook for myself, that means 6 meals all for me! Even better! ;D

This initial box I bought online for £12 using a very handy groupon offer, usually a box like this would cost £36!! 

Anyway time for the best bit- The unpackaging! I opened up this one nice and slow. The rip of the cardboard was like the first dance for me. The opening of the lid a soft touch.... Yes. I've not had a parcel delivered to me for a very long time ok! XD

Anyyyywaay here we go!

  The packaging was very nice indeed- It was filled with food goodies!

 Bag of peppermint tea. 

 Forgot to take a proper picture of the coconut milk can in the background, but you get the idea!

  Oh hello!

  It had a nice thick layer of insulation around this one with a pack of ice in it too. 

  Oh boy! That's defo my grocery shoppng done for the week! I can foresee obesity spreading like this... oh well! About that city life! Can't wait to test the ingredients out. They give you the recipe cards that your ingredients are used to make. In my box I got stuff to make: 

Minted lamb and feta burgers witch crunchy summer salad: 

 It has a step by step method of how to make each recipe! 

  Thai Massaman & sweet potato soup with crispy chicken: 

  Sizzling steak stir fry with egg noodles and bok choy: 

Think I'm gonna try the burgers tomorrow, while the brioche buns are still soft! 

Reviews to follow! Stay tuned peeps!

Check out their website here: https://www.hellofresh.co.uk/

And get £20 off your first box with this code: L2N7JD