Baby marrow, tomato and cheese "starter"

I was a bit peckish Sunday night at around 11; and didn't feel like defrosting meat or just snacking on straight cheese, so rummaged around my fridge and used a few ingredients, my trusty pan and the microwave to create an odd, but very tatsy snack for myself. I liked the crunchy topping and base concept so much that I recreated it with a few added tweaks and ingredients for myself and the other half as our "starter" to our braai chops last night. My favourite part of this has to be the crunch from the marrow parmesan "chips" - I'm going to be using these on so many things in future!!!

This is what I used to make two side plate servings:

2 x firm just ripened tomatoes
4 x medium baby marrow's, sliced in rounds approximately 5mm thick
1/4 cup grated parmesan
Ghee for frying
1/2 an onion, finely chopped
3 green chillies, finely sliced (adjust for your heat preference)
1/4 teaspoon crushed garlic
sprinkle of rosemary salt to taste
4 slices of mozzarella / to taste
Avocado oil
Greaseproof paper

Throw the onion, chilli, garlic and half of the sliced baby marrows into a pan on high heat with enough ghee to fry and coat all ingredients. While that is going, place the rest of your sliced baby marrows into a container, drizzle some avocado oil over (you can use any LCHF friendly oil / fat, I just like the taste), shake around to coat all slices, and then place them in a single layer onto greaseproof paper on a plate. Ensure that there are minimal gaps between the slices and that they don't overlap.Sprinkle your grated parmesan over the slices, and pop into the microwave on high for ten minutes.

Your fry up should be half way there by now - ensure you keep tossing everything in the pan so that the baby marrow slices are evenly browned as much as possible on both sides. While this and the microwave timer countdown continues, slice your two tomatoes into about 1cm thick slices and arrange as you wish on the two side plates; one tomato per plate. I overlapped mine in a circle - this is the base of your dish. Once the microwave is done you'll see the parmesan has melted and crisped up over the baby marrow slices - crack / peel the bits off of the paper into a side bowl - this is your crunchy topping of win!

Now add the mozzarella slices to the mix in the pan and let the cheese melt, combining it with everything in the pan to make a glorious gooey mess :) Once fully melted and combined, place half of the mix on each side plate on top of your tomato slices, spreading it as evenly as you can. Now sprinkle your crunchy marrow parmesan "chips" on top, and you have a #LCHF friendly side or starter that is absolutely delicious and bursting with great textures and contrasts! I really enjoyed this and will definitely make it again; and I cannot wait to find other applications for my marrow "chips" :)

LCHF CAULIFLOWER SOUP WITH BACON AND ONION

I make a mean potato soup. And you can go ahead and replace "mean" with "YOU'LL LEAVE YOUR MOTHER'S APRON STRINGS AND PROPOSE TO ME" :P

Alas, that isn't very Banting Lifestyle friendly, now is it? It seems my aim in life (at least in the kitchen, that is) is to find ways to replace the foods I miss post hitching my eating wagon to the LCHF post.

Cue cauliflower. The wonderful, humble, available in abundance frozen *don't look for me fresh*, cauliflower :) Here's a quick and easy recipe for a cauliflower soup I made that is as close to my precious potato soup I'll ever get without using the little carb laden spuds.

CHOFFEL'S QUICK 'N EASY CAULIFLOWER SOUP
(aka Potato soup replacement)
1kg bag frozen cauliflower
1 litre milk
300ml boiling water
1 x Knorr Chilli Beef Stock Cube
Ghee for frying
6 rashers streaky bacon
1 large onion
Celery Salt to taste

Finely chop the onion and cut up the bacon rashers into small pieces, and fry these in ghee in a large pot until both are cooked. I defrosted my cauliflower and riced it in my Twister before adding it to the pot, but you could just as easily throw the florets in whole (we'll be blending later anyway).

Add your stock cube to the boiled water to dissolve and add that to the pot, along with the 1 litre of milk (FULL FAT!).
Bring the pot to the boil, and then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, adding any seasonings you want to - I just used celery salt and was happy with the outcome.

Once your soup has cooled down, blitz in a blender or use a hand blender in the pot (I'm a great fan of one pot cooking!). Some may like their soup chunky, but I like the fact that blending it combines the flavours and "spreads" the bacon and onion goodness all the way through.

This soup is great served hot or chilled, and freezes perfectly.

And there you have it; a delicious, filling, LCHF friendly soup that'll satiate any cravings for potato soup you may have :)

BANTING "HASHBROWNS" - LCHF CAULIFLOWER FRITTERS

It's no secret that I love fried foods, and crunchy ones, at that. Something that's a tad difficult to come by at times on the LCHF eating plan. I also ADORE hashbrowns, and of course those are a definite no go for Banting, too. I know I'm not alone in these culinary cravings, so, fear not fellow fretters, the mighty cauliflower comes to the rescue, yet again!!! The best bit? You don't need fresh cauliflower for this (we all seem to run into difficulty either on stocks or price these days for fresh!) - frozen works perfectly.

I've been meaning to try this out for a while, and finally got my A into G last night to do so. Here, you lovely people, is a simple, inexpensive and tasty recipe for the closest thing I can get to hashbrowns on LCHF.

INGREDIENTS
Approx 3 cups of frozen cauliflower florets, cooked - I nuked mine in the microwave for 10 minutes on high, but you can steam them of course
3 eggs
3 chilli's, finely chopped (I like heat, you can adjust or leave them out entirely should you so wish)
1/2 a large onion, finely chopped
Seasonings as desired - I used Thyme and Woolie's Chermoula spice
Ghee / Butter Oil for frying

DIRECTIONS
Finely chop your chilli's and onion - I use my trusty Twister because it's just the easiest thing on earth and saves you from tears when chopping onions :P I'd highly recommend getting one of these bad boys if you don't have one or something similar in your kitchen arsenal. I also "riced" (chopped) the cauliflower for the mix. Whisk the 3 eggs well, add to your chopped veggie mix and combine with your chosen seasonings.

In a large pan (I used a small one at first but switched to a larger one that can accommodate three fritters comfortably after the first 2 I made), melt enough ghee at a medium temperature to start frying your fritters in. Though hashbrowns are done at high heat, here our main ingredient is cooked already and all we're really trying to achieve is cooking the egg (binding agent) all the way through to ensure our fritters stay intact - on a high heat you'll just burn the outer side without cooking the egg mix all the way through.

I used a heaped tablespoon of mix per fritter - place the mix gently in the pan and pat it down with the back of the spoon until you have a fairly even, flat fritter approximately 2cm in thickness. Don't mess with the raw fritter too much as it will come apart easily prior to the egg cooking. The best way to judge when it is ready to turn is you'll see the underside edges turn brown; you're ready to (gently!) flip them now and cook the other side.

Pro tip - these do get "soggy" while sitting on the side waiting patiently for their compadres to join them; to crisp them up and reheat them again I placed them on a baking tray in the oven on grill for about 5 minutes - they're then just like they were when they came out of the pan :)


And that's it - easy peasey yummy cauliflower fritters!!!! They're so tasty I even got up this morning and made some more - sans onion I added some broccoli and green beans, extra chopped chilli and chilli flakes and they are still delicious! Enjoy these, and let me know how they turn out for you and / or what tweaks you've made with your own batch.