Chicken tray bake with Chorizo, Chickpeas & Tomatoes
This tray bake is rich in fibre, full of taste and so easy to prepare. Serve it with greens for an extra health kick.
FOR THE KOFTAS
50g bread, torn into chunks and soaked in 80ml milk.
500g turkey mince
½ red onion, grated
1 tsp ground allspice (if unavailable, use a pinch of nutmeg and 1/2 tsp cinnamon.
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried mint
1 tbsp thyme leaves, or 1 tsp dried thyme
20g dried cranberries, soaked in 3tbsp boiling water for 10 minutes, then drained
Pepper and ½ tsp salt
FOR THE SALAD
400g fresh or frozen broad beans, cooked in boiling water for 3 minutes, then drained, refreshed under the cold tap and skinned.
Zest 1 lemon, plus 1 tbsp juice
1 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
30g of chopped fresh herbs. Use 3 or more of the following-
tarragon
mint,
basil,
parsley,
coriander
dill
chives
FOR THE YOGHURT SAUCE
200g plain yoghurt
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt, to taste
1 tsp dried mint
1/2 clove garlic, crushed
Optional-
½ tsp turmeric
1/3 cucumber, deseeded and grated
TO SERVE
Toasted pittas
FOR THE KOFTAS
Mix all the above ingredients together, in a bowl or a food processor, then shape them into 12 balls. Fry until brown and cooked through, in batches if necessary, turning often. You’ll need about 3 tbsp olive oil.
FOR THE SALAD
All you do to make this salad is mix the ingredients together, just before serving. The time consuming bit is peeling the broad beans (yes this really does mean taking the skin off the individual broad beans. I’m sorry. For heaven’s sake don’t buy baby broad beans or you’ll lose the will to live.) I use child labour for this task. Alternatively, buy frozen endame beans, which don’t need peeling. I can’t taste the difference, but Russell doesn’t like them.
FOR THE YOGHURT SAUCE
Stir the ingredients together, taste, and adjust if needed.
Koftas are Middle Eastern meatballs, and they’re delicious stuffed in a pitta and served with salad and a tangy yogurt sauce. Turkey makes a healthy alternative to lamb, and the broad bean salad is packed with fibre and nutrients.
The Middle Eastern flavours in these koftas are unusual and delicious. Many Brits have the wrong idea about spices – most just give flavour rather than heat, and they can make a healthy meal even healthier. Allspice is used here, and a cursory internet search tells me it’s anti-inflammatory, aids digestion, boosts immunity and improves circulation. That’s just the first 4 things on the list. Have you ever heard of eugenol? Me neither, but it’s present in allspice and little else, so hurrah for this delicious excuse to eat some.
I adapted this recipe from one in a magazine by Yottam Ottolenghi. I cook it because it’s tasty, not because of the healthy allspice. But pretty much every time I decide to feature a meal and google the ingredients, it turns out to have too many health benefits for me to list. I guess if we had pasta, pizza and chicken kiev every night, that might not be the case. I ate like that in my 20s, but the more I cooked from scratch, the less I liked the processed stuff.
Frankly, the reason Russell and I are always trying new recipes is because we’re easily bored and I like to cook. But it just goes to show that if you eat a varied diet that always features some fresh veg or another, you end up meeting all your body’s needs. Your palate switches on to that, and your tastes begin to adapt.
All the meals I cook are chosen for taste – health is a secondary concern. If you’d like to browse my other recipes, click here. If they are just too wholesome for you, I suggest you begin with Healthy Chicken Korma.
This tray bake is rich in fibre, full of taste and so easy to prepare. Serve it with greens for an extra health kick.
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