Some simple cholesterol friendly recipes. 

1. Roasted vegetables
2. Lentil Salad with Balsamic Dressing
3. Chickpea (Garbanzos) and tuna salad with a lemony dressing
4. Maggi’s CHOWDER Recipe
5. Pasta With Passata And Chick Peas

Roasted vegetables.

Ingredients:

1.Some olive oil (1 –2 teaspoons per person if you are trying to lose weight; a bit more if you are not; a lot more if you are trying to gain weight.) Or you could use Fry Light Spray.

2.Some herbs (optional) and some salt and pepper. 

3. Vegetables Quantities don’t matter – just whatever you have or fancy.

Cut up into large chunks some or all of the following:

Harder vegetables, e.g :

Softer vegetables, e.g:

  Tomatoes – keep whole, but make a cross in the top to let out steam. 

1. Heat the oven to medium heat (say, gas mark 5 or 6). Oil the vegetables either by putting the oil in your palms and rubbing the vegetables with them or by spraying with Fry Light.
   

2. Put the vegetables on baking trays (or put the hard vegetables on the tray and add the soft ones later if you are cooking for one person.) Sprinkle with a few herbs, a little salt and black pepper.
   

3. Put the hard vegetables in first, cook for about half an hour and then add the soft vegetables and the tomatoes.

Continue roasting until they are done to your liking. 

Lentil Salad with Balsamic Dressing.

(This would serve 2 – 4 depending on appetites and what they had with it)

1 1-inch-thick slice red onion plus 1 cup chopped red onion
3 fresh parsley sprigs plus 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup dried brown lentils

2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Radicchio leaves or cos or iceberg lettuce.

1.      Bring medium saucepan of water to boil. Add onion slice, 3 parsley sprigs and 1 minced garlic clove and bring to boil. Stir in lentils. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered until lentils are just tender, about 20 minutes. Drain. Discard onion and parsley.

2.      Stir oil, vinegar, mustard and remaining garlic in small saucepan over low heat until just warm (do not boil).

3.      Place warm lentils in bowl. Add chopped onion, chopped parsley and warm vinaigrette; toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon salad into radicchio leaves. Serve warm or at room temperature.

NOTES

Pitta bread or crusty wholemeal bread would be nice will this. Followed by yoghurt and fruit it would be a substantial meal.

Chickpea (Garbanzos) and tuna salad with a lemony dressing

Serves 2 – 4 depending on appetite and accompaniments. I’ve left this in American measurements as the proportions matter more than weights.

This also tastes nice if the lemon peel is left out – it is a bit of an effort to grate it!

1/4 cup plain non-fat yoghurt
2 - 3 tablespoons low-fat mayonnaise
1 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

1 6-ounce can solid white tuna in spring water, drained
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 15- to 16-ounce can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed, drained
1 cup chopped sweet onion (e.g. Spanish onion)
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved, or ordinary (but good quality tasty) tomatoes, quartered.
1/2 cup chopped fresh Italian flat-leaved parsley

1.      Whisk yoghurt, mayonnaise, mustard and lemon peel in small bowl to blend.

2. Toss tuna with lemon juice in large bowl. Add chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans), onion, celery, tomatoes, parsley and yoghurt dressing to bowl. Toss to blend. Season salad to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 6 hours ahead. Cover and keep in the refrigerator.)

  NOTES:

·    This can be made even more substantial by added cubed cooked potatoes. Put them into the dressing whilst they are still warm and then add the rest of the ingredients when you are ready to serve it.

  Or, serve with a jacket potato or pitta bread or crusty wholemeal bread.

Maggi’s CHOWDER Recipe

  Quantities: These aren’t vital and, tho’ I’ve given indications for some of the ingredients, it is best to experiment with what you’ve got and see what best suits your taste. I’ve adapted this version to be cholesterol-reduction friendly.

Servings: This depends on appetites!

1. Chop some onion (I medium to large or 2 small perhaps)
2. Fry the onion in a teaspoon or two of olive oil or a few sprays of Fry Light and continue frying at a lowish heat, covered, whilst you dice some potatoes (4 - 6 medium sized?)
3. Add finely chopped stick of celery if liked. (Other vegetables could be added at this stage if you want to, such as chopped courgettes or finely diced carrots.)
4. Add black pepper and mixed herbs to taste, (teasp. of dried herbs?)
5. Add one pint of skimmed milk and enough water, if necessary, to not quite cover the solid contents. OR use stock (this could be powder, cubes, home made, miso, even diluted soy sauce). OR a mixture of stock and skimmed milk.
6. Simmer gently, covered, until potatoes are cooked to your liking.
7. Add one or more of the following:

o       diced white fish (coley, cod, haddock for example. NOT oily fish.)

o       cup of sweet corn kernels

o       cup or so of cooked or tinned butter beans

o       cup or so of cooked or tinned chick peas

o       some chopped mushrooms

8. Bring back to the boil and then simmer until fish pieces are cooked (they will be opaque and will flake easily) and/or the other added ingredients are cooked/ heated through. Probably about 5 minutes.
9. Check the seasoning and add something like salt, soy sauce or a stock cube or powder if you think that it needs it.

  If you like a thick soup/chowder either liquidise some of the soup or make up a mixture of ( a couple of dessertspoons or so) cornflour and a little water (or milk or soya milk if you are cooking in stock) and add it to the chowder, off the boil, then bring it back up to heat to thicken. Or you could add a some fine oatmeal to the chowder instead of cornflour – this will be a positive cholesterol reducing move.

Pasta With Passata And Chick Peas

Serves 2 –4

Ingredients;

10 oz pasta tubes (e.g. penne)
Olive oil or Fry light
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 celery stick, finely chopped
15 oz can chick-peas, drained
8 fl oz passata (this is finely chopped and sieved tomatoes. Sainsbury’s creamed tomatoes does as well and is less expensive – whatever you use check that it contains nothing but tomatoes and perhaps a little salt.)

Salt and black pepper

1 teaspoonful sugar