Looking for the perfect, easy to make meal for two on Valentine’s Day?
Hot and spicy chicken soup
Ingredients
2tbsp sunflower oil
½ small onion, thinly sliced
1 crushed garlic clove
½ tsp chopped fresh root ginger
3oz/80g cooked chicken, coarsely chopped
1 tsp light soy sauce
pinch of turmeric
1 pt (300ml) chicken stock
2oz (50g) beansprouts
Pinch of ground black pepper
Handful of fine noodles, cooked
Chopped spring onions to garnish
Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry the onion, garlic and ginger until the onion is soft and transparent.
Add the pepper, turmeric and chicken and stir for 30 seconds. Add the soy sauce and stock and bring to the boil.
Reduce heat slightly and cook for five minutes. Drain noodles. Divide equally in soup bowls and add the beansprouts.
Serve hot with chopped spring onions on top.
Cheesy tomato fish bake
Ingredients
1oz (25g) breadcrumbs
1oz (25g) strong cheddar, grated
½ onion, skinned and chopped
½ tsp dill
1 tbsp fresh flat-leaved parsley, finely chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
10oz white fish (such as haddock or cod), filleted and ready to cook
1oz (25g) butter
1oz (25g) mushrooms, washed and sliced
1oz (25g) flour
350 ml milk
1 rounded tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp lemon juice
Pinch of sugar
1lb (450g) potatoes, peeled
First mix the breadcrumbs, cheese, onion, herbs and seasoning with 2 tbsp of the milk to make a stuffing.
Place half the fish on the bottom of a buttered shallow flameproof dish, spread the stuffing over the fish and top with the remaining fish.
Melt butter in a saucepan and fry the mushrooms until soft, then add the flour and add the remaining milk slowly, whisking as you go so it doesn’t go lumpy.
When all the milk has been added, put in the tomato puree, lemon juice, sugar and seasoning. Keep whisking over the heat until the sauce thickens. Pour it over the fish and bake in the oven at 190C/375F/Gas 5 for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, boil the potatoes in water until they are tender, drain and mash. Remove fish from the oven and pipe the potatoes round the outside of the flameproof dish. If you want to be romantic try to pipe it in little heart shapes.
Place dish under the grill to brown and garnish with chopped parsley. Serve with a dark green vegetable high in folic acid such as steamed spinach or broccoli.
Passion fruit and banana dream
Ingredients
2 passion fruits
1 large ripe banana
50ml half fat crème fraiche
2 tbsp lower fat fromage frais
To serve: Crisp dessert biscuits
Halve the passion fruits and scoop out the seeds and flesh into a bowl. Retain 2tsps of the fruit to use later to top the final dish.
Peel half the banana and mash the flesh, then mixing it with the passion fruit.
Fold the crème fraiche with the fromage frais into the fruit. Then thinly slice and fold in the rest of the banana. Spoon the mixture into two serving glasses and top each with the little remaining passion fruit.
