Chicken & Pumpkin Laksa

Fragrant & spicy for warmth in the winter months

This spicy warming soup has its origins in Asia, commonly found on the street in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. There are many different versions and this can easily be adapted to your taste.

I tend to put a bit more Pumpkin and a bit less Chicken due to my tendency to have a higher vegetable to meat ratio, but it is equally good either way.

 

Ingredients:

500g Fresh or frozen pumpkin (peeled and cut into cubes of around 3cm)
1 litre of Chicken stock (you can add more depending on how watery you prefer it)
250g Rice noodles (depending on your preference you can use either thin vermicelli or thicker round or flat noodles)
1 tbsp of vegetable oil (I use either sunflower or sesame)
3-4 Tbsp of Laksa paste (you can buy this but I whizz up my own in the Nutribullet as I am sure of the ingredients and the strength – Recipe here)
400ml can of Coconut milk
2 skinless chicken breasts cut into bite size pieces
1 Red Bell Pepper, de-seeded and cut into long slices
100g fresh bean sprouts
Handful of spring onions, finely sliced or shredded
Handful of fresh Coriander
Handful of fresh Mint

Optional Garnish: Chopped peanuts (attention nut allergies), small red chillies sliced, lime wedges.

Method:

Cook the pumpkin chunks in the stock until tender. Remove pumpkin chunks from stock keeping stock for later use.

At the same time place the rice noodles in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave to soak for 10 minutes and then drain and keep to one side.

Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan, add the Laksa paste and fry gently without burning for at least a minute until the spices release their fragrance.

Add the reserved stock to the pan, bring to the boil, stirring into the paste and then add coconut milk. Return to boil and simmer gently for several minutes until fully blended.

Add the cubes of chicken, pumpkin and the slices of red bell pepper. Cook gently for about ten minutes stirring occasionally until chicken pieces are cooked.

Serving:

Divide the noodles into 4 (or 6 depending portion size) bowls then ladle over the Chicken, Pumpkin and Pepper mixture. Top with the bean sprouts, spring onion, coriander and mint and then ladel over the stock to fill the bowl.

Garnish as required and serve straight away, piping hot.

 

How to use your Halloween pumpkins

Using up leftover pumpkins after Halloween

On my quest to be predominantly Sugar free for January, I have been working from home this week and dug out some of my favourite recipes.

I had a glut of pumpkins in my garden last harvest and as my daughter had hacked half of them into Jack O lanterns for Halloween, I scooped out the flesh, cut into cubes and put in the freezer.

Since then, bags of frozen cubed pumpkin stare at me every time I open the freezer and I think I must use that soon.

So yesterday, I decided to make a Chicken and Pumpkin Laksa. Laksa is a popular street food in various parts of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. It can take various forms sometimes with shrimp and eggs, sometimes with meat or tofu but generally is a hot spicy soup that is easy to digest and eat.

It used to be one of my go to’s as you can make a big pot and then reheat as you fancy a bowl.

I make my own paste as I like to know whats in my food and the ready-made sauces and pastes often have added sugar or preservatives. This can seem daunting but if you have a Nutribullet this can be done quite easily and will keep for several weeks in the fridge in an airtight jar. Here’s my recipe which depending the strength of the Chillies you can adapt to your taste: Easy Laksa Paste Recipe

You can find the Chicken & Pumpkin Laksa Recipe here again this is adaptable – This serves 4-6 depending on your portion size and I use more pumpkin and less chicken as I prefer a higher vegetable content in general. Enjoy!

 

 

Easy Laksa paste

Fresh fragrant ingredients make the difference for the Laksa paste

This is an easy to make Laksa paste that will keep for several weeks in an airtight container in the fridge for quick and easy use. As you get used to blending it, you can add more or less of each spice to make it personal to your taste.

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 – 1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 – 1  teaspoon ground turmeric

4-6 fresh red chillies, depending on heat (can use dried but need to pre-soak until tender)
1 chopped onion
2 lemongrass stalks, chopped (Tip: Not always easy to get/keep so I buy fresh when I see them, peel and cut into 5-6cm batons and freeze until I want to use)
3 cm piece of galangal, peeled & chopped (if you don’t have this easily, this can be replaced with ginger.
Small tablespoon of cashew nuts (if you don’t have can use unsalted peanuts but attention for people with nut allergies)
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 teaspoons shrimp paste (or fish sauce)
1 tablespoon oil (can use sesame, vegetable or peanut depending on your preference)

Method:

Place coriander, paprika, cumin and turmeric in a small frying pan over medium heat. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until fragrant but not burnt.

Place all ingredients in a food processor or Nutribullet. Blend until a smooth paste.

Use immediately, leave overnight or keep in an airtight jar in the fridge for use as required.

Try with my Chicken & Pumpkin Laksa recipe. Enjoy! 

First blog post

This is my very first post. Yes, ever. The idea for this started with a simple dinner party discussion over a few bottles of wine where we were exchanging some recent life experiences. A good friend of mine said “you should write a blog, it would be hilarious”. Not knowing whether that was a good or bad thing at the time, I slurped my wine and said “I wouldn’t even know where to start”.

Here’s the thing, I coach people to achieve their own goals on a daily basis and I realized I wasn’t following my own advice. Half the difficulty of any project is getting started. Bit of a no-brainer! The other thing I often talk about with people is their fear of other people’s views, or of making a mistake and looking either silly or a failure (a bit like me hitting publish before I wrote the page).

The good thing about a rapidly changing world with all this technology is that you have the ability to try and do anything, there is no limit. Sometimes the difficulty is more in choosing the direction and defining the goal so you don’t get distracted.

So to get back to the point; This blog has not been set up to be earth shattering, rather a way of tracking and sharing different points on my journey as I try to continually redefine my path.

Enjoy,

Ness