Healthy eating doesn’t mean you have to give up your favorite meals. Food can be delicious, easy, and beautiful to look at while still delivering all the nutrients you need from a healthy and well-balanced diet.
If you enjoy regularly hosting your friends and family for dinner parties throughout the year, consider mixing up your next menu with new and exciting recipes. You may just discover your new go-to meal combination with your favorite Tooheys beer.
Chicken Katsu Curry
If you are trying to eat healthier but still want to serve your friends and family delicious and comforting meals, healthy chicken katsu curry is the perfect recipe to turn to. Skip the breadcrumbs for finely chopped flake almonds and bake the chicken rather than fry it until crisp and golden.
The golden curry sauce is simple to whip together and starts with onion, ginger, and garlic, gently cooked in a saucepan until soft and brown. Stir in curry powder, turmeric, black pepper, and star anise before adding flour to make a thickened paste. Gradually add water to the pan, stirring constantly until your sauce is thick and smooth. Serve on a bed of rice with a simple slaw salad on the side.
Moroccan Lamb with Roasted Root Veggies
Moroccan roast lamb with roasted root vegetables and coriander may sound intimidating, but this delicious and hearty meal is simple to prepare. The lamb and vegetables are cooked together in the same pan, ensuring maximum flavor with minimal effort and clean-up.
While preparing your veggies, take your lamb out of the fridge to come back to room temperature. Chop onions, celeriac, and squash and coat them with olive oil, seasonings, and the Moroccan spice mix, ras el hanout. Add the veggies to a large roasting pan with eight garlic cloves, skin on.
Cut small slashes into the meat. Rub a mixture of olive oil and ras el hanout over the lamb before seasoning with salt and pepper. Nestle the lamb into the vegetables and bake it in the oven for about 40 minutes. At the 40-minute mark, remove the lamb to rest and let the vegetables continue to cook for another 20 minutes. Meanwhile, blend together coriander, lemon zest, lemon juice, green chili, and cumin seeds until the mixture is finely chopped and vivid green.
Carve the lamb and serve it alongside the roasted veggies. Drizzle over the coriander sauce and put the remaining sauce in a small serving jug for the table.
Stuffed Peppers with Tomatoes & Feta
Quinoa-stuffed peppers with roast tomatoes and feta are not only beautiful to look at but also contain an impressive four of the five daily veggie portions and provide your body with a healthy dose of vitamin C, calcium, and iron.
The meal takes just 30 minutes to prepare, including the cooking time. The hardest part will be waiting for it to be done. Put the quinoa in a pan with water, garlic, bouillon powder, and tomato puree. Cover and cook on low heat for 20 minutes. Add the drained and rinsed chickpeas, spinach, and basil, and cook for a further 5 minutes or until all the liquid has been absorbed.
While your quinoa is cooking, drizzle olive oil over the prepared peppers and cook, cut side down, in the oven for 10 minutes. Add cherry tomatoes to the pan and roast for a further 10 minutes. Stir the tomatoes, pumpkin seeds, and feta into the cooked quinoa and spoon into the pepper halves to serve alongside a simple rocket salad.
Sesame Parsnip & Wild Rice Tabbouleh
Sesame parsnip and wild rice tabbouleh is a tasty and beautiful winter salad that is the perfect side dish for any dinner party menu. It is incredibly easy to prepare, with the oven doing all the work. The parsnips will take roughly 30 to 40 minutes to cook, so ensure you leave yourself enough time to prepare everything.
Parsnips are coated in a simple mix of olive oil, coriander, turmeric, and seasonings, with a sprinkle of sesame seeds, before being roasted in the oven until tender. While this bakes, cook your wild rice according to the pack instructions. In a separate pan, cook the onion until completely soft and golden brown, then turn up the heat and add vinegar to transform it to a striking pink color.
Finally, whisk together tahini, vinegar, and enough warm water to create a creaming dressing and season to taste. Mix the soft onions and herbs into the rice before topping it with the roasted parsnips, pomegranate seeds, and a healthy drizzle of dressing.
Raspberry Sorbet
If heavy desserts are not on the menu for your next dinner party, light and refreshing raspberry sorbet may be the ideal way to end a delicious meal. Dissolve sugar into water in a saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally. Once dissolved, bring to a simmer until the liquid becomes a clear syrup.
Blend fresh or frozen raspberries and lemon juice in a food processor until smooth. Strain through a fine sieve to remove seeds and combine with the cooled simple syrup. Transfer to a freezer-proof container and leave to harden for at least an hour and a half. Use a fork to break up ice crystals before returning to the freezer. Mix the sorbet mixture once every four hours to break up ice crystals, and stop once it is firm but scoopable.
