Celebrity chef Catherine Fulvio showed how good food can be healthy food at a cookery demonstration in Portlaoise this week.
The audience was shown how to make two healthy soups which can be combined - a tomato soup and a pepper soup and orange stir-fried chicken . All three are ideal dishes for the autumn.
Janice Morrissey, dietitian with the Irish Heart Foundation was also on hand with tips on healthy eating and suggestions for substituting some ingredients with healthier ones in recipes.
The event, attended by more than 70 people is part of the Pfizer/Irish Times Healthy Town project. Portlaoise has been chosen as this year’s healthy town and a series of events are taking place in the county. Details are elsewhere on this site and in the Irish Times weekly Health & Family supplement. It is also being advertised on Midland 103 FM.
Catherine Fulvio is one of Ireland’s leading chefs, award winning author and owner of Ballyknocken House & cookery school in Wicklow.
She is also the food writer for the RTE Guide.
For more information on Catherine and the Ballyknocken Cookery School log onto www.ballyknocken.com
You can also follow Catherine on Twitter (@CFulvio) and Facebook @Catherine Fulvio (Chef)
Below are the recipes Catherine cooked on the night:
Roasted Yellow Pepper Soup and Roasted Tomato Soup
Serves 4-6
This soup has two parts and the two colours look great together. It’s visually impressive without being overly difficult. Just be careful when you serve them in the same bowl that they don’t merge together. But if they do - don’t worry just give them a swirl with a spoon and it will still look pretty.
For the yellow pepper soup:
4 yellow peppers
extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
250ml vegetable stock, plus extra to thin the soup if required
3 tbsp crème fraiche
salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the tomato soup:
extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, sliced
2 sundried tomatoes, chopped
1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
1 potato, peeled and diced
300ml vegetable stock, plus extra to thin the soup if required
2 tsp chopped fresh basil leaves
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas 4.
2. To make the yellow pepper soup, place the peppers on a roasting tray, rub with olive oil and roast for about 20 minutes, turning them over halfway through the cooking time, until the skin has browned. Remove immediately from the oven, place in a plastic bag and seal.
3. After 30 minutes, remove the peppers from the bag and peel away the skin. Set aside.
4. Heat a large saucepan over a high heat. Add some oil and the onion, reduce the heat to low and sauté for 8-10 minutes, until soft.
5. Deseed and roughly chop the peppers. Add the peppers, thyme and stock to the onion and heat through.
6. Using a blender (eg Magimix), purée the soup.
7. Add the crème fraiche and taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper as required.
8. To make the tomato soup, heat a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add some oil, the garlic and sundried tomatoes, reduce the heat to low and sauté for 1 minute.
9. Stir in the tomatoes, potato and stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the potato is cooked through. Add in the basil and remove from the heat.
10. Once again using your blender purée the soup and taste for seasoning.
11. To serve, using two ladles, pour one ladle each of yellow pepper and tomato soup into a bowl at the same time. They will stay separate for an amazing-looking and even better-tasting yellow pepper and tomato soup.
Orange Chicken Stir Fry
Serves 4
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 chicken breasts, trimmed and skinless, diced
2 spring onions, finely sliced
2 oranges, juice and zest
1 tsp brown sugar
½ tsp nam pla
1 red chilli, finely sliced into rings
1 ½ tbsp lite soy sauce
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 pak choy, rinsed and roughly chopped
Small handful of coriander, roughly chopped
2 handfuls of bean sprouts
1. Combine the orange zest, juice, nam pla, brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic in a small bowl.
2. Heat the oil in a wok, add the chicken and chilli, stir fry until the chicken is cooked.
3. Stir fry the spring onions.
4. Add the orange sauce mix to the chicken and cook for about 2 - 3 minutes.
5. Add the pak choy, coriander and bean sprouts and cook for a further 1 minute.
6. Serve immediately with brown rice.