3 Easy & Healthy Recipes From The New Annabel Karmel ‘Busy Mum’s Cookbook’

Annabel Karmel’s family recipes to keep the whole clan happy and full

Let’s be honest, mama, cooking for the fam isn’t always easy or fun – and it can feel like just-another-chore pretty easily. In our frantic state of hunger and panic, we turned to Annabel Karmel’s latest cookbook, and the rumours are true: it’s a busy mum’s saviour!

From ’20-Minute Recipes’ to ‘ Six ingredients’, ‘Lunchboxes And Snacks’ and ‘Entertaining’ plus loads more, each of the 100 recipes has been put together with the simple aim of making mealtimes healthy, yummy and stress-free. There aren’t endless lists of complicated ingredients or baffling cooking methods (hooray) and the photographs are so good that you’ll be desperate to get in the kitchen (honestly).

Prepare for rumbling tummies…

Mini Chicken Skewers with Noodle Stir Fry

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes plus 30 minutes marinating
Makes 4 small bowls and 2 skewers

Ingredients: 

Mini skewers
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp honey
½ tsp grated ginger
1 tsp sesame oil
2 chicken breasts, diced into cubes

Stir Fry
2 tbsp sunflower oil
100g medium egg noodles
1 bunch spring onions, sliced
6 mushrooms, sliced
½ red pepper, sliced
150g sugar snap pears, halved lengthways
½ red chilli, deseeded and diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
100g beansprouts
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp honey

Method:

1. Soak 8 little wooden skewers in water for 30 minutes.
2. Mix the soy sauce, honey, ginger and sesame oil together in a bowl. Add the chicken and then leave to marinate for 30 minutes. Thread 2 – 3 pieces on each skewer.
3. Heat a frying pan until hot. Add 1 tbsp of oil. Season the skewers then fry on both sides for 3 – 4 minutes until cooked through and golden brown. Set aside.
4. Make the stir fry. Cook the noodles in boiling water according to the packet instructions. Drain, refresh in cold water and snip into short lengths.
5. Heat the oil in a wok. Add the spring onions, chilli and garlic and fry for 30 seconds. Add the mushrooms, pepper, sugar snap pears and toss over the heat for 3 minutes.
6. Add the noodles, soy sauce, sesame oil and honey. Season and then add the beansprouts.
7. Serve with the skewers.

Vegetable Rosti

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 14 minutes
Makes 4 portions

Ingredients:

1 courgette
1 carrot, peeled
225g peeled sweet potato
2 tbsp sunflower oil
A knob of butter

Method:

1. Put the courgette, carrot and sweet potato through the spiralizer.
2. Heat an omelette pan until hot. Add the oil and butter and swirl around the pan.
3. Put the vegetables into a bowl. Add the oil and butter and season. Mix together then put into the pan and flatten down to make a round rosti.
4. Heat for 7 minutes until golden on one side. Put a small plate on top of the rosti, turn upside down onto the plate.
5. Slide back into the pan and fry for another 5 – 7 minutes until brown on the other side.

Chocolate and Pear Pudding

Prep time: 12 minutes
Cook time: 20 – 25 minutes
Makes 6 – 8 portions

Ingredients:

75g self-raising flour
25g cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
75g unsalted butter, softened
75g caster sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
200g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
2 x 415g cans pear halves in natural juice, drained
150ml double cream

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and line the base of a 23cm round springform cake tin with non-stick baking paper.
2. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into a bowl, add the butter, caster sugar and eggs and mix. Melt 50g of the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water (don’t allow the base of the bowl to touch the water). Add the melted chocolate to the batter. Beat until combined, then spread the batter evenly over the base of the prepared tin.
3. Slice each pear half into half again lengthways. Arrange the pieces of pear on top of the chocolate sponge batter. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until the sponge is well risen and shrinking from the sides of the tin. Leave the sponge to cool in the tin.
4. Melt the remaining chocolate with the cream in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, then drizzle a few tablespoons of the sauce over the pudding, serving the rest alongside.

If you love these recipes as much as we do, then make sure to check out the new Annabel Karmel ‘Busy Mum’s Cookbook’. The name says it all, mamas!