RECIPE // Chorizo and brie burger

This week's recipe sees me back at home after a festival, feeling a little dirty and urgh. On days like these you need the ultimate comfort food. Faced with some not very exciting burgers that probably had next to nothing meat content in them and some other ingredients that needed using up, I concocted the ultimate burger. Chorizo and brie in a wholemeal roll. I also had a portobello mushroom spare so lopped this up and added to the mix too. And this was the final result:

METHOD

1. Chop chorizo, mushroom (optional) and brie into slices.

2. Stick the burgers in the oven to allow plenty of time to cook (mine took 20 minutes from frozen).

3. Cook the chorizo in a pan and when done, place to one side. You won't need any oil in the pan as the chorizo will release plenty. Do not waste that lovely paprika oil left in the pan by the chorizo - cook the mushrooms in this and then place to one side when done.

4. Toast the buns under the grill (optional).

5.  Give the under side of the bun a generous squirt of ketchup and then place the burger on top once cooked. Pile the brie, chorizo and mushrooms on top of the burger as you wish. I like to have the brie sitting on the burger so it goes all melty and lovely. If this doesn't melt to your liking, stick the burgers under the grill or in the oven for a few minutes.

What started off as an experiment and simply using up ingredients, turned out to be a winning combination. Brie works brilliantly with bacon and pancetta, so it was only natural that it would pair well with chorizo too. The extra spice from the chorizo gives the traditional cheese and bacon sarnie a well needed refresh. It's a little bit naughty, but completely worth it. So if you are on a diet, give yourself a day off and say screw it - it'll be the best thing you ever did.

Recipe // Chicken and mushroom soup

Remember my seafood and miso soup? It was an experiment, but a very tasty experiment which paid off. Since then, I've adapted my recipe a little to allow for a different flavour combination - chicken and mushroom. So if you're kosher or can't stand seafood, this may be the one for you! This time around I didn't add rice noodles as being a complete idiot, I forgot to buy them(!) ...but this recipe works equally well without the noodles and is ideal if you're following a no carb / low carb diet. However if like me, you love your carbs, you can find noodle quantities via my previous recipe [same link as above].

You will need...

• x2 tablespoons of white miso paste
• 1 litre of water / vegetable stock / chicken stock
• 150g of mushrooms (I used shiitake mushrooms)
• x3 pak choi
• x2 chicken breasts
• 1 or 2 spring onions

Method

1. Wash and chop the mushrooms and pak choi. I cut the pak choi in half lengthways and kept the mushrooms fairly large as both will reduce anyway once you start to cook. Chop the chicken into small pieces / strips.

2. Shallow fry the spring onions and chicken until the chicken is cooked. Gradually add the mushrooms and pak choi.

3. In a separate bowl, mix together the white miso paste and water. You can add vegetable stock or chicken stock instead of water if you prefer - however I found the soup nice enough without stock. Add to rest of the ingredients in the pan.

4. Slowly bring to the boil. Once boiled, continue to simmer. You can add vegetable and chicken stock if you wish, but when I tasted mine, it had plenty of flavour already. Simmer for 5 minutes and then serve.

 Serves 2 people

Light, healthy and very quick to rustle up, it's the perfect soup to come home to after a long day at work. The chicken can easily be substituted for tofu too if you're veggie! If you decide to give this a try, make sure you Tweet me @Lucy_Angele using the hashtag #cookwithlucy or leave me a comment below because as ever, I'd love to see your creations!

Seafood and miso noodle soup

During these cold months we all want something warm, nutritious and quick to rustle up. I'd never made - let alone eaten - noodle soup before, but it sounded like ideal comfort food without being being too filling. Full of protein and vitamins, it's good wholesome food that is healthy, yet doesn't leave you hungry.

You will need...

• x2 tablespoons of white miso paste
• 1 litre of water / vegetable stock / chicken stock
• 200g of rice noodles
• 150g of mushrooms (I used oyster mushrooms)
• x2 pak choi
• 400g of your choice of seafood (I used prawns, mussels and squid)
• 1 or 2 spring onions

Method

1. Wash and chop the mushrooms and pak choi. I cut the pak choi in half lengthways and kept the mushrooms fairly large as both will reduce anyway once you start to cook it.

2. For the time being leave the rice noodle soaking in a bowl of cold water.

3. Shallow fry the pak choi, spring onions and mushrooms in a pan and place to one side afterwards. This is optional as you could always just cook these all in the broth later if you prefer. However I wanted them all to soak up the beautiful juices coming from the mushrooms. Save the leftover liquid to add to the soup later.

4. Add the water and miso paste into a saucepan and slowly bring to the boil. Once boiled, continue to simmer. You can add vegetable and chicken stock if you wish, but when I tasted mine, it seemed perfect as it was. Particularly as I knew I'd be adding seafood to the mix later anyway.

5. Gradually add the pak choi, mushrooms and spring onions. Then add the seafood and cook until ready. I bought a pre-cooked seafood pack so it only needed 2-3 minutes to heat through.

4. Time for a taste test! Add vegetable / chicken stock if you feel it needs it. However I found the blend of miso and the liquid from the seafood already flavoursome enough.

5. Drain the noodles and remove from the bowl of cold water. Add them to the rest of the soup. These will only take a minute - if that - to be ready.

6. Serve generous ladlefuls into two bowls and enjoy!

Makes enough for two servings - however we found we had plenty left over for lunch during the week. Although by this stage the noodles had soaked up most of the miso soup rendering it more like noodles with a sauce rather than noodle soup. But trust me, all the flavours are still there.

I cannot emphasise how quick and easy this dish was to prepare and cook - not to mention incredibly tasty and satisfying for a cold winter's evening. If you decide to give this a try, make sure you Tweet me @Lucy_Angele using the hashtag #cookwithlucy or to leave me a comment below as I'd love to hear about your creations!

Oreo pancakes

Like Oreos? Like pancakes? Then you'll love Oreo pancakes! Simple, fast and tasty, what's not to love? Feeling inspired by this YouTube video, we made it happen. The quantities were all rather vague - a "splash" of milk and a "taste" of baking powder - so it was a case of trial and error. But they didn't turn out too badly...

Although next time we'll be adding sugar, more baking powder and less milk to try and get them sweeter and a little fluffier. As per the recipe, we used six Oreos and it made roughly six mini Oreo pancake sandwiches and a couple of spares for "tasting" whilst we were waiting for the rest to cook ;)

So the idea with these is that you use crushed Oreos instead of flour like in a traditional pancake batter. You can make your own cream if you wish, but for a lazy Sunday morning, squirty cream was quick and ideal! If you make these yourself, don't forget to send me pics and Tweet me @Lucy_Angele using the hashtag #cookwithlucy - I'd love to see your creations!