Cumin Spiced Chicken with a Puy Lentil and Chargrilled Courgette Salad, served with a Mint Yoghurt Dressing
Well after a short break at Christmas and New Year and a few pounds heavier, I have returned to the world of Blogging. Hooray! Mind you, it’s with no thanks to WordPress and their release of 3.5. Am I being completely naive when I say should compatibility with the WP Themes not be tested before it’s rolled out? It appears there is no communication between, WordPress, the different owners of WordPress Themes and the Hosting Companies. The latter two are always trying to play catch-up with the former and it is for the consumer to resolve the resultant mess. It is never a good idea to begin a blog post with a rant – especially with it being a New Year but it really infuriates me! I spend so much time trying to reverse engineer upgrades. Hopefully the problem has been resolved (*crossing fingers and toes*). Venting over and…..reeeeelaaaxx!
The festive season was packed full of calorific food, cocktails, puddings and cakes not to mention the holiday food at the start of December. Oh, how I have been naughty! I had plans to introduce more vegetarian meals to our diet at the start of the year but this was met with much opposition from my other half. “Will there be any meat or fish?” and the classic “Are you trying to turn me into a vegetable?” Mon Dieu!
I did however prepare a dish that he approved of which contained the protein he craved, was reasonably healthy and tastes rather good to boot!
The recipe was borne from having some porcini flavoured liquid leftover from a pasta dish I was making earlier in the week. I wanted the earthy, rich mushroom flavour to impart on the Puy Lentils. Normally I would make these lentils with a flavoured stock and this acts as a great replacement if you don’t have the aforementioned porcini liquid.
This dish is a hearty, flavourful salad, served warm or cold. The total time includes marinating the chicken for 2 hours.
Ingredients
- 1 packet of chicken fillets (for 2 people)
- 100g of Puy lentils
- Liquid for cooking the lentils either porcini liquid or stock (according to your lentil cooking instruction)
- 1 large courgette (or 2 small courgettes), very thinly sliced lengthways
- 2 tbsp of olive oil
- 3 tbsp of lemon juice
- 1 tbsp of cumin
- Handful of fresh coriander
- Handful of fresh mint
- Salt to season
- 50ml of Natural yoghurt
- 1 garlic clove, pressed
- 2 tbsp of lemon juice
- 20g of chopped fresh mint
- Salt to season
Instructions
- Place the chicken fillets in a bowl with 1tbsp of oil and the cumin and mix together thoroughly. Marinate for 2 hours.
- Place the lentils in a pot with the liquid and cook until they become tender. This may be up to 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, place the courgette slices in a bowl with some garlic, 1 tbsp of olive oil and 2 tbsp of lemon juice and ensure they are sufficiently coated.
- Heat up the griddle pan and chargrill the slices of courgettes on each side. You will probably have to do this in batches. If you want the dish served warm, cover the plate of courgettes and place in a low oven to preserve the heat.
- Clean the griddle and use again for the marinated cumin spiced chicken. Ensuring the fillets are cooked evenly on both sides.
- Prepare the dressing by adding the yoghurt, garlic, lemon juice and salt to a separate bowl. Mix together and ensure all ingredients are blended in. Then add the chopped mint and stir again.
- When the lentils are cooked, drain them. Add 1tbsp of lemon juice and mix together.
- Dress the dish by placing the lentils first, followed by the courgette, then the chicken.
- Pour the mint yoghurt dressing on the dish and garnish with some fresh mint and coriander.
Notes
Raw garlic in the yoghurt dressing means you may wish to serve this on a night when you are not feeling too amorous!
I’m entering this recipe into the Herbs on a Saturday challenge owned by Karen over at Lavender and Lovage and being guest hosted this month by Vanesther over at Bangers and Mash.
Have you managed to cut down on the calories this month? Please let me know in the comments below!
Like How to be a Gourmand on Facebook
{ 38 comments… read them below or add one }
Now that is my kind of food, lovely spicy flavours and minty yogurt. Sorry to hear about your WP problems, I think I’ll stick with blogger!
Thanks Janice. It really is worth making the dish – truly delicious! Thankfully, it appears that the problems are resolved. I had to be downgraded but what a pain and such a waste of time. Oh the problems of being self-hosted – Don’t get me started
Probably not a bad idea to stick with Blogger
lovely jacqueline…what happened?
Hi Fiona! Automatic upgrade to WP 3.5 by the hosting company – photos not uploading and then me not being able to enter text into the body of the post. Just having the HTML code – so you can imagine – oodles and oodles of fun! I was ready to throw the laptop at the wall yesterday but now I have found my inner peace
I am so glad that I DID not upgrade to WP 3.5 over Christmas, I have heard that there have been HUGE problems with it, and now I am thinking of when I can do it…….how did you restore everything in the end Jacqueline? I am so sorry to hear about it
BUT, I am VERY happy to see this GORGEOUS entry into Herbs on Saturday and can I just say, it is TOTALLY my kind of recipe! Thanks so much!
Karen
Thanks Karen! It seems crazy that they would release this and get all the bad press with it. Logic dictates that it would be better to ensure thorough testing is carried out before they do this but it is not the first time this has happened with my experience of WP upgrades. My hosting company helped me to downgrade to the previous version – involves using the FTP files.
Thanks for your lovely comment about the entry – it is always a pleasure to participate in the challenge
Fabuluous recipe Jacqueline!! understand your frustration – I think most bloggers unfortunately know too many such moments!
Courage ma chere!!
Yes Karin, I fear you may be right! Thanks for taking the time to comment
What a delicious sounding meal! I look forward to trying this!
Thanks Jayne and welcome to my blog
If you try it, I’d love to know how you get on with the dish!
You’ve only gone and done it again Jacqueline. Love, love, love all these flavours and textures as will the rest of the family! Glad you sorted your WP problems out, I wouldn’t have a clue and haven’t upgraded yet as hubs always tells me to wait!
Thanks Camilla. Yes, I would say wait as long as you need to. I’m certainly in no rush to upgrade. What a hassle!
This dish looks absolutely heavenly Jacqueline – and absolutely perfect for Herbs on Saturday. Definitely my kind of food and I will be trying it out very, very soon!
It looks and sounds absolutely mouth-watering. I love how healthy it is too.
Thanks Corina
Just the right kind of recipe for a healthy start to the year – lots of lovely fresh flavours. Sounds like a frustrating start to your blogging year though, hope it all goes smoothly from now on!
Thanks Sarah! All fixed now but it did wind me up just a little! Normally healthy recipes don’t rate highly on the flavour ratings but this one is really good! Happy New Year to you x
Your spiced chicken and salad looks so good! This is the type of flavours I love and I would happily eat a plate of this.
Thanks Michelle! Happy New Year to you
I’ve not had issues except – & this is a biggie – my subscribed WP blogs (ie you) have stopped. Don’t know why. May have to resubscribe to everyone, & with gorgeous recipes like this, you are top of the list. Sounds like summer on a plate, which is very welcome on a day like today. I’m doing something very herby too, but different continent entirely! Sublime tastes here. Mmm
How bizarre Kellie! I tend to read all my blogs through Google Reader as I have a collection of blogs I follow on different platforms and it keeps it altogether. Thanks for the comment!
So nice to find a great recipe and have all the ingredients on hand. Bookmarked for tomorrow’s dinner.
Thanks Angela for taking the time to comment. I’d love to know how you get on!
Wow this is a dish to be enjoyed right now after all the rich and heavy foods of late. Wishing you a very Happy New Year and look forward to more of your wonderful posts x
Thanks Laura! Happy New Year to you too x
This sounds so good! The mint with the cumin chicken sounds like a match made in heaven!
Thanks Caroline. It does taste rather nice!
This sounds delish! I’m always having to suggest ideas for my friends at work on what they can do for their lunchboxes which is new and exciting, I’ve suggested they try this for tomorrow as I reckon it’ll be perfect (just keep the yoghurt on the side I told ‘em!)
Great! Thanks for the visit Emma. I know what you mean,I often want to try different ways of enhancing and trying different flavour combinations to ascertain which flavours work best together.
Hahaha, “are you trying to turn me into a vegetable?!” I know how he feels, with Mark’s ban on meat I often feel like a veggie. This dish looks divine and the porcini soaked lentils is such a good idea!
Thanks Jo. Just think of all the glorious food you will savour in Morocco. Spices aplenty too
What a gorgeous dish! The colors, the textures, the flavors. I love the thought of that mint dressing too. Wow! I’m hungry now! Thank you for sharing. I hope you are having a week full of good food and laughter. Happy to start my day here!
Thanks Monet. My week is going very well and good food is definitely helping!
I saw this recipe only now!!! Lovely, fresh and light, this is just what most of us need right now! Lentils will be back on my menu very soon. I should try to add some vegetable stock mixed with dry porcini mushrooms. It sounds delicious. I’ve checked my WP version: it is 3.5, luckily I updated before Xmas and I did not have problems (it’s good because IT problems confuse and irritate me VERY MUCH).
It really does taste good! I think my problems were theme related too. Glad your blog has not been adversely affected
hi Jac, happy new year to you and your husband! hope all well in the east! I am sorry to hear of IT problems. It is so precious a blog – the time and effort put in. Am glad it is ok now
I love cumin with most things I have to say – it’s scent is so gorgeous I think it enhances many dishes.
lovely healthy combination here. I have done a chicken an puy lentil salad before but not tried it in a while. I shall use your recipe next time!
Thanks Nazima – Happy New Year to you and your family. All is well with the blog now (fortunately). If you try the recipe, I’d love to know how you get on
Hi love! I know this is an older recipe…but we’re making it tonight because it looks so very good. So healthy and light and flavorful! Thank you so much for sharing. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
{ 2 trackbacks }