Rhubarb 5-Spice Chicken Recipe

Rhubarb is a wonderful and underrated plant with such a unique flavour. The past few years, my rhubarb plant has been growing progressively more out of control. It's so big this year that the leaves are all packed in together. I can't even see the stalks! Two of the stalks are as long as my legs and I don't even think they're the longest stalks!

If all I made with it was crumbles, pies and preserves, I'd get sick of rhubarb pretty quickly. Realising that I didn't actually know many uses for rhubarb besides desserts, I decided to research the savoury uses of rhubarb. It seems that rhubarb goes well with meats such as chicken and pork, so I decided to come up with this marinade for chicken. The tartness of the rhubarb, the sweetness of the spices and warmth from the ginger work perfectly together with the chicken.

Note: I haven't tried making a vegan version of this recipe yet, so if anyone does, please leave a comment to let me know how it turns out! I think this would complement tofu 'chicken' perfectly.

Servings: 2
Preparation: 25-40 mins, plus roughly 24 hours to marinate
Cooking: 45-60 mins

Equipment:

• Small saucepan
• Wooden spoon (or something to stir the sauce with)
• Glass dish

Ingredients:

• 1 stalk rhubarb (½ if the stalk is extra large like mine was) thinly sliced (between 1-2cm, roughly - this means that the rhubarb won't be stringy)
• ½ large red onion, diced
• 1 heaped tsp finely chopped fresh ginger
• 1½ tsp Chinese five spice
• 2 heaped tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp muscovado sugar
• 1 tsp butter (I used a dairy free butter)
• 2 cloves finely chopped garlic
• 2 medium sized chicken breasts

Method:

1. Add the butter to the saucepan on low-medium heat. Once it begins to melt, add the onion and sugar and carefully stir. Let the onion begin to caramelise.
2. Add the ginger, spices and garlic. Stir in then leave to further caramelise.
3. Put the rhubarb in the pan with just enough water to cover it. Simmer on medium heat until the rhubarb has fallen apart, stirring occasionally. The consistency should be thick but still easily pourable. If it's too watery, simply simmer for longer.
4. Place the chicken breasts in a glass dish. The chicken should fit fairly snugly, leaving enough space for the sauce of course. Don't worry about defrosting them first if they're frozen as they are going to be marinating overnight.
5. Let the marinade cool a little before pouring over the chicken. When completely cooled (as to not damage your refrigerator) cover the dish and place in the fridge for roughly 24 hours.
6. Preheat the oven to 165

   °C (Gas Mark 3/325

   °

   F)

7. Remove the covering, then place the dish in the oven for 45 mins to 1 hr, or until the chicken is cooked completely (you don't want to get food poisoning!)
8. Serve the chicken with a few spoonfuls of sauce, or alternatively pull the chicken apart with a fork and mix until thoroughly coated in marinade.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do! If you make this recipe, please let me know in the comments or, alternatively, email me. If you post a picture on instagram make sure to tag me! Knowing that other people like my recipes fills me with joy. Thank you ever so much for reading and goodbye until next time :) ~Jay

Tomato Soup Recipe

My mum made a wonderful tomato soup recipe. It has a very vibrant flavour and the slight spice is goes so well. Not only does it taste great, but it's healthy! The costs for this soup are relatively low and it's suitable for freezing, making it the perfect food to make in batch and store away for days when you don't feel like cooking or when you're finding cooking things difficult. If I still haven't convinced you of this soup's greatness, it only requires two steps! This is definitely one of my favourite easy meals, and I hope you'll feel the same way.

Nutritional Facts (Approximate)

	Total (6 servings)	Per serving
Energy (kcal)	525	87.5
Fat (g)	2.4	0.4
(saturates/g)	0.1	0.0
Carbohydrates (g)	87.4	14.6
(sugars/g)	53.5	8.9
Fibre (g)	24.3	4.1
Protein (g)	26.5	4.4
Salt (g)	3	0.5

Ingredients

2 tins (800g) chopped tomatoes

1 tin (415g) baked beans

2 carrots (about 200g) sliced or grated

1 stick of celery

3 medium-sized pickled onions (4-5 small or 1-2 large)

Fresh or dried chilli (optional - in our recipe we use chilli-infused pickled onions, but we understand that most people won't have access to these. Add as much as you like. Several chillies if you like spicy foods and half a chilli if you only like a little spice)

1 tsp smoked paprika (optional - we tried adding it today, and it went very well with the flavour.)

Costings (Approximate)

Total (6 servings): £1.83

Per serving: £0.31

Preparation Time

Preparation time: 5 mins (+5 mins if carrots need grating or slicing)

Cooking time: 20 mins

Total: 25-30 minutes

Equipment

Saucepan (medium-large)

Blender (a food processor can also be used. However, we don't recommend this, because you will have to lift the entire food processor to pour the soup out. This is due to there being a hole in the bottom of the processor bowl which allows the motor shaft to spin the blade shaft. We found this out the hard way!)

Method

1. Place all the ingredients (except for the beans), plus half a cup (about 120ml) of water, into the saucepan. Put on the largest hob between low and medium heat for . Stir frequently to ensure none sticks to the pan, otherwise hand-cleaning it may be a bit difficult! Add the beans 15 minutes into cooking, then simmer for a further 5 minutes.

2. Leave the soup to cool for 10 minutes before carefully pouring the contents of the saucepan into the blender. Make sure you don't burn yourself! Blend until smooth, then serve immediately. If planning to freeze, leave to cool completely before pouring into tubs. Health and safety guidelines often suggest storing for a maximum of one month at -18'C (-0.4'F)