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LEFTOVER TURKEY PIE – One Dish meal for Boxing Day

UPDATED DECEMBER 2022

We’ve all likely got some leftover turkey so here’s my slightly spicy idea for an easy and versatile leftover turkey pie.

Perfect to have as a meal in itself or add your favourite vegetables, leave off potatoes if you’re watching carbs the pastry will provide those! BUT you can also make this with any cooked shredded meat like chicken at any time of the year.

Leftover Turkey Pie one dish meal

You can simply make this dish as a “bake” with a white sauce if you’d rather avoid the pastry all together.

3 stages to making your leftover turkey pie

Stage 1 Flavouring up the shredded turkey meat

Stage 2 Making your white sauce

Stage 3 The Pastry

No set quantities for this leftover turkey pie

I’ve left off quantities for this recipe as you know how much turkey you have left and I assume you or someone you know has some understanding of what I’m recommending. Basically you’re doing a type of “STIR FRY” with your shredded turkey meat using the ingredients below:

Fry some chopped onions and minced garlic

then add some

chilli oil

Soya sauce

Oyster sauce

Little parsley if you have like and fry a little more

Mix your left over shredded turkey into the above mixture so you’re kind of stir frying it.

Stir fry your leftover shredded turkey meat

The Pastry for the Leftover Turkey Pie or any savoury pie!

You can simply BUY READY ROLLED short crust pastry or my tips to MAKING YOUR OWN are below:

Half cold butter in pieces to flour (always spelt)

with some cold water to make this into dough

A little turmeric for some a nicer colour and a bit of salt

I roughly used 150 grams of spelt flour

75 grams of butter

50 grams of water

plus a little salt to make the pastry for the pie shown in the picture. It’s really easy making pastry in a few seconds in a thermomix if you have one. You can listen to a podcast on what a thermomix is here if you want to find out more.

brush the pastry with a little milk and egg wash if you like

The Magic Sauce

I used a basic cheese sauce so that’s using a little flour, butter, making a roux ball, then adding milk and water, BUT with preosaked cashew nuts vs cheese later on. Again no quantities given here as there are plenty of recipes for a white sauce. Again very easy in a thermomix.

LIGHTEN It up by using a combination of water and milk, not just milk.

FLAVOUR it well using generous amounts of DIJON mustard, chilli and salt and fresh black pepper. I like adding a little turmeric for interest.

Whiz up the presoaked cashews first then use these in place of cheese

Plenty of dijon mustard

Little chilli oil and salt n pepper

Use spelt flour not plain flour

Lighter milk and water combination not just milk

Little turmeric for some interest

Use presoaked and whizzed up cashew nuts if you’re avoiding cheese

ASSEMBLING THE DISH

Lay the prepared, stir fried turkey meat in your baking dish

Pour over your sauce

Arrange your pastry on top

THEN BAKE till the pastry looks golden brown and “done”

Eat with any vegetables you like or freeze for a cold night!

Leftover Turkey Pie Finished Dish

MORE GOOD RECIPES HERE. Need to shop for those Chinese Ingredients AND make an outing of your trip with a good meal? Then read this Chinese Supermarket in Dubai post! Another great place to take visitors is the The Waterfront Market in Deira.

Waterfront-Market-Deira-Do-In-Dubai-What-to-do-in-Dubai-Monica-Kapila-Shiraz-Iranian-restaurant
IRANIAN WATERSIDE RESTUARANT WATERFRONT MARKET

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ENERGY BALLS RECIPE perfect nutrient dense sweet snack

Get your Energy as naturally as possible with this simple Energy Balls Recipe

UPDATED APRIL 2022 perfect Ramadan Recipe

The original energy balls recipe is great but here’s another version WITHOUT the very calorific peanut butter AND without all the caffeine in the cocoa. I’ve also used a delicious coating of sesame seeds and fennel seeds making this version of energy balls a perfect after dinner sweet fix.

ENERGY BALLS DOINDUBAI MONICA KAPILA fennel and sesame seeds
ENERGY BALLS NO PEANUT BUTTER OR COCOA

NEW FAVORITE ENERGY BALLS RECIPE GOES LIKE THIS

100 g of UNSALTED nuts – your choice I like cashews, almonds and pistachios all mixed

5 dates and 5 PRUNES no pips

1 tablespoon avocado or coconut oil

30 g flaxseed powder

40 g sunflower/pumpkin seeds ground to powder or you could us 70 g or dried coconut powder

1 tea spoon of water – if mixture is too dry

You pretty much make it as in method for the original recipe

ORIGINAL RECIPE FOR ENERGY BALLS USING PEANUT BUTTER AND COCOA

There are so many energy ball recipes being shared; this one was given to me by one of my uber fit and body conscious Australian gym buddies. It’s easy, uses simple, accessible ingredients and it works every time. Try some energy balls instead of your usual sweet fix!

Energy Balls Recipe DoinDubai

Ingredients to make the Energy Balls

12 to 14 pitted or unpitted dates

1 tablespoon of cacao powder

3/4 of a mug of raw, plain cashews and or almonds

2 tablespoons of your favourite peanut butter

Energy Balls Recipe ingredients 800

Equipment to make the Energy Balls

A good food processor OUR FAVOURITE IS THE THERMOMIX Read all about it or listen to a podcast on what a thermomix is and what it can do here.

Sharp kitchen knife and chopping board (to take the pips out of your dates if you need to)

Baking paper (not strictly necessary)

A large enough tray to lay out up to 14 to 18  made energy balls for setting

Prepared shelf in your fridge for energy balls to set on the tray

Metal tablespoon

One large bowl

Method to make the Energy Balls

  1. Take the pips out of the dates if you didn’t purchase them pitted
  2. Weigh out all your ingredients
  3. Process the nuts in the food processor to the thickness you want them. Some people prefer them to be almost powdery and quite fine, others a little more course. Me? I like a little of each, so I put most of the nuts in the processor and whizz to a powdery consistency, then leave a handful to be whizzed up roughly. Set aside the processed nuts
  4. Whizz up the dates to as small as you can get without them sticking together
  5. Add the peanut butter to the processor with the cacao powder, mix well so you are making a kind of very chocolatey peanut butter
  6. Add the dates to the mixture and whiz up again
  7. Add the nuts and do a final whiz till the mixture all comes together in a rough ball
  8. Switch off your food processor! Then take out your mixture and put in a mixing bowl
  9. Shape the mixture into little balls and lay out on kitchen paper on a tray ready to set in the fridge
  10. This quantity should make 12 to 14 small energy balls, set in the fridge for about an hour, or you could put in the freezer for less time.
  11. Just eat from the fridge or store in an airtight bag in the freezer and take out a few minutes before you need to serve

These Energy Balls are great for those after dinner munchies 

You can add your ingredients together

differently if you prefer.

In my video I combined the nuts with the cacao

as they are both dry ingredients.

Experiment and see what you think.

*I do recommend you make the dates as small as possible first though. Don’t be tempted to use too much cacao, it has a very strong taste!

Try the energy balls recipe with different kinds of homemade or shop bought nut butters and see if you prefer the taste! I think  these would also be good to give to growing teens as a snack especially during exams. Also a great recipe to teach to any kids going to university, provided they had a basic food processor!

Hope you enjoy! Tell us what combination of ingredients you have tried.

Monica

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AIR FRIED PAKODAS easy tasty authentic and quick perfect vegetarian snack

I tried these air fried pakodas for the first time recently and was so surprised at the very good result! Try these air fried pakodas and forget deep frying them ever again! Great tea time snack these air fried pakodas are vegetarian and gluten free. I think vegan too if you’re careful with your spray oil. Fabulous for Ramadan time too.

Air Fried Pakodas
Air Fried Pakodas DoinDubai Monica Kapila almost ready
Air Fried Pakodas almost ready

Ingredients for Air Fried Pakodas

2 medium onions thinly sliced

salt 1/2 tsp for the onions then 1 tsp for the gram flour and spice mix

3/4 cup of gram flour/ besan in Hindi

1/4 cup of rice flour this makes your pakodas nice and crispy

red chilli powder to your taste – I use about 1/2 tsp mine isn’t too fiery

1/4 to 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder

1 tsp ajwain or carom seeds if you can get them, easily available in any ethnic grocery store

Your preferred spray oil

I used Lurpack spray butter oil blend

Use spray oil we like this one from Lurpak

fresh chopped coriander about 1 tablespoon full

1 to 2 tsp of lemon juice

cup cake cases ones that can go in your air fryer safely!

Air Fried Pakodas DoinDubai Monica Kapila Spices box
Spices box use salt chilli and turmeric add ajwain or carom if you can get it

How to make them

THE PAKODA MIXTURE

Simply rub the sliced onions with salt and leave on the side for about 30 mins or so (don’t bother if you don’t have time, still works fine)

Mix flours, spices and coriander leaves in a bowl

Toss in the onions and mix well

add in few drops of fresh lemon juice

add a few table spoons of water to make a thickish batter consistency

Slice your onions ideally red ones like this

THE AIR FRYING BIT

Heat your Air Fryer to 160 degrees for about 3 minutes

Then spray your cup cake cases with your oil

add 1 spoon of pakoda mixture to each case

Pour the batter mixture into greased cup cake cases

spray well with the oil

air fry for 6 to 7 minutes on 160 degrees

Carefully turn over spray again and then air fry again for similar length of time on the other side, maybe a little less. This Air Fried Pakodas recipe has been adapted from www.secondrecipe.com

Fresh chopped coriander or fresh baby spinach

All air fryers work a bit differently, but I use the Ninja Air Fryer, I have one in Dubai and one in our home in London where my grown up kids live, they love it too! See the link below to find out more. Ninja Air Fryer AF100, Roast, Reheat, Dehydrate, 3.8 Litres, 1550 Watts, Grey and Black

Check out more Air Fryer Recipes that work well

AIR FRYER AUBERGINES AIR FRYER GALLERY
More AIr Fryer recipes here

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LEFTOVER TURKEY PIE – Easy tasty hearty one dish meal

We’ve all likely got some leftover turkey so here’s my slightly spicy idea for an easy and versatile leftover turkey pie.

Perfect to have as a meal in itself or add your favourite vegetables, leave off potatoes if you’re watching carbs the pastry will provide those! BUT you can also make this with any cooked shredded meat like chicken at any time of the year.

Leftover Turkey Pie one dish meal

You can simply make this dish as a “bake” with a white sauce if you’d rather avoid the pastry all together.

3 stages to making your leftover turkey pie

Stage 1 Flavouring up the shredded turkey meat

Stage 2 Making your white sauce

Stage 3 The Pastry

No set quantities for this leftover turkey pie

I’ve left off quantities for this recipe as you know how much turkey you have left and I assume you or someone you know has some understanding of what I’m recommending. Basically you’re doing a type of “STIR FRY” with your shredded turkey meat using the ingredients below:

Fry some chopped onions and minced garlic

then add some

chilli oil

Soya sauce

Oyster sauce

Little parsley if you have like and fry a little more

Mix your left over shredded turkey into the above mixture so you’re kind of stir frying it.

Stir fry your leftover shredded turkey meat

The Pastry for the Leftover Turkey Pie or any savoury pie!

You can simply BUY READY ROLLED short crust pastry or my tips to MAKING YOUR OWN are below:

Half cold butter in pieces to flour (always spelt)

with some cold water to make this into dough

A little turmeric for some a nicer colour and a bit of salt

I roughly used 150 grams of spelt flour

75 grams of butter

50 grams of water

plus a little salt to make the pastry for the pie shown in the picture. It’s really easy making pastry in a few seconds in a thermomix if you have one. You can listen to a podcast on what a thermomix is here if you want to find out more.

brush the pastry with a little milk and egg wash if you like

The Magic Sauce

I used a basic cheese sauce so that’s using a little flour, butter, making a roux ball, then adding milk and water, BUT with preosaked cashew nuts vs cheese later on. Again no quantities given here as there are plenty of recipes for a white sauce. Again very easy in a thermomix.

LIGHTEN It up by using a combination of water and milk, not just milk.

FLAVOUR it well using generous amounts of DIJON mustard, chilli and salt and fresh black pepper. I like adding a little turmeric for interest.

Whiz up the presoaked cashews first then use these in place of cheese

Plenty of dijon mustard

Little chilli oil and salt n pepper

Use spelt flour not plain flour

Lighter milk and water combination not just milk

Little turmeric for some interest

Use presoaked and whizzed up cashew nuts if you’re avoiding cheese

ASSEMBLING THE DISH

Lay the prepared, stir fried turkey meat in your baking dish

Pour over your sauce

Arrange your pastry on top

THEN BAKE till the pastry looks golden brown and “done”

Eat with any vegetables you like or freeze for a cold night!

Leftover Turkey Pie Finished Dish

MORE GOOD RECIPES HERE. Need to shop for those Chinese Ingredients AND make an outing of your trip with a good meal? Then read this Chinese Supermarket in Dubai post!

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