Pinch of Nom

100 Slimming, Home-style Recipes

Sharing delicious home-style recipes with a hugely engaged online community, pinchofnom.com has helped millions of people to cook well and lose weight. The Pinch of Nom cookbook can help novice and experienced home-cooks slim down while enjoying exciting, flavourful and satisfying meals.

There are 100 incredible recipes in the book, 33 of which are vegetarian. Each recipe has been tried and tested by twenty Pinch of Nom community members to ensure it is healthy, full of flavour and incredibly easy to make. Whether it's Cumberland Pie, Mediterranean Chicken Orzo, Mexican Chilli Beef or Chicken Balti, this food is so good you'll never guess the low calorie count. The recipes are labelled with helpful icons to guide you towards the ones that suit you best - whether you're looking for something veggie, watching the calories, want to feed a family of four or have limited time to spare.

Showing that dieting should never be a barrier to good food, Pinch of Nom is the go-to home cookbook for mouthwatering meals that tick all the boxes.

Kate Allinson and Kay Featherstone owned a restaurant together in The Wirral, where Kate was head chef. Together they created the Pinch of Nom blog with the aim of teaching people how to cook. They began sharing healthy, slimming recipes and today Pinch of Nom is the UK's most visited food blog with an active and engaged online community of over 1.5 million followers.

Pinch of Nom
Bluebird
Authors: Kate Allinson and Kay Featherstone
ISBN: 9781529014068
RRP: $39.99
Available in all good bookstores.

Mediterranean-Style Lamb Shanks

15 minutes
Serves 4
582 kcal, per serving

Slow-cooking - whether in the oven, pressure cooker or slow cooker -is a wonderful way to bring out the beautiful, rich and tender taste of lamb. The delicious ingredients in this recipe make it perfect for wowing at a dinner party, without the need for high-calorie ingredients.

Ingredients

4 lamb shanks (all visible fat removed): about 400-450g, each
sea salt and freshly grounded black pepper
low-calorie cooking spray
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, plus a dash to deglaze
250ml beef stock (1 beef stock cube dissolved in 250ml boiling water)
1 large onion, roughly choppped
2 celery sticks, roughly chopped
2 medium carrots, roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
2 fresh tomatoes, chopped
1 beef stock cube (in addition to the one above)
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried rosemary
1/4 tsp dried thyme
generous handful of fresh parsley
cooked couscous to serve (optional)

Oven Method
2 & 1/2 - 3 hours

Season the lamb with salt and pepper. Spray a large frying pan with low-calorie cooking spray and add the lamb shanks. Brown them over a medium heat for around 5 minutes until browned all over (this boosts the flavour).
Place the lamb in a large lidded casserole dish. Preheat the oven to 180C (fan 160C/gas mark 4). Deglaze the frying pan with a dash of the Worcestershire sauce and beef stock, scraping up any bits of meat stuck to the bottom of the pan - use a wooden spoon for this. Add the onion, celery, carrots and garlic. Fry for a few minutes, coating them in the deglaze mix, until the onion starts to colour, then add the tomato puree and fry for 3-5 minutes.
Pour the pan mixture into the dish on top of the lamb shanks. Add in the remaining ingredients (except the parsley) making sure to crumble in the stock cube. Cover and cook in the oven for 2 - 2 1/2 hours until the lamb is tender, checking a few times during cooking to see if you need to add a little more liquid.
Remove the shanks from the dish and heat the sauce until it reaches the desired consistency (you may want to pass the liquid through a fat strainer as lamb is naturally quite fatty). Stir through the chopped parsley and serve with couscous, if desired, pouring the sauce over the top.

Electric Pressure Cooker Method
50 minutes

Season the lamb with salt and pepper. Spray a large frying pan with low-calorie cooking spray and add the lamb shanks. Brown them over a medium heat for around 5 minutes until browned all over (this boosts the flavour).
Transfer the shanks to the pressure cooker.
Deglaze the frying pan with a dash of the Worcestershire sauce and beef stock, scraping up any bits of meat stuck to the bottom of the pan - use a wooden spoon for this. Add the onion, celery, carrots and garlic. Fry for a few minutes, coating them in the deglaze mix, until the onion starts to colour, then add the tomato puree and fry for 3-5 minutes.
Pour the contents of the pan into the pressure cooker, on top of the lamb shanks. Add in the remaining ingredients (except the parsley) making sure to crumble in the stock cube.
Pressure-cook on Manual/Stew setting for 45 mninutes. Allow the pressure to release naturally.
Remove the lamb shanks from the pressure cooker and set to Saute/Browning to reduce the sauce until it reaches the desired consistency (you may want to pass the liquid through a fat strainer as lamb is naturally quite fatty).
Stir through the chopped parsley and serve with couscous, if desired, pouring the sauce over the top.

Slow Cooker Method
4-8 hours

Season the lamb with salt and pepper. Spray a large frying pan with low-calorie cooking spray and add the lamb shanks. Brown them over a medium heat for around 5 minutes until browned all over (this boosts the flavour).
Transfer the shanks to the slow cooker.
Deglaze the frying pan with a dash of the Worcestershire sauce and beef stock, scraping up any bits of meat stuck to the bottom of the pan - use a wooden spoon for this. Add the onion, celery, carrots and garlic. Fry for a few minutes, coating them in the deglaze mix, until the onion starts to colour, then add the tomato puree and fry for 3-5 minutes.
Pour the contents of the pan into the slow cooker, on top of the lamb shanks. Add in the remaining ingredients (except the parsley) making sure to crumble in the stock cube.
Cook on Medium for 4-5 hours or low for 7-8 hours.
When the lamb is tender, remove the lamb shanks from the slow cooker. Cook the sauce uncovered on High for around 30 minutes or until it reaches the desired consistency (you may want to pass the liquid through a fat strainer as lamb is naturally quite fatty).
Stir through the chopped parsley and serve with couscous, if desired, pouring the sauce over the top.

Pinch of Nom
Bluebird
Authors: Kate Allinson and Kay Featherstone
ISBN: 9781529014068
RRP: $39.99
Available in all good bookstores.