Starter:

‘My Watercress Soup’ 

Ingredients

• 4 Spray/0.8ml Oil, Olive, Extra Virgin, Only 1 Cal, Spray
• 1 Serving/25g Onions, Red, Fresh
• 1 Cube/188.9ml Stock Cubes, Beef Flavour, Made Up
• 85 g Watercress, Fresh
• 1 Clove/3g Garlic, Raw, Average

Method

1. Lightly fry chopped onion and garlic.
2. Addchicken oxo disolved in 7 ounces of boiling water
3. Add watercress ,simmerfor 10 minutes..
4. Put in liquidizer and whizzuntilpureed.
5. Soup may need re-heating beforeserving.
6. A little double cream or creme fraish can be swirled into soup before serving

Main:

Pumpkin and Sage Risotto

served with a mixed green salad of wild rocket and watercress leaves drizzled in a little good quality balsamic vinegar.

Ingredients

• 450 g Pumpkin, Raw, Edible Portion, Average
• 1 Tbsp/15ml Oil, Vegetable, Average
• 10 g Sage, Fresh
• ½ Onion/25g Onions, Red, Raw, Average
• 1 Clove/3g Garlic, Raw, Average
• 140 g Rice, Arborio Risotto, Dry
• 6.6 g Stock Cubes, Vegetable, Dry
• 10ml Juice, Lemon, Fresh, Average
• 1 Tbsp/6g Lemon, Peel, Raw, Average
• 50 g Cheese, Goats, Average
• 50 g Margarine, Pro Activ, Extra Light

Method

1. Cut the pumpkin (or can use squash if not in season) into wedges and scoop out the seeds. Using a vegetable knife, cut off the skin. Put one wedge (about 50g) aside for the pumpkin crisps. Dice the remaining flesh into bit-size pieces, then set aside.
2. Using a swivel vegetable peeler, pare long thin strips off the reserved wedge of pumpkin. Heat the oil in a small saucepan, and then fry 4 or 5 strips of pumpkin at a time for 1-2 mins until golden and crisp. Drain on kitchen paper. Fry 4 fresh sage leaves in the oil for 1-2 mins until crisp. Drain on kitchen paper, then set aside.
3. Melt the butter in a saucepan or frying pan. Add 1/2 a finely chopped red onion and a crushed clove of garlic and cook for 5-6 mins until very soft. Stir in the diced pumpkin and cook for 4-5 mins. Tip in the rice and cook, stirring continuously, for 1-2 mins until the rice is well coated in the butter and almost translucent.
4. Pour in a ladle of the hot stock (from 1/2 litre) then continue stirring and cooking until the stock is almost completely absorbed by the rice. Repeat with another ladle of stock, then continue stirring and cooking until the stock is used up and the risotto is thick and juicy, with a soup-like consistency and the rice just tender.
5. Stir in the zest and juice from 1/2 a lemon into the risotto and season with salt and pepper. Stir in 50g goats cheese (can also use blue cheese or mascarpone) then, just as the cheese begins to melt through, spoon the risotto into dishes and garnish with the pumpkin crisps and fried sage leaves.

Dessert:

Tia Maria Gateau

Ingredients

• 75g Flour, Plain, Average
• 4 Cup (24fl oz)/708g Coffee, Regular, Ground Or Instant
• Eggs, Medium, Average
• 115g Sugar, Caster, Average
• 175g Cheese, Soft, Low Fat
• 1 Tbsp/20g Honey, Pure, Clear, Average
• 15ml Tia Maria, Original
• 50g Ginger, Stem, Crystallised
• 225g Sugar, Icing, Average
• 5g Cocoa Powder,

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/Gas 5. Line and grease and 20cm/8in round cake tin. Sift the flour and 2 tbsp. instant coffee powder (couldn't find coffee powder on it's own in the database, only made up coffee!) together in a bowl.
2. Whisk the eggs and sugar in a bowl until thick and mousse-like, and then fold in the flour mixture lightly. Turn the mixture into the prepared tin. Bake for 30-35 mins or until firm and golden. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
3. To make the filling, mix the soft cheese with 1 tbsp. clear honey in a bowl. Beat until smooth, then stir in 1 tbsp. Tia Maria and 50g preserved stem ginger, chopped. Spilt the cake in half horizontally and sandwich together with the Tia Maria filling.
4. To make the icing, mix the icing sugar, sifted, and 2 tsp. coffee extract (not on database) in a bowl with enough water to make an icing which will coat the back of a wooden spoon. Pour three-quarters of the icing over the cake.
5. Stir 1 tsp. cocoa into the remaining icing, spoon it into a piping bag fitted with a nozzle and drizzle the mocha icing over the coffee icing.

Total calories for the meal: 756