Food & recipes

Nutrition: Recipes with raisins

Impress your guests with these healthy and delicious lunches

Impress your guests with these healthy and delicious lunches
Enlivening your everyday dishes is easy as these dishes prove – simply add raisins! The sweet flavour will not only please your dinner guests but your greatest critics – the kids – will love them too. Plus, they have the added benefit of containing phytochemicals and antioxidants, including readily absorbed catechins, which may help decrease cancerous tumours. So what are you waiting for? Read on for a selection of mouthwatering meals

MOROCCAN SALSA

SERVES 6

150g of California Raisins
75g of dried apricots, chopped into small pieces.
400g of firm tomatoes, skinned, seeded and diced
2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
Few strands of saffron, crumbled
1 tsp of toasted cumin seed
1 or 2 chillies, seeded and finely chopped
Small pack of fresh mint or coriander, chopped.
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp of honey
Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

“There are 130 calories in 40g of raisins”

Put the raisins and apricots into a bowl and add 150ml of warm water. Set aside for 20 minutes to soften. Drain and combine diced tomatoes into a large bowl and set aside.
Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add some of the oil and fry the onion over a medium heat with the saffron for one minute, until softened. Remove from the pan and cool.
Add to the raisin mixture with the rest of the oil and the remaining ingredients. Mix together gently but thoroughly and serve with a grilled chicken breast.

Chef’s tip

Make it veggie by serving with a meat-free alternative to chicken

RED PEPPERS STUFFED WITH SPICED COUSCOUS

SERVES 4

Serve this as a side dish alongside your favourite organic meat

4 red peppers, deseeded and tops discarded

Butter, for greasing
150g of couscous
2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
50g California Raisins
25g of fresh parsley, finely chopped
100g of pitted green olives, sliced
Zest and juice of 2 lemons

“Peppers are bursting with vitamin A,C and K”

Preheat the oven to 200°C or gas mark six. Put the peppers side down on a greased tray and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, put the couscous in a bowl, pour over 225ml of boiling water, cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and let it stand for 10 minutes.
Heat one tablespoon of the oil in a frying pan. Add the chilli and cook for one minute. Turn off the heat and stir in the raisins, parsley, olives and lemon zest and juice.
Fluff up the couscous with a fork and stir in the raisin mixture with the remaining olive oil.
Fill the peppers with the couscous, cover with foil and return to the oven for 10-15 minutes, until tender.
Serve with a rocket salad.

Chef’s tip

Try adding walnuts to the couscous for even more nutritional goodness!

SPINACH WITH RAISINS AND PINE NUTS

SERVES 2

1 tbsp of olive oil
10g of butter
1 garlic clove, sliced
250g of baby spinach leaves, washed
50g of California Raisins
50g of toasted pine nuts
Sea salt and ground black pepper

“Spinach is full of flavonoids, a phytonutrient that has been shown to slow down cell division in skin cancer cells”

In a large frying pan over high heat, melt olive oil and butter. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute without burning.
Add spinach and raisins. Let cook until spinach is wilted. Season with salt and pepper.

These recipes are part of a selection from California Raisins. For more information visit calraisins.org