No Puff Potpie

During this one month of diet, I have improvised on the high carb diet we are on to make it to the lowest possible carb version. Going on this diet has made me realize the amount of carb we eat. I thought it impossible to remove the carbs entirely. But thankfully, with the diet plan that we had, we were not asked to stop carb entirely. We were weaned off it. With the first week with some carbs and then reducing it over the weeks, we are completely off carbs for the past two weeks.

Since BH takes his lunch to office, I had to make him meals that he could eat at his desk with less hassle. Noodles, lasagne, Pulao, Biriyani, Pot pies etc., are the things that came on top of my list. Nothing without carb. Then I thought, let me improvise! I wrote back and forth to my trainer Iram Zaidi (I have eaten her brains!!) on what I can and cannot put on my plate of food. Armed with the vastly available information from the cyberspace and inputs from Iram,  I came up with ways to cook noodles, lasagne, pulao etc giving it a diet twist.

This Potpie is low carb version. Instead of the puff pastry crust on top, I made a crumble with some powdered flaxseeds and oats crumbled in some butter and cheese. It will not give you the golden buttery crust, but it has a nice crunch on the top. I added a lot of green veggies to make it a filling meal and a small piece of red capsicum to give the dish a little bit of colour. Very satisfying meal. You will not feel you are on a diet.

Ingredients

Boneless chicken breast – 100gm

Onion – ¼ of a medium onion diced

Garlic – 1 clove

Leeks – a small piece

Green and Red Capsicum – ¼ of each

Celery – a small piece

Brocoli – 3-4 florets

Mushroom – 20 gm

Pepper – ½ tsp (divided)

Red Chilli flakes – ¼ tsp

Salt – ½ tsp (divided)

Cream – 3tbsp

Oats – 1 tsp powdered

Flaxseed – 1 tsp powdered

Mozzarella cheese – 20 gm

Butter – 10gm

Method

1. Cube the chicken to bite size pieces and marinate in a little bit of salt and pepper an keep for 10min
2. In a pan, melt half of the butter and sauté the garlic, onion, capsicum, broccoli, Mushroom in that order. All the veggies should be soft with a bite to it. This should take around 2-3 min.
3. Add a little bit of salt, pepper and the red chilli flakes and toss around for another min.
4. Add the cream and half of the cheese and let it all come together. After adding the cream switch off the flame after the cream has heated through, 2-3 sec is all that it will need.
5. Mix the powdered oats and flaxseed and add the rest of the butter and cheese to it (butter should be cold, preferably). Crumble them into the powdered oats and flaxseed.
6. Pour the chicken mixture into it and pour the crumble on top of this.
7. Preheat the oven to 108 C
8. Bake in the oven for 15 – 20 min.
9. Garnish with parsley or coriander leaves