Halogen Oven Recipes

I was recently asked whether our cookbook “Halogen Heaven” is suitable for vegetarians.  Well the simple answer is that it contains afew vegetarian recipes but on the whole its for us meat eaters.

I have often thought about becoming a vegetarian and found these handy tips:

1. Eat a dark green vegetable (broccoli, spinach, kale, collard greens) at least three times a week. These nutritional powerhouses are packed full of vitamins such as calcium and iron. On the run or hate spinach? Try drinking your greens.
2. Take a vitamin supplement that contains B12 or include nutritional yeast in your diet regularly, especially if you’re vegan or mostly vegan.
3. Water water water! It’s been said over and over again for a reason-because its true! Most people don’t drink nearly enough. Bring a water bottle with you wherever you go and invest in a simple filter for your home. Water is especially important when adjusting to a new way of eating, as it will help curb any cravings you may experience.
4. Make it a goal to eat at least one piece of raw fruit or a handful of raw vegetables every day.
5. Reduce your refined sugar intake.
6. Keep your favorite salad dressings on hand. A little variety is great too– try to keep at least two kinds, either store bought or homemade on hand at all times.
7. Eat the rainbow! Fruits and vegetables all contain different nutrients. A simple way to remember to eat a range of vitamins and minerals is to vary the colors of the vegetables you eat.

So until we bring out our Vegetarian cookbook, I hope you will enjoy this recipe.

Vegetable Chilli

Ingredients

• one onion chopped finely
• some mushrooms (however many you like) chopped
  2 carrots chopped
• 2 green chillies with seeds removed chopped
• 1 red chilli with seeds removed chopped
• 1 tea spoon of cumin
• 1 tea spoon of paprika
• half a teaspoon of cinnamon
• 2 garlic cloves crushed
• one can of tinned tomatoes
• 3 tea spoons of tomato puree
• one can on red kidney beans
• some oil
• two tablespoons of vinegar
• one tablespoon of granulated sweetener

Instructions

1. Chop the veg and lightly fry the onion, garlic, mushrooms and whatever other veg you put in. Then add the tomato puree stir for one minute and then add the tomatoes.
2. Pour this mixture into a oven dish and add the carrot and the spices.
3. Cook for about 20 minutes on HI, then add the kidney beans vinigar and sweetener.
4. Reduce the heat and cook for a further 10 minutes. Check the carrots at this point to see whether they are tender and if not cook for further 5 minutes.
5. Serve with rice and salad.

I’d love to hear what you think about this recipe and how it turned out for you.

Happy cooking

This is a recipes from our forthcoming diet recipe book:

Pork Burgers
Serves: 4

Per serving
208 calories

Ingredients

450g lean pork mince
3 tablespoons of sage and onion stuffing mix
made with 6 tablespoons of boiling water
100g dried apricots finely chopped
1 small onion finely chopped
2 teaspoons of vegetable oil
Black pepper
Wholemeal Bread rolls
Salad

Instructions

1. Mix all the ingredients together (excluding the oil) and season with the black pepper.
2. Shape into eight burgers and brush each burger with a little oil. Place on to lower grill and cook each burger on HI for 4 minutes on each side (or until browned)
3. Serve with wholemeal rolls and salad.

Enjoy.

Well the great news is that we have the following cookbooks in ebook format coming out very shortly:

• Vegetarian Recipes for Halogen Ovens
• Diet/healthy eating recipes for Halogen Oven
• Diabetic Recipes for Halogen Ovens
• Desserts for Halogen Ovens

If anyone is interested in testing the recipes and letting us have their opinion, please contact us.

We recently released our e-cookbook for Elderly people.  Basically the idea is that lots of elderly people buy the ovens but dont have inspiration when cooking just for one!  The food is generally speaking easy to cook, and hopefully easy to eat too.

Though dont let that put you off this cookbook because the recipes are universal - there’s lots of traditional cooking including hotpot and casseroles.

Happy cooking

This is currently our favourite vegetarian recipe:

Cheese & Potato Pie

Ingredients

2 large baking potatoes (or equivalent quantity of smaller ones), they need to be the floury sort
1 large white onion
2 large eggs
8 oz mature cheddar grated
Salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Parboil the potatoes in their skins, until just starting to soften.
2. Drain and allow to cool.
3. Finely slice or chop the onion.
4. When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, thickly slice them (1/4″) and place one layer (say one third of the quantity) in a greased baking dish.
5. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Add one third of the chopped onion and one third of the grated cheese. Repeat the layers of seasoned potato, onion and cheese until all the ingredients are used up.
7. Beat up the eggs, pour over the potato layers and bake in oven on HI (full power) for about 40-45 minutes or until golden brown.

This recipe is great served with sweetcorn and petit pois.

Happy cooking

This is a review of an american version of the Halogen Oven. This is taken from their website as I havent actually tried one of their ovens, however as I know some people have these ovens or may have seen them on the internet I though this might be useful:The FlavorWave Oven Deluxe lets you cook delicious, healthy meals, and enjoy them with your family. Using convection, conduction, and infrared heat, the FlavorWave oven Deluxe cooks 50% faster than a conventional oven. Infrared technology is currently being used in some of the finest kitchens in the world. Now this revolutionary cooking technology is available to you with the FlavorWave oven Deluxe.

The FlavorWave oven Deluxe bakes, barbeques, broils, air fries, air broils, grills, roasts, and steams to lock in the true flavour of the food. Cook everything from frozen dinners to steak, to a 12lb turkey, all in the same machine without heating up the kitchen! This culinary award-winning oven cooks food evenly, from the inside out. Enjoy healthier meals, with natural food juices and flavours sealed in.

The FlavorWave oven Deluxe includes an automatic timer and a 9-hour warming setting, so you can relax with your loved ones while your food cooks. The glass pan makes for easy clean up. The FlavorWave Deluxe Oven is so compact, lightweight, and portable. FlavorWave Oven Deluxe can easily be used anywhere including camping and at the caravan.

The secret of the FlavorWave Oven Deluxe incredible effectiveness is that fact the it uses a patented 3-way cooking process to quickly cook your food exactly the way you want it.

Conduction Cooking:

The same type of cooking process used by a conventional oven.
Convection Cooking:

Instead of having to rotate and turn your food during the cooking cycle. The FlavorWave Oven Deluxe circulates its heat around your food cooking it evenly every time.
Infrared Cooking:

The secret used by 5-star restaurants around the world has finally made it into the home! A 100% harmless, 100% effective halogen light penetrates your food all the way to the centre. The bonus is that, unlike microwave ovens, this process doesn’t burn or dry out the outer layer of your food before it cooks it!

FlavorWave oven Deluxe gives you delicious and juicy cooked food, with all of the quality and taste provided by a conventional oven in a fraction of the time! No matter how you like to cook, The FlavorWave Oven Deluxe will let you enjoy healthier meals fast - with those natural juices and flavours locked in.
FlavorWave Oven Deluxe Features:

• Cooks with no added fats or oils.
• Large cooking area accommodates over 8 pounds of meat
• Glass pan makes for easy cleanup
• Saves up to 85% more energy than conventional ovens.
• Compact and lightweight - will fit on any countertop.
• Smokeless, odourless and it won’t heat up your kitchen, or any other room!
• No defrosting needed!
• Cooks more than one dish at a time.
• Seals in juices and enhances food’s natural flavour.

We’ve had a couple of questions about the book we sell “Halogen Heaven” and whether it can be used with ovens such as this one.  In response I’d say that yes by all means use the cookbook as it is a generic guide however each oven does usually have its own operating manual and I’d always refer to that for more detail on cooking times.

Happy cooking

This is what they say about JML’s Halogen Oven

“It has a powerful fan that distributes heat quickly and evenly ensuring perfect cooking every time. And any fat produced simply drains away making every meal a healthy meal. And if this isn’t enough the Halogen Oven has a self-cleaning function - so no washing up!

• Scientifically proven to cook much faster than a conventional oven
• Glass body allows you to see your food as it is cooking, helping you to cook to perfection
• Includes 2 racks allowing you to cook on two levels at once
• Cook quickly, healthily and easily with the portable Halogen Oven”

I personally think that this one, though not necessarily the cheapest of the ovens, is probably the best one to purchase.  I know I am completely won over by the self-cleaning function.  JML are also a company that sell lots of these ovens through lots of different outlets including Woolworths and Amazon, so they’re easy to find.  At the time of writing they were £49.99 plus postage on the JML website but you might be able to find it cheaper elsewhere, certainly if you can find somewhere that does free delivery you’re onto a winner.

Click here for a really good independent review of the oven

Lots of people are starting to use their Halogen Oven’s when they stay in a caravan or motorhome. There are clearly lots of good reasons for this:

1. Older models of caravans might not have a cooker
2. You usually get electricity included within your ground rent so it saves on using gas (or potentially running out of gas half way through cooking
3. The Halogen oven is small and easy to store.
4. With the self cleaning functions I’ve heard of people us9ing them like a dishwasher and putting their plates in after use - how many caravans have a dishwasher?
5. No need to BBQ absolutely everything you cook
6. You can cook all the same healthy food that you cook at home!
7. Fried breakfasts come out a treat (very important on a holiday!)
8. In summer your oven will probably heat up the whole caravan where as a Halogen Oven wont.
9. If you have an awning why not cook outside and reduce the food smell inside your caravan
10. They’re extremely cheap (£39.99) and if your caravan is abit older it’s better than paying for a new oven (or caravan!!!)

If you are interested in buying a new oven check out or post on the best deals!

Some good…

• The way it cooks leaves the food really moist
• It cooks food so much quicker than an normal oven.
• It has 3 heights of shelf depending on what you are cooking.
• Oven chips are crispy and fluffy inside.
• Breaded Camembert cheese- (bought from Morrison’s) take about 12 mins
• Roast Potatoes - Nicely crispy on the outside, really moist on the inside and take anywhere between 25 and 55 mins - depending on how well done you like them
• It will heat dry old French bread and makes it lovely and soft inside and crispy outside.

Some bad…

• It isn’t great with pizza - if the food you are cooking needs a firm base - say for instance pie with a base, pizza etc.
• It doesn’t really crisp anything that is not directly below the heat source.
• Its not really easy to store - and when you use it you need extra room when you remove the lid.

Tips

• When you’re cooking using more than one rack, remember that anything on top shelf cooks really well, the shelf underneath does still cook but much more slowly.
• Why not use the bottom shelf to finish stuff off whilst cooking full speed at the top of the oven?
• Once stuff has finished cooking you need to lift the lid, to stop condensation forming and your food going soggy.

Happy cooking

Until you get used to cooking with your Halogen Oven, you’ll probably need a little bit of help. I know I did! At first it was very hit and miss as to whether food would be cooked enough or too much, however after afew attempts I decided to write everything down. I consulted with a couple of guidelines from the manufacturers and came up my own handy guide.

Obviously nothing beats trial and error and I would always suggest checking your manufacturers guidelines before using the oven, but hopefully this website might help.
I’ve had mixed outcomes when baking, basically I’m not entirely convinced that the oven should be used for baking - though I do include a couple of easy recipes in my cookbook, Halogen Heaven.

I’m still abit unsure about frozen food but have had some good results from it. I think my favourite is when I make homemade spicy lamb burgers (much tastier than beef) then freeze them and heat them on my Halogen oven when I need them, they’re perfect!

We’re now offering a handy guide (single page pdf) for cooking with Halogen Oven’s for free - delivered direct to your email. Visit our website www.bookshoparoundthecorner.co.uk and send us an email to recieve your copy.

This my list of the top 8 places to buy Halogen Ovens.

JML Direct

Coopers of Stortford

Mirror Shopping

Offers Direct 

Ebay

Woolworths

Telegraph Shop

and finally at Amazon…