Pink mojo chicken and harissa roast vegetables

Sometimes it’s hard to come up with healthy meals without losing flavour. Chicken and vegetables is a safe ‘healthy’ option and I find that marinades are a good way to combat potential blandness.

I have a bottle of ‘Olives Et Al’ Pink Mojo in my fridge and until last night, had only used it as salad dressing. It does say on the bottle that it can be used for a marinade though, so I thought I’d give it a go! I marinaded two chicken breasts in a good third of the bottle and left under clingfilm in the fridge for around 2 hours. Pink Mojo is Caribbean inspired with flavours of pink grapefruit, garlic and cumin – it tastes a little like the mild Nando’s lime and coriander marinade which is no bad thing!

I oven baked the chicken and took it out a couple of times to baste the meat with the marinade/juices. The result was tender, moist and really tasty. The marinade almost caramelized on the top. Olives et Al do a range of products and so far, the few I’ve tried have been really nice. You can buy all of their products on their website.  Its got recipes and competitions on it too, well worth a quick look! Out of their whole range, I’m particularly impressed with their sauces and marinades – in fact, I’ve got a jar of Dukkah spice rub to try this week – I’m planning on using it as a rub with olive oil on a piece of belly pork I’ve got lurking in the freezer. I’ll let you know what I think!

We like a bit of a kick with our food and so, with the marinade being quite mild (but extremely tasty), I decided to accompany the chicken breasts with harissa roasted vegetables from Rachel Allen’s ‘Entertaining at Home‘ book. I did cheat slightly and use a harissa paste mixed with olive oil and lemon juice rather than making it from scratch. There is a recipe to make it from fresh in Rachel’s book but I think my quick fix worked just as well.

Rachel Allen’s harissa roasted vegetables:

Ingredients Serves 6-8 (I cut down for 2 of us!)

• Pinch of salt
• 450g (1lb) new potatoes, unpeeled & halved or quartered
• 5 carrots, peeled and cut into 1cm (1/2 in) slices
• 1 head broccoli, cut into large bite-sized chunks
• 2 red or yellow peppers, deseeded and cut into bite-sized chunks
• 2 large courgettes, cut into bite-sized chunks
• 1 tbsp chopped coriander or parsley, to serve

Method:

• Fill a large saucepan with water, add the salt and bring to the boil. Tip in the potatoes, blanch for 4 minutes then add the carrots and boil for another 3 mins before removing from the water and leaving to drain. Add the broccoli to the boiling water and blanch for 2 mins then drain and set aside.
• Place the carrots and potatoes into a roasting tin and add the peppers and courgettes. Pour over half the harissa dressing and mix to thoroughly coat the vegetables. Place in the oven for 15-20 mins or until the potatoes are tender. Add the broccoli, mix together and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes.
• Remove from the oven, stir in the remaining harissa dressing and serve, either hot or at room temperature, with the chopped herbs scattered over the top.