Can you make takeaway style food at home?

Monday, 25th January 2021

We think so!

During the Autumn term, my SEND vocational option group and I decided we would tackle making our favourite takeaways at home, partly as we are all at home, but also when I asked what some of their favourite foods were it was takeaway specials!

We didn’t want to open sauce jars, we wanted to make things ourselves. Equally we wanted to do simple food well and food that would not take hours. So, today I am sharing two of our recipes and instructions for another idea.

Snack Pizzas
The first things we made were snack pizzas – using crumpets as a base. Crumpets are low in fat, so a good start. We didn’t make bases (this can be time-consuming) and we wanted these to be a time-saving snack.

The sauce has tinned tomatoes or passata in It plus dried herbs, and some tomato ketchup.

Tinned tomatoes contain vitamin A and C, and cooked tomatoes contain Lycopene which is known to be good for eyesight. Unlike a jar of sauce, no added sugar or salt (there can be as many as 6 teaspoons of sugar in a jar/packet sauce, and up to 90% of your recommended daily salt intake too).

You can add lots of vegetables as toppings (most of us could do with adding some more veg into our diets, recent research has shown that despite plant-based diets becoming more popular, as a society our vegetable intake has actually dropped). 

The surface area of the crumpet is not huge so limits the amount of cheese that can be added – if you use a mature cheese you don’t need as much – cheese is not all bad – it contains calcium (good for bones and teeth) and protein. 

To cook them, place them under a preheated grill (medium heat will do), leave them until the cheese starts to melt or bubble, although watch carefully as sometimes grill cooking cheese can be temperamental and it can go from perfectly bubbly to burnt very quickly!

Chicken Nuggets
Following the success of the snack pizzas, we went on to make chicken nuggets (a timeless classic; favourite of many learners – and some staff – in the canteen). 

We used whole pieces of chicken (cut from skinless, boneless chicken breast, into 1 inch chunks).

The chicken was rolled in seasoned flour (depending on your preferences you can experiment here. We use salt, pepper and smoked paprika – if you like a bit of heat then some cayenne pepper or chilli flakes), then in egg, then crushed cornflakes (for a delicious, crispy texture).

Then they were baked (not fried, remember we are trying to make healthier choices here and frying adds many more calories to the food, along with adding high levels of saturated fats) .

We served this with a side salad and potato wedges – again baked – but the skins were left on as the vitamins in potatoes are just under the skin and this also increases the fibre content.

Chicken is high in protein but lean meat. One learner is vegetarian and used quorn pieces instead. The learners thought they tasted better than any popular takeaways!

You can see some photos and instructions from our SEND learners throughout, hopefully yours turn out to be as delicious as their efforts. More from us soon! 

– Sue, Hospitality & Catering lecturer
catering@brooklands.ac.uk