Dinner this evening were these delicious little drop scones, accompanied by crispy fried onions and a carrot salad with a few raisins sprinkled in and spritzed with lemon juice.

I only ate half as I had a big breakfast and wasn’t that hungry. They were lovely tho!

Olive Drop Scones, Crispy Fried Onions & Carrot Ribbon Salad

Serves 2
200g onion, thinly sliced, Asda 2kg/98p, 10p

200g carrots, Asda 2kg/£1.18, 12p
50g raisins, Asda Smartprice 500g/84p, 8p
spritz of lemon juice, optional

150g self raising flour, value brand 1.5kg/45p, 5p
40g olives, Asda 350g drained weight/90p, 10p
30ml veg oil 1 litre/£1.25 4p

Briskly fry the onions in a hot pan. It needs to be hot as we want crispy onions here, not caramelised ones.

Stir the flour with enough water to make a thick batter. Chop the olives and stir through. In another pan, heat half the oil and drop spoonfuls of batter in. When one side is brown and crisp, add the remaining oil and turn the scones over. Continue to cook until the 2nd side is done.

Meanwhile, using a vegetable peeler, cut the carrots into ribbons. Add the raisins and spritz with lemon juice if using.

Calories 552, Protein 10g, Fat 19g, Carb 86g

Verdict

When I first found this recipe in a copy of the i newspaper, I used the eggs and milk that they did, even tho I frugalised the recipe. However, I realised that the Breakfast Pancakes don’t have any eggs and milk, and I love those, plus we don’t have any in the week two plan to use, so I left them out of this recipe. If you have any, and want to use them, please do so of course.

I initially wrote the recipe with 30g of olives for the Week Two Plan, but personally, I could have done with a few more. There are plenty spare in the plan, so I upped the amount to 40g here.

Variations

You could have these with any cooked veg you fancy, leave out the raisins from the carrot ribbon salad, use courgette ribbons, use salad leaves from the garden etc. You could have say, carrot and swede mashed together with a knob of butter, and a sprig of broccoli. Or dress some fine sliced cucumber with a tiny bit of vinegar and salt and pepper.
You could have a vinaigrette dressing which is very easy to mix up. You need 3 tblsps of oil to 1 tbslp acid. So it could be olive oil and lemon juice, maybe with a bit of finely grated zest, or my favourite, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a good dollop of grainy mustard. Add some salt and pepper and give it a good shake in a jam jar to emulsify it, or whisk it with a little whisk/fork. Other combinations include walnut oil and balsamic or almond oil and lemon juice/orange juice. Please don’t use malt vinegar, the dressing will be very harsh. Add some soy sauce/fish sauce/sesame oil if you have any for an exotic flavour.
If you made the Vegetable Stir Fry and still have some bean sprouts, you could use them here. You could have them raw, or fry them up on their own or with carrot and have them plain or dressed with soy/oil and lemon/orange juice/fish sauce.

You could leave out the onions and have a big tomato and raw onion salad if you have tomatoes in the garden, or slice runner beans really small and julienne some carrots. You could have some sweetcorn from a tin, or if you are lucky enough to have some in the garden, they would be very yummy. Or just plain peas, or peas cooked with lettuce in the French style.
See what you have

These feature in Meal Plan 2, a complete 7 day plan for 2 adults. Contains 3 meals a day, plus snacks , all recipes and a shopping list