Time to cook / prepare: 3 hours
The meal: Calzone
Most calzones consist of mounds of insulin-spiking white dough, stuffed with trans fat-heavy processed meat. Not so the MF version, which is made with blood sugar-steadying wholemeal dough and filled with protein-rich mozzarella and iron-packed spinach.
The swap: White flour for wholemeal
‘The white flour in pizza dough leads to fat storage,’ says Gray. ‘Swapping it for wholemeal flour will help to reduce these spikes without compromising taste or texture.’
The bonus: More energy, less hunger
Mozzarella is high in energy-boosting phosphorous, while mushrooms are packed with filling fibre.
The recipe: Ingredients (Serves 4)
For the dough 225g organic wholemeal flour / 90ml semi-skimmed milk / 50ml water / 1tsp dried yeast / 25ml rapeseed oil / 1 pinch of salt
For the filling 150ml rapeseed oil / 500g chestnut mushrooms, washed and quartered / 4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely sliced / 300g spinach leaves, washed and drained / 200ml passata sauce / 125g organic mozzarella, torn into pieces /Salt and pepper to taste
To make
Filling
- Heat a large saucepan over a medium heat and add the rapeseed oil.
- Add the chestnut mushrooms and garlic and cook for two to three minutes.
- Add the spinach leaves and cook for two minutes until they have wilted.
- Place the cooked mushroom mixture into a mixing bowl and add the passata and mozzarella pieces.
- Season with salt and pepper and set it to one side to cool.
Dough
- Pour the salt and wholemeal flour into a large mixing bowl.
- Mix the milk, water and yeast together in a separate bowl.
- Add the yeast mixture to the flour and mix it all together to form the dough.
- Knead the dough for five minutes on a floured surface
- Slowly pour the rapeseed oil over the dough and continue to knead it until it’s fully absorbed and the dough is firm and smooth.
- Place the dough back into the mixing bowl, cover it with clingfilm and set it to one side for two hours.
Calzone
- Place a baking tray in the oven and preheat it to 230°C/gas mark 8.
- Divide the dough into four equal portions and roll them into balls.
- Lightly sprinkle flour on a worksurface, place the balls on it and roll them out into 20cm-wide circles.
- Place a quarter of the filling mixture on one half of each dough circle, leaving a 2cm gap around the edge.
- Brush the edges with water, then fold the empty halves over to cover the filling, pinching the edges with a fork to seal the four parcels.
- Place the calzones onto the preheated baking tray in the oven for eight to ten minutes, until the dough is cooked through and the filling is piping hot.
