Easy ways to reduce fat content in some foods and other tips....

Cooking turnip/swede cut top off and pop on a plate then cook in microwave saves the pan and the chopping and peeling, then when cooked (depends on size) just scoop out middle and mix with whatever you prefer and serve.

If you want a mash topping, like for shepherd's pie, try doing half and half with potato and cauliflower. Delicious and a lot less calories.

And we now do fish pie with lots of chopped leeks instead of a white sauce. Yummy.

Low fat or reduced fat soft cheese, added to mashed potatoes gives the illusion of cream if you don't think about it too hard.

"Mrs JamJam* we often top our shepherds pie with a mix of potato, swede and leek, but never thought about cauliflower. Althought at the moment cauliflowers seem to be not a cheap vegetable, so we tend to have them a la mode Mr Phoenix, i.e. a cauliflower cheese made with onion, bacon and mushrooms (not exactly low fat or particularly slimming, but we kid ourselves by using very lean bacon and half fat cheddar!)

I adore turnip (orange things in England) but I find with my arthritis they're impossible to prepare . Nobody seems to ready prepared swede, onlycombined with carrot. Does anyone know any different?

Could you deal with a swede if you cooked it whole first, jeni? Am thinking that would soften the skin and make it easier to deal with. I have a couple in the house, alongside a haggis, so what if I try it tomorrow and report back. Wouldn't do the mashing for you though.... Have you got a two-handed masher? I find that makes a big difference. Until I got that, dh was good for mashin' neeps as well as computer stuff.

bagitha yes please. I also have one in my fridge. My haggis is in the freezer as my brother bought it down from Scotland for me as my birthday present.( he lives just out side Perth) kits waiting for burns night. I always pipe it in with my recorder!

I use a river with both hands.

A ricer not a river!

Are ricers those things that work on a lever principle? Quite hard on arthritic hands, I would have thought. I'm not sure I could use one. My masher is the old fashioned kind of potato masher but with a horizontal handle that is big enough for you to apply downward pressure with both hands. So, imagine the mashing end, that then has two sturdy uprights which lead up to the horizontal gripper handle which is parallel with the mashing bit. The make is OXO. Just off to google it and will add a link if I find one.

http://www.CooksKitchenware.co.uk/OXOProPotatoMasher.htm

www.CooksKitchenware.co.uk/OXOProPotatoMasher.htm

tcha!

I have both the ricer is fine so long as it has long handles. Was it Archimedes who said " I'll move the world if you give me a long enough lever and a place to stand!

Jeni I think that was Atlas. Although, Archimedes did have his principles.

Definitely Archimedes

Zephrine , I stand (or rather ,at this precise moment, sit) corrected!

Thought so. But as for his principles:- didn't he run naked through the street, and how his screws?

Pheonix A tip for that sticky mashed potato saucepan. Rinse it out immediately it is emptied in cold water. Leave an inch of cold water in the bottom and replace the lid. When you want to wash it up sluice the water around before taking off the lid and most of the sticky stuff will rinse right out of the saucepan.

Just seen that glass has already done the whole turnip cooking thing in the microwave. I'm sure it would work with boiling or steaming or baking as well in that case. And the neeps we get in Scotland already have their tops cut off (and fed to the sheep?).

Do you have swede or turnips as neeps? To me neeps are swedes (orange) the dcs used to call it mashed Sweden!

I think both, but I call diddy turnips 'diddy neeps' and big swedes just 'neeps' so all is crystal clear.

The ones you have with haggis are the orange ones. And I always mash my spuds and my neeps with lots of butter. Yum.

Don't forget the black pepper! I'm drooling already and I'm dieting. Where is that drafted jingle?. She keeps my mind of food!

Should read dratted. Low blood sugar!