chicken, spinach, feta and mint casserole with toasted pine nut crust

I’ve never been one for meal prepping, but to save me from eating chocolate mousse at every meal on the ketogenic diet, it’s practically imperative. The beauty of making multiple portions of meals is something I have always respected but never dabbled in myself. Much like my decision to go strictly low carbohydrate, I have no idea why I didn’t do it earlier. The feeling of accomplishment when placing this dish into plastic containers is positive reinforcement enough for me to continue the habit. This casserole is all kinds of delicious (I totally forgot about how good pine nuts are), and can obviously be tweaked to fit your own macros. I use chicken breasts opposed to thighs due to the higher fat content, and would usually bulk such a meal out with more vegetables. The portions are decent and the recipe could easily be divided into smaller ones of six.

To make four large serves:

• 70g pine nuts
• 600g (free range) chicken thighs
• 200g goat feta
• 8 free range eggs (non-negotiable, you can quite clearly taste and see the difference)
• 1/4 cup cream
• 150g broccoli
• 1/2 cup baby spinach, chopped
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 handful mint, roughly chopped
• Salt and pepper to season
• Cayenne pepper for sprinkling

1. Dice the chicken thighs into small pieces. Preheat oven to 180C/350F fan bake.
2. In a nonstick frypan (I clearly have a very limited array of cooking equipment, but it keeps things simple), dry roast the pine nuts over medium heat. Stir frequently to ensure they don’t burn. When they’ve achieved a decent tan, set them aside in a small bowl for later.
3. In the same pan, brown the diced chicken until fully cooked through.
4. While cooking the chicken, grease a deep roasting dish with butter/coconut oil to prevent the casserole sticking. Scatter broccoli, torn into small pieces, over the bottom of the dish.
5. Once the chicken is cooked, set aside to cool off.
6. Prepare the egg mixture by whisking the eight eggs with the cream, lemon, mint and plenty of salt and pepper. Crumble in the feta and stir in the baby spinach.
7. Scatter the chicken over the broccoli evenly, followed by pouring the egg/feta mixture over top. Sprinkle with toasted pine nuts and cayenne pepper if desired.
8. Bake for 30 minutes or until the egg is no longer liquid in the middle.
9. Divide into 4 or 6 depending on desired portion size.

Macros (when divided into 4 servings):

• Calories: 786
• Carbohydrates: 4g
• Fat: 59g
• Protein: 59g

Tags: keto, ketogenic diet, lchf, low carb, low carb diet, low carb recipe, primal