chicken and asparagus
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Shopping and cooking with Flora Buttery

This week I’ve been shopping and cooking with Flora as part of a sponsored Collective Bias shop.  In our family we’re a bit torn with spreads and butters…the OH is strictly butter (and it has to be British), while I prefer a better for you option and it doesn’t have to be butter.  It does mean a lot of room is taken up in the fridge, and it’s hard to come by a decent tasting spread that’s lower fat as lots of spreads are just as calorific as butter.

I’ve not used Flora for a long time (not since uni where I used to buy it because it was cheap compared to the others), and have never cooked with it, so was intrigued to find some new recipes to try as well as checking out one of the new Flora varieties.

I started off by checking the Flora website for recipe ideas.  I’m a big fan of chicken as it’s really versatile plus is a lot lighter for summer, so used the filters to choose the chicken breast stuffed with asparagus.  I like the fact it’s a 30 minute cook as after work I just don’t have longer than that to spend on preparing the evening meal.

N likes going to the supermarket – am sure that’ll change in time, and Tesco always helps (or hinders) by having rides for children by the entrance.  I’m tight and just let him sit on them rather than pay, but we had a bonus when found the new pirate ship had spare money already been paid, so he had a free ride.

pirate ship
Free ride on the pirate ship

I was astounded at how many options there were for Flora.  The recipe needed either Flora Buttery or Flora Cuisine, and I decided on Buttery spread as I thought it would be more versatile in both cooking and for a spread.

Flora on shelves
Wow, that’s a lot of spreads – and that’s just one end in store.

It was hard to find British chicken, but much easier to locate the asparagus – great as it’s now in season, so lots of offers on (although there’s only so much asparagus we need for one recipe!).  You can see the rest of our shop photo on my Google+.

asparagus
Yummy British asparagus

I decided that tonight would be our recipe trial night.  As I couldn’t find any ready made breadcrumbs in store, and I don’t think I’ve got any homemade ones in the freezer, I’ll have to use bread that I’ve got in.  Luckily there’s plenty going spare and I don’t think we’d be able to use the bread I’ve got before it goes off anyway.

breadcrumbs
At least it meant I got to use my blitzer. And used seeded bread so a nutty crumb taste

For the recipe you need:

  • 4 chicken breasts, skin removed
  • 60g Flora Buttery, melted or 4 tbsp of Flora Cuisine
  • 2 tbsp Colmans mustard powder (seems a lot, so erred on the side of caution myself)
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • 25ml white wine
  • 6-8 tbsp breadcrumbs mixed together with
  • 2 tbsp parmesan cheese grated
  • 12 small asparagus spears, blanched

To prepare:

  1. Flatten chicken breasts between 2 sheets of cling film (or I do it in a sandwich bag) with  a rolling pin
  2. Mix together the Flora, mustard powder, garlic and wine
  3. Dip chicken breasts in the Flora mix, and then in the breadcrumb mix to coat
  4. Divide the asparagus spears between the chicken and roll up, securing each with cocktail sticks (annoying how the cocktail sticks never come easily out of the hole and how taking the full lid off makes it hard to get them back in again!)
  5. Place stuffed chicken in a roasting tin and cook in a preheated oven at 180C/160C fan/GM 4 for 25-30 minutes until thoroughly cooked
  6. Serve with potato wedges and salad.

I also had a half used pack of mozzarella pearls so added those inside the chicken with the asparagus.  It meant using a lot of cocktail sticks to contain everything, but was delicious as the cheese melted.

It’s an easy recipe to follow and pretty fail safe, although I served it with charlotte potatoes as we had those to spare (my wedges are always a bit hit and miss), and purple sprouting broccoli.

chicken and asparagus
Yummy chicken and asparagus. Nice and summery

I prefer the taste of Flora Buttery to normal Flora.  It’s more creamy – presumably due to the buttermilk content, and definitely has more of a buttery taste without being too ‘buttery’.  The health benefits of switching from butter to Flora are an improvement in cholesterol, with the saturated fats levels being much lower.  Every little helps, so I’m always keen to switch where possible and this could be great to add to everyday cooking without the OH noticing!

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Disclosure: I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and their client.

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