So what’s The Big Fat Surprise? – read why I have dedicated this recipe, and watch the TedX below to learn why butter, meat and cheese belong in a healthy diet. Learn how the flawed dietary guidelines are still here today and watch as each dietary myth is debunked.
The Big Fat Surprise
I promised to develop a recipe for Nina Teicholz, author of Big Fat Surprise. I wanted Nina to have a recipe which would become just as famous as Tom Naughton’s FatHead pizza. – together, we chose the idea of lamb noisettes with a hidden surprise of spinach, rosemary and haloumi.
Rolled lamb noisettes are just as ideal for a family meal (my children loved this recipe and wanted more) or to serve to dinner guests. The rolled lamb noisettes can be prepared ahead of time then simply cooked just before your guests arrive. They can be cooked in the oven, in the frying pan or even on the BBQ. This is the epitome of “Real Food, Real Easy” which has become my tag line for a very good reason. Good food really shouldn’t be complicated.
The Big Fat Surprise is the ultimate book on nutrition which took 9 years of dedicated research. It lifts the lid on the myths surrounding the science of nutrition and food politics.
Nina dedicated 9 years to The Big Fat Surprise. She read thousands of scientific papers, interviewed almost every nutrition expert in the US, countless food industry executives and learned the complex intricacies of nutrition science – “finding out the truth for me was all-consuming 9 year obsession.” – ” The results were startling.”
Nina summarises The Big Fat Surprise – “This book lays out the scientific case for why our bodies are healthiest on a diet with ample amounts of fats and why this regime necessarily includes meat, eggs, butter, and other animal foods high in saturated fat. The Big Fat Surprise takes us through the dramatic twists and turns of fifty years of nutrition science and lays out the evidence, so that a reader can fully understand the evidence to see for themselves how we arrived at our present understanding.
The Big Fat Surprise - the perfect mediterranean meal. Click To TweetAt it’s heart, this book is a scientific investigation, but it is also a story about the strong personalities who corralled colleagues into believing their ideas. These ambitious, crusading researchers launched the entire American population, and subsequently the rest of the world, on the low-fat, near vegetarian diet, a regime that ironically may have directly exacerbated many of the ills it was intended to cure.”
Big Fat Surprise
The healthy mediterranean diet is summed up by my "Big Fat Surprise". Suculent lamb rolled around haloumi cheese and leafy greens.
Ingredients
- 600 g lamb butterflied or steak
- 50 g leafy greens spinach/silverbeet/swiss chard
- 85 g haloumi
- fresh rosemary
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
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If your cut of lamb is too thick (I bought a butterflied leg of lamb) then using a meat tenderiser or rolling pin, hammer it out until it is thin enough to roll up. Roughly 1.5cm / 0.6 inch.
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Place a layer of spinach (or any leafy greens) on top of the lamb.
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Cut the haloumi into strips and place onto the spinach.
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Sprinkle fresh rosemary, salt and pepper all over.
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Roll up tightly and place toothpicks along the length of the meat to stop the lamb from opening whilst cooking.
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Oil a roasting dish and roll the rolled lamb noisettes in the oil. Add more salt and pepper to your taste.
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Cook at 180C/350F for 30 - 40 minutes depending on the size and thickness of the lamb. I like mine slightly undercooked in the centre.
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Remove from the heat and cut into 5cm/2 inch noisettes.
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- Layer spinach, rosemary, haloumi
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- Roll up and place toothpicks long the length
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- Cook at 180C/350F
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- Cut into noisettes
If you are new here, this page may help you understand how to start and this page will show you what I keep in my pantry.
Who should I dedicate the next recipe to? The Fat Emperor would be fun.
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Andrew G says
I flattened/tenderized the lamb out a bit more than the pictures and loaded up on the haloumi. Came out great!
Morgan says
Nice article! The recipe looks delicious, I’ll have to try this weekend.
Samantha says
UM YUM – this meal looks amazing
djnikkik says
This recipe is lamb heaven! My lamb leg was quite large compared to the recipe, 1.5kg butterflied, so felt it wasn’t rolled as neatly when I put it in the oven but still looked beautiful once sliced. A lot of my haloumi melted out of the ends of the lamb roll but just gathered them up and served on the side. Brilliant recipe!
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com says
Being a proud kiwi girl, I love love love any recipe with lamb.
Judy says
Hi Libby,
I don’t know if you are aware but Coca-Cola is advertising on your page a very invasive ad when you hover over the small add it actually “high jack” your page its embedded in today’s recipes cooking instructions and I am sure this is not something that you would want on your blog. This looks like a retaliation on your earlier post regarding Coke. I don’t have ad block installed otherwise it would not have appeared.
If you send me your e-mail address then I will send you a snapshot of what it looks like.
Regards
Judy
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com says
Thanks, I can report it and have it removed. I have most fast food and junk food banned from my site.
ptails says
Awesome read! the recipe look lush….l looking forward to making it!
I love your blog, it’s one of the very few I subscribe to!
I recon if someone could make a crunchy biscuit (cookie) it would be famous. All the almond ones haven’t got that crunch or “snap” of the sugar laden variety. (We have seed crackers which are crunchy- why not a sweet variety???)
Also I’ve experimented vastly with deep fried veggies looking for a “chip” or “frys” substitute. Zoodles deep fried are ok, buy very oily. I don’t know what it is about potatoes deep fried, but I miss them. (12 months strictly low carb now…. Happy dance!)
Thankyou so much for the time and effort you put into your blog. It has helped me greatly over the course of the past year. 🙂
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com says
Yay – I’m so happy when I read this and have helped in some small way. OK so you want a crispy biscuit huh? I’ll get my thinking cap on and see what I can come up with. I guess the problem is low carb food has no sugars and no gluten which make for a crispy finish. Have you tried my granola bars? And as for the crispy “chips” how about my cracker crackling? I made a huge batch last night and we gobble it up here, loaded with salt – yum.