Chicken, Bacon and Leek Gnocchi Bake.

Last Wednesday, Tom and I had to take Hendricks to the vets for his jabs so I knew we needed a pre-cooked dinner that we would just have to heat up. I also wanted to stick to my goal for February and cook one new meal this week. With the arrival of our gorgeous boy, we haven’t concentrated on cooking too much this week as it’s exhausting having a new puppy and we have just wanted to settle him in as quickly as we can.

I decided last minute to do a gnocchi bake as we had some bits and bobs in the fridge I wanted to use up. Sometimes, the nicest meals are the ones you don’t really plan out. It was super easy to do and a perfect meal when you just need to heat something up! It made 6 portions and worked out to be 468 calories per portion, which I think is pretty good for a pasta meal!

Prep time: 10 minutes.

Cooking time: 45 minutes.

Ingredients:

• 2 large chicken breasts, diced.
• 1 red onion finely chopped.
• 2 leeks sliced.
• 200g bacon lardons.
• 1 tsp lazy garlic.
• 1 tsp lazy chilli.
• 500g gnocchi.
• Ground black pepper to taste.
• 100g curly kale.
• 30g plain flour.
• 100g butter.
• 500ml vegetable stock.
• 200g reduced fat cheddar.
• 50g grated parmesan.
• 1 tsp dijon mustard.
• 1 tsp wholegrain mustard.

Method:

1. Put a large saucepan of water on to boil and cook the gnocchi. Drain and set to one side.
2. In the same saucepan, make your cheese sauce by melting the butter and adding the plain flour. Gradually add the vegetable stock by whisking it in until it is at a custard-like consistency.
3. Add in the cheddar and both lots of mustard. Season with black pepper.
4. In a large frying pan, heat up a little oil and fry off your bacon lardons.
5. Next, add the leeks, onions, garlic and chilli.
6. Cook on a medium heat for around 10 minutes, until the leeks and onions begin to soften.
7. Add the chicken to the frying pan and cook for around 7 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.
8. Mix the chicken mixture through the gnocchi and the cheese sauce. Add the kale – this won’t need any cooking as it will cook through in the oven and crisp up a bit.
9. Sprinkle your parmesan on top of the bake.
10. Bake for 20 minutes on 200 degrees.

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Enjoy!