Scripts

A few notes on call outs:

• It would be nice to have the prep and cook times appear on the video.

• This would be good at the beginning and when they are mentioned in the body of the video.

• It would also be good to have the prices appear on the video.

• Not sure if we’d want to highlight the ingredients using a similar call out?

Intro for all videos

Andrea: Hello! My name is Andrea. I’m a chef with # years experience teaching cooking to people of all different skill levels at Greenwich Pantry. I’m delighted to be working with the Stroke Association to bring you a series of cooking videos developed specifically for stroke survivors.

Stroke survivor: And my name is ___. I had a ?? stroke # years ago. I’m here to learn more about cooking and to ask Andrea the tough questions about cooking after a stroke.

Andrea: To keep me on my toes.

Stroke survivor: That’s right. Now, before we get started, a little housekeeping. All the recipes in this video series have been approved by a nutritionist. The Stroke Association has also consulted with stroke survivors at every stage of developing these videos. A list of ingredients, equipment and methods will be available on the website linked below the video. Shall we get started?

Andrea: Yeah, let’s go.

Beef stew (in a slow cooker or on the hob)

In this recipe, we’re going to make a beef stew. This is a great option for a cold day and is pretty easy to make a big batch for freezing and using later.

We’ll also go into a few suggestions for making this vegetarian using large mushrooms, like portobello, or your favourite soya alternative.

In terms of the cost of this recipe, you’re probably looking at between £8 to £14 if you’re making the beef version. If you’re going vegetarian, using say some frozen sliced mushrooms, you’re looking more like £3 to £8. The range is just on whether you’re buying the oil and herbs and things like that, or if you have them in already.

We’re going to show you how to make this recipe in either a slow cooker or on the hob.

The prep for this recipe will probably take between 10-15 minutes. If you’re cooking in a slow cooker, the cooking time will be between 4 to 8 hours. On the hob, it will be more like an hour or two.

The ingredients are listed below. You will also want a large saucepan with a lid or slow cooker, a frying pan, some measuring spoons and jug, a knife for chopping, a chopping board and a wooden spoon or some other utensil for stirring.

We’ll start with chopping the veg. So we’re going to chop up the onions, celery and carrots.

Reply to comment…gadgets, buying prechopped (frozen to save money), etc.

You can chop these as rough or as fine as you like. It is up to you.

Reply…taking a break in most recipes is fine, you just want to make sure you plan it so you aren’t taking a break when you’re in the middle of frying something, for example.

If you are going to take a break after chopping these, I would recommend putting the celery and onions into one bowl or container. And then the carrots in another. It will make things easier when you come to cook these.

If you are using mushrooms or your beef isn’t pre-cut, this is a good time to cut that up as well. I prefer to do all of this at once, but you can always do this in stages the day before.

My beef is already in pieces and now our veg is chopped, so I’ll just move on to frying.

We’ll start by hearing some oil and adding the onions and celery to this. You want to fry this on a low heat for about 5 minutes. Just until they start to soften.

Now we’ll add the carrots, some bay leaves and our thyme. You can use dried if you can’t get or don’t want to use fresh.

That will carry on frying for about 2 minutes just to release the flavour. When you’re done, tip everything into your big pot or slow cooker. Try to leave the oil if you can and hang on to that frying pan. We’re going to use it in a little bit, so don’t wash it up yet.

Now we can stir in the tomato puree and the Worcestershire sauce.

If you need to take a break, this is another good point to do so. Just pop the lid on and don’t turn anything on.

When you’re ready to go on to the next step, you’ll pour 600ml of boiling water over this and stir it up. Then we season.

You can crumble some stock cubes, using low salt varieties, or use something like low sodium soy sauce to add that richness. I’ve heard of people using coffee granules or small amounts of cocoa powder. It can be fun to experiment. But I’ll go with some low salt stock cubes and also add some ground black pepper.

This is where you can play with flavours.

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We’re going to now put the beef or mushrooms into our frying pan, browning it in batches. Once each batch is done, we add it straight to our slow cooker or pan.

So now everything is ready to go. We just turn the heat up.

In your slow cooker, you can cook on low for 8-10 hours. Or on high for 4 hours. If you’re cooking on the hob, make sure you cover it and stick with a relatively low heat for at least an hour. Just make sure you come back to stir occasionally.

When you’re ready to serve, you can add a bit of parsley and I tend to like this with a few slices of thick crusty bread. Or you can go with mash or just boiled potatoes. Whatever you feel like.

If you want to save this and freeze it for future meals, I would suggest putting it into your containers and leaving it to cool before freezing. When you’re ready to re-heat, pop it on the hob or in the microwave and heat it up slowly. You may need to add a touch of water to help it along.

Lentil and vegetable soup

In this video, we’re going to make lentil and vegetable soup. This is a vegan friendly recipe and it’s a great one for freezing to eat later. We’ve also included some tips at the end for how to thicken this if you have any swallowing difficulties.

You can find a list of ingredients below. When we priced this up, it came to between £2 to £6, depending on how many of the ingredients you already have in the house. Things like garlic and oil.

The prep for this recipe will probably take between 10-15 minutes. It will then cook for around 30 minutes.

You’ll need a large pan with a lid for this, plus a measuring jug and some spoons, something to stir it with, a sieve, a knife and a chopping board. If you are planning on thickening this recipe, you will also want a blender of some kind.

Let’s get started.

We’ll start with chopping up the garlic, carrots, celery and leeks.

When you’re done, pop them into your large pan.

Feel free to take a break, have a sit down if you need. Just cover those with the pan lid or a plate to make sure they don’t dry out.

When you’re ready we’re going to rinse out our dried lentils. So we measure them out directly into the seive and then just keep rinsing until that water runs clear.

And then pop them into the big pot as well. Add the tomato puree, coriander and thyme leaves, you can use dried thyme as well. If you want to add a vegetable stock cube or bouillon powder, feel free to do that now. If you’re worried about salt, there are low salt alternatives. Or you can use ???.

So that’s all the ingredients. Now we just add one and a half litres of boiling water and stir. Then we can cover and leave to simmer for about 30 minutes or until the vegetables and lentils are tender.

If you want or need to thicken the soup, we’re going to ladle out a third to a half of the soup, depending on how thick you want it. We’re going to put that into our blender and whizz it up.

Once it’s all blended together, we just pour it back into our soup and it’s ready to serve.

You don’t have to do this step at all, if you don’t want to. It all depends on your preferences and dietary requirements.

We can ladle this straight into bowls to eat right now, maybe with a bit of nice bread. Or you can put it into some containers for freezing. It freezes really well. I would recommend letting it cool before going into the freezer, just to save your freezer some work.

Marinara sauce (in a slow cooker or on the hob)

In this video, we’re going to make a basic tomato sauce. You’ll be able to use this to make spaghetti bolognese, lasagna or a simple pasta or gnocchi bake. It’s one of those useful things to have in your freezer for when you don’t really feel like cooking.

I’ll show you how to make it in either a slow cooker or just on the hob.

The prep for this recipe will probably take between 10-15 minutes. If you’re cooking in a slow cooker, the cooking time will be between 4 to 8 hours. On the hob, it will be more like an hour or two.

The ingredients are listed below. When we priced this up, it came to between £1.50 to almost £9, depending on what you have in the house. Things like oil and herbs.

You’ll need a large saucepan with a lid or a slow cooker, a wooden spoon or something to stir with, some measuring spoons, a tin opener, a knife and a chopping board.

We’ll start by finely chopping the onion and garlic. The goal is to make this as small as you can. Don’t worry though if it isn’t as finely chopped as this. We’re going to cook this for a good long while, so it will reduce a bit.

Now we just add those straight to our slow cooker or pan. This should not be on yet.

Next we add everything else. So the tin of chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, the herbs, sugar, balsamic vinegar and butter. And give it all a good stir.

You can add some salt or a low salt alternative now, but you don’t have to. ???

Then it’s time to let it cook. On a slow cooker, you can go with a low heat for eight hours or a high heat for four. If you’re cooking it on the hob, I’d heat it up to simmering and then turn it down and cook for at least an hour. Just come in a stir occasionally.

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Feel free to come back and taste occasionally as well, that will tell you if you need to add any black pepper or other seasoning.

Once you’ve finished cooking, you can either use it immediately or store it for later. Either pop it into the fridge or the freezer. You can split it up into batches and use it for individual lunches, if that’s something you like to do.

I’ve boiled a bit of gnocchi here and I’m just going to stir a couple of spoons of the sauce through. A little cheese on the top and I’ve got a quick hot lunch.

Jollof rice

In this recipe, we’re going to make jollof rice. This is a popular West African dish that has lots and lots of variations. I’m doing this as a vegan friendly recipe, although a lot of people make this with prawns, chicken, beef or other meat.

It’s one of those recipes with lots of different stories about where it originated. I’m not going to get into any of that here.

But it is a great one for when you have a bit of time to cook, maybe on a Sunday or when you have people coming round.

The prep for this recipe will probably take between 15-20 minutes. It will then cook for just under an hour.

We’ve listed the ingredients below. Depending on how many of the ingredients you have around the house, this will probably cost between £3 and £10 to make.

You’ll need a knife and chopping board, a blender, a sieve, a large pot with a lid, some measuring spoons and a jug.

We’ll start by washing the rice. You can rinse it in the sieve and then just set it aside.

Now we’ll chop the tomatoes, pepper, onion and ginger. These can be chopped quite roughly, as they’re just going to go into the blender.

If you don’t want this to be too spicy, just use less of the Scotch Bonnet pepper. Or you could even leave it out and just add 1 to 2 teaspoons of Cayenne pepper.

Feel free to pop those in a bowl and cover them if you need a rest now.

Next we’re going to make the sauce. So we’ll put those tomatoes, peppers, onion and garlic from before into the blender and whizz it up.

Once you’ve got that into a nice sauce consistency, heat up the oil in our large pot and add the sauce. Take care not to let the oil splash up.

Cook that for about three minutes.

Now we add the curry powder, thyme, tomato paste and vegetable bouillon cubes. If you’re worried about your salt intake, there are low salt alternatives to these or you can use ???.

And we cook that for another couple of minutes.

Can they take a break now? Let this cool and then come back to it?

Now we take our rice, that’s all rinsed, and add it to the pan. Stir it so that the rice is totally covered by the sauce.

Once you’ve got it all covered, add your water or vegetable broth. If you are worried about salt, feel free just to use water here.

Bring this up to the boil and then cover and reduce to a low heat.

You’re going to let this cook for between 45 to 50 minutes. You’ll know when it’s ready when the rice is fluffy and tender. It shouldn’t be chewy.

If you did want to add some cooked chicken or prawns, you can do that when.

So now this is done, you can see that lovely colour and how fluffy the rice is.

Roast potatoes (in an air fryer or standard oven)

In this video, we’re talking about making roast potatoes. We’re going to look at how to make them in the oven or in an air fryer.

Air fryers are a great way to reduce how much oil you use in cooking.

The prep for this recipe will probably take between 10-15 minutes. If you’re cooking in an air fryer, the cooking time will be around 20 minutes. In the oven, it will be closer to 45 minutes to an hour.

For this recipe, you will need a large bowl, something to stir with, a chopping board, knife and some measuring spoons. If you’re using your air fryer, you won’t need anything else. If you’re going to use your standard oven, you’ll also need a roasting dish and a large saucepan.

The ingredients are listed below. When we priced them up, we found that the cost was between £0.50 and £7, depending on how many of the herbs and spices you need to buy.

Let’s get started. We’ll start by chopping up our potatoes. The size is up to you, but if you are using an air fryer, you can go for slightly smaller than you usually would. That’s because you don’t get the shrinkage from the parboiling.

Now that those are chopped, you are welcome to take a break if you need. The next bit needs to be done all together, so please take a break if you need. If you are, I would recommend covering your potatoes with a bit of water to stop them drying out.

Otherwise, we’ll go ahead and make our spice mix. But first, if you’re using a standard oven, now is the time to preheat your oven. Put your roasting dish with the oil in straight into oven while it heats up. That will get your oil nice and hot, which you need for a good roast potato.

Right, back to the spice mix. We’re going to add a touch of oil, a little paprika, garlic powder and black pepper to our large bowl. You can also add salt or a low salt alternative, but that’s entirely up to you. If there are other spices or herbs you want to add, you can do that too. Rosemary works quite well, if you’re a fan of that.

Ok, if you’re cooking in an air fryer, you can go ahead and put the potatoes straight into this mix. If you’re using a standard oven, we’ll just put our chopped potatoes into our saucepan and cover them with boiling water.

These only need a couple minutes at a full, rolling boil.

Once that’s done, you can drop them into your bowl with the spices and give them a little stir. I like to do this with a fork so that you can rough them up a little as you go.

The goal here is to get your potatoes evenly but thinly coated with the spice mix.

If you’re cooking these in the oven, you could also add a little plain flour. It just helps to build up a crust on the potatoes.

Now it’s time for cooking.

We’ll start with our air fryer. You’re going to pop those potatoes straight into the basket. You don’t need any extra oil. These will roast at 195*C for 10 minutes. After those 10 minutes, you’ll open the basket, flip them, and go for another 10 minutes. Then the potatoes are done.

If you’re using a standard oven, you want to put these potatoes into that roasting dish we preheated earlier. Be very careful that the hot oil does not splash up on you.

Give them a quick turn around in the hot oil and then spread them out into a single layer. You want a bit of room around them.

Roast these for about 15 minutes in your hot oven and then take them out, turn them over. You’re going to roast for another 15 minutes and turn them again. And put them back in for another 10 to 20 minutes, just until they are golden and crispy. So that’s 40 to 50 minutes in total.

This regular turning ensures even cooking on all sides. You don’t want potatoes burnt on one side and dry on the other.