Steamed Chicken with Pea & Chickpea Mash & Lemon and Mint Pesto

After a hectic few weeks, things are starting to settle in to a routine again...thankfully. I was also finally able to flick through my cookbooks again (yay!). They arrived last week. I came across a cool looking recipe in Jo Pratt's In the Mood for Food. 


Lately i've been trying to eat even healthier and cutting out sugar-hence the lack of 'sweet' posts on my blog as of late! lol. So the thing that spurred me on to make this, was the fact it doesn't have the same old mash potato. I was curious to see how it would turn out.  
Also, i'm soooo not a fan of pesto. I just really can't stand basil....and i don't know why as i used to like it. Don't even mention the addition of pine nuts *shiver*. Anyway, the pesto in this recipe is made with mint, and almonds...
Here's the recipe! 
Pesto
50g almond flakes
20g mint leaves
10 parsley
125ml extra virgin olive oil
15g parmesan
sea salt ground black pepper

Mash
250ml chicken stock
250g frozen peas
2x4oog tins of chickpeas, drained
1tsp paprika
a good squeeze of lemon juice
sea salt & black pepper
(i used a crushed garlic clove too, but that's optional)

Method
Put all the ingredients on the pesto list into a blender or small food processor (i used my brand new Euro-Pro Ninja Master Prep Blender and Food Processor!). Blitz to a rough paste and season.


For the mash, bring the stock to the boil in a saucepan add the peas and boil for two mins. Stir in the chickpeas and cook until they are heated through. Remove from heat add the paprika and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Roughly mash with potato masher or briefly whiz in a food processor (i used a fork to mash it, it worked out fine. Keep warm whilst you cook the meat you're having with it. I used steamed chicken which i steamed with a bit of tarragon, garlic and lemon. In the steamer i used a combination of water and white wine. :P I also served it with some grilled tomatoes on the vine.