Celebrate Chinese New Year Fakeaway-Style

Summon the dragons, light up the lanterns and dig out the wok; Chinese New Year falls on Friday February 16th 2018 and, this time, it’s the Year of the Dog. Anyone born in a Year of the Dog is believed to share certain traits with the animal, such as loyalty, lots of energy and an eternally wet nose (we made one of these up).

To bring in the New Year, you could head along to one of the fabulously colourful parades that will be taking place in most towns and cities, or you could celebrate at home with a Chinese banquet. No, put the takeaway menu down and cancel that speed-dial call – we’re talking about cooking up your own Chinese New Year feast. This’ll be cheaper, a lot more satisfying and healthier (yes, really) than ordering in.

There are a few staple ingredients you’ll need to get started, like soy sauce, ginger, chillies, garlic and black pepper, which all feature in lots of Chinese dishes and can be used again in your everyday cooking to add a kick to your meals. Make sure you’ve got a decent wok too, and you’ll be just about ready to get started!

Spring rolls are lots of people’s favourite Chinese starter, probably because they’re little tasty rolled-up spicy pies of yum. Making your own is super easy if you use ready-made filo pastry sheets or buy rice flour spring roll wrappers from your local Chinese supermarket (these are vegan-friendly too).

You can of course fill your spring rolls with whatever shredded or minced meat you like, or follow Lazy Cat Kitchen’s lead and make a veg-packed version complete with a tasty dipping sauce for added flavour. Her spicy sauce features chilli, spring onions, soy sauce, sesame oil and rice wine vinegar, combining all of the best Chinese flavours in one.

Satay is one of those glorious Chinese flavours that us Brits would never have come up with if left to our own devices. Who would have thought that combining honey, peanut butter and soy sauce would taste so great with meat? Luckily, the Chinese did and gifted the world lovely beautiful satay.

A Dash of Ginger has gone and made everything even more immense by accompanying her chicken satay skewers with a dreamy peanut dipping sauce, made from the meat marinade and coconut milk. If drinking pint after pint of this would have no impact whatsoever on our health, we 100 per cent would.

People have very strong feelings about whether pineapple should ever have a place on a pizza, but seem generally okay with putting it in what is essentially a rich chicken stew, in the form of sweet and sour chicken – all we can conclude is that people can be funny where pineapples are involved.

Whatever your stance on the matter, sweet and sour chicken should be a staple dish at your Chinese New Year celebrations, and we love Kitchen Sanctuary’s healthier twist on the oriental fave, which calls for it to be baked in the oven, rather than wok-fried. It still includes all of the classic flavours, and is essentially just lean meat, veggies and seasoning, so there’ll be room for more yummy dishes on the side.

Now, crispy chilli beef can be one of the more calorific options on offer at your local takeaway, with its deep-fried meat and thick, greasy sauce. But the geniuses at Pinch of Nom have made a much healthier version that sees the dish cooked in low-cal spray oil, with just a sprinkling of flour covering the meat for that crispy effect.

It’s packed with fresh vegetables and the chilli sauce covering everything is made from fresh lime juice, stock, soy sauce and a small dollop of hot sauce from a bottle, meaning there’s nothing that’s bad for you in there at all.

We all know how good a Chinese takeaway tastes the morning after, so imagine how amazing this will be for breakfast – and you won’t have to feel guilty at all, as it’s all perfectly healthy.

Noodles, rice, chips, prawn crackers, half’n’half – everything goes well with a Chinese. But the most special of side dishes is special by name as well as nature: special fried rice.

Classic egg fried rice is great, and really easy to make yourself (boil up some rice, chop in an omelette, add some stir-fried veg, soy sauce and spices). But special fried rice takes things to another level, and could even act as a main course in itself, making it perfect to include on your banquet table for any guests who are a bit unsure about some of the other dishes.

This recipe from Hard Up and Happy is for a special fried rice that features chicken and peas, but you could add any veg you’ve got knocking around in your fridge and any meat or seafood you like to make your own signature special dish.

There’s no denying that proper British chips slathered in salt and vinegar are amazing, but we have to admit that Chinese salt and pepper chips are something else altogether. Chips, covered in salt, chopped chillies, onions, Chinese five spice and chilli flakes? Ingenious.

Make your own by following Hint of Helen’s recipe, but we recommend cooking the chips themselves in a Tefal ActiFry. You might be thinking “of course you would”, but making chips in an ActiFry means they’re a great deal healthier, as you can massively reduce their fat content.

You could create salt and pepper chips with a taste all of your own too, by using butternut squash or even carrots instead of potato for something a little different. And there’s no horrible greasy chip pan to wash afterwards, because you can throw all the parts in the dishwasher.

Bet you never thought Chinese food could be quite so healthy, did you? Fakeaways 4 lyf.