Serves: 2
Approx cost: €1
Approx calories (per serving): 375
Approx preparation and cooking time: 15 minutes
I’ve been quite busy over the past weekend and to be honest haven’t had a chance to cook much. I thought I’d prepare a little easy snack to go with a movie we watched. It’s obviously healthier if you have a machine which can air-pop the popcorn – something I did in fact used to have, and should really get another one because popcorn is a damn great snack, even when not coated in cheese or butter!
Ingredients
– 100g Un-popped Popcorn
– 60g Cheddar Cheese
– 2 tsps Garlic Powder
– 1 tsp Chilli Powder / Cayenne Pepper
– 1 tbsp Sunflower Oil
Instructions
- In case you have a machine which can air-pop the corn, omit the oil from the recipe and pop the corn using your machine in the usual way and proceed to step 2. If not, heat the oil in a large pan with lid, until very hot, pour the popcorn into the oil and stir back gently to coat the corn in the hot oil, before covering. Popping will start after a minute or so. Allow to continue until popping has slowed to about one pop every 5 seconds or so. Remove from the heat.
- Transfer the hot popcorn to a bowl, being sure to pick out any unpopped corns. Grate the cheese as finely as you possibly can and mix with the garlic and chilli. Transfer the cheese mixture to the bowl with the popcorn and mix gently with your hands – ensure that all the cheese hasn’t fallen down to the bottom – if so, scoop it up with a spoon and gently pour over the popcorn again.
- Place the bowl into the microwave and microwave on high for about 30-45 seconds before removing and splitting into two bowls and then enjoy!
Kristy says
Mmmm. I never thought to microwave fresh popcorn with real cheese. I've never had an air popper. Does it still taste as good as straight off the stove?
Charles says
They’re not bad to be honest – certainly super healthy because you don’t need any oil at all – but I’m so used to having popcorn with butter and salt on that to me, the popcorn coming out of the air popper always seems quite dry and plain. They include a butter tray on top so you can melt butter as the popcorn “pops” – they’re certainly a worthy investment for time-saving if nothing else. Big bowl of popcorn takes about 2-3 minutes, and you just use regular popping corn, which costs mere cents – not like this over-priced microwave popcorn in paper bags you can get.
Barton says
Hi, love your concept of showing how easy it is to create tasty food for much less than processed food. Cheers
Charles says
Thanks for stopping by! Hope you like other recipes – let me know if you try any of them 🙂
Pure Complex says
This seems like such a wonderful snack to eat while you’re watching a movie. I am going to try this.
Charles says
And so easily customisable. If you feel a bit gourmet you can stick in some chunks of bleu cheese or something, or equally something like honey and grated almond and so forth!
Jean | DelightfulRepast.com says
Charles, a couple years ago I was feeling very frustrated because I couldn’t make stovetop popcorn without burning it and/or ending up with a bunch of unpopped kernels. After collecting all sorts of helpful hints, I recently gave it another try and am happy to report that I have finally mastered stovetop popcorn! So now I can branch out into flavours and found your spicy popcorn. I have a friend I know will love this, so I must make it for her. Hope you’re enjoying your break!