This is a great dish as all of the ingredients, except the turkey, are made in one pot. You could, of course, just serve this as a stew, but I love the idea of being able to make your own kibble. It does take about an hour to make, but it’s very easy, and also very empowering to make a food that always seems to be a bit of an industry secret.
Turkey is great as it’s very low in fat as well as being very digestible, which makes it useful for dogs that are allergic to the usual protein sources – lamb, beef and chicken. Turkey is also handy as it’s readily minced (unlike chicken!)
This is also a good hypoallergenic recipe as it is free from wheat. You’ll notice I haven’t included peas, which seem always to be part of a dog’s menu these days. Peas can be quite hard to digest for some dogs and therefore can make your dog quite windy.
- 200g (7oz) brown rice
- 100g (4oz) lentils
- 200g (7oz) carrots, peeled and chopped
- 200g (7oz) sweet potato, scrubbed and chopped
- 1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped, or 100g (4oz) apple puree
- 100g (4oz) whole oats
- 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
- 2 small spigs of fresh rosemary, finely chopped
- 500g (1lb 2oz) minced turkey
- 50ml (2fl oz) olive, sunflower or rapeseed oil
Put the rice and lentils into a saucepan and cover with 1.2 litres (2 pints) of water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Once cooked add the chopped carrots, sweet potato and apple to the saucepan. Stir in the oats and chopped herbs and cook on a gentle simmer for a further 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180C (350F/gas 4).
Meanwhile, brown the turkey mince in a separate frying pan. You will need to keep stirring it while it is cooking to prevent it sticking to the pan, as it is very low in fat. It will take about 10 minutes to cook through.
Put half the cooked vegetable and grain mixture into a food processor with half the cooked turkey, add half the oil and blitz so that it resembles a thick puree.
Spread the mixture onto a baking sheet so that it is about 5mm (1/4 in) thick. The mixture will spread slightly so leave a bit of room for this.
Repeat as above with the remaining ingredients.
Place both baking sheets into the preheated oven for 35-45 minute; flipping it over half way through the cooking time to make sure it is cooked on both sides. (It’s important to flip it over so that it dries through.) You should have what looks like two very large cookies. Make sure that the kibble is completely cooked through, as any moist bits will go mouldy after a couple of days.
Reduce the oven temperature to 160C (325 F/gas 3), remove the baking sheets from the oven and cut the ‘kibble cookies’ into small pieces. Replace the baking sheets with the broken pieces on them into the oven for 1 hour until they are completely dry (but not burnt).
Remove the kibble from the oven and leave to cool completely. It should resemble pieces of broken pitta bread. It will keep in the fridge for 10 days.
- Kcals/100g (4 oz): 365
- Protein: 20%
- Fat: 9%
Recipe by Lily’s Kitchen Founder Henrietta Morrison, 2012. Ebury Publishing: Ebury Press. P. 47 RRP £12