Recipes

Clive of India curry powder is one of my favourite curry powders when it comes to making pies. When the spices combine with the puff pastry, it’s incredibly moreish. I also love this curry mixture without pastry, in a bowl with brown basmati rice.

This tart is a trusty friend when you want to take something simple but special along to a potluck feast or lunchtime communal gathering. Its gluten-free almond crust, filled with the flavours of creamy goat’s cheese, cumin, nutmeg and earthy pine nuts, just begs to be shared with others. A beautiful recipe to extend love through food.

You know by now that a healthy microbiome (the bacteria in your gut) is essential to good health. Everyone knows yoghurt provides good gut bacteria but what if you don’t want to consume animal products or just have problems with dairy? To solve your dilemma, here are some plant-based probiotic — and prebiotic — foods plus some delicious recipes to get them into your diet.

This pie is a far cry from the basic meat and potato pie that most of us remember. The spices and long list of vegetables make it a truly healthy and hearty meal.

Paying homage to the humble Brussels sprout, this pie is a lovely combination of deliciousness and goodness. Packed with fibre, protein, calcium and the goodness of greens, it makes a delicious dinner but also travels well in lunchboxes for a nice surprise.

Turmeric has been used and well respected for 2500 years in India as an Ayurvedic medicine. This brightly coloured spice, which gives curry its lovely orange-yellow colour, has many outstanding health-boosting properties. Curcumin is also a highly effective anti-inflammatory as well as having strong antioxidant properties. Regular consumption of turmeric in the diet could protect you against infections, especially those of the digestive tract, as well as relieving arthritic conditions and helping protect you from cancers and Alzheimer’s disease.

I can’t tell you how important it is to follow a soaking process when preparing any legumes or pulses. If you have a careful look at your soaked legumes after 24 hours, you begin to see the sprouting shoots pop up underneath the skin. This sprouting process reduces the amount of phytic acid in legumes, which makes them much easier to digest. Phytic acid can also bind to essential nutrients, making them less available to the body. Reducing phytic acid levels releases more of these essential nutrients to the body. I find it easiest to soak, sprout and cook a lot of chickpeas at once. Then I freeze them into smaller containers and have them ready for use in a dish like this.

Delicious recipes you can make with EatWell’s sponsors, Cabot Health.

Having a curry spice on hand is such a delicious way to diversify the way you cook vegies and proteins and this recipe is a wonderful example of just that. If you don’t have tempeh then an organic tofu, chicken or fish will work well, too.

Lentils and other legumes are considered a low-GI food as they are digested slowly and won’t cause a sharp rise in blood sugar and insulin levels. The high protein and soluble fibre content of legumes slows the rate at which they leave the stomach and delays the absorption of its glucose. This makes them an ideal addition to the diet, especially for anyone having to watch their weight and blood sugar levels.

Chicken is an excellent source of protein containing branched-chain amino acids, leucine, isoleucine and valine, which are used to boost protein synthesis in the muscles as well as provide energy. Chicken also supplies vitamin B12, needed to support healthy nerve function and red blood cell production.

This ginger cake is absolutely divine. The combination of fresh ginger, dried ginger and the crystallised ginger creates a very warming and spicy cake, perfect for all ginger fans. I’ve used a special combination of gluten-free flours: potato starch, buckwheat flour, brown-rice flour and almond meal. That creates a really light and fluffy cake that doesn’t taste or look gluten-free at all. You’ll be able to buy these flours at your local health food store or a bulk food store.