Nourishing Delights
Breakfast Ideas
This smokey breakfast bean recipe is a much better alternative to something like Heinz Baked Beans for breakfast. Not only does it contain no sugar, but is also combines 5 additional vegetables into the mix to ensure you have already met your minimum vegetable quota for the day on one breakfast plate. As a result, it’s also lovely and filling. Creamy butter beans work really well in this recipe, but it would also work well with another type of bean such as cannellini beans, black beans, and even chickpeas.
Flourless banana and blueberry porridge bread. This is much milder, denser and more like a breakfast loaf than your traditional super sweet, gluten-rich banana bread (aka cake). It's a nutrient-dense, gluten-free and lower sugar alternative that can be enjoyed plain or toasted, with butter / chia jam / nut butter / yoghurt.
It’s pancake day but I don’t know anyone who doesn’t enjoy pancakes all year round. So, here’s a fun way of making pancakes that involves a little added veg, some protein (eggs) and no flour (or gluten) to make a balanced meal and avoid any post pancake energy slump. Gluten-free, dairy-free (if you like), and delicious!
I appreciate that there are many of you out there who don’t eat eggs for whatever reason, and you need an alternative. Ideally you still want to be aiming for that balanced breakfast with complete protein, beneficial fat and vegetables if you can. So, why not try scrambled tofu?I know what you may be thinking - tofu tastes like nothing. Well, that’s why you need this simple recipe to bring it to life. This dish is so delicious that even if you’re an avid egg fan, you may still want to try this to shake things up a bit.
This spicy carrot cake porridge is not only tasty, but it’s a nice way of sneaking a little veggie into breakfast along with some immune supporting ginger!
Tired of your weekend pancakes? I can highly recommend switching things up a bit and trying out this lemony French sourdough toast next time you want to treat yourself at breakfast time. I’m a huge fan of lemon drizzle cake, so I thought I would take inspiration from those amazing flavours and translate them into a French toast (eggy bread) recipe for you. While it looks and tastes wonderfully decadent, there is actually no additional sugar in this recipe apart from the natural sugars found in the fruits. You will also be getting a reasonable amount of protein and good quality fat from the eggs, chia seeds and yoghurt.
This healthy pancake recipe is super simple and delicious. The batter is made up of 3 key whole food ingredients - eggs, bananas and oats. I like to add a bit of salt and cinnamon for flavouring as well. The result is fluffy, wholesome Scotch-style pancakes that are the perfect base for all kinds of toppings.
Lunch and Dinner Ideas
This dish is my own take on a classic Shepherd’s Pie, using some slightly more interesting vegetables for the mash and mutton instead of lamb for the mince. Mutton is a fantastic source of protein and essential micronutrients, it tastes just as good as lamb - just slightly less sweet - and in my opinion, it is a more ethical and sustainable meat to choose over lamb. The recipe is gluten-free, and I made mine cow’s-milk-dairy-free, but it can readily be made without any dairy.
I may have a bit of an obsession with getting liver into my meals in totally delicious ways. But there are worse obsessions to have. This dish, is slightly random - sometimes the best things are! I got creative with some Middle Eastern-inspired ingredients and a number of spices and ended up with this hotpot that would be perfect for a big batch cook, a family supper or a dinner party.
Ox liver is so unbelievably nutrient dense. It’s like nature’s multivitamin. For those of us not so keen on the taste and texture, this is the recipe for you. A slow-cooked bolognese that wins on flavour and on nutritional content, what’s more, it will feed the whole family!
It’s that time of the year when there is nothing more soothing than a steaming bowl of homemade soup. This one is pretty special - a combination of two of my favourite inclusions into a vegetable-based soup - cauliflower and mushrooms. It’s creamy, cheesy and incredibly comforting.
I absolutely love baking cauliflower, along with its leaves (because they are also very delicious and nutritious). It works a great base for holding a range of different flavours, with many going for the classic turmeric. This dish is perfect if you are trying to get someone to enjoy cauliflower who may otherwise be a little dismissive of it.
Stir fry is a go-to recommendation for my clients who have limited time and need to get more plants in their diet. This recipe, combined with super nutritious, omega-3-rich wild salmon, is a force of nutrients to be reckoned with (that is ready in 20 minutes). Don’t worry if you don’t have all the exact ingredients – another great thing about stir fry is that you can put just about any vegetable in it and it will taste great. All I ask is that you include at least 5 different varieties. I also recommend including the bean sprouts, as in this recipe, they substitute what would have been noodles.
This celeriac and leek soup is the perfect warming winter dish for your weekday lunches. It is extremely easy to make with a handful of ingredients and tastes light and fresh yet creamy. Prepare a batch and enjoy it throughout the week. Celeriac is perhaps one of the most underrated vegetables and it needs to be celebrated more. The season in the UK runs from September to April. It’s the perfect soup to make after a trip to a farmer’s market at the weekend, using fresh, organic produce, and a few ingredients goes a long way.
This roasted vegetable and beluga lentil salad is such a simple recipe and it’s also deliciously nutritious. It’s got a Mediterranean feel but with North African seasoning to mix things up. Black beluga lentils are my favourite variety of pulses. They’re quick to cook and don’t go mushy like some others. They contain a good amount of plant protein, fibre and a number of minerals including calcium, potassium, magnesium and a number of B vitamins.
It gets to this time of the year and there’s nothing more comforting than cooking up a soul-warming casserole. This recipe was the product of a mixture of vegetables in the fridge and I encourage you to use whatever you have available. The tomatoes and the seasoning give it a delicious smokiness.
Thai curry has got to be one of my favourite foods. Although, perhaps this is unusual, but I always prefer my homemade curries to takeaways or anything that has come from a packet. You really don’t need a paste if you have enough of the herbs and spices in your store cupboard. This particular dish has aromatic flavours, a good level of spice, a coconut base and a bit of peanut butter thrown in for good measure. I’ve combined two types of protein - prawns and tempeh - but you could do one or the other, or something different!
This delicious red lentil dahl is one of my favourite comforting easy recipes that only takes about 30 minutes to make and packs a serious flavour punch. It is perfect for the colder months and is amazing for batch cooking because portions can be kept in the freezer for a quick meal.
This Thai sweet potato and carrot soup is inspired by my favourite Penang curry - made extra delicious but the subtle peanut flavour balanced perfectly with coconut milk, fresh ginger and spicy chilli pepper. YUM SCRUM.
This is a great vegetarian dish for late summer / early autumn when you find these beautiful round courgettes at your local farmers’ market. If you can’t get hold of the round ones, you can use large normal courgettes or marrow. The filling is packed with mushrooms, quinoa and blue cheese.
Looking for budget friendly, easy meal prep inspiration? Look no further. Here’s my easy lentil chilli recipe made with store cupboard staples. It’s a vegan recipe great for anyone trying to cut back on meat, dairy and any inflammatory foods. I’ve included a selection of veg that I had in the fridge, but you can mix up the ingredients depending on what you have available.
A healthy alternative to fish and chips with the added satisfaction of being nourishing. This is a super simple recipe for breading your fish fillets before baking. I like using salmon, but the recipe will work with most fresh fish fillets. Always aim to get wild fish that is sustainably sourced, and mix up your dietary intake of oily and white fish as they both have different health benefits.
Baking and Desserts
Granola is easy to make and this one is gluten-free, nut- and seed-free as well as being low oxalate. Try it as is, or use my recipe as a basis for your own version.
This baked flat peaches with mascarpone dessert is absolutely delicious. It’s such an easy recipe and quick too. Simply bake the peaches, and toast the hazelnuts in some coconut sugar, then top with mascarpone and a drizzle of honey. I wanted to create something with all the textures - juicy and chewy, soft and creamy and sweet and crunchy. The combination is just divine. You don’t need to use flat peaches, you could use any stone fruit for a similar effect. It’s also a good dessert to make if you need something simple and gluten free!
Flourless banana and blueberry porridge bread. This is much milder, denser and more like a breakfast loaf than your traditional super sweet, gluten-rich banana bread (aka cake). It's a nutrient-dense, gluten-free and lower sugar alternative that can be enjoyed plain or toasted, with butter / chia jam / nut butter / yoghurt.
Swede might sound like an odd ingredient to put into a sweet muffin, but I promise you it works. Behold, the SWUFFIN. I am a huge fan of adding some form of vegetable to my bakes. This approach often allows you to remove the gluten-rich flour element and increase the fibre content of the recipe all in one foul swoop. I also find that the winter season can be quite swede-heavy, particularly if you are a recipient of a veg box. And let’s face it, one swede goes a long way and it can all get a bit samey. So, I experimented with this recipe and it came out top trumps.
Hazelnut Vegan Homemade Twix Bars that taste as good as they look and sound. These are dairy-free, gluten-free and refined-sugar-free! When it comes to sweet treats like this, I’m always going to be an advocate of balance and not making them a routine thing. I also recommend enjoying these straight after a savoury meal with plenty of protein in, as they will be digested with that meal and this will help to reduce any spike in blood sugar levels afterwards. There are still multiple health benefits to the natural ingredients in these so I will always recommend homemade over shop-bought processed foods.
I’ve experimented with a few avocado chocolate mousse recipes, and some taste a lot better than others. I think I’ve landed on the best here (in my humble opinion). It’s been tried and tested on non-believers, this dreamy dessert is akin to a Gü chocolate pot. This dessert is certainly not for everyday consumption, but it makes a wonderfully indulgent (yet relatively healthy) end to a dinner party or date night.
A gluten free, veggie-packed take on your traditional carrot cake. Due to the coconut flour and ground almonds, the end result is a fairly dense but deliciously moist loaf. This is a great recipe for the winter months when there’s an excess of root vegetables around and you are looking for other ways to use them up.
I LOVE a flapjack, but let’s be honest, the tastiest flapjacks are the ones that are full of butter and golden syrup. I wanted to find a flapjack-style bake that had a bit more variety in it, and wouldn’t be quite as sugary. These apple granola slices are accidentally vegan and gluten free, and they’re great for a weekday snack. I’ve added a mixture of seeds and currents to mine, but they would also taste great with nuts or other dried fruit.
This lemon, courgette and almond cake is a lovely citrusy loaf to enjoy in the summer months. It’s deliciously moist – the kind that you have to eat with a fork. It’s also gluten free, dairy free and relatively low in sugar. I also added a little turmeric to it to make it super yellow and just a teeny bit aromatic.⠀
This has got to be one of my most tried and tested recipes and they really are divine. Beetroot is naturally very sweet and grated into this mix, it bulks up the batter and limits the need for a gluten-rich flour. These are rich, moist and chocolatey - give them a go and you won’t be disappointed.
Rich, crunchy, zesty - this is hands down my favourite cookie recipe. These are the bomb.
Vegan, dairy free and gluten free, but definitely NOT nut free. The main bulk of these cookies is made up of ground oats and a significant amount of peanut butter.
Dips, Sauces and Spreads
Here’s a super simple chicken liver pâté recipe that can be made in 10 minutes and will last a week in the fridge. Organ meats really are the crême de la crême of nutritious foods and a good place to start, if you are new to the organ-meat-game, is with chicken liver. In comparison to chicken breast/muscle meat, chicken liver is significantly more nutrient-dense and beneficial for our health. The flavour is perfect for a creamy homemade pâté which makes a great nutrient-dense protein source for a lunch plate.
This quick and easy sugar-free compote is my favourite thing to have with yoghurt as a healthy dessert. By adding the chia seeds you get some additional nutrients, fibre and the gelatinous texture of a jam if you allow the compote to cool. I recommend keeping the cooking temperature low to aim to preserve some of the antioxidant-rich phytonutrients in the fruit.
Here’s a recipe for you in the name of reducing food waste: Carrot-top pesto! I make this every time I buy carrots from the farmers' market. Carrot tops are so green and nutritious, you can't possibly waste them. Also, making sauces from scratch leads to particularly fresh, delicious meals, and this one gives you a great excuse to eat pasta! Root-to-stem cooking is the way forward.
I love hummus! I’m also very much in favour of making my own dips and sauces and encourage you all to do so too. If you have a blender or food processor, this butter bean hummus is really quick and easy, you end up with a huge amount, and you are fully in control of the ingredients!
All Recipes
Scrambled Tofu
I appreciate that there are many of you out there who don’t eat eggs for whatever reason, and you need an alternative. Ideally you still want to be aiming for that balanced breakfast with complete protein, beneficial fat and vegetables if you can. So, why not try scrambled tofu?I know what you may be thinking - tofu tastes like nothing. Well, that’s why you need this simple recipe to bring it to life. This dish is so delicious that even if you’re an avid egg fan, you may still want to try this to shake things up a bit.
Nothing compares to a protein-rich, nutrient dense breakfast of eggs and veg. But sometimes that can feel more challenging to do if you’re time-poor or have to eat breakfast on the move or at work. These egg frittata muffins are the answer. They are the perfect batch-cook recipe for a quick weekday breakfast. They are also absolutely fantastic for kids’ lunch boxes and, like a frittata, you can fill them with just about anything.