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All in Recipes
I love the lebanese salad tabbouleh and it works brilliantly with buckwheat rather than bulgar wheat. Buckwheat is a gluten free grain despite the name so this salad is a fabulous gluten free alternative to tabbouleh. This might seem a lot of parsley - but tabbouleh is traditionally a parsley salad with a small amount of bulgar wheat. Parsley is packed with vitamin C and antioxidants and so very good for us.
This very easy gazpacho is all about enjoying and embracing summer ingredients. Full of gorgeous mediterranean vegetables and flavours, totally refreshing and perfect to make in advance. No cooking is involved and pretty much any blender will do the job. Just make sure you allow a couple of hours to refrigerate it. An absolute keeper to make again and again as a starter on a summer’s evening.
Deliciously spiced, easy to make and very green these falafel are sure to be a hit. Falafel are traditionally deep fried, but we have baked them with just a brush of olive oil to make them healthier. We have spiced them using a Zhoug paste from Belazu that is seasoned with coriander and jalapeño. It’s easily available from supermarkets.
Most flapjack recipes are packed with sugar - but if you include some sweet fruit, such as raspberries then you can really cut down on the sugar content. We have used honey as well as the berries to sweeten these flapjacks. The first time I cooked these I left them on the side and when I came back to them my daughter and husband had helped themselves to quite a few squares. So these were definitely a hit and as they are super easy and nut free make a great school snack!
That sweet taste of summer... Yes I am talking berries and ice cream combination in any way possible!! Except that this ice cream has no milk! It’s the power of the humble banana striking again. We always have bananas in my house, fresh in the fruit bowl for those quick energy refuel moments. I also usually have some sliced frozen bananas in my freezer to add to smoothies or make this nice cream. Once you’ve done this one…do experiment with your favourite flavours!
When the weather gets warmer we love nothing better than a smoothie for breakfast. This smoothie is deliciously creamy due to the addition of avocado and banana. Suitable for children - the first time I made this my daughter drank most of it! There is some protein from the avocado, but not much, so if you want to drink on its own then you might want to add a few nuts. I often like a smoothie post run and then I’ll have lunch a few hours later.
Enjoying and embracing a balanced healthy diet means there is a place for everything and that’s exactly why a good pasta recipe or two is essential for those weekends when comfort food and family crowd pleasers are required. The base for this is vegetarian and full of gorgeous mediterranean vegetables and flavours and so a little chopped chorizo works wonders added to it.
Rolled oats are THE staple ingredient I run out of the most often! I use it for everything, savoury or sweet, breakfast or dinner!. High in fibre, naturally gluten free if you chose the right brand and so so versatile. If you have oats and bananas you can always make cookies! Yes, bananas are another twice weekly must buy on the shopping list . The base recipe for these delicious cookies is just the 2 ingredients. You can add your choice of extras (seeds, nuts of choc chips) and make a thumbprint in the centre ready for a jammy filling. Mango and coconut it is today!
This dish uses camargue red rice, which has some great health benefits and is even more nutritious than brown rice (see tip below). We have added choirzo to this dish as it goes so well, however to make this dish vegetarian simply leave it out - it will still be delicious. Look out for nitrate/nitrite free chorizo in your supermarket. This is a great dish for using up a glut of tomatoes or turning large and sometimes rather tasteless supermarket tomatoes into something delicious.
So incredibly easy to throw together, this bowl is such a quick, simple and delicious dinner for 2 or a crowd pleaser for a dinner party. Packed full of bright, colourful, zingy and nutty flavours, since making it for the first time I have come back to it serving it cold as a starter or warm as a main, perfect for a Friday night with friends. Despite being quite simple to prepare it wows every time with its exotic asian flavours. I have made it with prawns here but panfried salmon works brilliantly too.
I love a salad. In the spring and summer I make sure I have one at least one a day and in the winter I just warm up a few of the ingredients to make a warm salad. To stop myself getting bored I am always changing the ingredients. My salads are never boring with just lettuce and cucumber - I make sure I pack them with lots of delicious vegetables. They are always colourful and contain at least four different vegetables or herbs.
Making bread is something I used to do a lot when living in London to relax from the stressful city job! Kids used to join in the mess! When it appeared I had become gluten intolerant I lost interest in bread all together. But here we are many years later, now living in gorgeous Kent, I have rediscovered a passion for traditionally made bread and baking. I usually enjoy my sourdough bought from a local artisan bakery but decided to have a go at soda bread. Very simple to make at it requires no proofing or waiting. Adding turmeric to the dough proved a great call. Delicious served with a poached egg and some mashed avocado.
One of our aims at The Health Boost is to help families with everyday simple tricks to eat more healthily, and adding more vegetables and fibre in our modern diet is up there as a priority. So what if I told you that you could tell the kids that there’s chunky chips on the menu today but still get an extra portion veg in the process? Here comes the butternut squash chunky oven fries, made tasty with the help of a little oat flour, parmesan and rosemary! To make these dairy free replace the parmesan with nutritional yeast.
Snacks are part of life for our busy active families. I don’t mean the ones you grab from the supermarket shelves or in a rush. We prefer making our own for the week ahead. These are a great quick and easy no-bake option and made with 6 real and wholesome ingredients only. Mango can be swapped for another dry fruit ( make sure they are just that, fruit and no sulphate or added anything) and cashews can be replaced with almonds or Brazil nuts if you have them in your cupboard. Using maple syrup make those granola bars vegan too if that’s important to you.
These are so tasty that even my husband who has decided he doesn’t like sweet potatoes loves them! And for him to go back for seconds on a veggie dish is high praise indeed! They could be served for breakfast with a poached egg on top or alongside a green salad for lunch. For most people 3-4 rosti would be enough for lunch – although my husband did eat 6 the first time I cooked these for him!!
These snacks came about due to a brown banana and some dates that needed eating. I usually make our very popular banana bread with these. However I was looking for a snack to make that my daughter could take into her nut-free school. The banana bread contains almond flour so is a no-go. These crumble bars are the result. My daughter has declared them even better than the banana bread, which is popular with her and her friends! The banana and dates are combined into a consistency that resembles caramel. Seriously delicious!
This is NOT just another vegetarian curry option. It is one of those really satisfyingly easy dish to pull together for a mid week meal or a Friday night with friends. Packed full of flavours, purple and green vegetables, good amounts of protein and fibre. What’s not to like? I have previously served it as a main or side dish, with brown rice or quinoa or simply flatbreads. Chicken or lamb are the perfect meat to accompany.
We all love a curry in our house and Saturday nights have become a curry night ritual. Pleasing different palates is not always easy - some like a hot curry and others not so much. However this tikka masala seems to please everyone! I know it’s not traditional to add spinach to a tikka masala, but i like to add another vegetable whenever I can! I use 6 chicken breasts to feed my brood of 5 as my two teenagers are permanently hungry. However, unless you too have growing teenagers then adjust portions by using 1 chicken breast per person.
I have been wanting to make a lemon cake using a whole lemon for a while. The important phytonutrients in lemons are found in the peel - the part we normally throw away (see tip below). This cake remedies this! Since the whole lemon is used this is quite a grown up taste and not massively sweet. I love this lemony, nutty hit – but if you love your cakes very sweet this might not be for you! Be sure to choose organic lemons to avoid wax and pesticide residues.
I almost didn’t write this up as a recipe - after all it’s nothing complicated and fancy. Just 6 ingredients thrown together. However it’s been a winner in my house with all the family and so I thought I would share with you - after all we all need those quick and simple recipes to keep us going day in day out! To serve 4 or even 6 then just alter the amount of chicken breasts. My two teenagers seem to be going through a growth spurt at the moment so I often cook 6 chicken breasts for the 5 of us!
