Tomato soup with a kick

Whenever I'm ill or feeling in need of a hug in a mug (oh god, did I actually just write that? yes i did) Heinz or Campbells Tomato soup is the only thing that does it for me. But feeling virtuous today I decided to make my own tomato and lentil soup. Obviously with added chilli as I am a chilli addict.
Really easy to make and can be frozen or kept in the fridge for a few days.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, roughly chopped

2 celery sticks, roughly chopped

1 carrot, peeled and roughly chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground coriander

150g split red lentils

1.2 litres reduced salt vegetable stock

400g can plum tomatoes 

2 tsp tomato purée

1 tsp dried chilli (less if you don't like the hit)

Any dried herbs you'd like to add (I used something called 'Grandma's salt' from Tiger of all places!)

Method:

Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the onion and cook over a low heat for 7–8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until beginning to soften. Stir in the celery and carrot and cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the garlic, cumin, chilli and coriander and cook for a further minute, stirring constantly.

Add the lentils, stock, tomatoes with their juice and tomato purée . Bring to the boil, reduce the heat, then half-cover the pan with a lid and simmer for 25–30 minutes until the lentils and vegetables are soft. Blend using a stick blender and serve!

Berry-coco cheesecake — probiotic, raw, vegan, check.

This weekend I hung out with my fab friend and amazing pro chef Nicola Orr and we got stuck into some recipe planning and testing for my upcoming retreat in Mallorca!  

We’re both big fans of cakes with more to offer than a sugar hit so we tried a probiotic, raw, vegan blueberry cheesecake. And trust me - it tastes better than it sounds!

Why raw? 

While I wouldn’t recommend a fully raw diet, eating plenty of raw foods means you’ll benefit from eating whole, unprocessed foods which have the maximum nutrients in tact. Cooking and other processing techniques often destroys many vitamins and minerals that - vitamin C found in blueberries for example is destroyed by heat. 

Why probiotic? 

Probiotics are the lovely friendly bacteria that help to keep all of your body’s functions in check. These bacteria help to fight the ‘bad’ bacteria in the body (particularly in the gut), reduce inflammation, and they’ve even been shown to boost happiness and mental health and help you to stay a healthy weight!

Probiotics are found in foods in natural yogurt and kefir, tempeh and miso and fermented pickles like kimchi. This cake uses a probiotic capsule which is then left overnight with the cashew nuts to ferment - so not only are you benefiting from probiotic bacteria, but the fermentation also starts to break down the nuts so they're easier to digest! 

So how did we do it? (Recipe adapted from oosha.co.uk) Serves 12

For the filling:

250g cashew nuts

1 tsp probiotic powder (or 2 capsules)

water to blend

150g xylitol or coconut sugar

25ml lemon juice

50g cacao butter

50g coconut oil

1 serving of blueberry jam (see section below)

• Soak 250g cashew nuts in water for a couple of hours. 
• Blend with 1 tsp of probiotic powder (or if you have capsules, 2 capsules) and a little water. I used a strong food processor but you could also use a Nutri Buller/Ninja. 
• Keep blending until smooth - stirring the edges when needed. This takes longer than you think!
• Transfer to a bowl and cover with clingfilm (pressing film right down on cashew mix) and keep in a warm place overnight.

To make the crust:

150g mixed nuts

150g desiccated coconut


75g coconut sugar

2 tbsp lucuma (optional but gives it added sweetness and an extra anti-oxidant boost!)

1 tsp vanilla essence or powder (optional)

25g cacao butter, melted

15g coconut oil, melted

60ml water

Press down into tin

In your high powered food processor or blender, blitz the nuts but keep a bit of chunk. In a large bowl stir in the coconut and then add the lucuma, vanilla, melted cacao butter and coconut oil. Adding enough water to make mixture sticky but still crumble-like. Using your hands mix it all well. 

Line a springform tin with clingfilm and then press the mixture down until really compact and then put in the freezer to harden while you finish the filling. 

To make the blueberry jam:

Stir jam regularly

250g frozen blueberries

juice of 1 and a half lemon

zest of one and a half lemons

25g xylitol or coconut sugar

In a heavy based saucepan, add all of the ingredients and heat over a medium heat for around 30 minutes, stirring regularly to avoid burning. You want most of the liquid to evaporate so you end up with a thick jam-like texture. Leave to cool.

For the filling:

Blend cashew with jam

Put your fermented cashew mix in the blender and add the blueberry jam. Blend well. Then pour in your melted cacao butter, coconut oil and lemon juice. Keep blending until you have a really smooth texture (you don't want a grainy cheesecake). Taste and add a little more lemon or zest if needed (we added more as it was quite sweet). 

Pour into tin

Pour the filling onto the crust and then freeze for around 4 hours. When ready to serve, decorate with a little coconut and fresh blackberries or blueberries. 

Enjoy x 

Is 'clean-eating' all that's wrong with our attitude to food?

Many of you will have seen the BBC One doc last night 'Clean Eating's Dirty Secrets' and as a nutritionist with a qualification not bought off the internet ;-) I thought I'd share my thoughts on the #cleaneating phenomenon.

Eating Clean has taken over from veganism, raw food and Paleo in the 'buzz diets' of 2016 and you only have to take a look at Instagram to see how many people have jumped on the clean bandwagon. But what does eating clean actually mean?

There's no one set definition but clean eaters generally avoid the following:

• refined sugar 
• wheat
• dairy
• gluten
• alcohol
• caffeine
• any processed foods

The hardcore clean eaters will also not eat any animal products, grains and certain types of higher sugar fruit or vegetables. Others will eat animal products providing they're organic, grass-fed or free-range.

So in essence, many of the concepts of 'clean eating' are pretty sensible - eat whole foods, avoid processed foods, and don't drink too much caffeine or alcohol. All good so far.

What isn't so good (in my opinion) is the use of the word 'clean'. This implies that any food not on the 'ok list' is somehow dirty, sinful, unpure, bad, naughty and should come laden with guilt. With so many pressures already on us, do we really need to be feeling bad because we had a glass of wine after work or a slice of white non-spelt real toast for breakfast with actual bacon and actual ketchup?
And on the flip side should we feel any purer, better, more worthy than others because we had a green smoothie for breakfast rather than a croissant?

Unfortunately I do agree with the BBC doc that the extreme clean eaters are suffering from a new kind of eating disorder and due to the sheer number of followers it now seems that these obsessive habits have been normalised. So while I'm not saying that following the general principles of 'clean eating' is harmful, to stick to them so rigidly that you feel guilty if you don't, to miss out on a social life because it doesn't fit with your food plan,  to harm your long term health for short term gains and to miss eating the foods you actually love, definitely isn't good for your health or happiness.

While I may be guilty of posting #proteinbites #greenjuice  on #instafood from time to time I would always hope that my message of happiness over denial and balance and moderation over strict rules is the one that shines through.

I'd love if we could ban the phrase 'clean eating' and let's get back to focusing on enjoying the foods in a way that we know that will make us feel good now and in the future - whether that's chocolate or cauliflower rice!

I'd love to know your thoughts on this too - feel free to comment below.

Lime and ginger raw 'cheesecake'

Ingredients:

Topping

4 ripe avocadoes

8 limes

2 tbsp honey or brown rice syrup

4 tbsp coconut oil, melted

Base 

4 cups of whole oats (could use buckwheat or quinoa flakes if you're avoiding gluten)

4 tbsp coconut oil, melted

12 dates, pitted (if using medjool dates 8 is enough)

1in fresh ginger peeled and sliced

In a powerful food processor first blend the oats and ginger until almost flour like. Melt the coconut oil gently in a pan or microwave and add to the oats with the dates. Add a little warm water and blend until the mixture becomes sticky. 

Spoon the mixture into a lightly greased cheesecake tin and press down until tightly packed. Refridgerate. Wash your food processor and add the avocado flesh, juice of 8 limes and zest of two. Then add the honey and melted coconut oil. Blend well until smooth. Add more honey or lime to taste. Pour onto base and refrigerate for a couple of hours or until ready to eat. 

My Sunday hanging out with Martina - Aloha!

Last Sunday I was lucky enough to be invited by Maui Jim sunglasses to the Wimbledon Club for a day of tennis, cream tea and sunglasses - how could I refuse?!

On arrival the weather was looking a bit dodgy but luckily we were provided with tea, sandwiches, and a whole host of cakes before having to head out onto the courts - I'm pretty sure this is how Roger prepares for most of his big games. I made sure I wasn't snapped devouring the red velvet cake, us nutritionists have a rep to protect!

So carb-loaded and raring to go (I managed to resist the pre-match Pimms), we headed down onto the courts where the pocket rocket that is Martina Hingis was waiting to whip us into tip top tennis shape.   What a power house she is - you can see why despite being half the size of Serena and Venus she's just won two doubles titles at Wimbledon this year having come out of retirement for the second time!

Showing Martina how it's done!

We then sweated it out on the courts for a couple of hours - no wonder tennis players have such amazing legs, it really is quite a workout! By which time we'd earned some well deserved Pimms and more cake, strawberries and cream (Sundays are nutritionist's days off ;-) )

We were then treated to our choice of the gorgeous Maui Jim sunglasses (could this day get any better?!)

Oh yes it could, Hawaiian dancing anyone?

 A fantastic day all round and I've genuinely not taken off my Maui Jim's since - love them! http://www.mauijim.com If you're not familiar with them.

Thanks to everyone at Maui Jim and the Wimbledon club - and well done Martina for doing the double this weekend! (I knew my coaching tips would pay off).