I’m a big fan of veggie-based rice along with a lean source of protein and even more veggies. Quick, light and so so yum!
Switching up rice with veggies allows me to create absolute mouth watering dishes without leaving me super full, sluggish or feeling unwell. Things like broccoli rice or cauliflower rice are widely available in most supermarkets nowadays, but obviously, we prefer making everything from scratch to preserve as many nutrients as possible here.. Duh! And I pinkypromise you this really doesn’t have to take all that long once you’ve got the right utensils at home.
In order to turn your broccoli or cauliflower into rice, I recommend using a blender or kitchen machine which will do the job for you in no more than 10 seconds. If you don’t have either at home, no stress at all. A big chopping knife and a cutting board will do the trick as well!
Who’s joining me for some Broccoli Rice with Chicken & Asparagus tonite?
Here’s what you’ll need:
*400g broccoli rice
*100g carrots, sliced or spiralized
*200g chicken breast or a vegetarian replacement of your choice
*300g white asparagus, peeled and cut in pieces
*1 lime
*1 tbsp olive oil
*1 handful fresh dill, chopped
*1 handful fresh parsley, chopped
*Pepper & Salt
Dressing
*1 tsp tahin
*2 tbsp water
*2 tbsp olive oil
*juice & zest of 1/2 lime
*1 tbsp soy sauce
*pepper & salt
Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan. Meanwhile, heat a large pan with water for the asparagus.
Cut the chicken breast in cubes, sprinkle with salt and pepper and fry it in the frying pan until golden brown. Remove from the pan and add the broccoli rice and the carrot. Cook until the broccoli turns even greener and the carrots soften a bit. Do not bake for too long, as the rice will turn too soft.
Cook the asparagus pieces in the boiling water for approx. 7 minutes and leave them to cool down for another 5 minutes.
Now take two bowls and divide the broccoli rice into them. Add the fried chicken pieces, the boiled asparagus and the fresh herbs.
Make the dressing by mixing all the ingredients together. Pour some of the dressing over the broccoli rice and serve the rest separately.
Serve the broccoli rice with an extra wedge of lime.
How about a low carb take on a standard pasta dish? I’m talking healthy food swaps here, using fibre rich veggies instead of empty carbohydrates!
I love switching up pasta with spiralized courgette. It still allows me to create absolute mouth watering pasta dishes without leaving me super full, sluggish or feeling unwell. Ready made courgetti are widely available in most supermarkets nowadays, but obviously, we prefer making everything from scratch to preserve as many nutrients as possible here.. Duh! And I pinkypromise you this really doesn’t have to take all that long once you’ve got the right utensils at home.
In order to make courgette spaghetti, a simple spiralizer (Amazon) for as little as 10 bucks will do the trick.
FYI: I also love to spiralize courgette, cucumber and carrots in my salad bowls. Looks pretty and changes up the texture!
Now let’s get cooking: I love this dish! It’s super easy to make, nice and light – which is perfect for dinner -but still feels like a special treat.
This healthy, low carb and protein loaded take on a pasta dish is your perfect weekday dinner.
Here’s what you need:
*1 courgette, spiralized
*125g king prawns (defrosted and peeled)
*8-10 cherry tomatoes, halved
*1 small can of tomato puree
*½ chilli pepper, deseeded and chopped
*1 clove of garlic
*1 handful basil leaves or parsley, finely chopped
*1 handful of rocket
*lemon zest
*2 tbsp olive oil
Get cooking:
Put the tomatoes, garlic, chilli, tomato purée and a pinch of salt & pepper into a blender or use a handheld blender and blend to a sauce consistency.
Add the spicy tomato sauce into a saucepan and let it simmer for some minutes to get a bit thicker. Add the prawns and let it simmer for another 4-5 minutes. Add the rocket and stir.
Toss the courgetti through the sauce until it begins to soften.
Sprinkle everything with the herbs, some extra salt and pepper and olive oil. Enjoy ♥️
Summer’s here! Time for some summer sun together with friends and family again. This is my absolute favorite time of the year! The blossoming nature, sunny days and lifted Covid regulations just put a big big smile on my face.
These warmer days call for lighter foods, perfect for fresh salads and summery fruit, so in this post I wanted to share some tips for the perfect salad bowl with you that will taste delicious and nourish you inside and out.
While the temperatures rise and the sun sets late, this weather calls for evenings outside with friends and family. Picnics and BBQs are on the weekly menu and call for food that is easy to transport and prepare.
When eating together with others, we often tend to make less healthy choices, especially when there’s some good wine or aperol spritz involved;)..
Many of us experience this period as a bit tricky therefore and often get up the next day with feelings of shame and guilt around the food choices that they have made.
First off, I want you to realize that great health and the right weight that comes along with it is so much more than simply healthy foods!
We know now that our mental well-being is very much connected to our physical state.
So try and be a little more loving with yourself on these summery nights. Go ahead and enjoy the bbq, bread, burger with mayonnaise or pasta salad.
Try and see nights like these as a treat that you deserve every now and then. Allowing yourself to indulge every now and then will make it easier to get back to your healthy routine afterwards.
Ok, now with that said let’s have a look at a couple of simple and effective tips to make those BBQs and picnic a little healthier:
Load up on big and nourishing salads – Wait how? No worries, I got you covered, just read on below!
Bring your own salad dressing if the salad is store bought – simple olive oil with fresh lemon can do the trick!
Make your own sauces – a homemade yoghurt tzatziki is a yummy sauce for any chicken skewers or bbq fish!
Put some veggies on your grill: Aubergine, Leek, Courgette, Bell Peppers are damn tasty on the BBQ!
Try and skip the bread, especially if it is the white kind of processed bread!
Alternate between alcohol and water – the golden rule is 1 glass of alcohol, followed by a big glass of water!
Summery Salads
Salads are probably my favorite dish to make, they’re incredibly versatile and leave me with a fantastic feeling in my body. Now that the warmer months have started, they are just the thing that our bodies crave: minerals, hydration and fresh produce!
In this summer edition I wanted to share a couple of tips with you to help build a solid salad that will be both tasty and nourishing.
Step 1 Greens
When choosing your greens try and opt for deep colours like dark green or even purple and red. This is where the good stuff is at! While an iceberg salad mainly contains water, the dark leafy green variations are loaded with minerals, vitamins, fibers and antioxidants.These little helplings do not only block free radicals, they also activate your body’s own antioxidant defenses; leaving you with a boost in skin- and overall health. WinWin! Think of spinach, kale, lambs lettuce, rucola, dandelion greens, endive, radicchio, mesclun and watercress.
Step 2 Protein
Always, I repeat, always try to include some sort of lean protein in your salad bowl. This is what will help you stay full and energized for hours and hours. More about that in my online course: Eat Well, Feel Good: An Introduction to Nutrition.
Great examples are: lentils, chickpeas, soybeans, eggs, chicken, tuna, tempeh or hemp seeds
Step 3 Fats
Just as proteins, a portion of healthy fats is a vital ingredient of your salad bowl in order to nourish your body, stabilize your blood sugars and provide you with enough energy to feed on.
Opt for avocado, olives, almonds, walnuts, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, flaxseed, sesame seeds, good quality extra virgin olive oil, some organic feta or goats cheese, sardines, mackerel or wild salmon
Step 4 Dressing
This is such an essential for a yummy salad that you want to eat over and over again. Especially for those of you that are not so fond of salads or raw veggies yet – a great dressing will definitely do the trick. Your dressing can however also add unnecessary sugars or other nasties to your otherwise healthy and nutritious salad – my ultimate tip for that is to always try and ensure to make your dressing from scratch. Like that you’ll stay in control over what you consume, easy as that!
Personally, I think great quality olive oil does the trick. Opt for extra virgin to benefit from all those good Omega 3 fatty acids.
Adding some fresh lemon, lime or orange juice will provide a fresh taste and extra nutrients.
Apple Cider Vinegar is both tasty and also very good for your gut.
Coconut Aminos, tamari & miso can be fantastic add ons for Asian salads and are much healthier than traditional soy sauce, oyster sauce and ketjap.
Tamari and yoghurt will create a smoother and creamier texture along with a deliciously nutty flavour.
Step 5 Toppings
Toppings will make your salads so much more interesting! They add flavour, texture and lots of extra nutrients.
Great toppings to use are:
-fresh baby sprouts (like alfalfa, broccoli sprouts, pea shoots or radish sprouts)
-lemon or lime zest (humongous health benefits and adding a zingy fresh flavor to basically anything you eat)
-homemade croutons, the perfect way of recycling your old using some olive oil, herbs, peper & salt
-shaved parmesan cheese
-nuts & seeds, these guys offer great and healthy fats as well as proteins. Read on below for a simple and very taste seed sprinkle recipe
Seed sprinkle
Here’s a foolproof and very tasty seed sprinkle recipe for you to pimp your salads, sandwiches and soups. I use this on a daily for an extra boost of fibres, healthy & unsaturated omega 3 fatty acids as well as plant based protein – basically aaaall the good stuff.
Here’s what you need:
Pumpkin seeds
Sunflower seeds
Flax seeds
Sesame seeds
Chilli Powder
Curry Powder / Garam Masala
Ginger Powder
Pepper & Salt
Unflavoured coconut oil
Method:
Heat the oven to 200 degrees celsius. In a big mixing bowl, combine the seeds with the spices, pepper & salt
Layer your oven tray with a baking sheet and sprinkle the coconut oil on top. Add the seeds and mix well with the oil.
Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes let it cool down fully and store in an airtight container.
Last night I made a super delicious whole roasted cauliflower with tumeric and coconut with friends which I wanted to share with you. The recipe is from Anna Jones’s fantastic new book: The Modern Cook’s Year.
We comcbined the roasted cauliflower with some potatoes and a fresh and tasty tomato & olive salad, which made a perfect combination of warming and fresh.
Turmeric & Coconut Roasted Cauliflower
There is something grand and celebratory about roasting a vegetable whole. It becomes a centrepiece, which is something I think people look for in vegetable-centred cooking. The food I make most nights celebrates vegetables in some way, but cooking them whole like this takes a cauliflower one step further: Golden and crackled, its colour intensified, in all its glory as nature intended.
Whole roasted cauliflower is something that has been finding its way on to restaurant menus the last couple of years, partly due to the cauliflower renaissance spearheaded by vegetable magician Yotam Ottolenghi. Burnished and browned, a whole cauliflower is such a pleasing thing to put in the middle of the table, with a sharp knife for everyone to cut brave wedges for themselves and uncover the buttery clean white inside, a sharp contrast to the crisp and highly flavoured outside.
Here’s what you’ll need:
Ingredients for 4 persons
- 1 large cauliflower
- 600g new potatoies
- 4 tbsps coconut oil
- 3 tsp fresh grated ginger
- 2 green chili peppers
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 tbsp mustard seeds
- 2 tsp ground turmeric
- 400ml coconut milk
- 1 organic lemon
Toppings:
- Greek yoghurt or coconut yoghurt
- Cilantro
- handful of crushed almonds
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 220°C. Fill and boil the kettle.
- Using a pair of scissors cut the large leaves and stalks away from the cauliflower. (You can leave the little leaves close to the florets, they will go nice and crispy when roasted.) Turn the cauliflower upside down and, using a small paring knife, carefully cut a hollow in the middle of the stalk, so that it cooks evenly. Take a pan big enough to hold the cauliflower, half fill it with water from the kettle and bring it to a boil. Season the water with salt, then immerse the cauliflower and simmer for 6 minutes. Drain the water away, put the lid back on and leave the cauliflower to steam in the residual heat for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cut the potatoes into 2cm pieces, leaving the skin on.
- Take an ovenproof dish or pan (that can go on the hob as well) large enough to take the cauliflower. Spoon in the coconut oil, and grate the ginger into the oil. Finely chop the chillies, discarding the seeds if you wish, then add them to the pan. Add the garlic, then place over medium heat and let the spices and aromatics cook for a few minutes, until fragrant. Stir in the mustard seeds and continue cooking until the garlic has softened, then add the turmeric and a big pinch of salt.
- Pour the coconut milk into the spice mixture, stir well and season with a little black pepper. When the milk starts to bubble gently, turn off the heat, place the drained cauliflower in the dish, then baste it with the coconut-spice mixture. Throw the lemon halves into the side of the dish too, then scatter the potatoes around; they will sit in the coconut milk.
- Bake the cauliflower, basting it occasionally with the spiced sauce in the dish, for 40 to 45 minutes. You want it to catch a little on top. To test if the cauliflower is cooked, insert a small sharp knife into the middle – it should be really tender (the potatoes and cauliflower should have soaked up most of the sauce). Once it’s perfect, take it out of the oven and transfer to a serving dish, then squeeze over the roasted lemons. Serve in the middle of the table, with little bowls of yoghurt, almonds and coriander for sprinkling on top.
ENJOY!