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3 of Our Favourite Recipes from Meet Your Matcha

Posted on August 4, 2017August 4, 2017 by Victoria Lagodinsky

Matcha is the fine green tea powder, packed with antioxidants, that’s taking the world by storm! It’s combination of endless health benefits, and delicious subtle flavours is quickly making this miracle ingredient a staple for foodies around the world. From smoothies to salads, main meals to munchies, there’s more to matcha than just another cup of tea. So to help you discover how you can pack your diet with the power of green tea, we’ve selected three of our favourite recipes from Joanna Farrow’s Meet Your Matcha.

Kedgeree with Matcha Butter
This is a recipe for matcha lovers everywhere! Serve the matcha butter atop the hot veggie rice so it melts in deliciously.

Serves: 4, prep: 10 minutes, cook: 25 minutes

Ingredients:
250g/9oz/1 1/4 cups brown
or white basmati rice
4 medium eggs
10 cardamom pods
65g/2 1/2oz/1/4 cup softened
slightly salted butter
1 tsp matcha
1 bunch of spring onions/
scallions, thinly sliced
100g/3 1/2oz/3/4 cup petits
pois or baby broad beans,
thawed if frozen
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1/2 tsp ground tumeric
sea salt and freshly ground black
pepper
lime wedges, to serve

Method:

Cook rice in plenty of boiling, lightly salted water for 10-15 minutes or until tender. Lower the eggs into a separate pan of gently simmering water and cook for 7 minutes. Drain the rice and eggs. Peel away the shells from the eggs. Crush the cardamom pods using a pestle and mortar. Pick out and discard the empty pods and lightly crush the seeds.
Beat 40g (1 1/2oz) of the butter in a small bowl with the matcha. Heat the remaining butter in a frying pan and gently fry the spring onions/scallions for 2 minutes. Stir in the rice, peas or beans, cardamom, parsley, turmeric and a little salt and pepper, and mix well over a gentle heat for 3 minutes.
Quarter the eggs, add to the pan and cook for a further 2-3 minutes to heat through. Transfer to warmed serving plates and spoon the matcha butter on top. Serve with lime wedges.

TIP! Nothing brings out the rich matcha flavour quite like butter. Any leftover matcha butter is lovely spread on toast, used for topping baked potatoes or stirred into rice. It’s definitely worth making double the quantity.

Rack of Lamb with Matcha and Pistachio Crust
Pretty pistachios and matcha make a crispy crust for simple roast lamb. Serve with traditional roast potatoes or buttered, steamed baby potatoes and a side of seasonal greens.

Serves: 2-3, prep: 10 minutes, cook: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
25g/1oz/2 tbsp butter
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 tsp finely chopped fresh
rosemary
25g/1oz/1/4 cup pistachio
nuts, skinned if liked (see tip)
25g/1oz white bread, torn
into pieces
1 tsp matcha
sea salt and freshly ground
black pepper
1 French-trimmed rack of
lamb, 6-7 ribs
150ml/5fl oz/2/3 cup of
lamb stock
100ml/3fl oz/scant 1/2 cup
red wine
1 tbsp light muscovado/
brown sugar

Method:

Preheat the over to 220C/425F/gas 7. Melt the butter in a small saucepan and gently fry the shallots, garlic and rosemary for 2 minutes.
Blend the pistachio nuts and bread in a food processor until finely ground. Add the matcha, the shallot mixture and a little salt and pepper, and blend to combine.
Place the lamb in a small roasting pan, skinned side up, and pack the matcha mixture on top. Roast for 25 minutes if you prefer your lamb still pink in the middle, or an extra 10 minutes for well done. Transfer to a board and keep warm while you make the gravy.
Add the stock, wine and sugar to the roasting pan,and bring to the boil, stirring. Boil for a few minutes until slightly reduced. Carve the lamb between the ribs and serve with the gravy.

TIP! Skinning pistachio nuts isn’t essential, but it does bring out their emerald greeness! Place the nuts in a bowl, cover with boiling water and let stand for 30 seconds. Rinse and drain. Rub between paper towels to loosen the skins, peeling away any that remain with your fingers.

Dairy-Free Green Tea Popsicles
For vegans as well as those avoiding dairy products, these popsicles have a great milky consistency and plenty of flavour. They are the perfect green tea treat for lazing on a summer’s afternoon – or as a good-for-you dessert.

Makes: 8-10 popsicles, prep: 5 minutes, plus freezing

Ingredients:
1 ripe banana
1 1/2tsp matcha
350g/12oz/1 1/3 cups
dairy free coconut yoghurt
100g/3 1/2oz/scant 1/2 cup
agave nectar or coconut
blossom nectar
100ml/3 1/2fl oz/scant
1/2 cup oat or rice milk
1 tbsp lemon juice

Method:

Break the banana into pieces and add to a food processor. Add the matcha and blend to form a smooth puree.
Add the yogurt, agave nectar or coconut blossom nectar, milk and lemon juice, and blend again until completely smooth, scraping down any mixture that clings to the side of the bowl.
Transfer to a jug and pour into ice-cream moulds. You’ll probably have enough mixture to fill 8-10 moulds. Push a wooden lolly/ice cream stick down into the middle of each and freeze for several hours until firm.
To serve, run the moulds under hot water until you’re able to pull the lollies out of the mould

Enjoy your matcha inspired dishes and take comfort in the knowledge that not only are you eating delicious food, but you’re also loading your body with anti-oxidising goodness!

Joanna Farrow is a food writer and stylist with a flair for food that does you good. She has worked as a freelance writer for several food magazines including BBC Good Food. Her previous books include Great British Bake Off: Bake It Better, 30-minute Vegetarian, Good Fast Family Food and Ready Steady Cook for Kids. Joanna’s new book Meet Your Matcha is available now. For further information visit her website.

Ditch the Detox for 2017

Posted on January 18, 2017January 18, 2017 by Victoria Lagodinsky

5 practical and accessible health tips from author of the Right Bite Jackie Lynch

If you’re really serious about trying a healthier approach in 2017, then forget about the quick fix or the infamous January detox. They’re not sustainable, they don’t work in the long run and they make for a miserable start to the year. A more effective approach would be to pick one area for improvement and stick to that throughout the year.

Your body is likely to benefit far more from one small permanent change than a rollercoaster of feast or famine, so pick your favourite of these health-boosting ideas and give it a try for 2017.

Slash the sugar.
Associated with a range of chronic health conditions, excess sugar is clearly the bad guy of 2017. Cutting out chocolate, cakes and cookies is a great start, but it’s not easy to eliminate sugar from your diet completely. However, you can reduce it significantly by avoiding some of the main culprits. Steer clear of fruit juices and smoothies, as these contain the equivalent of 6-8 teaspoons of sugar. Snack on fresh fruit instead of dried fruit which has about 4 times as much sugar, because the dehydration process intensifies the fruit sugars. Be vigilant with food labels – 4g of sugar is about a teaspoon, which means just a small portion of many popular breakfast cereals contain 4-5 teaspoons of sugar. Anything labelled as low-fat often has added sugar (or salt) to boost the flavour, so do a quick comparison with the full-fat version to check it out. A few smart choices could make a huge difference to your sugar levels.

Review your ratios
Change the ratio of your 5-a-day so the balance is in 4 vegetables to 1 fruit. If you’re already doing that, go for 6 vegetables and 2 fruits! Vegetables are packed full of protective antioxidants and energy and mood- boosting B vitamins, as well as being rich in fibre which promotes healthy digestion, hormone balance and sustained energy levels. Soups and casseroles are easy ways to increase your vegetable intake, without too much effort, as you can just throw them in and let them cook. Or if you’re feeling adventurous, then consider investing in a juicer, as this can be a great way to have a whole range of vegetables in one hit. Don’t forget snacks either – vegetable sticks or cherry tomatoes with some hummus or guacamole is another easy way to help reach your daily veg target.

Consider your caffeine
If your cumulative daily intake exceeds 4 cups of tea, coffee or caffeinated drinks, such as Diet Coke or Red Bull, then you’re having too much. Caffeine has a very powerful influence on the body, increasing the heart rate and impacting blood pressure. Excess caffeine affects the nervous system, resulting in poor quality sleep and impacting mood and energy levels. Consider how you can reduce your intake and set yourself a realistic daily target – for example, if your morning coffee is non-negotiable, then think about avoiding it at other times instead. Find herbal or fruit tea that you like, and drink this in the afternoon. Try sparkling water with cordial as an alternative soft drink, and choose different mixers for alcohol, such as tonic or soda water. If you can manage to even halve your caffeine intake, you will start to see quite a difference to the way you feel.

Audit your alcohol
You may not consider yourself a heavy drinker, but a civilised glass or two of win each night will take its toll in health terms. For 2017, plan 3 consecutive alcohol-free days per week. This will have a far more beneficial impact than going ‘dry’ in January and then partying for the rest of the year. It gives your liver time to regenerate and to focus on some of its other important jobs, such as processing hormones, metabolising fat and regulating blood sugar levels. You’ll also find that this will improve your sleep and energy levels, making you a lot more productive whether at home or at work. This will be especially beneficial if you’re overweight: according to the British Liver Trust, you’re three times more at risk of developing liver disease if you drink alcohol as well.

Wave goodbye to wheat.
There’s no need to eliminate wheat altogether but high levels of refined wheat can be hard to digest, so reducing the amount of wheat in your diet could be a good move for 2017. It’s likely to be especially effective for those people who tend to suffer from stress-related bloating and wind. Wheat is an irritant to a sensitive gut, so you may find that you benefit from cutting it down in times of stress. If you’re regularly having cereal for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch and pasta for dinner, then that’s quite a burden for your digestive system. Try eliminating wheat from one or two meals by having an oat-based cereal or porridge for breakfast, a rye bread sandwich or soup for lunch or swapping pasta for rice at dinner time. These small changes could reduce that niggling bloating you experience and make you feel far less lethargic.

Good luck and wishing you a happy and healthy 2017.

Jackie Lynch is a Registered Nutritional Therapist and runs the WellWellWell clinics in West London. Passionate about the importance of good nutrition for optimum health, she creates practical nutrition programmes suitable for a busy 21st century lifestyle. Jackie also provides advice and support for a range of blue chip companies, in the form of individual consultations for staff, nutrition workshops and menu analysis and has acted as a food consultant for brands such as Tetley. She is a regular contributor to the Mail on Sunday and the Net Doctor website and her advice features in a wide range of other national media. Visit her website.

Jackie Lynch
The Right Bite
£6.99, available from Nourish Books.
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The Great British Fake Off

Posted on October 3, 2016October 11, 2016 by Victoria Lagodinsky

This article is adapted from Slow Dough by Chris Young.

Like the word bread itself, the terms ‘artisan’ and ‘craft’ have no legal definition. This means anyone can call themselves an artisan or craft baker and market their loaves as artisan or craft bread. The production methods used may not be obvious and, in the case of loaves that aren’t pre-packed – such as those from a supermarket in-store ‘bakery’ – you’ll have your work cut out to find whether or not artificial additives have been employed.

Though some of the differences between Real Bread and industrial loaves may be obvious, labelling and marketing regulations and the way they are policed in various countries can leave loopholes that deny shoppers the right to know exactly what they’re getting.

Knowing that many of us find a litany of chemical names or E numbers off-putting, some manufacturers are now turning to so-called processing aids. By a quirk of EU law, if an artificial additive is deemed to be a ‘processing aid’, it does not have to appear on the label, as long as any ‘residues do not present any health risk and do not have any technological effect on the finished product.’ As a consequence, suppliers often market these as ‘clean label’ or ‘label friendly’. Companies may defend the use of processing aids with comments along the lines of ‘we always comply with the law’, or ‘they get used up during manufacture’ even though despite the fact that their use may, quite legally, ‘result in the unintentional but technically unavoidable presence of residues of the substance or its derivatives in the final product’.

An allegedly ‘fresh baked’ unwrapped loaf sold by a supermarket, convenience store, petrol station or other retailer may have been manufactured a long time ago in a factory far away, then chilled or frozen. Having then been re-baked in a retailer’s ‘loaf tanning salon’ oven increases the energy consumed in production, and results in a loaf that may well stale faster than a genuinely fresh one. Not that you’d know any of that, so you could be forgiven for making a like-for-like comparison with a loaf of Real Bread from a local independent bakery, which helps to sustain more skilled jobs per loaf for local people making genuinely freshly baked bread without the use of artificial additives. Which part of this is fair on you the shopper or a genuine artisan baker?

Perhaps it’s time to BIY – bake it yourself.

Chris Young is Campaign Co-ordinator for The Real Bread Campaign, a charity project with a mission to promote additive-free bread. In addition to compiling this book, Chris edits the quarterly magazine True Loaf, and wrote Knead to Know, the campaign’s first book. His work has appeared in publications including Spear’s Magazine, The Real Food Cookbook and the London ethical food magazine, The Jellied Eel, which he also edits.

Chris Young
Slow Dough: Real Bread
£20.00, available from Nourish Books

Clean Loaf or Just Clean Label?

Posted on September 26, 2016October 11, 2016 by Victoria Lagodinsky

This article is adapted from Slow Dough by Chris Young.

To meet their need for speed, Big Bakers often lace their dough with so-called ‘processing aids’ and other artificial additives, which help the dough conform to the stresses of the process; to become stretchy enough to rise high and quickly, and then to have strength enough to stay risen during baking.

Other chemicals might be used to deter the growth of mould and to help the finished loaf to stay softer for longer, features marketed as ‘freshness’, though I question whether this could be thought of as the equivalent of ‘loaf Botox’…

Big Bakers may say that their loaves are fundamentally the same as Real Bread, just with tiny amounts of these performance-enhancing substances ‘to help the process along’, Isn’t but that a bit like claiming doped-up sportspeople are ‘fundamentally the same’ as honest athletes, though?

Artificial additives have only been subjected to a relatively short period of testing before being declared safe (or ‘generally recognised as safe’ as the more pragmatic US Food and Drink Administration puts it) for food manufacturers using them in their products.

No-one knows for sure, however, if there might be any adverse effects from long-term consumption of the artificial additives found in the modern industrial loaf and across many people’s diets in other heavily processed foods. Can we trust that these things, either individually or in the endless combinations they’ll turn up in a supermarket shopping basket, are truly safe? History is littered with a veritable chemistry set of substances once used by industrial millers and bakers, only to be withdrawn or banned in the UK or elsewhere. They include azodicarbonamide (banned in countries including the UK and Australia but legal in others, including the USA), benzoyl peroxide, Agene (nitrogen trichloride, banned in the 1940s) and potassium bromate.

By contrast, a few thousand years of people eating Real Bread has proved beyond any doubt that it is safe – no, actually good – for the vast majority of us.

So, high time to turn to your local, independent Real Bread bakery…or start baking your own.

Chris Young
Slow Dough: Real Bread
£20.00, available from Nourish Books

The Fight For Better Bread

Posted on September 2, 2016September 26, 2016 by Victoria Lagodinsky

This article is adapted from Slow Dough by Chris Young.

Until relatively recently, the future of bread in Britain looked bleak. Following World War II, the number of independent high street bakeries headed into what seemed a permanent decline, with a handful of industrial giants and multiple retailers rising to dominance and helping to speed their demise.

A particularly dark day for Real Bread historians came in July 1961, when the British Baking Industries Research Association unleashed what later became known as The Chorleywood ‘Bread’ Process (CBP), which takes a shortcut through dough’s natural fermentation and ‘ripening’ time, slashing it from hours or even days to tens of minutes.

Convinced by expensive marketing campaigns to believe that one brand of CBP loaf was in any meaningful way different from another, we began to look to our supermarkets for sandwich loaves, using the same squeeze test we might use for toilet rolls. And the manufacturers and retailers conspired in a race to the bottom, so driven by low prices that by the end of the 1990s, you could buy a sliced CBP loaf for about 7p. Nope, that’s not a typo: in 1999 at least one supermarket dropped the price of its ‘value’ range own-brand loaves far below even the cost of production, to just seven pence.

From Roman and medieval statutes; through nineteenth century wholemeal advocates including Sylvester Graham and Thomas Allinson; national newspaper campaigns in the early twentieth; and the Campaign for Real Bread that ran in Britain as the 1970s turned into the 1980s; the fight for better bread is perhaps as old as bread itself.

In 2008, the food and farming charity Sustain joined forces with baker Andrew Whitley to discuss setting up a new organisation to fight for better bread. Quickly, this attracted the interest of hundreds of people, and after a series of open meetings, the Real Bread Campaign was launched on 26 November of that year. Since then it has thousands of supporters in more than twenty countries. Behind a rallying cry of ‘not all loaves are created equal!’ together we’ve been finding and sharing ways to make bread better for us, better for our communities and better for the planet.

The Real Bread Campaign doesn’t wish to deny any industrial baker their job, but believes that a small, independent Real Bread bakery is of greater benefit to both its bakers and to its local community. These benefits might include:

Skilled, meaningful jobs for local people producing food for their neighbours.
More jobs-per-loaf than an industrial loaf factory.
Opportunities for social interaction between employees and customers.
Support for the local high street and economy: money spent with a local business is more likely to be re-invested locally.
Potential to support local producers, growers or other smaller or more ethical suppliers, by providing an outlet for their goods.
The chance to shop on foot, by bike or public transport, rather than having to drive to an out-of-town megamarket.

While the wrapped, sliced industrial loaf still accounts for the largest percentage of the ‘bread’ market in Britain, it is in decline. In May 2016, Kantar Worldpanel reported that industrial loaf sales had fallen by more than £130 million in just 12 months, while IRI found that supermarkets had sold 50 million loaves.

While nobody seems to count the sales of small, independent bakeries (or even how many there are), in August this year, British Baker magazine reported that sales by one of the larger independents had risen by 41.5%, who had taken on more than 360 staff to meet the demand for their Real Bread.

As for the Campaign, it now has paying supporters in more than 20 countries, around 680 bakeries have added Real Bread to its map, and has more than 25,600 followers on Twitter. Its work has helped more than 10,000 children at over 150 schools learn to bake; encourage and champion the creation of more Real Bread businesses and secured the ASA’s rulings against misleading advertising by supermarket chains.

Chris Young
Slow Dough: Real Bread
£20.00, available from Nourish Books

Slow Road to Success

Posted on August 25, 2016September 14, 2016 by Victoria Lagodinsky

This article is adapted from Slow Dough by Chris Young.

In the words of my father in law and dad, respectively: slow down and get real.

Industrial bakeries have a tendency to throw all sorts of artificial additives into their doughs, some in an attempt to reduce that very important natural ingredient: time.

Even some domestic baking recipe writers and teachers seem to be in a race to the finish line, instructing their readers to use fast action yeast, added sugar and warm proving, declaring with glee how little time the loaf will take.

They suggest that dough must be kept somewhere warm to rise, or that yeast left anywhere cooler than their fevered brows will DIE! What they overlook is the fact that fresh yeast is generally stored in the fridge (at a far-from-balmy 1–3°C) and that a standard piece of professional bakery kit is a retarder, which is basically a big dough fridge.

Another trick up the speed freak’s sleeve is the addition of sugar, be that refined or in another form, such as honey or agave syrup. This puts yeast cells on a ‘high’, and into a CO₂-producing overdrive. There is, however, more than enough energy contained in the flour, which the yeast is eminently capable of obtaining for itself. In fact, beyond a certain level of added sugar, the yeast struggles to cope.

So, what’s wrong with speeding things up? Why would you want to delay the opportunity to tear into a freshly baked loaf, slather it with butter and tuck in?

Thankfully, more and more people seem to be heeding Real Bread bakers’ reminder that long and slow tends to be far more satisfying than a quick finish. A long-proved dough has more time to develop flavour, tends to produce a less crumbly loaf and, in the case of genuine sourdough, might be easier to digest.

For many people, what allowing their dough time to ‘do what a dough’s gotta do’ is simply a matter of good taste. Yes, you can bang out a loaf using warm water and a sachet of instant yeast in an hour or so, but you might be short changing yourself. Real Bread is a natural product and, just as with a whole range of food and drink, from ripening fruit to maturing beef, whisky, wine or cheese, time is essential in getting the very best product.

During this time, all sorts of biochemical alchemy goes on that, ultimately, will result in a texture, depth and complexity of flavour and aroma that can’t be rushed or synthesised, whatever the pedlars of ‘bread flavour’ (I kid you not) to big industry or ‘artisan sourdough’ packet mixes to unsuspecting home bakers might say. You might also find that a long fermented loaf is less crumbly and stales more slowly.

Time is on your side
Happily, this extra time need not eat into your time: it can in fact buy you time while the dough gets on with it. Perhaps counter-intuitively, using a recipe with less yeast and letting dough rise slowly somewhere cooler, in some cases all day or even overnight, allows you to go off and do something else.

You may think that great flavour and a relaxed baking schedule are reason enough to slow things down, but when it comes to sourdough, there might be more benefits…

Chris Young
Slow Dough: Real Bread
£20.00, available from Nourish Books

Smart Sizzling – How to Have a Healthy Barbecue

Posted on July 20, 2016 by Victoria Lagodinsky

If you’re planning on firing up the barbecue, this is a good time to turn to the Barbecue chapter of my new book The Right Bite. On the face of it, a barbecue ticks a lot of health boxes, after all, grilled meats and salad seem to be a relatively healthy option, but there are some major pitfalls to watch out for. Here are four top tips to help you enjoy your next barbecue and maximise the potential health benefits.

Select a Superior Sausage
If you’re partial to a sausage, then take a close look at the actual meat content on the label, as this can vary dramatically. Some sausages contain less than 40% meat, which can include fat and connective tissue too, and which leaves a lot of room for fillers, such as rusk and water. The more your sausage leaks water or white liquid into the pan, the more it is likely to be largely made up of fillers. A premium sausage will contain 85-90% meat which makes it of far superior quality and ensures fewer additives and fillers. If you’re wondering which sausage to choose, spare a thought for a venison sausage – they’re a better source of protein than beef or pork sausages, as well as containing higher levels of energy-boosting iron.

Tone Down the Toxins
It’s a smart move to use lean cuts of meat, such as chicken, and to cut the fat off any red meat, as this will help to reduce the amount of fat that drips from the meat onto the barbecue which causes flames. Cooking meat over an open flame can lead to the creation of powerful toxins, known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) which have been associated with an increased risk of cancer. You could also partially cook the meat in advance, so that barbecue cooking time is reduced. Using smaller cuts of meat and cutting off any charred bits could also help to reduce your potential exposure to PAHs.

Shun the Sauces
It’s easy to undo all your good work and careful choices by getting carried away with sugary sauces and glazes. A modest 37ml serving of sweet chilli or honey-based barbecue sauce contains around 4 teaspoons of sugar, so it’s important not to pour it on with a liberal hand. If sauce is a must, then opt for an unsweetened chilli sauce, a hot pepper sauce or even mustard, as these contain very little sugar.

Keep the Coleslaw
If it’s a toss up between coleslaw and potato salad, then you should choose coleslaw every time. Largely made up of antioxidant-rich cabbage and carrot, it contains about half the carb content of potato salad and twice as much fibre, which is good news for your waistline and your digestion. It’s also a smart move to opt for full-fat rather than low-fat coleslaw, as manufacturers often add extra sugar to low fat products to enhance the flavour, and coleslaw is no exception.

If you’d like more handy barbecue tips or would like to find out about the best choices for picnics, takeaway food and other tricky eating situations, then The Right Bite is definitely the book for you!

Jackie Lynch is a Registered Nutritional Therapist and runs the WellWellWell clinics in West London. Passionate about the importance of good nutrition for optimum health, she creates practical nutrition programmes suitable for a busy 21st century lifestyle. Jackie also provides advice and support for a range of blue chip companies, in the form of individual consultations for staff, nutrition workshops and menu analysis and has acted as a food consultant for brands such as Tetley. She is the ‘go-to’ person for the Mail on Sunday for sensible nutrition advice and has a regular column in Reveal Magazine. Jackie is also Chair of Trustees for the Institute for Optimum Nutrition.

Jackie Lynch
The Right Bite
Available from Nourish Books

Spice Up Your Life!

Posted on May 1, 2016May 12, 2016 by Victoria Lagodinsky

Are you lacking a bit of spice in your life? Add an abundance of flavour by integrating these well-known spices into your diet and reap the benefit of their glorious healing properties.

Spices are much more than wonderful taste supplements. They also provide concentrated, powerful medicines that can enhance health and vitality, treasures that ancient cultures knew well and that modern society is now rediscovering through science and research.

GARLIC

Garlic has a proven reputation as an antibiotic active against bacteria, fungi and other infectious micro-organisms including staphylococci, streptococci, E. coli, trichomonas, candida and amoebic dysentery. It is a traditional remedy
for treating colds, flu, bronchitis and asthma.

A growing body of scientific research confirms garlic’s reputation for benefiting the cardiovascular system by lowering cholesterol, reducing blood clots (by preventing platelet aggregation), reducing atherosclerosis and lowering blood pressure. Recently, it has been shown that garlic can help to lower blood glucose and thus reduce the risk of diabetes, and there is some evidence that eating garlic regularly may help prevent the development of an enlarged prostate in older men.

Did you know…?

Eating fresh parsley with garlic helps to avoid bad garlic breath.

GINGER

For centuries, ginger has been taken to ease rheumatic complaints, and modern evidence confirms that it has an
anti-inflammatory effect and may also lower blood pressure. It can aid slimming if taken as a hot drink with food because, as well as giving a sense of fullness, it enhances the thermic effect of food, reducing feelings of hunger. Widely used as a digestive aid, ginger can also be effective for motion sickness and nausea. It makes a warming drink and is thought to improve circulation.

Did you know…?

Ginger is highly effective in treating morning sickness, but high doses should be avoided.

NUTMEG

In the Middle Ages, nutmeg was highly prized and believed to have magical powers. People even carried nutmeg
around with them in a small locket on a chain. It was said to comfort the head and the nerves, and was known to calm the digestion while stimulating the circulation.

Modern research has shown nutmeg to be among the strongest antioxidants and an effective antibacterial and anti-inflammatory plant medicine able to increase calmness while reducing feelings of anger and embarrassment. It has also been found to inhibit blood clotting and to decrease prostaglandin levels in the colon, making it useful in the management of Crohn’s disease. Extracts of nutmeg inhibit leukaemia cell development, and compounds within it have been found to inhibit the breakdown of elastin in the skin and thus keep the skin more supple. Nutmeg also seems to help protect the skin from overexposure to harmful UV sun-rays.

However, nutmeg does have a reputation as an intoxicant that can cause hallucinations and euphoria, together with palpitations, nausea, headache, dizziness, dry mouth and delirium, but the psychoactive effect is only seen in large doses and varies markedly from person to person.

Did you know…?

To relieve joint pain, try an ointment made by mixing freshly grated nutmeg, ginger, ground cloves and citronella oil with ground, uncooked rice. Apply to the affected joint and leave to soak into the skin.

STAR ANISE

The shikimic acid contained in star anise seeds is a strong antiviral agent and a primary ingredient in the synthesis of antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu. Recent bird flu and swine flu epidemics caused the price of star anise to soar as drug companies bought up vast quantities in order to meet the surge in worldwide demand for antiviral drugs.

Star anise is a warming, stimulating herb used in traditional Chinese medicine to relieve cold stagnation, to balance the flow of Qi and to relieve pain. It is a traditional remedy for arthritis and digestive complaints, and has potent antimicrobial properties due, in part, to the presence of anethole, which is effective against bacteria, fungus and some yeasts. Its immune-stimulating, antimicrobial and antioxidant properties, together with a gentle painkilling and sedative effect, make star anise a perfect remedy to give young children to relieve colic, and also to treat respiratory problems such as bronchitis, cough and asthma. It is also a useful insect repellent.

Did you know…?

Sprinkling ground star anise on root vegetables before baking, or adding a whole star anise to sweet potato, pumpkin or leek dishes enhances their flavour.

Exacts taken from Healing Spices by Kirsten Hartvig

£12.99 | Available from Nourish Books

Guilt-Free Recipe for Easter

Posted on March 25, 2016March 30, 2016 by Victoria Lagodinsky

Looking for something different and guilt-free for Easter? Look no further than these Chocolate Cupcakes with Avocado Frosting.

Perfectly light and moist – a great alternative to the heavier Easter treats around. Using avocado in icing might sound strange, and I suppose it is a little strange, but surprisingly it works! And they’re egg and dairy free so even your vegan friends can enjoy a treat at Easter!

Have a look at our Publicity Assistant, Gemma, making up her batch at home:

The Recipe, in black and white

Makes 24 mini cupcakes (12 servings)

Per serving:
Fat: 4.5g (of which saturates: 0.8g)
Calories: 111kcal
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 12 minutes

For the chocolate cakes:
240ml/8fl oz/scant 1 cup almond milk, plus extra for the frosting
1 tsp cider vinegar
185g/6½oz/heaped ¾ cup granulated sugar
3 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp almond extract (optional)
250g/9oz/2 cups self-raising flour
30g/1oz/ ⅓ cup cocoa powder, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the avocado frosting:
2 ripe avocados
4 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
2 tbsp clear honey
a little almond milk, to loosen

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4 and line two 12-hole mini-muffin tins with paper cases.
Mix together the almond milk and vinegar in a large bowl and stir well, then leave to one side for a few
minutes to curdle.
Beat in the sugar, oil, vanilla extract and almond extract, if using, and whisk until frothy.
In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix together well.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tins, filling the sections three-quarters full. Bake for 10–12 minutes until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
To make the frosting, scoop out the avocado flesh into a small blender or food processor (or bowl and
work with a hand-held blender).
Add the cocoa powder and honey and process until smooth, then gradually add a little almond milk, a drop at a time, until the mixture just begins to hold its shape.
Spoon the frosting into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm star nozzle and pipe the frosting onto the centre of the cakes in a nice high peak. (You don’t need to cover the entire surface as this would add too much icing and therefore too many calories.)
Peel back the paper and enjoy – the great thing is they are so mini you can eat two!

Gee Charman

Guilt-Free Baking

£16.99 | available from Nourish Books

5 Tips to Help You Choose The Right Bite at the Movies

Posted on March 21, 2016March 30, 2016 by Victoria Lagodinsky

Jackie Lynch shares some tips from her new book, The Right Bite to help you choose your cinema snacks.

There’s something about a trip to the movies that just seems to send caution to the winds when it comes to snacking. The usual suspects, such as popcorn, ice-cream and hot dogs, are high in sugar, refined carbohydrate and even trans fats which can make movie night a bit of a health minefield. Here are 5 quick tips to help you mitigate the damage.

Start Sharing
You may not be a natural sharer and hate the idea of someone else picking at your food, but the cinema is one place where you might want to bend the rules, as it can make a big difference to just how much you consume in one sitting. You might run the risk of annoying your neighbours with all the rustling, but it can be a clever way of halving the potential calories and sugar intake, as long as you play fair and stick to your share.
Avoid Sugary Toppings and Glazes
Sweet or salted, popcorn is a starchy snack that adds up to about 500 calories per small portion, so if it’s your preferred movie snack you need to tread carefully. It’s a smart move to steer clear of extra caramel or toffee toppings, as this ups the sugar content significantly and adds around 150 extra empty calories. Sharing is a very smart move here – a large popcorn (sweet or savoury) averages at around 1,000 calories, which is half the recommended daily amount for women. Splitting it between 2, 3 or ideally 4 of you could make a huge difference, especially if you’re a regular moviegoer.
Opt for Frozen Yogurt
Ice cream is the ultimate comfort food and the combination of sugar and fat is highly addictive to our taste buds, which is bad news if you’re trying to watch your weight, as the excess sugar will go straight to your waistline. The Right Bite here would be natural frozen yogurt, and it’s easily available in most outlets. At 150 calories per 100g tub it contains less than half the calories of vanilla or chocolate chip cookie ice cream which range from 330-400 calories per 2 scoops. Beware of some of the fruit frozen yogurts – they may be lower in fat and calories than ice cream but they still contain the equivalent of around 7 teaspoons of sugar which won’t help your cause.
Nachos Beat Hotdogs Every Time
If you’re wavering between the two, then opt for nachos. Hot dogs are highly processed and there’s really no room for manoeuvre to make it a healthier choice. Nachos may not be a perfect solution, as the combination of fat, sugar and salt in the tortilla chips is something we instinctively crave, which means that the more you eat, the more you’ll want to eat, but there is far more mileage in health terms if you’re smart about the topping. Avoiding cheese and sour cream and focusing on guacamole and tomato salsa could make all the difference. The avocado in guacamole is a rich source of heart-healthy monounsaturated fats and contains some protein too which will help to keep you going for longer, so that you’re less likely to get the munchies later on. The spicy tomato salsa is another smart choice, as it’s low in fat and full of antioxidants.
Choose Your Drink Wisely
If you know there’s no way that you’ll walk past the food and drink concessions without treating yourself to something to eat and drink, try to limit the damage by being smart about your choice of drink. Indulging in a medium soda means you’ll be adding the equivalent of roughly 13 teaspoons of sugar to your snack, which is a huge amount by anyone’s standards. Beware diet sodas, as these may not contain sugar, but the long list of ingredients means that they’re highly processed and the artificial sweeteners they contain can trigger a similar addictive response in the body as sugar, leading to cravings and a possible sugar binge further down the line. There’s no doubt that the Right Bite here would be water – it would help your body cells recover from all the sugar you’ve consumed in your chosen snack, keep you alert during the movie and add no calories at all!

Jackie Lynch
The Right Bite
£6.99, available from Nourish Books.
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4 Simple Strategies to Slash the Sugar in Your Diet

Posted on March 7, 2016March 14, 2016 by Victoria Lagodinsky

**Jackie Lynch shares some helpful tips from her book The Right Bite to help you effortlessly limit the sugar in your diet.**

If you’ve been following the headlines recently, you’ll have seen that sugar has been firmly cast as the villain of the piece in health terms which makes it a smart move to keep it to a minimum. Unfortunately, that can be easier said than done as sugar is highly addictive and seems to be added to everything, from bread to soups and pasta sauces. Here are 4 simple strategies which will help you significantly reduce sugar without too much effort.

1. Read the label carefully
Sugar comes in many different guises, and can often feature two or three times on a label in a form that you might not recognise, which means high levels of sugar can slip under the radar, if you’re not careful. Anything that ends in –ose is a sugar, for example sucrose, fructose, dextrose or maltose. Corn syrup, maple syrup (or any other syrup, for that matter), treacle, molasses, maltodextrin and hydrolysed starch are all commonly used terms to look out for, as they are just sugar under another name. Don’t be fooled into thinking that honey is a healthier form of sugar, as it’s just sugar in a liquid form (and that doesn’t change if it’s raw, organic or Manuka honey – it’s all sugar). Avoiding products that contain high levels of these hidden sugars could help you cut sugar consumption quite dramatically. If you want to do the maths when you check the label, a teaspoon of sugar adds up to about 4g.

2. Ensure protein features in every meal or snack
It’s incredibly difficult to limit your sugar intake if you’ve allowed your blood sugar to drop. Low blood sugar leads to increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol which creates powerful cravings for sugar, carbs or caffeine to restore blood sugar balance. When your hormones start to determine your food choices, it’s almost impossible not to give into the temptation of the nearest sugary snack. Protein is hard to digest and helps to slow down the release of sugars and carbohydrate in the body, keeping your blood sugar balanced. A protein-rich lunch will make it much easier to say no to a sugary snack mid-afternoon and including protein in all your meals or snacks will go a long way to helping you stay on the straight and narrow.

3. Avoid the low-fat trap
A common misconception is to opt for low-fat foods as a means of losing weight. This is likely to be extremely counter-productive, as sugar not fat is the principal culprit when it comes to gaining abdominal fat. When fat is stripped out of a product, there is a significant loss of flavour and manufacturers will often add sugar (or salt) to enhance the flavour. A typical example of this would be the so-called skinny muffin in coffee shops. This often contains more sugar than the classic version which means it isn’t the healthy treat you might imagine. Make sure you do a label comparison next time you grab your favourite low-fat product at the supermarket so that you don’t fall into the low-fat trap.

4. Steer clear of dried fruit, fruit juices and smoothies
Swapping dried fruit for fresh fruit can make huge inroads into your sugar intake. The dehydration process considerably intensifies the sugar content of the fruit – for example raisins contain about four times as much sugar as grapes. It’s also important to be wary of fruit juices and smoothies – a glass of orange juice with your breakfast may seem like a healthy option, but it contains the equivalent of 6 teaspoons of sugar and a 250ml smoothie bottle contains even more, with sugar content averaging at the equivalent of 7-8 teaspoons. Opting for vegetable juices will help to keep the sugar content down, as long as you make sure there isn’t too much fruit hidden in there. Or you could just drink water!

Jackie Lynch
The Right Bite
£6.99, available from Nourish Books.
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Recipe of the Week / Lime and Coriander Crusted Tuna with Bean Salsa

Posted on March 7, 2016March 25, 2016 by Victoria Lagodinsky

Healthy Speedy Suppers, by food writer and Leith’s trained chef Katriona MacGregor, is a collection of fresh and vibrant recipes that don’t take long to rustle up. With nutritious veggie, seafood and meat offerings throughout the book, most recipes take less than 30 minutes with some 15 minute gems in there too.

The philosophy is ‘healthy eating for the time poor’, so as a young professional couple who start cooking after 6pm this sounded perfect. We’re a foodie couple too and love to cook everything from scratch, so that ticked yet another box.

I was drawn to the Lime and Coriander Crusted Tuna with Bean Salsa, which promised a zesty lime crust, refreshing bean salsa and fresh but spicy seasoning in under 15 minutes. Yes please! With tuna steaks in the freezer, avocado ripening at home and a stock cupboard of tinned beans, garlic and onions, I just had to grab some fresh tomatoes and coriander to make this dish.

You begin by simply seasoning the tuna with crushed peppercorns and coriander seeds and then throwing together the chopped salsa ingredients. Lastly you sear the tuna steaks (I did 3-4 minutes a side rather than the suggested 1) and bring together with the colourful salsa. With the tuna, black eyed beans and avocado having the most calories (all good fats of course) I estimated this dish at just under 500. So it would be great for the 5:2 or low GI diets too. Suffice to say, we ate it up just as fast as it was made.

Next up we want to try the Moroccan Fish Tagine, Spicy Prawn & Tomato Spaghetti and Mushroom and Wild Rice Pilaf.

Emily Coates is a food blogger at recipesandreviews.co.uk. Emily is a food writer and online copywriter from the East Midlands. She loves nothing more than creating new recipes, making macarons and trying her hand at homemade pasta. Find her on Twitter and Instagram @emily_etc.

Katriona MacGregor
Healthy Speedy Suppers
£16.99, available from May 2016

Author: Victoria Lagodinsky

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5 Tips to Help You Choose The Right Bite at the Movies

Jackie Lynch shares some tips from her new book, The Right Bite to help you choose your cinema snacks.

4 Simple Strategies to Slash the Sugar in Your Diet

**Jackie Lynch shares some helpful tips from her book The Right Bite to help you effortlessly limit the sugar in your diet.**

Recipe of the Week / Lime and Coriander Crusted Tuna with Bean Salsa

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