A Healthy(ish) Start

 

Well, it’s all a bit shit isn’t it? The weather has been foul (we haven’t even had snow, just greyness and freezing rain), and the number of cases in Kent is actually slightly terrifying. I suppose I should be cheered by the fact that Matt Hancock is promising we will all be offered jabs by the autumn, but he’s such an incompetent snake oil salesman that I don’t believe a word he says.

My mood is not improved by the fact that I’m trying to go on my annual January health kick, as after a few weeks of Christmas indulgence, my knees are unhappy with me and my jeans no longer fit. So, how did the first week of being healthy go? Well, not too bad, although it was slightly hampered by the amount of chocolate and biscuits still lying around the house from Christmas, (owing to my husband’s ‘more is more’ food buying policy), and my own feeling that there is no salad which is so delicious or comforting as a good burger and chips. So, here’s some of what I ate…

Beginning with the healthiest:

Cucumber and cashew salad with soy and lime dressing: From Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s new book, Eat Better Forever (we’ll see, Hugh), made following the unexpected arrival of a cucumber in the mostly seasonal veg box. This was really nice, although it would be even better in summer.

Red cabbage, carrot and clementine salad: Another one from Hugh’s new book, this was slightly just like eating a bowl of veg, but the clementines and raisins redeem it.

Certainly looks pretty

Stir fried parsnip, kale and chorizo with lentils: From Hugh’s previous healthy eating book. It’s only  a small amount of chorizo, and it gives most of the flavour. Stir-fried parsnips are good, if anyone was wondering.

Not very pretty, but tasty

Frittata with harissa and goats cheese, with stir fried miso sprouts on the side: Not the healthiest ever, but not bad. I’ve blogged the frittata before, so here’s what to do with the sprouts: trim and slice, then mix with some miso paste until they have a thin but fairly even coating and stir fry. It’s a Nigel Slater recipe, and the first one that made me genuinely appreciate sprouts.

Definitely getting into unhealthy territory now: Beer battered parsnips, from Gill Mellor’s Root Stem Leaf Flower. I’ve been wanting to make these since I got this book, and this felt like the time. You mix plain and corn flour with curry powder and nigella seeds, and sprinkle just enough of this over your chopped up parsnips to coat them, then mix the remaining flour mixture with baking powder and beer. Coat the parsnips in this, then deep fry.  My top tips for deep frying are a small, fairly deep pan, and do things in small batches. Keep warm in a low oven if you need to. The batter comes out very crunchy, a nice contrast to the soft parsnips within. We had these with a cucumber raita made from the other half of the aforementioned cucumber.

Deep fried loveliness

One last not really healthy but delicious one: pear, stilton and rosemary tart. This is from The Roasting Tin Around the World. It’s the first book of this series I’ve bought, although they seem to have quite the following (my mother swears by them). This is the first thing I’ve made from it, and was highly promising.  Thinly slice the pears, and put them on a sheet of bought ready roll puff pastry, then scatter with stilton and chopped rosemary. Cook for 20 minutes, then scatter some walnuts and drizzle with a little honey, then whack it back in the oven for ten minutes. We served this with courgette fries, on the grounds that they are probably  marginally healthier than potato ones. Salad would have been better of course, but we didn’t have any…

Pear tart