Our recipes are specially created to be healthy, nutritious and family friendly. Tuck in!
All tagged healthy comfort food
Turkey mince is a great lean source of protein that it’s a regular favourite in the shopping basket. I often make a turkey and vegetable chilli, but wanted to find alternative recipes for the turkey. This is fantastic for all those pesto lovers out there. You can use the filling separately without stuffing into the peppers if you think your family would prefer - I just find it a bit beige without the colourful peppers.
A dahl is a super quick and easy vegetarian one pot that warms you from the inside out. The addition of chickpeas helps to increase the protein content, even if it’s not entirely traditional. If you have a well stocked store cupboard this makes a great meal when the fridge is empty and the prospect of a trip to the supermarket doesn’t appeal. If you need help stocking your store cupboard download our handy shopping list from the Resource section.
We love cooking with lentils - super cheap, high in protein and can be used in so many ways depending on the type of lentil you choose. In this dish we have used green lentils, which hold their shape and are perfect for spiced dishes. We always soak our lentils before using, this helps to remove the phytochemicals which can prevent absorption of minerals such as zinc and magnesium.
Roast chicken on a Sunday is my ultimate comfort food. What’s even better is knowing that nothing will go to waste. First make a stock/broth with the leftovers and then make the ultimate comforting and immune boosting chicken soup. Full of the warming goodness of ginger and turmeric, packed with vegetables, this soup is a winner every time. I have also added pearl barley to make it go further , but you could ommit or swap for brown rice, giant couscous or quinoa.
We always talk about eating the rainbow - incorporating lots of different colour foods, especially vegetables, in your diet. The benefits of each colour is to provide your body with different phytonutrients. This pepper stew includes red, yellow and green peppers. So many people just reach for their favourite pepper each week so we decided to celebrate all the colours with this stew. We also added both a red and yellow chilli to again increase diversity.
During the winter months we need warming comfort food and a risotto is perfect. This is lighter than a traditional risotto and uses buckwheat groats rather than a risotto rice. Buckwheat is a seed that is related to rhubarb and is naturally gluten free. See the tip below for the health benefits of buckwheat. This risotto is made with mushrooms. In the photo I have used chestnut, but use any kind you can find - a packet of mixed wild mushrooms if you can find would be perfect.
Soups are your best friend when it comes to adding more vegetables to your family’s diet. Packed with autumn’s best high fibre vegetables and warming spices, this soup can be stored in the fridge or even frozen, ready to be warmed up and enjoyed with a slice of toasted sourdough.
Nothing beats a stew when the shorter darker cooler days arrive. It is not only delicious, warming and comforting, it is also so simple and a real time saver. I chose venison from our local farm and butcher for this recipe. Being wild and grass fed, venison is much leaner than beef, and contains less saturated fat. Diced venison from your local butcher is also very affordable. We have used a slow cooker to cook this dish, which means that you can prepare it all in the morning and then get on with the day coming home to a perfectly cooked meal. For a conventional oven place in a low oven for 4 hours until the meat is tender.
Soups are a fantastic way to add more vegetables to your or your families diet. Carrots are naturally sweet and with the addition of oranges this is perfect for kids of all ages! It goes down a treat with our families.
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.
