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All tagged healthy recipe
A perfect soup for January if you have any leftover pouches of chestnuts. This soup is full of protein from the chestnuts, lentils and Greek yoghurt topping. The problem with most soups is they just don’t hit a decent protein target, which is essential for satiety and managing blood sugars.
Butternut squash is one of our favourite winter ingredient as it is so versatile, colourful and filling with its high fibre content. Good quality chickpeas are essential to make this soup insanely smooth and creamy. Ras el Hanout if you don’t know it is an excellent blend of spices bringing warmth without being too “hot” spicy. Very very simple comfort food at its best. Even better if you make double and keep for another lunch or evening.
Roasted carrots with red lentils and coconut milk make a sublime soup perfect for a filling lunch or supper. We always make sure we have protein and healthy fats in our soup - which means that they are filling bowls full of nourishment that keep us fuller for longer.
Soups are a wonderful way to pack essential nutrients into a delicious meal. One of my favourite taste combo is chilli and ginger anti teams up perfectly with all the winter root vegetables. This is a treaty soup you can happily eat on it’s own or with a nice slice of garlic grated toasted sourdough. I always add a little crunch with lots of seeds to serve. Leave out the chilli if you have young kids who don’t fancy it. Oh and that little bit of bacon, if you chose to use it, makes such a difference.
This is the perfect soup when you have leftover chicken. Often when we cook a whole chicken or some individual portions we add either another chicken or some extra portions for leftovers. This is such an easy win in meal prep as it takes no extra time and provides you with a great protein source for the next day. This curried chicken soup is a heart warming bowl of goodness that makes a heart lunch or evening meal. To make it vegetarian see notes below.
This is a spicy vegetarian curry that will warm your soul as well as body. It’s packed with plenty of turmeric which has amazing health benefits (see tip below). We have served with a homemade naan bread. They are so quick and easy to make and once you have tried you won’t ever buy shop bought again. The recipe for the naan/flatbread is not unique, but we have become huge fans of making them and getting our kids of make them too. They make great pizza bases.
This warming vegetarian one pot is made with chipotle paste which gives it a delicious earthiness. You can of course leave this out if you don’t have - but it does make it extra special and so it’s worth hunting out this Mexican mix of jalapeño peppers, spices and vinegar. This chilli is delicious on its own - but if you need something extra then serve with a little quinoa or brown rice.
Soups always help making lunch quick, easy and healthy. The secret, as always, is in the planning and prepping! If you want your soup to keep you full until supper, you need to make sure it contains some protein and healthy fats. This soup contains coconut cream ticking both boxes. You could always swap for greek yoghurt, but the coconut does work really well with the garam masala spice. Perfect comfort food!
I make this soup using my slow cooker, but you could do in an AGA, or slowly on a stove.
I love a soup for lunch during the colder months - but so many just leave me hungry a few hours later. The reason is they just don’t contain enough protein or fat. We often add lentils to our soups for this reason, but when I had some leftover quinoa in the fridge I decided to use this instead. The result is this delicious soup. So easy to prepare - just put all the ingredients in a roasting tray in the oven and then blend and add the quinoa.
Soups make an easy lunch in the colder months. They are easy to prepare ahead and can be taken into work in a thermos flask. The key to a soup keeping you sustained for the rest of the day is to include some protein and healthy fats. In this soup we have two sources of protein and healthy fats - the coconut milk and the almond butter. If you are allergic to nuts just leave the almond butter out it won’t make this any less delicious.
As the winter months hit I crave bowls of warming stews to nourish me. This can easily be made vegetarian with the omission of the bacon - but it provides a lovely smoky finish. This pleases both the meat and the bean lovers in our house as it caters for all. I have added lentils to this dish. If you have children that don’t like lentils then use the red ones as they disappear to nothing - the puy lentils are good if you have someone sensitive to lentils as less likely to cause bloating issues. Likewise with the beans choose your favourites - although the darker ones such as black, kidney and aduki work best.
My husband loves a creamy mushroom soup - but we’ve recently discovered an intolerance to dairy so he’s gone dairy free. I have used some coconut milk to give this a creamy feel - but it doesn’t taste too coconutty as I’ve balanced with tamari sauce. You can blitz this smooth - or leave a little chunky it’s up to you.
This recipe came about at the beginning of the 2020 lockdown when suddenly I had a massive surplus of carrots. I needed to get inventive as the family were getting bored of steamed carrots! My husband loved this and it instantly became a great way of using up a carrot surplus! If you don’t have the parsnip or sweet potato, just add more carrots!
I came up with this recipe during Lockdown. My daughter was getting fed up with the amount of meat her brothers were demanding at mealtimes and was begging for some vegetarian meals. Although the title states curried, this is a very mild flavour as my daughter doesn’t like super heat - she’s more of a masala girl! It’s super quick to make and so can easily be rustled up alongside other meals. You can eat this on its own, or add some brown rice for a slightly more substantial meal.
Turkey is an underused meat, but I think it should feature more on our plates. We all need to increase the diversity in our diets and adding not just different vegetables, but also different meats goes a long way to help this. You could serve these with a simple tomato sauce with some brown rice and green vegetables or include in a wrap with some salad. Using thigh meat will make them more succulent. They can be eaten hot or cold.
So incredibly easy to throw together, this bowl is such a quick, simple and delicious dinner for 2 or a crowd pleaser for a dinner party. Packed full of bright, colourful, zingy and nutty flavours, since making it for the first time I have come back to it serving it cold as a starter or warm as a main, perfect for a Friday night with friends. Despite being quite simple to prepare it wows every time with its exotic asian flavours. I have made it with prawns here but panfried salmon works brilliantly too.
We all love a curry in our house and Saturday nights have become a curry night ritual. Pleasing different palates is not always easy - some like a hot curry and others not so much. However this tikka masala seems to please everyone! I know it’s not traditional to add spinach to a tikka masala, but i like to add another vegetable whenever I can! I use 6 chicken breasts to feed my brood of 5 as my two teenagers are permanently hungry. However, unless you too have growing teenagers then adjust portions by using 1 chicken breast per person.
I almost didn’t write this up as a recipe - after all it’s nothing complicated and fancy. Just 6 ingredients thrown together. However it’s been a winner in my house with all the family and so I thought I would share with you - after all we all need those quick and simple recipes to keep us going day in day out! To serve 4 or even 6 then just alter the amount of chicken breasts. My two teenagers seem to be going through a growth spurt at the moment so I often cook 6 chicken breasts for the 5 of us!
This is a perfect dish when you want a vegetarian meal that looks a bit special. Can easily be doubled to provide a meal for four if needed. It’s very easy to make, but still looks impressive. I am always looking for ways to include more mushrooms in my diet as they are so highly nutritious for us. See the tip below for all the benefits.
