Easy Chicken Tagine

This is a recipe I make all the time but always forget to photograph. It’s incredibly quick and impressively tasty. I remembered my camera today so I can finally share it. This is definitely a dish that takes minimum effort and delivers maximum impact; it’s also endlessly versatile, depending on what’s in the fridge. Continue reading

Apple and Almond Cake

We invited some dear friends to supper last night for an impromptu birthday celebration. Although I’m not the world’s most prolific or skilled baker I decided to make a cake. My inspiration was a delicious apple and almond cake I tasted at the delightful Southern Cross cafe in Edinburgh – it made such an impression on me that I vowed to recreate it. It’s supposed to have some flaked almonds on top to make it look pretty but the cupboard was bare yesterday so that didn’t happen. The resulting cake is both light and dense, moist and crumbly – easy to make and well worth the effort.

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Power breakfast: seasonal apple compote

I’m a great believer that the proverbs and old wives’ tales that we learned from our grandparents were based in ancient wisdom that we ignore at our peril. So I wasn’t surprised to learn, during my functional medicine training earlier this year, that a daily portion of stewed apples can work miracles in just a few days to support and restore a healthy microbial population in the gut. Continue reading

Warm Salads: the easy way to ten-a-day

You can’t have missed last week’s headlines announcing that the five a day target needs to double. The New York Times led with ‘You’re going to need a bigger bowl‘.

The study found that up to 600g per person per day of vegetables leads to a reduced cancer risk and that 8oog reduced all cause mortality. Apples and pears, citrus fruits, green leafy vegetables, cruciferous veg and salads were all found to be helpful, with a particular emphasis on green-yellow vegetables and crucifers for cancer risk.

I know many readers greeted the news with dismay. It can be hard to meet those targets.  Continue reading