Sally Bee - The Recipe for Life - Healthy eating for real people

* Berries. Red and blue berries such as raspberries, blueberries and redcurrants contain vitamin C and other antioxidants and are lovely and tasty in desserts or salads.

* Salad leaves. Dark green leafy vegetables are a great source of iron, which helps keep your blood in healthy condition. Add a pile of dark green leaves to your meal as often as you can.

* Spinach. I like to add some raw spinach to many of my salads. It’s rich in vitamin C, calcium and betacarotene. It boosts folic acid levels and helps to keep bones and blood healthy. If it’s good enough for Popeye, it’s good enough for me! Spinach needs to be eaten with vitamin C to ensure optimum absorption, so either add some orange segments to your salad or have a drink of fresh orange juice with your meal.

* Carrots. Bugs Bunny loves them, they’re incredibly versatile and they’re available all year round at your local grocery shop. Carrots are chock-full of betacarotene, which the body converts to vitamin A for a slew of benefits, including maintenance of healthy teeth and bones, regulation of the immune system and protection from infections. Vitamin A also plays an important role in maintaining normal vision and preventing blindness, lending some truth to the old adage about carrots being good for your eyes. Carrots are rich in potassium, a good source of vitamin C and a great source of vitamin A, as well as fibre.

* Water. Yes, you heard it right–water is one of my superfoods. We all need to drink far more water than we do. Try to aim for eight glasses a day. Being dehydrated can cause headaches and tiredness and it’s easy to confuse thirst for hunger. Before you sit down to a big meal or reach for the snacks, have a glass of water, just to see if that’s what your body is really craving.

CALORIES ARE OUR FRIENDS

In my previous book, I spoke about the fact that I don’t like to count calories. Instead, I prefer to use good, natural ingredients and know that my meals are offering a true health benefit. A low-calorie meal doesn’t necessarily mean a nutritious meal. Of course it’s important to keep the fat content low and you’ll notice that all my recipes are low on fat, sugar and salt, but what is most important is that the ingredients offer you a health benefit. You will feel better for eating well. So I just want to re-emphasise that point to you. Calories are actually good for us as long as they come in the right form. We need calories to give us energy, which allows us to exercise and, of course, we get a great health benefit from that. Don’t ever waste calories on sweet fizzy drinks and try not to fill up on cakes, biscuits and crisps because these will, of course, add on weight without any health benefit whatsoever. But do feel free to eat a good portion of a healthy, balanced meal and, if you do it right, snacking will become a thing of the past anyway.

MAKE SUBSTITUTIONS

If you are taking a look at some of your other cookbooks and fancy doing a favourite recipe, remember to look at it through your healthy glasses! Go with the recipe but don’t feel afraid to make substitutions. There are many sensible substitutions that you can make, either when cooking my recipes or anyone else’s. Any white fish can be substituted for any other white fish, and any meat for your preferred meat. For example, a chilli dish using red meat can easily be made using turkey mince, which is very low in fat. Vegetables can be easily swapped to suit your taste buds or what you have left in the refrigerator–just try to keep the textures similar.

However, there are a few golden rules of substituting when making a favourite recipe more healthy.

*Butter. A recipe will often call for butter in a sauce and this is often only included to make it shine. Try the same recipe, but leave the butter out or try to substitute a small amount of olive oil instead. This probably won’t work for a sweet dish, but it may do the trick for a savoury one. I’ll bet it is still as good.

* Salt. Avoid adding salt 99.9 per cent of the time! I have only added a little celery salt into a couple of my recipes and that’s because they just absolutely need it. However, the rest of the time I substitute lemon juice for the salt. It gives the same sharp bite without the bad health risks. Get rid of your salt mill off the dinner table and always have lemon wedges to hand instead. You’ll be surprised how quickly you’ll forget you ever used salt.

* Mayonnaise. If you are following a salad recipe that uses mayo, substitute some low-fat crème fraîche or low-fat fromage frais and mix them with a little lemon juice.

* Buttery mashed potato. If a recipe is telling you to serve an otherwise healthy dish with buttery mashed potato, don’t ruin all your good work. Instead, try mashed sweet potato, which doesn’t need any butter to mash it up, or serve the dish with brown rice or nutritious new potatoes. If you absolutely love buttery mashed potato, go for it in a small portion on special occasions. Life is too short to not have a treat every now and then!

* Ice cream. The perfect substitution for ice cream is low-fat yogurt. There are so many varieties to choose from and many are now no-fat. Crème fraîche, thick Greek yogurt or bio-yogurt–try them all and see which you like the best. Try freezing them for added excitement at pudding time!

* Tortilla wraps. This sounds like a strange one–but be aware of so called ‘healthy’ recipes that use flour tortilla wraps. The shop-bought wraps are all very high in fat, and often use hydrogenated fats which are a complete no-no! Try using iceberg lettuce leaves to wrap your ingredients up instead, or wholemeal pitta bread is another great substitution.

*Salads. Salads are, in my opinion, most definitely misunderstood! People sometimes feel a little sad and depressed if they order a salad at a restaurant–feeling maybe quietly pleased that they are sticking to a so called ‘diet’, but their heart will be aching for a real meal and a treat. Well, you’ll be pleased to know that my salads, while being packed with goodness, are so far from the bad old days of limp lettuce and soggy tomato. I love salads that are filling and satisfying. Salads can be served warm or cold, light as a side dish and meatier as a main course. My salad dressings are based on olive oil and lemon juice but there are so many flavours you can add to this combination–mustard, vinegar, chilli, herbs and spices. Don’t be afraid to experiment. If there is an ingredient you don’t like, swap it for something you do…but don’t be afraid to try something new!

So, I now hand over to you. Buy fresh ingredients, take a little time to plan ahead and enjoy delicious, nutritious food that will help you feel energised and healthy. Remember, if I can do it–you can do it!

GREEN PEA SOUP

Vivid green, this soup is one of my favourites–for my taste buds and my heart. Peas are packed with folic acid and Vitamin B6, both of which are proven to improve cardiovascular health, and this benefit is not lost when the peas are cooked.

EVERYDAY

serves 6

1 bouquet garni

3 sprigs of fresh thyme

4 sprigs of fresh parsley

small bunch of fresh mint

2 cloves

1.3kg (3lb) (shelled weight) fresh peas (or use frozen, if not in season)

50g (2oz) spinach

2 Little Gem (Boston) lettuces

1 tbsp olive oil

2 leeks, trimmed and diced

8 celery sticks, finely diced

freshly ground black pepper

low-fat crème fraîche, to serve

1 In a large lidded saucepan, bring 2 litres (3½ pints) of unsalted water to the boil. Add the bouquet garni herbs, cloves and peas and simmer for 30 minutes until the peas are very soft.

2 Meanwhile, wash the spinach and remove the stems, and shred the lettuce leaves.