Most of us need a snack or two during the day and not only is it completely normal, it’s an opportunity. A well-chosen snack can stave off brain fog and give you the energy boost you need to keep going until the next mealtime, and it can also contribute to the nutritional variety of your diet. However, snacking has a naughty, indulgent aura around it (thanks, marketing) and when we’re trying to eat well it can be easy to assume it’s healthier to skip snacks altogether.

According to Emily Wood, clinical nutritionist and weight loss coach at Voy, a medicated weight-loss program in the UK, not snacking when we need to can lead to problems.

“The biggest mistake people make is trying to avoid eating when they are hungry,” says Wood. “People can feel that they shouldn’t be honoring their hunger cues.”

Why is that an issue? Because you may find yourself overeating or making bad choices later. “You’ll probably be more prone to choosing calorie-dense foods just because your brain’s seeking out higher-energy foods to compensate,” says Wood.

So how can we avoid falling into the trap of failing to realize we need a snack? “Listening to the body’s natural cues is the key to effective snacking,” says Wood. “A lot of people are a bit out of kilter with their hunger cues, especially when they’re busy.” To dial in to your hunger cues, it can be worth developing your own hunger scale, as explained in this guide to mindful eating. 

As well as listening to your hunger cues—such as feeling hungry, thinking about food and getting distracted by the idea of food—it’s worth assuming you will need a snack at some point during the day. “I recommend planning for some nutritious snacks and making sure they are accessible,” says Wood. “Focus on whole, plant-based foods rather than conventional snack foods, and try to incorporate a variety of macronutrients, including protein, carbohydrates, fiber and fats into your snacks.”

It would be a mistake to choose something purely on its nutritional value though. “Choose snacks that you enjoy, too—not something that you find absolutely awful. So, for example, have some apple and peanut butter and maybe some dark chocolate on hand.”

Wood has provided some more examples of well-balanced snacks that she recommends to her clients.

• Chopped vegetables such as carrots, red pepper and cucumber with hummus and wholegrain pita bread
• Full-fat Greek yogurt with frozen raspberries, banana and honey, topped with mixed nuts or seeds
• Glass of milk with a bagel, nut butter and raspberries

When Is The Best Time To Have A Snack?

It may sound obvious but when you’re feeling hungry is probably a good time for a snack, and it’s best not to leave it too long, according to Wood. “It is beneficial to have something before you start to feel absolutely starving,” she says.  

Everyone is different, so see what works for you. “There is a bit of trial and error involved,” says Wood. “If you’re always starving by 4pm then having a snack around 3pm might be a good way of making sure that you’ve always got a bit of energy and that your brain’s working at its best.”

That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to be snacking at all hours of the day or night. “There is some evidence to suggest that snacking later on in the day—past 9pm—can be associated with less good health outcomes,” says Wood. “So try to avoid late-night snacking.”

But it will also depend on your activity levels throughout the day. “Snacking is really helpful with refueling after exercise,” says Wood. “Somebody who goes to the gym often might find that they need to have more meals across the day than the traditional three meals. Or they might have a bulkier snack or a second breakfast after a morning workout, perhaps including more carbohydrates and protein.”

Voy is a weight loss program that includes clinically-proven medication, personalized programs and access to clinicians and lifestyle coaches.

Most diets work, at least in the short term. Whatever rules you have to follow with a diet, at its core is probably an approach that puts you in a calorie deficit if you’re aiming to lose weight, and encourages you to eat more healthy things and fewer unhealthy things.

But the restrictions diets place upon you can become increasingly hard to stick to. They can also be confusing, and sometimes more influenced by social media trends than scientific evidence.

Instead of opting for a complex all-or-nothing diet plan that you find hard to maintain, dietitian Joyce Patterson, author of new book Think Like A Dietitian: A Nutrition Counseling Starter Kit, suggests that the 80/20 rule is a better approach.

This more flexible approach is useful for highlighting the message that it’s your overall diet that’s important, whereas all-or-nothing diets are often ditched completely the first time you stray from their instructions. 

“The 80/20 approach in nutrition is not a hard-and-fast rule,” says Patterson. “It's a mindset. A rule of thumb. It recognizes that our health is impacted by what we consume most of the time, and the occasional indulgence will not cause long-term harm. 

“This approach promotes a healthier relationship with food. Instead of looking at foods as good or bad, or trying to avoid certain foods completely, this approach encourages us to consider which foods we should choose more often, and which we should consume more mindfully. But nothing is off the table—a sharp departure from many popular diets. 

“All too often, overly restrictive eating leads to feelings of deprivation and resentment, ultimately making those approaches unsustainable.”

Given that you can indulge 20% of the time, I was interested to know how wild you can go, so asked Patterson. Unsurprisingly, there is still some moderation to consider here.

“With the help of a dietitian, people not only learn balanced meal planning, but they learn how food is metabolized and ultimately, how it affects our health,” says Patterson. 

“With this information, people can better understand what the body can handle. The 20% part of the approach is not a free pass to binge eat. It's a free pass to enjoy a variety of flavors, but we can indulge in flavors without overindulging in volume, which is a different way to think about it.”

We all know that a banana is a healthier snack than a chocolate bar. But often when hunger strikes it’s easier to reach for less nutritious convenience snack foods such as crisps, cakes, and biscuits, rather than trying to find a healthier option.

Of course, with some careful planning, it is possible to arm yourself with satisfying snacks based around whole, plant-based foods. But should crisps and chocolate be banned from your diet completely? Or is there a reason to include them?

I spoke to Emily Wood, a clinical nutritionist and weight loss coach at Voy, a medicated weight-loss program in the UK, who has a surprising attitude to the snack foods that are usually framed as “bad”.

“The ultra-processed, refined carb and low-fiber snacks that tend to be higher in saturated fat are definitely associated with worse health outcomes long term if eaten in large quantities,” says Wood. “But food isn't just fuel. It's not just about the things that we need. It's also about the experience that we have around food. Restricting any food can be unhealthy in a different way, in terms of the psychology around food and our relationship to it.”

“All types of food, including chocolate, sweets and crisps, should be incorporated into daily meals and snacks,” says Wood. “Avoiding these can give us a sense of deprivation that may lead to overindulgence later on.”

“Including some of those foods like crisps and chocolate in small amounts is a great idea, alongside meals or snacks that are focused around whole foods. For example, some carrot or red pepper sticks with hummus, alongside some crisps. A well-balanced snack helps us get a variety of macronutrients, but also actually fills us up—sometimes those less nutritious foods like crisps and chocolate don't fill us up that easily.”

“Often people tend to grab a snack that only provides one food group, for example, something that’s rich in carbohydrates and is not paired with protein, fats or much fiber. This can mean these snacks won't keep you satisfied for as long.”

While adding a little of what you crave to a more nutritious snack every now and then is a good idea if it makes you happy, it’s best to plan varied, nutritionally-balanced snacks for when hunger strikes. “Pairing foods much like you would in a meal but in smaller portions can make a great snack, such as yogurt with mixed berries and granola, or hummus with mixed vegetable sticks and wholemeal crackers.” Including a range of food groups will help give you slow-release energy as well as being more nutritious.

Wood has provided some examples of well-balanced snacks that she recommends to her clients.

• Chopped vegetables such as carrots, red pepper and cucumber with hummus and whole-grain pita bread
• Full-fat Greek yogurt with frozen raspberries, banana and honey, topped with mixed nuts or seeds
• Mixed unsalted nuts with apple slices and a touch of dark chocolate
• Glass of milk with a bagel, nut butter and raspberries

Voy is a weight-loss solution that includes clinically proven medication, personalized programs and access to top clinicians and lifestyle coaches.

Ever been on a diet and found it tough to stick to? Perhaps you’ve tried cutting out food groups or restricting calories but found it a struggle to sustain and reach your goals. Mindful eating could be the answer.

Dr Romi Ran is a clinical psychologist specializing in food, eating and body image, who champions a compassionate approach to food in Bite-Sized Peace: Change How You Eat, Accept Your Body, Transform Your Life. Mindfulness is proven to help with mental health, and, according to Ran, mindful eating can help fix your dieting problems—in fact, it can change your relationship with food entirely.

What’s the secret to eating mindfully?

“The most important thing of all is to learn to make this connection with your body's innate wisdom,” says Ran. “Your body knows what, how much and when to eat. Rather than relying on external diet rules, societal norms, or even your thoughts, learn how to listen and trust your body’s signals. If you do that, you’ll find it will tell you what it needs.”

Ran shares an example. If it’s 11 o’clock and you’re hungry but lunchtime for you is usually at 1 o’clock, it’s OK to eat now. The idea is to eat when you’re hungry, choose foods that nourish you and make you feel good, and then stop when you’re full, even if that means leaving food on your plate.

Ran’s book, Bite-Sized Peace contains exercises to help you listen to your body’s signals. She suggests developing a hunger scale, where for example:

• Five is neutral, not hungry or distracted by food;
• Four is starting to get hungry or feeling like a snack;
• Three is craving specific food, losing focus on other activities;
• Two is getting irritable, stomach growling, craving exact dishes;
• One is when you would eat anything, you’re starting to panic about getting food;
• Zero is feeling dizzy, sick or faint with hunger and almost going off food. 

Ran suggests spending a couple of weeks tuning into your hunger at different levels and working out what hunger cues feel like for you. This enables you to recognize the perfect level of hunger when eating feels most satisfying and enjoyable, and when you’re less likely to overeat.

“Mindful eating can help you become aware of how different foods will affect your mood, how they will affect your energy levels, and how they can make you feel physically, mentally and emotionally,” says Ran.

“Your whole relationship with food, your body and eating will change if you really nurture that connection with your body’s innate wisdom and let that guide you rather than following external cues,” says Ran.

Will I lose weight?

“The best approach is to set value-based aims rather than goal-based ones,” says Ran. A goal-based aim might be losing 15 pounds, for example. “That is driven by fear and thinking that you’re not good enough, that you need to change yourself.” A value-based approach on the other hand would be something like, ‘I want to start nourishing my body better’.

“Now that’s compassionate, that’s coming from a place of love, from feeling worthy,” says Ran. “It says ‘I deserve to eat good, nourishing food that makes my body feel well and satisfies me’. The emphasis is completely different. One is about changing and the other is about being.”

You may well find that you lose weight with this approach. But in shifting your focus from slimming to improving your health and wellbeing, coupled with kindness and self-acceptance, you may also find that you no longer care about the number on the scale because your whole outlook has changed for the better.

Do you sometimes find yourself standing in front of the fridge or cupboard, munching something mindlessly? Perhaps then feeling guilty, or thinking that it doesn’t count because it happened so quickly?

There’s a technique that might help you make more deliberate snack choices. It’s not about rules and restrictions, just about making a conscious choice. Once you’re thinking more mindfully about food you may even find you’re not visiting the snack cupboard as much. 

Dr Romi Ran is a clinical psychologist specializing in food, eating and body image. She has published a book, Bite Sized Peace: Change How You Eat, Accept Your Body, Transform Your Life, in which she champions a compassionate approach to food.

I interviewed Ran about mindful eating and she explained why we should learn to listen to our body, rather than restrict calories and deny ourselves certain foods. She revealed how shifting your focus from weight loss goals to value-based goals that aim to improve your health can have some surprising benefits.

In Bite Sized Peace there are many techniques such as mindful plating, and exercises to help you tune into your body and change your mindset about food. There are no more “good” and “bad” foods, you just have to trust your body wants the foods that it needs.

Bite Sized Peace: Change How You Eat, Accept Your Body, Transform Your Life by Dr Romi Ran was published in January 2024

I don’t have any dietary restrictions and there’s not a lot of food I don’t like. Aubergines unnerve me, and in general squashes don’t thrill me, but I’ll happily eat a bit of everything when testing out the best healthy meal prep services.

That’s a long-winded way of saying I’m not vegan or vegetarian, and yet my favorite meal prep service of the many I’ve tested is Allplants, which—as you can probably guess from the name—only makes plant-based meals.

I’ve tested and reviewed Allplants three times and have tried a wide range of its meals, Buddha bowls and sides. Not only have I liked every single one I’ve tried, I’ve also admired them for the interesting use of a wide variety of vegetables and other ingredients.

Allplants send out frozen meals which take around 10 minutes to heat up in the microwave. It’s not an appetizing process and actually the meals don’t look that appealing when they come out, but the flavors and textures are always enjoyable and have quickly won me over every time.

The meals are also effortlessly healthy. You don’t feel like you’re denying yourself in any way, even though the meals are all low-calorie, low in sugar and high in veg, fiber and protein. They are the epitome of balanced meals, and pretty satisfying too, though as an active person who usually runs over 50 miles a week I will add on another side to get some more calories in.

For me, part of Allplants’ appeal is that it introduced me to new ingredients and combinations, even as someone who eats a lot of vegetables and legumes in my normal diet alongside meat. I’d say if you are normally a big meat eater, you’ll enjoy the meals even more because of all the tasty ingredients in them that might well be new to you.

Some long-standing highlights of the menu include the Mac and Greens in Creamy Sauce, which is outrageously creamy and cheesy given it contains no cream or cheese, and the Three Mushroom Medley Risotto.

I’ve also tested the new range from chef Rachel Ama, which is the first in a new series where chefs create meals for Allplants. Ama’s range contains four great meals, of which the highlight for me was the spicy West African Peanut Stew.

You don’t have to subscribe to Allplants to try the meals: You can order a one-off box, with a minimum spend of £30. You can also buy meal bundles to save a little on the price of the meals, which are not that cheap. Mains start from £4.95, but most cost £6 or £7 for a single serving size (you can get a two-person portion for a few pounds more).

If you are looking for a UK-based meal prep service to try, Allplants should be top of your list, regardless of whether you eat meat or not. The meals are more inventive and flavorsome than most I’ve tested and I’ve yet to dislike one—even the meals that contain aubergine.

It’s almost impossible to achieve any health and fitness goal without a good diet, and meal prep services are an easy way to help you do that. Getting nutritionally sound meals delivered to your door takes away all the faff of planning, shopping and cooking.

The drawback is usually the cost because, as you might expect, getting all your meals prepared and delivered is not cheap. However, it’s perhaps cheaper than you think, especially if you take advantage of Prepped Pots’ welcome offer that gives you up to £30 off your first order plus free delivery.

Go for a 20-meal order and the cost is reduced from £79.80 plus £5.99 delivery to £49.80 all in, which works out at £2.49 a meal. That’s a quid less than most supermarket meal deals, and as much as I love a meal deal, Prepped Pots is the smarter buy. 

You can also save £10 on the 10-meal box, which is reduced from £39.90 to £29.90 (£2.99 a meal), or get 14 meals for £35.86 down from £55.86 (£2.57 a meal).

I’ve just finished testing Prepped Pots out for our best meal prep services round-up and I enjoyed every dish I tried. They are hearty, protein-packed dishes with a good range of options to suit different preferences, though meat eaters are catered to better than vegans, pescatarians and vegetarians.

The advantage of using a service like Prepped Pots rather than grabbing a load of supermarket ready meals is that it’s much easier to find healthy options that suit your fitness goals. Many ready meals are also laden with sugar and salt, and when you do find healthy options in shops they’re generally not as tasty as Prepped Pots meals, in my experience at least.

Once you select your plan you can pick all of the meals you want in your box, with 25 options available in the current range. You do have to sign up for a subscription to the service when you order, which involves getting boxes delivered weekly, fortnightly or monthly, but it’s easy to cancel or postpone if your first order doesn’t convince you to stick with the service at full price.

Getting such a good discount on your first order makes it something you can use to help you kick-start a fitness regime, or just make your life a lot easier during a particularly busy period. If you’ve consistently found that eating a balanced diet is the trickiest part of a healthy lifestyle, then it’s worth trying Prepped Pots while this deal is available.

Buy Prepped Pots

Buy individual Prepped Pots from Muscle Food

Sports supplement company Myprotein has launched its first range of ready meals, which will be available exclusively at Iceland, both in stores and online. There are 15 meals available costing from £3.50 to £6 and they are designed to fit in easily with a healthy lifestyle.

As you’d expect, the meals are high in protein, and the calorie counts are generally between 400 and 600 calories for a main meal, although the huge Meat Feast Pasta meal bucks that trend with 633 calories (and a whopping 61g of protein). 

Myprotein says the meals are also generally low in fat and high in fibre, and the range contains options for breakfast, lunch and dinner. So far the range only really caters to omnivores, since the veggie options are restricted to a couple of breakfast meals.

Myprotein has tried to produce easier, healthier versions of comfort-food classics, with a menu that includes Pulled Pork Mac & Cheese, Chicken Tikka, Bolognese Pasta and Piri Piri Chicken meals, all of which should hit the spot on active days.

I tried out the Meat Feast Pasta after a 10-mile run and it certainly hit the spot as a filling and tasty lunch, although it didn’t strike me as a particularly healthy option if you weren’t also exercising hard that day. That’s mostly because of the high salt content, which is 3.5g – a big chunk of your 6g recommended daily allowance. 

It took 10 minutes in the microwave to make the meal, which comes in a plastic bowl with a sleeve. Myprotein called this “reusable packaging” when the meals launched, but a flimsy plastic bowl without a lid doesn’t strike me as all that reusable.

Along with being able to get the meals in-store and online with Iceland, you can also get them from Iceland’s sub-brand The Food Warehouse.

Although a couple are £6, the majority of the meals cost £4 or £4.75, which is cheaper than almost all the picks in our best healthy meal prep services round-up. Granted those picks are delivered to your door, but it’s not tricky for most of us to find a branch of Iceland nearby, and Iceland also delivers for free if you spend over £40 on a food order online.

While cooking your own food is always a good way to help ensure you’re eating healthily, meal prep services like this can be highly convenient for keeping your diet on track during busy periods – they’re certainly better than opting for a takeaway or a standard ready meal. 

If you’re planning on beginning a fitness kick in January, eating balanced meals with plenty of protein is a great way to support your training. And if Myprotein’s meals can match the standards of our existing favourite meal prep services at a lower cost, we’re all for it.

As 2023 approaches, you may be preparing to attempt a January challenge such as Veganuary, which encourages people to go vegan for the first month of the year. 

But cutting out all animal-derived foods is not an easy thing to do. Dietitian Azmina Govindji tried the vegan diet for eight weeks to research her book Vegan Savvy, and even she – a highly qualified nutrition expert – found it difficult to eat enough of the right nutrients. However, the good news is that with proper planning you can make it work: Govindji gave us plenty of advice on what to do if Veganuary has left you hungry all the time. Another great option is a vegan meal delivery service, like Allplants.

Allplants delivers chef-prepared frozen ready meals to heat up in the microwave. It’s a great way to keep your meals interesting and ensure you don’t miss out on essential nutrients. All dishes have been approved by a nutritionist, contain at least two of your five-a-day and count as a source of protein and a source of iron. Our glowing Allplants review gave the service 4½ stars and found it was hassle-free and, above all, tasty. 

Allplants has also launched a range of brilliant budget-friendly bundles to help you get started. It's not just for committed vegans, either. “Change will happen when we have millions of people making a few plant-based swaps every week, rather than a few people doing it perfectly all the time,” says founder Jonathan Petrides. “That’s why we’re on hand to help the nation with whatever their goals are this January. We welcome everyone to our table to help reshape the future of food together.”

So no matter whether you’re a fully-fledged vegan, dipping your toe into the plant-based world or just want to eat less meat, meal delivery services like Allplants makes meat-free living nutritious and effortless. It’s not your only option, though. Browse all our tried-and-tested vegan recipe boxes and meal delivery services.

It’s sometimes easy to forget that, for most people, eating healthily simply involves balanced meals where you don’t skimp on the vegetables. You don’t have to cut out all flavour and only eat meagre amounts, just get your veg in and eat in line with how active you are.

With this in mind, Prep Kitchen’s meals are perfect. The range is tasty across the board, packed with flavour and well balanced so it’s easy to get the macronutrients and calories suited to your lifestyle. It’s undoubtedly one of the best healthy meal prep services.

Prep Kitchen: Price And Availability

The price of Prep Kitchen varies depending on your portion size and plan. If you opt for a Fat Loss plan it’s £6.25 per balanced meal and £7 per meal for low-carb meals. On the Muscle Gain plan it’s £7.50 per balanced meal and £8.25 for low-carb. 

Prep Kitchen delivers across mainland UK excluding the Highlands, with deliveries arriving weekly on Sundays via DPD.

Setting Up Your Plan

Your Prep Kitchen journey begins by choosing between the fat loss and muscle gain plans, which determines the overall calories in the meals available to you. You then select whether you want balanced meals or low-carb meals, with the latter containing more protein and veg to replace the carbs.

The actual meals are the same whatever choices you make – they are simply adjusted in line with your aims. You can see the nutritional breakdown for each meal adjusted for each plan choice by clicking on the main menu before you begin your order, with fat loss meals generally having 400-500 calories and muscle gain ones 500-700. The price per meal varies according to your plan, but once you’ve confirmed this the meals are always the same price, which keeps things simple.

After choosing your plan you select how many meals you want per week (from four to 100) and then take a look at the menus to choose your meals. There are week A and week B menus, which rotate but are both dominated by meaty meals – adding more veggie and fish options should be top of Prep Kitchen’s to-do list.

The final step of the process is choosing whether you want any breakfasts and snacks, such as chocolate pancakes, overnight oats or brownies. As a rule I found these to be less enjoyable than the main meals – I preferred toast or cereal, neither of which are exactly time-consuming to make yourself. I’d skip this option.

How I Tested This Meal Delivery Service

I tested two weeks of the Prep Kitchen service, trying a variety of meals across the different plans, including some of the breakfasts and snacks.

The Meals

All your meals arrive on Sunday each week in recyclable packaging. It takes three minutes to heat up a meal from fresh (with a 900W microwave) and you can also freeze them, in which case it takes around 4min 30sec to heat them up. It’s worth freezing a few meals because you’ll struggle to get through a big order before the “use by” dates, and I found they tasted no less delicious if heated from frozen rather than fresh.

The standout attraction of the Prep Kitchen meals is the flavour. There’s nothing bland about these meals – if anything some people might find them a bit too rich. Do take note of meals marked as spicy, because that label is not dished out lightly. There are generous amounts of sauces in most meals to ensure nothing gets too dry in the microwave, and while the meals don’t always look particularly delicious with meat, veg and carbs piled into the tray, I didn’t come across one I didn’t like.

Particular highlights were the Tex Mex burrito bowl with jalapeno rice, kung pao chicken, and the Christmas turkey dinner (with all the trimmings). But there were probably only one or two meals I wouldn’t order again, and even there I enjoyed them, just less than the others.

As someone who runs every day I preferred the higher-calorie portions of the muscle gain plan, but on my rest days the fat loss meals were satisfying. Across the plans the meals are built for people who are active, so the calorie count might be too high for those who are looking to lose weight while being largely sedentary, but it’s easy to fit the meals into a balanced, healthy lifestyle.

Is Prep Kitchen Worth It?

Even within the expensive world of meal delivery services, Prep Kitchen is a pricy option, though it doesn’t come in vastly dearer than some of my other favourite options like Tastily and Allplants. If the price doesn’t put you off it’s an excellent service with delicious meals, and active people will find it particularly good for providing the nutrition needed to support their training.

It doesn’t come across as a traditional “healthy” meal service because the meals seem so normal, which for me is a plus since they are still balanced healthy meals – just tastier and heartier than many others. However, those looking for very low-carb and calorie meals won’t really find them here, and as noted, the range is also lacking in veggie and fish options.

You can find meal services that will tailor plans even more closely to your fitness goals, like Fresh Fitness Food, which delivers daily. However, on overall convenience and flavour, it’s hard to top what Prep Kitchen offers, and it will suit the majority of people very well if the price isn’t off-putting.

Everything costs more nowadays, so we’re always on the look-out for cheap, healthy recipes to bring the cost of eating down. That’s why we were excited to come across four new plant-based recipes from Discover Great Veg, a campaign promoting British-grown kale, cavolo nero, leeks and spinach (you’ve heard of Big Oil; this lot are Big Brassica*). 

Of the four, the kale and chickpea dhansak recipe caught our eye because, according to the experts, it costs just £1 per portion. With no other information given, we got in touch with Discover Great Veg and were told the calculation is based on prices at Tesco in November 2022. 

The dhansak contains potatoes, aubergines, chickpeas, red lentils and kale, and delivers a substantial 24g of protein and 13g of fibre. It also counts as two – two! – of your five a day and packs in vitamins K and C as well. Along with the rest of the recipes, the dhansak takes less than 30 minutes to prepare and cook. 

Another appealing weekday dinner is the super greens pie, which combines borlotti beans with leeks and cavolo nero, along with vegan alternatives to cream and a puff-pastry lid. While the fat content is relatively high, it represents three (*swoons*) of your five a day and it’s a source of vitamin C. It also only costs £1.60 per portion. 

The remaining two recipes are a harissa kale and houmous flatbread, which looks like a great, quick-to-make lunch if you work from home; and satay noodles with tofu and spinach. Both have chunky amounts of protein and vitamin K, and cost £1.20 and £2.40 per portion, respectively.

For more plant-based meals to make at home, browse these vegan recipes and vegetarian recipes, as well as this fantastic recipe generator that can suggest what to do with healthy cupboard staples. We also really like this tuna and beans pitta pocket recipe, which shows sports nutrition can be affordable. Bon appétit! 

*brassica, plus an allium

When you switch to a vegetarian or vegan diet, one of your first concerns might be how you’re going to get enough protein without eating meat. But there’s no need to worry – protein is readily available from a wide variety of plant sources and it’s not hard to get the amount you need from your diet.

However, one important difference between plant and animal proteins is the proportion which are “complete” proteins, which means sources that contain the nine essential amino acids we need to get from our diet. All animal proteins are complete, while only a handful of plant proteins are.

One of the complete plant-based sources is soy (aka soya), making it an attractive addition to a plant-based diet and a popular ingredient in vegan protein powders. For more information on soy and to find out any potential disadvantages of eating it, we put some questions to sports dietitian Linia Patel, who was speaking on behalf of the British Dietetic Association.

• The Best Vegetarian Sources Of Protein
• The Best Sources Of Protein For Vegans
• 3 High-Protein Vegan Recipes From The Vegan Athlete’s Cookbook

The best healthy meal delivery services can be huge time-savers. Your meals arrive pre-made and all you have to do is throw them in the microwave or oven. The most common approach is for companies to send out a selection of meals that can be stored in your freezer or fridge, while others offer a daily delivery service—some will even supply every meal and snack you eat each day. Daily deliveries mean the food is fresher, but these services tend to be more expensive.

I’ve tested a wide variety of meal delivery services based in the UK, and all those that are still available are ranked below. Before getting into the details I’ve listed a quick guide to my pick of the best healthy meal delivery services to suit a variety of different requirements, such as dietary preferences or health and fitness goals.

How I Test Healthy Meal Delivery Services

A company will send me a package of meals that’s in line with one of its usual orders, whether that’s a box of two or three meals, or a week of daily deliveries covering breakfast to dinner plus snacks. Does this mean I only say nice things to keep the free food coming? No. Scroll to the bottom of this article to read about services I didn’t rate as highly.

I aim to try a range of meals that suit different dietary preferences, always including vegan and low-calorie meals in my reviews where possible. I’m looking for satisfying, tasty meals that don’t skimp on vegetables in particular, because if you can’t hit your five-a-day with a meal delivery service, then when can you?

The Quick List

The Best Healthy Meal Delivery Services

Best overall

COOK’s range of meals is absolutely huge and includes options for entertaining groups of up to eight, as well as children’s meals. It’s easy to order frozen meals on the website and there are 100 COOK stores in the UK too, which means you can take a look at the meals before buying, which is not common with meal delivery services.

I tested a range of meals for one and two, including several vegan options, and they were tasty across the board. The meals were also easy to prepare and came out of the microwave looking appetizing, which is not always the case with frozen meals. I tried a lot of the pots-for-one, which are a healthy and relatively affordable option in COOK’s range, and they are a good pick for people trying to keep their calorie intake quite low, being tasty and pretty satisfying for quite small meals. 

Because I was in the middle of marathon training I needed to add sides to the meals to get enough calories in, so if you’re looking to bulk up or training very hard in general you’ll probably need to opt for higher calorie COOK options than the pots-for-one, since the portions aren’t huge. The only other mild criticism I have is that with the meat meals there often wasn’t more than one portion of vegetables in there. There are more veg-filled options in the COOK range (have I mentioned how big the range is?), but I like to see more veg in all meals to help me hit my five-a-day.

Best value

Muscle Food’s Prepped Pots are cheaper than most meal delivery services I’ve tried, but you wouldn’t know it from the meals themselves, which are tasty, nourishing affairs. That’s especially true for meat eaters who have a bigger range of meals to pick from, though chicken is the meat that appears on the menu by far the most frequently. When I tested the service there were just five vegan meals available and only one fish option, so it would be good to see more on those fronts, particularly because you get more value if you order more meals at a time.

Picking between the meals is made easy by the labels and filtering system on the Muscle Food website, which means you can see options under a certain calorie count, or with more portions of vegetables in them (most are labeled “one of your five-a-day” although there are a handful with two—more high-veg options would be welcomed).

At 10 meals for £39.90 (with £5.99 delivery), the Prepped Pots are great value, and you also get £10 off your first order plus free delivery. You do have to subscribe to the service, opting for weekly, fortnightly or monthly deliveries, but can put your sub on hold easily at any time. There are also seven-meal, 14-meal and 20-meal boxes available, and it’s £49.80 for your first order of 20 meals—that works out at £2.49 a meal, which is outstanding value.

Best for weight loss

Prep Kitchen splits its service into two fitness goals, fat loss and muscle gain, and these determine the portion size of the meals you order. You then select how to approach your macros, choosing between balanced and low-carb, which replaces some carbs with more protein and vegetables.

You get the same meals on all plans, and in my experience all those meals are delicious. It’s nice when losing weight to pick the same meals that people bulking up get too, just with smaller portions, rather than being forced to pick from a menu of often-less-appetizing low-cal meals. The dishes were never dry even after being microwaved from frozen, and the flavors always packed a punch, especially the spicy dishes.

Being able to opt for low-carb, veg-packed meals is a great way to hit your weight loss goals, and the Prep Kitchen dishes are satisfying so you’re not always craving more food. The way that Prep Kitchen sets up the service so you can opt for bigger portions also means that athletes are well served by filling, balanced meals that support hard training days. One downside is the small number of vegetarian options, and I also wasn’t a big fan of the breakfasts and snacks from Prep Kitchen. They weren’t significantly better than toast or cereal, so I’d advise sticking to the main meals.

Read more in our Prep Kitchen review

Best for vegans and vegetarians

I’ve tried a variety of dinners, lunches and sides from this plant-based service, and was hugely impressed by all of them. Overall I’d say it’s my favorite meal prep service despite the fact I’m not vegetarian or vegan, such is the quality of the meals, which are tasty, satisfying and remarkably varied. 

The meals come frozen and take six to 10 minutes to heat up in the microwave. You can order the meals in either a single or double serving, and the minimum order is £30, with free delivery kicking in if you spend £50. There are also sides, desserts, breakfast pots and smoothies to your box, and the sides are a worthwhile addition if you’re a very active person, since you might want a bit more food than is provided by a single meal.

A new addition to the Allplants range is four meals created in partnership with chef Rachel Ama, including a terrific West African Peanut Stew that has spice and bags of flavor. Other highlights on the standard menu are the Mac and Greens in a Creamy Sauce and the range of Buddha Bowls, which make for brilliant lunches. There is always a variety of vegetables and I’ve found that the texture of the meals is always great; the stews and curries usually contain something with a bit of crunch, and nothing ever gets too soggy or limp.

There are low-calorie options on the Allplants menu, but the meals are pretty low in calories anyway—all the ones I tested came in under 600. They are also high in fiber and contain at least two portions of your recommended five-a-day, and tick the healthy box without ever making it seem like they’re aiming to, which is always the best way to do it. 

Most meal prep services now have good vegetarian and vegan options, but Allplants’ entirely plant-based menu makes it easier to pick meals that fit the bill, and I haven’t come across another service that uses plant-based ingredients in such a variety of interesting ways.

Read more in our Allplants review

Best for bodybuilding

Fresh Fitness Food’s delivery service is about as close as you can get to having a personal chef and nutritionist making your meals every day without, you know, actually having those things. It’s helpful to think of it that way too, because FFF is expensive, but the price does reflect what you’re getting.

What you’re getting is bulk deliveries every few days (or daily deliveries in London) of healthy meals tailored to your preference and goals. If you’re looking to bulk up in particular, there’s a plan for that, as well as plans for lean gains, fat loss and a balanced plan for general health. Within those plans you can choose the types of food you do and don’t want to get, including plant-based and low-carb options, or even set the exact macros you want to hit.

The meals take two to three minutes to warm up and are uniformly tasty and filling. If you’re a bodybuilder and opt for one of the more intense bulking plans you can expect a lot of protein, mostly from chicken and white fish in my experience, which is ideal for adding muscle. On the balanced plan I found you get more variety and acceptable amounts of veg (you can never have too much veg).

It’s a supremely convenient service that makes it easy to eat healthily and puts you in the best possible place to achieve your fitness goals. The price starts at £24.50 a day for three meals, but that’s if you order 100 days up front. Drop that to 10 days and it’s £27 a day.

Read more in our Fresh Fitness Food review

Best for gut health

I’ve become fascinated with gut health during my time here at Coach, and this frozen meals service won me over by including a stat for each meal that shows how many different plant types it contains, because eating 30 types a week helps to create a more diverse gut microbiome. Field Doctor also offers low-FODMAP meals, which are ideal for those with IBS who are following the low-FODMAP diet or endurance athletes who might be trying it to reduce exercise-related gastrointestinal problems.

There’s a pleasing focus on evidence-based nutrition underpinning the meals here, with a diversity of plant foods and wholegrains, plus a load of beans and legumes included wherever possible.

None of the above would matter if the meals didn’t taste good, so the great news is that they do, with a variety of enjoyable options on the menu. Vegans are well catered for as well, and you can use a filter to show options such as low-calorie, high-protein or low-FODMAP meals.

Best gluten free and dairy free

One my favorite recipe box services has branched out into selling healthy frozen meals as well. After a soft launch when the frozen meals were restricted to people ordering a recipe box, they’re now a standalone product so people who only know how to use a microwave can enjoy convenient, healthy ready meals too.

The meals are all gluten-free, dairy-free and mostly under 600 calories, and they take less than eight minutes to reheat. Currently there are 25 different meals on the menu including nine veggie options.

More Tried-And-Tested Recommendations

This frozen vegan meal delivery service has nailed it on pretty much every count. Planty uses 100% recyclable packaging and offers carbon-neutral deliveries. It also has an easy-to-navigate website that provides in-depth nutritional details for every meal, and those meals are very tasty indeed, which of course is the most important factor of all.

I ate 10 of the meals on the menu, and highlights were the butternut and mango madras and the shepherd-less pie. While some meals were less enjoyable than others—I often find that stir-fries and pasta dishes are more diminished by microwave reheating than curries and stews are—none of the meals were truly disappointing. They were all laden with plants, as you’d expect, and the variety of veg used was impressive.

You can buy a box of six, eight or 10 meals from Planty on a subscription or one-off basis, and they arrive frozen so you can pop them straight in your own freezer to save for when time is tight. They take 10 minutes or less to heat up in the microwave, and the portion sizes are enough to fill you up on a normal day, though when feeling ravenous I often added an extra side.

The Chefly meals I tested were some of the tastiest I’ve had from any delivery service, and while they’re not as overtly focused on fitness as some other services, each dish generally had a good balance of macros and was certainly loaded with enough protein to satisfy any keen exerciser. The calorie count for each sits somewhere between 400 and 600, which is easy to fit into a healthy, balanced diet, and I was impressed at the range and amount of vegetables included too.

There were no vegan or vegetarian options on the menu when I tested the service, but some have been added now. I’d have liked clearer nutritional information on the packaging—I had to go to the Chefly website to get any info.

The prices also tend to be higher than with other services. Chefly’s meals start at £6.99 per meal if you order 12 a week, rising to £7.50 per meal for six or nine meals or £9.99 if you just order four meals. The meals are delivered on Wednesdays, come in recyclable packaging and need just three minutes in the microwave.

These microwave meals provide balanced, delicious meals rather than cutting calories. Frankly it’s nothing short of ready meals at their finest.

I was impressed by the flavor of the meals, even the recipes containing large chunks of meat or fish. For my money chicken breast is normally a microwave meal no-no because it ends up being too dry, but the chipotle recipe from The Transformation Chef was on point.

Slightly larger portions and a few more vegetables in each meal would have been welcome, and I did come unstuck when I mistook lemons for potatoes in one meal, which is my fault for diving in while looking at my phone, but these meals are great to have on standby in your fridge in a pinch.

You can try The Transformation Chef’s service with a six-meal starter box, or go all-in on a complete plan which contains 12 meals and a couple of snacks. Both have vegan options too. The meals arrive on a Tuesday morning and stay fresh in the fridge for seven days.

The range of Persian frozen meals available from Shuro Shirin has a lot to recommend it. For one, I had no idea how to make Persian food so it brought something legitimately new to my table. And the range is laden with the kind of hearty, warming fare that’s perfect for the winter.

Lamb fans in particular will be pleased by the selection, since it is a staple of Persian cuisine, and there are few delicious lamb stews available elsewhere. In fact, all the stews and soups I tried were spectacularly good, rich and satisfying treats that I’d happily sub in for a takeaway, which despite the bonus of zero cooking would undoubtedly be less healthy and less delicious.

I must admit these are not truly health-focused meals. With flavor prioritized, the dishes are often quite high in saturated fat and salt, while the vegetable count is on the low side. However, they’re never so high in fat, salt or calories that it’s impossible to eat them as part of a balanced diet, while there are some dishes filled with pulses, as well as vegetarian and vegan options that naturally go heavier on the vegetables.

The rice you can order to eat with the stews suffered from oven or microwave reheating, which dried it out. You’d be better off making your own to have with the stews, which come out the other side of the reheating process as if they were freshly made.

The company behind No1 Bootcamp, which puts on European fitness and weight loss holidays, is now delivering healthy meals across the UK. The packages available come in three portion sizes—lite, balanced or max—and you can choose between meat and fish or plant-based meals.

However, what sets No1 Food Prep apart is that you’re not stuck to a limited list: You can also make your own meal combinations, picking the protein, veg side and carb from the extensive list of options. You can choose the portion size of each part of the meal, and also eschew carbs entirely in favor of a double helping of veg if you like.

The meals are delivered on Wednesdays and Sundays and come in microwaveable containers that have the basic nutritional info of the meal on the lid along with cooking instructions. I tried a variety of fish- and plant-based meals, and was consistently impressed by the flavors and also by how satisfying the portions were. I opted for the balanced portion size, rather than lite, which are 20% smaller for those looking to lose weight, or max, where the portions are ramped up for those looking to build mass or support a particularly intense training regime.

Après Food’s service looks fantastic. The packaging is appealing (and 100% recyclable), the meal descriptions are tantalizing, and the meals come in bundles that are directed toward certain situations or health goals. There’s a bundle of meals designed to help you sleep, one to help you recover from stress, and one for new parents (which is presumably a combo of the first two).

All the meals are balanced, with a varied range of ingredients and options including sides and desserts, though it would be good to have a few more plant-based options in the range. It’s a pretty well-priced service too, with a couple of meals available for £3.95 and the most expensive £6.95. The meals come frozen and take around 10 minutes to heat up in the microwave.

Unfortunately, I didn’t find all the meals that tasty. They were all fine, but there was nothing that stood out to put Après Food among the better meal prep services I’ve tried. Some were dry after cooking in the microwave, and some just weren’t that flavorsome, including the beef bourguignon which is usually a slam dunk.

Stocked takes an unusual approach to frozen meals, delivering packages of eight blocks that you can reheat and eat as a meal by themselves, or use as part of a meal alongside some carbs and other vegetables. The latter approach is the one that makes the most sense, because most of the meals are sauces that are best with rice or pasta. This means Stocked meals require more effort in the kitchen than others.

There are eight blocks in each pack, which Stocked suggests is enough for two to four meals, but I’d say you’d struggle to get more than three meals from that even when adding in your own carbs, unless you’re dishing out very small portions. The meals were a little bland in my experience, but they’re easy to spice up yourself, and the range includes several good plant-based options including a hearty ragu made with vegan sausage.

Stocked’s approach should make the meals substantially cheaper than with other prep services, but even if you order six packs at once it costs £1.10 a block, and you really need three for a meal plus other food on the plate. Stocked is cheaper than getting full meals delivered, but perhaps the saving isn’t big enough since there’s more work to do on your end.

Since the point of using a meal prep service is to make your life easier, that should start with the ordering process. The Good Prep absolutely nails this with a very easy-to-use website that guides you through selecting the breakfasts, lunches, dinners and extras (like juices and snacks) for your box, with clear nutritional information and prices.

The meal plans all contain three meals a day plus snacks and can be based on fitness goals, such as Trim & Slim for those looking to lose weight or Grow & Gain to bulk up. There’s also a vegan plan and a general balanced option.

I tested the Grow & Gain plan and while the meals weren’t outstandingly delicious or novel, they were all enjoyable and, for the most part, filling enough to sustain me during a demanding period of marathon training. The exception was after a long run of 22 miles, when I needed a lot more calories and carbs than the meal provided, but that’s fair enough. 

Whether you’re planning to make a short-term switch to a vegan diet through a challenge like Veganuary, or have a lifelong swap from meat to plants planned, it’s not always easy to know what to cook when you first make the change. You might start with grand aspirations about the many interesting plant-based meals you’re going to make, but after a couple of weeks, when you’re chowing down on yet another plate of chips, you might concede that some help is needed when it comes to make a vegan diet healthy and varied.

Enter two types of subscription services: the recipe box and the meal delivery service. The former sends all the ingredients you need to make a healthy, easy and delicious plant-based meal to your door with clear instructions on how to put them together, while the latter sends prepared meals for you to reheat. Here are our favourites for you to try, and since we’ve tried everything on this page (and more) we’ve marked out the standouts with our Editor’s Choice badge.

The Best Vegan Recipe Boxes

With Gousto’s recipe boxes you pick from a large selection of meals each week and there are always several excellent vegan options. The recipes are always easy to make and meticulously planned so you’re not rushing to get them done in the predicted prep time.

The meals are also divided up into different ranges, including Lean In 15 meals from Joe Wicks. This range includes one vegan option at the moment with others on the way, including an appetising miso tofu with stir-fried ginger greens recipe. The meals don’t all take 15 minutes to make, but they are all marked as either high or low in carbs, so you can pick meals that line up with your dietary requirements or your day’s activities. As keen runners we preferred the high-carb recipes to refuel after training, while the low-carb options are better for rest days.

Gousto’s boxes are also slightly cheaper than rivals like Mindful Chef. The cheapest option for two people is £34.99 for four meals.

Read more in our Gousto review

Mindful Chef caters to everyone: all its food is gluten- and dairy-free, and pescetarian and plant-based options available – you just have to be OK with its low-carb approach to meal times. Each week the menu includes several vegan options you can select to build your box, and while we’ve found Mindful Chef recipes to be slightly trickier than most in the past, they’re all, without exception, easy on the tastebuds.

Read more in our Mindful Chef review

Unlike most recipe box services that merely offer a plant-based option, Grubby is all-in on vegan meals. It’s also all-in on sustainability, with 100% recyclable and compostable packaging, ingredients mostly sourced from local farmers and a delivery strategy that aims to use pedal power where possible – all London orders are delivered by bicycle.

The meals are easy to make in around 30 minutes, contain a pleasing variety of vegetables and taste good too. All in all, Grubby is a great option for midweek dinners if you want to expand your menu in a healthy and eco-friendly way. The only downside is that the meals are more expensive than those from many other recipe box providers.

Read more in our Grubby review

The Green Chef’s recipe box service has five diet options available, one of which is vegan. Although the range of meals available isn’t huge, there are at least five vegan options to pick from to make up your weekly box. When we tested the service we were impressed at the range and quantity of vegetables in The Green Chef’s meals, and in general they were tasty, satisfying and easy to make in around 30 minutes.

Read more in our Green Chef review

The Best Vegan Meal Delivery Services

Our favourite purely plant-based meal delivery service, Allplants, doesn’t just cover your dinners – it has lunch and breakfast options too, as well as dessert, sides and smoothies. We’ve tested several of the dinners, lunches and sides, and have yet to come across one we didn’t rate – they’re all delicious, satisfying and healthy. Each of them contains at least two portions of your five-a-day, is high in fibre, and comes in under 600 calories, with low-calorie meals available too.

The ingredients used are impressively varied, and we bet even the most adventurous eaters will come across plants and recipes that are new to them. The new lunch bowls are a knockout too, each containing a variety of veg and grains alongside an out-of-the-ordinary mash like coconut and edamame.

You buy boxes of either six or 12 frozen meals (with the 12 meals you get two lots of six meals, rather than 12 different ones), and each meal takes six to 10 minutes to heat up in the microwave. Allplants scores well on sustainability too: not only can you recycle the meal trays, but you can return all packaging used to post them to you free, which the company will then reuse. The website is also transparent about supply chains and how Allplants is working to reduce its impact on the environment. Bravo.

Read more in our Allplants review

Planty’s frozen meals are tasty, convenient and packed with a wide variety of healthy veg, and even fruit sometimes – the butternut and mango madras we tried was excellent. The company also has placed a welcome focus on sustainability, using 100% recyclable packaging and offering carbon-neutral deliveries.

You can buy the meals in a box of six, eight or 10 meals, choosing to either subscribe or receive a single delivery, with the subscription option netting you a discount (£4.95 per meal for a box of 10 as opposed to £5.45 if bought as a one-off). The meals can be heated up in a microwave straight from the freezer in under 10 minutes, and we found the portion sizes filling enough to avoid between-meal snacking, though an extra side will be welcome on more active days.

The highlights of the 10 dishes we tried were the curries and stews, along with the BBQ banana blossom burrito, which emerged from our microwave tasting fresh and delicious.

Balance Box has a plant-based menu that you can use within either of its low-calorie meal plans – the Lighter plan has 1,200-1,300 calories per day and the Market plan has 1,700-1,800. Both are designed to help you lose weight and contain three meals and two snacks, which are delivered to your door.

The plant-based meal plan was one of the healthiest we’ve come across: all the meals we tested contained a pleasing variety of vegetables and legumes to help you not only smash your five-a-day but eat 30 different plant sources of fibre each week, which is great for your gut health.

We tested the Market plan and initially feared it may not keep hunger at bay, but even on active days it’s amazing how satiating a box of vegetables can be. That said, you do feel like you’re eating healthy, low-cal meals. It hasn’t quite pulled off the trick the best meal delivery services do, which is to make healthy meals feel like a real treat.

Read more in our Balance Box review

Balance is the name of the game for these microwave meals, which don’t go all-out to be healthy at the cost of flavour – instead, they aim to impress on both counts. They certainly tick the flavour box, being right up there with the tastiest ready meals we’ve tried, and they’re pretty low in calories: everything we ate was under 600 calories and there are many meals that are under 400.

The range of vegan meals isn’t extensive, but there are five options on the website at the time of writing, and they’re nice enough that you’d happily eat each two or three times. In order to avoid the traditional dryness that plagues microwave meals (especially healthier options), The Transformation Chef is pleasingly liberal with the sauces. The only real criticism we have about the meals is they don’t pack in as much veg as we’d like, and they’re sometimes a little on the small side, especially if you live an active lifestyle. Fortunately, both problems are solved by quickly whipping up a side dish of veg.

You can buy individual meals or create a bespoke menu with a nutritionist to suit your health and fitness targets.

The extensive range of meal plans available from KBK includes a plant-based option, which offers two or three meals a day for six days a week. It’s a shame that KBK doesn’t offer vegan versions of its other plans, which include fitness-focused menus like one to help you get lean, as well as office-ready and student plans. The plant-based plan is also light on nutritional detail, aside from telling you the calorie count is 1,500 a day, which is pretty low.

We tried KBK’s meals, although not the plant-based plan, but we feel confident the vegan meals will be just as tasty as the animal-based ones. The meals come in microwaveable containers but lack nutritional info, which would have been useful to see on the label. You have to sign up for four weeks on the service if you opt for a KBK plan, but there are three-day taster plans, which we’d advise doing because the low-calorie approach won’t work for everyone.

More About Vegan Food

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Have you ever tallied up the number of units of alcohol you drink in a week? We don’t mean bluffed a rough guess after the fact, but logged each and every drink as you poured them? We did once, using the excellent Drinkaware app, and it was an eye-opening exercise. For the record, it’s recommended that you normally stay under 14 units a week and we had blown through that target in what we would have normally described as a “light” week.

Along with taxing your liver by asking it to clear all that alcohol, regular drinking builds up calorie-wise. A pint of beer is somewhere between 150 and 250 calories – more than a can of cola, which has 140 calories. When we spoke to a dietitian about sweeteners, they used a bit of back-of-the-envelope maths to estimate that a can of cola a day is equivalent to roughly a stone of weight over a year. So just one beer a day adds… *counts on fingers* … more.

One way of keeping a lid on your units and calories without going teetotal is to have a fridge that’s well stocked with non-alcoholic (0.05% ABV or under), de-alcoholised (0.5% or under) or low-alcohol (1.2% or under) beer, especially since these brews taste much better than they used to.

Smaller breweries in particular are churning out exceptionally palatable drinks. Here are 9 bevvies to keep an eye out for.

If we’re honest, we used to see low-alcohol beer as the disappointing, if necessary, choice when we were driving or trying to keep our weekly units respectable. It was fine, but we’d rather have been drinking an alcoholic beer. Big Drop’s beers changed all that. This London company’s stout just blew us away and we’re not the only ones who have been impressed. Both the stout and the Citra IPA were recognised in the “World’s Best No & Low Alcohol” category at the World Beer Awards 2021. 

The trick is that Big Drop doesn’t remove alcohol after brewing, or halt the brewing process – the recipes just use less of the ingredients that ferment, then the brewing experts get creative with additions to create interesting flavours. Along with the stand-bys, there are seasonal releases to keep things fresh.

American beer brand Athletic Brewing Co has recently made its way across the Atlantic, and we couldn’t be happier about that. The three 0.5% beers in its UK line-up are up there with the best we’ve tried, and a fine option for people who want to cap off a hard workout with a few beers without fear that tomorrow’s training will be made harder by a hangover. 

The Run Wild IPA has a pleasant bitterness to it and a hoppy flavour that will appeal to craft beer fans, while the Upside Dawn Golden Ale gluten-free beer is lighter and more refreshing on hot days and the All Out Stout is a more hearty drink for chilly evenings. The IPA and ale are low in calories as well at 50-70 per can, while the stout contains 90, and they have appealing designs too.

Widely available, relatively cheap and absolutely delicious, Brooklyn Brewery’s lager is one that every alcohol-free beer lover should try. The hoppy lager is both refreshing and full-flavoured, and goes down just as well on chilly evenings as it does when eating al fresco in blazing sunshine.

A beer to drink all day and still get things done, we recommend starting with the sample pack, which features both non-alcoholic options from the Scottish brewery. The pale ale is refreshing, with plenty of peach overtones, but we found ourselves reaching for the crisper lager again and again (and again).

An easy one to find, with stock available in Sainsbury’s, Tesco Extras and Marks & Spencers nationwide, and a delightfully easy one to drink as well. Of the Pils, India Pale Ale and American Pale Ale, we preferred the APA (we just like hops), but would happily spend a sunny afternoon in the park drinking any of them. A worthy go-to and more affordable than some of the other taste sensations on this list.

We hope you haven’t been drinking heavily, or it’d be easy to confuse Flat Tire, Pistonhead’s low-alcohol lager made with mosaic hops, with Flat Tire, Pistonhead’s alcoholic lager made with mosaic hops. It’d also be easy to confuse the two once poured, although you’ll inevitably be able to taste the difference. All the same, the sweetness of the low-alcohol Fat Tire fades quickly and you’re left with a thirst-quenching bite of a solid lager.

Stride’s beers are isotonic, which means that they contain the same concentration of particles as blood and, as a result, the drink hydrates you quickly. That means they’re a great post-workout drink, especially after a long run or cycle when you might be craving the refreshment of a cold beer but fear the awful feeling that comes with dehydrating yourself further after training by drinking full-strength booze.

There are two beers in Stride’s range – a pale ale that does a good job of replicating the taste of a classic British ale while feeling a little less thick, and a refreshing pale lager that we found went down a treat after our Sunday long run.

This Bavarian brewery claims its low-alcohol wheat beer – brewed in accordance with the Bavarian Purity Law – is an isotonic recovery drink, making us wonder if they’ve been on the harder stuff… but in fairness there’s 26.5g of carbs in a 500ml bottle, and the decent amounts of folic acid and vitamin B12 don’t hurt either. We were surprised by how easy the light beer with a touch of sweetness went down after a game of five-a-side and it’s easy to find at most major supermarkets for £1.20-£1.30 a bottle. At around half the calories of an alcoholic beer, we’d happily sub this in during a day drinking session.

The most startling fact about this low-alcohol lager is that it contains a mere 23 calories per bottle, which is great news for those who want to drink all day without worrying about their waistline. The lager has a crisp and citrusy flavour with a pleasantly bitter aftertaste, and works a charm with a curry. The lager is also gluten-free and vegan friendly, and it has added B vitamins.

More Ways To Reduce Your Alcohol Consumption

• How mindful drinking can help you keep your boozing in hand.
• Five easy ways to cut down on drinking alcohol.

Plant-based recipe box company Grubby is determined to do everything right. It sources most of its ingredients within the UK, uses 100% recyclable and compostable packaging, and even delivers all its recipe kits via bicycle in London. Grubby also offsets its waste through food waste partners, and for every box sold it donates a meal to children living in poverty in Uganda.

The sustainability ethos extends to the meals themselves, which are plant-based and each contain six kinds of vegetables on average.

All this heartwarming stuff would count for little if the meals weren’t up to snuff, but fortunately the two I tested were tasty and easy to make. The only real downside here is that Grubby comes in a little pricier than many other recipe box services.

Grubby Recipe Box Review: Price And Availability

Grubby’s meals start from £26 for two meals for two people, which is £6.50 per person per meal, and you can order a maximum of three meals for £34.50, which is £5.75 per person per meal. At the moment you can get £10 off your first two boxes. The company delivers to most of England, Scotland and Wales, though delivery to certain locations in Scotland is not currently available – use this online tool to check if Grubby delivers to your postcode. 

You currently cannot order to Northern Ireland, the Isle of Wight, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands. If you are based in London your meals will be delivered by bike through PedalMe, a service Grubby plans to extend to other cities.

Buy from Grubby | From £26 for two meals

The Experience

Ordering from Grubby is simple. You pick meals based on the delivery date, with the menu for the next five weeks shown on the website. You can see at a glance how long each meal takes to make, plus any allergens, and are also given a quick summary of the protein, carbohydrate and fat content, though not a full nutritional breakdown.

The range of meals available is fairly small compared with other services, with five recipes available on each delivery date. You can’t filter by time to cook, dietary preferences or anything other considerations. Grubby is certainly stripped back in its approach compared with the likes of Gousto or HelloFresh, but this does mean the process of choosing meals is less time-consuming, and there are always a couple of appealing dinners available.

I tried two meals from Grubby: satay noodles with baby corn and chestnut mushrooms, and a harissa sweet potato, red pepper and lentil stew. Both were simple enough to cook in the estimated time given, and although both contained a pleasing variety of vegetables the prep required was easy and didn’t involve constant chopping while juggling hot pans.

Both meals were tasty, and the mushroom noodles had a coconut milk sauce that made them satisfying even on a fairly active day. They also went down well with my partner, though there is no family option with Grubby so the test did not extend to my toddler. Probably for the best.

Both meals ticked the important boxes for a midweek dinner, being interesting, healthy and easy to make. They certainly leave you feeling that you’ve made a smart choice, though I’d be looking for something saltier, larger and probably less healthy for a treat from time to time, or on days when I’d done a particularly hard run.

The instructions were clear and as a bonus Grubby publishes its recipes on its website so you can revisit them or try others from the range, though working out portion sizes can be tricky because the quantities of some ingredients are listed as pods and sachets in line with what you get in the recipe box.

Each recipe also comes with a link to a specific Spotify playlist you can listen to while making it, a gimmick I thought was a little much. I didn’t bother listening, but each to their own.

Is Grubby Worth It?

It’s hard to fault anything about the Grubby service. I’d like to see a wider choice of meals, but the limited range is understandable given the focus on local sourcing and the sustainable approach. There is always a good variety in meals available, though, and you will extend your cooking repertoire by using the service.

The price is high, and it’s easy to find recipe boxes that cost less than £5 per person a meal if that does put you off, but the price is at least partly explained by Grubby’s determination to do things the right way.

Buy from Grubby | From £26 for two meals

Eating healthily is not as complicated as it might seem from a quick glance at the internet, which is full of contradictory and often downright bizarre information. We seek out the most qualified experts for all of our articles on healthy eating, and the result is consistent and clear information about how to improve your diet. Then we help you put that advice into practice with healthy recipes, diet tips and reviews of kitchen gadgets and other useful products.

There’s a reason that the queue for the office microwave always gets out of hand in the winter – nothing warms the cockles on a frosty day like tucking into a hearty soup at lunchtime. And soups don’t get much more comforting than this broccoli and stilton recipe, which is as tasty as it is healthy, packing in plenty of veg into each portion.

It’s also very easy and quick to make, so set aside 15 to 20 minutes to make a big batch of the stuff one Sunday and sort yourself out a couple of healthy midweek lunches. Best served with crusty bread, we reckon.

Ingredients

• 1tbsp olive oil
• ½ onion, 
diced
• 1 garlic clove, 
crushed 
• 250g broccoli, 
cut into florets
• Handful 
of spinach
• 150ml vegetable stock
• 1tbsp stilton, crumbled
• 1tbsp toasted almonds
• Salt and pepper to season

See related 

• A Seriously Tasty Lentil Soup Recipe
• Healthy, Spicy Tomato Soup Recipe

To make

• Heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat.
• Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is softened.
• Add the broccoli, spinach and stock, and bring to the boil.
• Remove the mixture from the pan and blend until smooth.
• Serve with the crumbled stilton and toasted almonds on top.

What’s the worst thing about cooking? If you answered “peeling vegetables” you’re close – peeling vegetables is terrible – but you’re still wrong, because it’s a trick question. The worst thing about cooking isn’t part of cooking at all: it’s planning meals and shopping for the ingredients.

Those two things will suck up time like nobody’s business, but you can skip them and still enjoy the fun part of cooking – the bit in the kitchen (aside from peeling) – by getting recipe boxes delivered to your door.

Recipes boxes have become so popular of late that companies have been popping up all over the place, making it somewhat tricky to pick between them, so we’ve been trying as many brands as possible to help you make an informed decision. The key factor for many people will be cost, which varies widely between brands, but there are other things to consider as well. Dietary preference is obviously important as well – most brands will cater to vegetarians and vegans, but others go the extra mile and offer packages to suit free-from diets, or quick low-hassle recipes for midweek dinners, or meals designed to support general health goals such as bulking up or losing weight.

From our experience, we also think the amount and type of packaging a company uses is worth taking into account too, because getting a whole load of ingredients divided into serving size portions can lead to a lot of plastic going in the bin. Ideally a company will use recyclable materials and take the packaging back to use again.

When testing recipe boxes we also rate how repeatable the recipes are. If premade spice mixes or hard-to-find ingredients are used, the chances are you’ll make it once and never again, so we grant extra credit to companies sending recipes that are easy to make with ingredients from even a small supermarket. Part of the appeal of the recipe box is expanding your culinary repertoire, after all.

With all that in mind, here are the best recipe boxes we’ve tried in alphabetical order, with the best of the best given Editor’s Choice badges.

There’s a lot to like about Gousto’s recipe box service. The range is huge and you can pick individual recipes to suit your tastes or dietary requirements, including vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free and dairy-free, and there are meals that take just ten minutes to make. All the recipes are well thought out and easy to cook without rushing or having to focus on three different pans at once.

Gousto gets extra credit by tending not to use premade spice mixes, at least in the recipes we’ve tried. Instead you get all the spices needed listed (and packed separately), which means you can find the ingredients more easily to remake the recipes yourself. And you will want to remake the recipes, especially if you dip into the Everyday Favourites range, which includes simple, quick versions of classic dishes like chicken curry, a three-cheese pasta bake, and chilli con carne. These aren’t the healthiest meals available from Gousto, but they do contain at least two of your five-a-day and are likely to please everyone, which is pretty crucial if you’re using the recipe box to feed a family.

The latest addition to the range is a series of Lean In 15 recipes from Joe Wicks. These aren’t all 15-minute recipes, but many are, and even the ones that take longer are fairly quick and easy. The recipes come in two types, high and low carb, and the low-carb ones ditch bread, rice and pasta entirely, often replacing them with more veg – think lettuce instead of wraps, for example. The high-carb meals are great for active days, and we’ve found the quicker recipes from the range are perfect for knocking up after a hard run.

Buy from Gousto | From £4.37pp for two-person meals, £2.99pp for family meals | Gousto review

The USP here is that Green Chef caters to people following the low-carb, high-fat keto diet, with meals that keep the carbs under 20g per portion. However, there’s a lot to enjoy here even if you’re not on that bandwagon, with other meal plans including vegan, balanced and low-carb (under 35g per portion). Even though we are card-carrying members of the carb club, we still enjoyed all the meals, thanks largely to the plentiful servings of vegetables. The variety of vegetables used was also welcome – we’ve been trying to expand our horizons because the different types of fibre in different vegetables can keep your gut healthy. The three recipes we tried – one each from the keto, vegan and balanced plans – were easy to cook within 30 minutes, and if you’re handy with a knife it’ll be even less.

The website is also extremely clear and easy to use, and Green Chef is up front about its pricing, which isn’t always the case with recipe box services. It is marginally more expensive than well-established players like HelloFresh or Gousto, and meal options are somewhat limited at the moment. However, it’s just arrived on these shores after success in the US, so we’d expect it to increase the choices available to UK consumers soon.

Buy from Green Chef | Green Chef review

We like the cut of Grubby’s jib. This plant-based recipe box company places a lot of emphasis on a sustainable approach, using 100% recyclable and compostable packaging, sourcing most of its ingredients locally and even delivering its boxes by bike in London. 

The meals also impressed us with the variety and amount of vegetables used, and if you’re looking for a healthy recipe box that will diversify your diet and introduce more plant-based meals to your menu in particular, it’s up there with the best. The dinners were all easy and quick to cook too, making for the perfect midweek meal.

The downside is that Grubby’s meals are a fair bit pricier than those from the likes of Gousto and HelloFresh, and the range on offer is smaller with just five on the menu for each week. However, there is always something tasty available and there’s no doubt Grubby’s meals will leave you satisfied that you made a smart choice for your dinner.

Buy from Grubby 

If you are really looking to take out all the preparatory steps of cooking, HelloFresh’s recipe boxes are an appealing proposition. You don’t even need to bother with the measuring, because all the ingredients – even the chopped garlic – are shipped in the precise amounts needed. The recipe instructions are so clear that they are almost entirely foolproof.

HelloFresh has options to suit most dietary restrictions, although not vegan. The classic box comes in regular or vegetarian form, and the new preferences menu lists gluten-free, dairy-free, veggie and low-calorie recipes. If you’re always short on time, you can also opt for the rapid box, which contains recipes that can be made in 20 minutes or less.

The classic recipes are reliably tasty, though not always as healthy as some other options on this list, but HelloFresh has a range of low-calorie options on its menu, each of which come in under 550 calories. Generally there’s a couple of portions of your five-a-day in each meal, though adding some veg on the side will be a worthwhile move for some of the more indulgent classic options.

Buy from HelloFresh | HelloFresh review

Mindful Chef’s meals manage to pull off the tricky balance between being pretty easy and quick to make while still introducing interesting flavours and preparations. They’re slightly more complicated than HelloFresh and Gousto meals, but most can be done in under half an hour and there are 15-minute options – and you are rewarded for that extra concentration during cooking with fantastic flavours.

The menu changes regularly, but some of our past favourites include Persian mint chicken with pomegranate, even if we did spray pomegranate seeds all over the kitchen in an attempt to prise them loose from the fruit, and the jerk jackfruit. There are always several vegan options available and you can easily sort the recipes on the website according to your dietary preferences, or ranking them by how high in carbs or calories they are.

While we have no intention of adopting Mindful Chef’s “no ‘stodgy’ carbs” approach in all our meals, the fact that its recipes never contain white rice, pasta or bread means that you will get to experience some novel carbs, like black rice, or interesting carb alternatives – beetroot chips anyone? They certainly got our seal of approval.

The family recipes on offer, however, failed to hit the spot for a three-year-old and a five-year-old. In fact the amount of preparation required for the miso and cashew aubergine buddha bowl almost caused a lockdown-fatigue-induced meltdown. The final result was greedily wolfed down by the adults, however, as was the creamy veggie moussaka with green beans, and there was plenty left over from both dishes. If you have ravenous teenagers with a taste for something other than breaded protein and ketchup, you may have better luck with this part of Mindful Chef’s offering.

You can browse a library of the company’s past recipes on the website for free, which is particularly welcome if you’re concerned the preparation may be beyond you. You also get a booklet containing 20 recipes in the current range when you order a box. Mindful Chef also sells frozen meals, which are a handy, healthy option to have ready on days when you can’t face cooking.

Mindful Chef also offers a next-day delivery service, which began as a way to help those who were struggling in the pandemic. Order before 9pm for guaranteed next-day delivery of a three-meal recipe box for two people (£42). The recipes rotate weekly with the current box containing chicken pasanda curry with toasted almonds, Asian fish papillote with roasted sweet potatoes, and harissa pork meatballs with parsley millet.

Buy from Mindful Chef 

More About Food Delivery Services

• Don't want to do the chopping and cooking part? Pick from the UK's best healthy meal delivery services 
• Make eating a plant-based diet easy with the best healthy vegan recipe boxes and meal delivery services
• Great-tasting quick and easy recipes from our favourite recipe box service: HelloFresh recipes that work

Whatever your aim is when it comes to fitness, the hard work doesn’t end when you finish your workout. If you’re not backing up your exercise with a similar level of commitment in the kitchen, you’re going to find it very hard to realize the benefits.

One key dietary consideration for active people is protein intake, which plays a vital role in building muscle. When you exercise you cause microscopic tears in your muscles, and to repair them so the muscles grow back bigger and stronger you need the amino acids that you get from protein. And even if you’re not smashing out workouts every day of the week, protein is a vital nutrient because of its role in building and maintaining body tissue.

The Dietary Reference Intake for protein is 0.8g per kg of bodyweight, or 0.36g per pound, but if you are especially active you’ll want to increase that amount. We spoke to specialist dietitian Susan Short about how much protein you should eat each day to build muscle and she said strength athletes should consume 1.2-2g per kg of bodyweight per day, while endurance athletes will require 1.2-1.8g per kg of bodyweight.

Fortunately, it’s easy to ensure you consume the correct amount of this essential macronutrient, whatever your requirements. Adults in the US generally eat more of it than they actually need to, according to Harvard Health. Not because everyone in the country is seeking to bulk up—protein is simply found in significant amounts in a wide variety of delicious foods that we already eat regularly. But we can be smarter about the protein-rich foods we choose, not least to expand our diet to enjoy a wider range of micronutrients.

To help you hit your protein goals we’ve compiled an extensive list of foods that are especially high in the macronutrient. Below you’ll find the foods ranked by their protein content per 100g, then broken up into breakfast, lunch/dinner (with additional sub-sections by different food groups) and snacks. We’ve also included protein per portion because we wouldn’t want you to think we’re suggesting you should eat 100g of cheese in one sitting.

High-Protein Foods Ranked By Protein Content Per 100g

1. Parmesan 36g
2. Beef jerky 34g
3. Turkey 30g
4. Hemp seeds 30g
5. Pumpkin seeds 30g
6. Tuna steak 28g
7. T-bone beef steak 27.3g
8. Peanuts 26g
9. Seitan 25g
10. Canned tuna 19g
11. Monterey Jack 24.5g
12. Shellfish 23.5g
13. Cheddar 23.3g
14. Mozzarella 22g
15. Blue cheese 21.4g
16. Sunflower seeds 21g
17. Almonds 21g
18. Salmon 20g
19. Pistachios 20g
20. Tempeh 20g
21. Cod 20g
22. Mackerel 19g
23. Pork loin 18g
24. Chicken 18g
25. Cashew nuts 18g
26. Tofu 17.3g
27. Chia seeds 17g
28. Oats 13.5g
29. Buckwheat 13.2g
30. Eggs 13g
31. Edamame beans 12g
32. Cottage cheese 11g
33. Greek yogurt 10g
34. Lentils 9g
35. Chickpeas 9g
36. Kidney beans 8.7g
37. Peas 6g
38. Quinoa 4.4g

Breakfast

Pancakes with maple syrup or Belgian waffles may be tasty, but sadly these sweet treats don’t contain much protein. Another breakfast staple, bacon and sausages score highly in the protein department, but they are not the healthiest way to start your day. Fortunately, these are not your only options. There are plenty of nutritious foods that can boost your protein intake first thing. Next time you prepare your breakfast, try scrambled eggs, Greek yogurt with fruit, or a large portion of porridge sprinkled with protein-rich seeds.        

Eggs

Protein content: 13g per 100g

Per portion: 6.3g / 1 large egg (50g)

One of the finest ways to up your protein intake at breakfast time, a couple of medium eggs will easily net you over 10g of the stuff.

Cottage cheese

Protein content: 11g per 100g

Per portion: 24.2g / 1 cup (220g)

You can get versions of cottage cheese with added protein nowadays, but even the standard stuff contains a good portion. Compared with other cheese it’s also relatively low in fat and salt.

Greek yogurt

Protein content: 10g per 100g

Per portion: 20g / 1 cup (200g)

As well as protein, Greek (not Greek style) yogurt is packed full of healthy bacteria and enzymes that will do wonders for your digestive health.

Oats

Protein content: 13.5g per 100g

Per portion: 7g / 3oz (50g)

You can get souped-up versions of oats that have even more protein crammed into them, but the bog-standard supermarket own-brand versions aren’t light on the stuff. No breakfast is complete without them.

Chia seeds

Protein content: 17g per 100g

Per portion: 4.7g / ¼ cup (1 oz)

The most in-vogue seed around is chock-full of fiber and protein, and most of the fat it contains is of the “good” unsaturated variety.

Hemp seeds

Protein content: 30g per 100g

Per portion: 9.5g / ¼ cup (30g)

Hemp may not be on your radar, but these humble-looking seeds are one of the richest plant-based sources of complete protein. Thanks to their mild, nutty flavor, hemp seeds go particularly well with oats and yogurts too.  

Sunflower seeds

Protein content: 21g per 100g

Per portion: 10g / ⅓ cup (47g)

Sunflower seeds are full of healthy fats and fiber, but they’re also an excellent source of protein—you’ll find nearly 10g in a couple of handfuls.  

Pumpkin seeds

Protein content: 32g per 100g

Per portion: 8.5g / ¼ cup (1oz)

Ever wondered why pumpkins look so swole? It’s because they’re full of pumpkin seeds and you should be too, because along with their impressive protein content, pumpkin seeds offer other nutritional riches in the shape of magnificent magnesium and zinc.

Lunch And Dinner

Lunch and dinner are a great opportunity to load up on protein. A portion of meat or an alternative can easily pack close to 30g of this essential nutrient, and if that’s not enough, you can get even more protein with a slice of cheese or a portion of chickpeas. You can also swap your usual pasta and rice for quinoa to top up your intake of essential amino acids. 

Meat

T-bone beef steak

Protein content: 27.3g per 100g

Per portion: 31g / 4oz (113g)

It’s hard to beat the protein content of a T-bone beef steak. One portion of the nation’s favorite dish packs nearly 31g of this essential nutrient.  

Turkey

Protein content: 27.1g per 100g

Per portion: 30g / 4oz (113g)

Turkey shouldn’t just be for Thanksgiving: the festive bird contains more protein per gram than most other meats including its greatest feathered rival—chicken.

Chicken

Protein content: 18g per 100g

Per portion: 20g / 4oz (113g)

The classic lean protein source, chicken contains large amounts of protein while being very low in fat, especially if you opt for skinless breasts.

Pork loin

Protein content: 18g per 100g

Per portion: 20g / 4oz (113g)

Pork comes in all manner of glorious varieties, but if you’re eating it to increase your protein intake stick to the stuff at the healthier end of the scale, which is pork loin, not cured bacon  (a whopping 40g of protein per 100g, if you’re wondering).

Seafood

Tuna steak

Protein content: 28g per 100g

Per portion: 24g / 3oz (85g)

The “chicken of the sea” is rich in omega 3 fatty acids, among other valuable nutrients, as well as protein. It’s far more meaty and flavorsome than the canned version, with a price to match.

Canned tuna

Protein content: 19g per 100g

Per portion: 20.3g / 1 can (107g)

A cupboard well-stocked with tuna canned in spring water will see you through all manner of hardships. It’s packed with protein and virtually fat-free.

Salmon

Protein content: 20g per 100g

Per portion: 40g / 0.5 filet (198g)

As well as plenty of protein, the pink flesh of salmon contains plenty of omega 3 fatty acids that make it great for a range of conditions including eye health and reducing the risk of heart disease.

Cod

Protein content: 20g

This fish is low in fat, but full of flavour. Naturally we’d advise avoiding battered versions due to the extra fat they contain.

Mackerel

Protein content: 19g per 100g

Per portion: 25g / 1 cup (136g)

Both the filet and canned versions of this oily fish are great picks for a quick and tasty protein hit. Try not to pair them with chips, though, or you’ll blow your daily salt intake out of the water.

Shellfish

Protein content: 23.5g per 100g

Per portion: 20g / 3 oz (85g)

Shrimp, oysters, lobster, clams, mussels and scallops are a great source of healthy fats, vitamins and minerals, including iron, selenium and zinc. They are also rich in protein—one portion of shellfish provides nearly 20g of this essential nutrient.  

Meat Alternatives

Seitan

Protein content: 25g per 100g

Per portion: 21g / 3oz (85g)

This meat alternative is made from wheat gluten, which gives it a texture that’s satisfyingly chewy, unlike softer soy products like tempeh and tofu. It’s also packed with protein, although amounts vary pretty dramatically in the seitan foods and snacks you’ll find on shop shelves, so make sure to check each label for a definitive protein count.

Tempeh

Protein content: 20g per 100g

Per portion: 34g / 1 cup (166g)

Tofu is not the only soy product in town and tempeh actually outdoes its more famous cousin in terms of its protein and fiber content.

Tofu

Protein content: 17.3g per 100g

Per portion: 22g / 0.5 cup (126g)

Sure, we trash-talked tofu when bigging up tempeh, but it’s also a good source of protein. Tofu is also more widely available than tempeh.

Peas, Beans And Lentils

Lentils

Protein content: 9g per 100g

Per portion: 18g / 1 cup (198g)

Whatever your favorite type of lentil is, you can be sure it’s adding some extra protein to your plate. Use them to thicken meaty stews and bulk up salads.

Chickpeas

Protein content: 9g per 100g

Per portion: 14.5g / 1 cup (164g)

One of the earliest cultivated legumes—dating back 7,500 years in the Middle East—chickpeas are particularly rich in folate, a B vitamin that helps to support and maintain a healthy nervous system. Blend with lemon, fresh garlic and tahini for an easy and delicious homemade hummus.

Kidney beans

Protein content: 8.7g per 100g

Per portion: 15.3g / 1 cup (177g)

A 120g serving (half a regular can) provides an impressive 7.4g of fiber, which plays a key role in healthy digestive function, as well as 8.3g of protein. Don’t confine these tasty beans to chilli con carne—they’re great in curries, stews and salads too.

Peas

Protein content: 6g per 100g

It may seem the most basic, bland, at-least-the-children’ll-eat-them legume there is, but a few spoonfuls of peas adds a useful amount of protein to your plate.

Wholegrains

Quinoa

Protein content: 4.4g per 100g

Per portion: 8g / 1 cup (185g)

Quinoa’s protein stats look more impressive when you look at its uncooked numbers, but at 8g of complete protein per cup—not a mad amount of quinoa, compared with chomping down 100g of parmesan for example—it’s a good way to top up your intake of this essential nutrient, especially if you’re not a meat-eater.

Buckwheat

Protein content: 13.2g per 100g

Per portion: 22.4g / 1 cup (170g)

Buckwheat may not be nearly as popular as quinoa, but when it comes to protein content, it’s streaks ahead. Just one cup of buckwheat contains a whopping 22.4g of complete protein, making it a perfect alternative to wholegrain pasta or brown rice.  

Cheese

Parmesan

Protein content: 36g per 100g

Per portion: 3.7g / 1 cubic inch (10.3g)

No-one’s saying that eating 100g of parmesan in one sitting is a smart idea, but if you did, the protein content would be a big upside.

Edam

Protein content: 27g

Take a tip from the Dutch next time you hit the cheese counter for a tasty treat that’s high in protein. Just make sure you also embrace the Dutch love of cycling too, so you work off the high amounts of saturated fat.

Cheddar

Protein content: 23.3g per 100g

Per portion: 4g / 1 slice (17g)

Britain’s favorite cheese brings plenty of protein to the table. That includes the lower-fat versions, if you’re trying to keep your saturated fat intake down.

Blue cheese

Protein content: 21.4g per 100g

Per portion: 3.6g / 1 cubic inch (17g)

Don’t be shy of the cheeseboard, that’s what we’re learning here. Just behind the mighty cheddar comes blue cheese, which contains a stilt-load of protein at 21.4g per 100g. All the usual qualms about cheese remain—lots of saturated fat and salt being the biggest concerns—but there isn’t a tastier way to up your protein intake than a slice of blue.

Mozzarella

Protein content: 22g per 100g

Per portion: 5.5g / 1 slice (27g)

Before you shriek with joy and assume that pizza is now on the protein-packed menu, let’s be sensible. While the occasional stuffed crust won’t do you any harm, for a healthier alternative slice some mozzarella onto a salad that’s rich with greens to up your protein tally.

Monterey Jack

Protein content: 24.5g per 100g

Per portion: 6.8g / 1 slice (1oz)

The mighty Monterey Jack is America's favorite cheese and also one of the richest sources of protein you can find in the dairy aisle. With nearly 7g of this nutrient per slice, it’s an easy way to ramp up your protein intake. 

Snacks

Beef jerky

Protein content: 34g per 100g

Per portion: 30g / 90g (1 cup)

Keep some of these dried, cured strips of lean beef in your gym bag for a meaty hit of protein that doesn’t require firing up the grill. Most brands have different levels of protein—and make sure you check the label for sugar and salt content too, both of which can be alarmingly high.

Peanuts

Protein content: 26g per 100g

Per portion: 7.3g / ⅓  cup (1oz)

The underground legume is a fabulous source of protein, and if you steer clear of the roasted and salted varieties, it’s a fairly healthy snack. In peanut butter form you’ll get around 4g of protein per tablespoon.

Almonds

Protein content: 21g per 100g

Per portion: 6g / ⅓  cup (1oz)

Alongside high protein content, almonds are also rich in fiber and a great source of vitamin E, which is needed to maintain healthy skin and eyes.

Pistachios

Protein content: 20g per 100g

Per portion: 5.7g / ⅓  cup (1oz)

Find a friend because this is a prime fist-bump opportunity. Perhaps the tastiest nuts of all are plump with protein. Sure, they’re also pretty fatty and if you opt for the roasted and salted variety, salty as heck, but still, pistachios are on the list.

Cashew nuts

Protein content: 18g per 100g

Per portion: 5.2g / ⅓  cup (1oz)

Any open packet of mixed nuts is quickly picked clean of all the cashews. Is that because they are the tastiest of nuts or because they’re high in protein? It’s probably the taste thing, but they’re reassuringly protein-rich too.

Edamame beans

Protein content: 12g per 100g

Per portion: 18.4g / 1 cup (155g)

These tasty beans can be bought frozen to consume at your convenience and add a shot of fiber, vitamins and minerals to your diet alongside the protein. If you find them a tad bland try livening them up with fresh lemon juice, smoked paprika and a pinch of salt.

We’re not going to judge you if the only time you ever consider buying a pumpkin is to carve it for Halloween, but you should know that the flesh is as tasty as any other squash (at the least ones grown for eating, not carving) – and it’s the star of this dish from dairy-free brand Cocos Organic.

The recipe comes in two parts. The first explains how to make a yellow curry paste you can store to use for multiple curries, and the second tells you how to use your paste to make a Thai yellow curry.

Thai Yellow Curry Paste Recipe

Ingredients

• 3tbsp coconut oil
• 1 onion, roughly diced
• 8 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
• 30g ginger, peeled and cubed
• 1 large red chilli pepper or 2-4 small Thai red chillies, to taste
• 1tsp sea salt
• 1tbsp ground turmeric (or 18g fresh turmeric, peeled and cubed)
• 1tbsp mild curry powder
• 1tsp ground coriander
• 1tsp ground roasted cumin (or ground cumin)
• 1 lemongrass stalk (18g), bashed and chopped
• 3tbsp fresh coriander, roughly chopped
• 1 kaffir lime leaf or zest of 1 lime

Method

1. Heat the coconut oil in a nonstick pan.
2. Add all the ingredients except the fresh coriander and cook for five to eight minutes until soft and fragrant.
3. Add to a food processor with 70ml of water and the fresh coriander. Blitz into a smooth paste.
4. Store in the fridge in a sealed container for up to one week or in the freezer for up to three months.

See related 

• It’s Pumpkin Season So Try This Pumpkin Pasta Recipe
• A Hearty Pumpkin Soup Recipe To Eat While You Admire Your Jack-O’-Lantern
• Make This Sweet Potato Vegetarian Curry Recipe To Mark Plant Power Day

Thai Yellow Curry Recipe

Ingredients (Serves Four)

• 1tbsp olive oil or coconut oil
• ½ small onion, sliced
• 300g pumpkin, peeled and cubed
• 125g baby corn, halved lengthways
• 80g mange tout, sugar snaps or green beans
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced in rounds
• ⅓ cup Thai yellow paste (half of the above)
• 400ml can coconut milk

To serve

• Empty listCocos Organic coconut milk yogurt alternative
• Lime juice
• Fresh coriander
• Rice
• 50g toasted cashews

Method

1. Heat 1tbsp of oil in a nonstick frying pan.
2. Add the onion, carrots and pumpkin, and cook until just tender, about six to eight minutes.
3. Add the curry paste. Stir to combine and cook for one minute.
4. Add the coconut milk and stir again. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Cook for 10-15 minutes until the curry has thickened and the veggies are cooked to your liking.
5. Season to taste and add a squeeze of lime.
6. Serve with rice, coriander, toasted cashew nuts and coconut yogurt alternative.

When you don’t have the time to cook, the answer can be to do it as slowly as possible. Just chuck all your ingredients in a slow cooker, walk away then return hours later to find the main bit of your meal is ready to go.

In his book Cook Slow, Masterchef’s Dean Edwards has created 90 recipes for slow cookers, all of which can also be made with conventional ovens. We’ve picked out three that are delicious, healthy and, most importantly, easy to make.

Cook Slow: 90 simple, chilled out, stress-free recipes for slow cookers & conventional ovens

£4.72 Buy now

Spanish Chicken Slow Cooker Recipe

Ingredients (serves four)

• 1-2tbsp olive oil
• 4 skinless chicken thighs (approx. 500g), bone in
• 2 onions, sliced
• 100g chorizo sausage, cubed
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 4-5 thyme sprigs, leaves picked
• 1 heaped tsp smoked paprika
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 200ml boiling chicken stock
• 100g green olives, pitted
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 1tsp caster sugar (or to taste)
• 2tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large heavy-based pan over a medium heat. Add the chicken thighs and cook until golden – this will take three to four minutes. Put into your slow cooker along with the rest of the ingredients apart from the olives, sugar and parsley, and use only 200ml of the hot stock. Cook on the low setting for seven hours.
2. Before serving, season with salt and pepper, then add the olives and sugar to taste. Finally, stir through the parsley, saving some for garnish, and serve with boiled rice or sauté potatoes.

Roasted Butternut Squash Tagine Slow Cooker Recipe

Ingredients (serves four)

• 1 large butternut squash, peeled and diced
• 1-2tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 5 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 thumb-sized piece of fresh root ginger, finely chopped or grated
• 1tsp smoked paprika
• 1tsp ground cinnamon
• 1tsp ground coriander
• 1 heaped tsp harissa paste
• 1tbsp tomato purée
• 500g tomato passata
• 400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 100g dried apricots, finely chopped
• 200ml vegetable stock
• 1tbsp honey (or to taste)
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. If time allows, roast the squash first. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Place the squash in a bowl, drizzle with some oil and season with salt and pepper. Scatter onto a baking tray and roast in the oven for 30 minutes.
2. Add all the ingredients apart from the honey to your slow cooker and season with salt and pepper. Add the butternut squash and stir to combine. Put the lid on and cook on the low setting for six hours or for four hours on high.
3. Add the honey to the tagine to taste. Serve with herby couscous and a dollop of natural yogurt that has been spiked with harissa.

See related 

• The Best Slow Cookers To Buy In 2021
• How To Use A Slow Cooker To Make Healthy, Hearty Recipes

Slow Cooker Vegetable Lasagne

Ingredients (serves four)

• 1-2tbsp olive oil
• 200g mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
• 2 red peppers, finely diced
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1tbsp dried oregano
• 500g tomato passata
• 150ml vegetable stock
• 1tbsp tomato purée
• 3 courgettes, thinly sliced lengthways
• 200g parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 tomato, thinly sliced
• Salt and pepper

White sauce

• 50g unsalted butter
• 50g plain flour
• 600ml milk

Method

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan over a high heat. Add the mushrooms and fry for six to seven minutes until golden, then set aside. Cook the red peppers, onion and garlic in the same pan for five minutes. Sprinkle in the oregano and give it a good stir, then add the passata, 150ml of stock and the tomato purée, and then return the mushrooms to the pan. Bring up to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Meanwhile, griddle the courgette slices on a ridged pan for one to two minutes on each side, until charred. Set aside.
3. To make the white sauce, melt the butter over a medium heat, then whisk in the flour and cook for two to three minutes. Gradually pour in the milk and continue whisking until thickened and smooth. Season well with salt and pepper
4. Spoon a layer of the mushroom mixture into your slow cooker. Top with a layer of the griddled courgettes, then some of the white sauce, then sprinkle over some of the grated Parmesan. Repeat until all these ingredients have been used up, but make sure you finish with a layer of white sauce scattered with cheese. Then add a layer of tomato slices, pop the lid on and cook on the high setting for four hours.

Cook Slow by Dean Edwards is published by Hamlyn, £14.99. Photography by Ria Osborne

Buy on Amazon | £14.99

Cook Slow: 90 simple, chilled out, stress-free recipes for slow cookers & conventional ovens

£4.72 Buy now

Buy on Amazon | £14.99

Pictured, left to right: Chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, linseeds (also known as flaxseeds)

Seeds contain all the nutrients and power to produce plants hundreds of times their size, and so it makes perfect sense to hijack that potential yourself by adding some to your diet.

Seeds are rich in unsaturated fats and much-needed vitamins and minerals. The question is really not whether you should get a little seedy, it’s which seeds you should go for – and the tastiest way to add them into your life.

Chia Seeds

The constant need to label anything and everything a superfood might have led to chia seeds’ benefits being overstated, but they are undoubtedly a nutritional powerhouse. A couple of tablespoons provide 10g of fibre – a third of your daily target – as well as plenty of healthy unsaturated fats and protein.

How to use them: Chia seeds are pretty much tasteless, so you can sprinkle them liberally over anything from baked goods to smoothies.

Pumpkin Seeds

A great source of a wide variety of vitamins and minerals, pumpkin seeds also contain plenty of protein and a boatload of unsaturated fats. Really quite a lot of fat, in truth, so be careful not to end up pumpkin-shaped yourself.

How to use them: Perhaps the most delicious of all the seeds, roast them up and add to porridge or a stir-fry, or sprinkle them with salt and gorge on the seeds by themselves. Although clearly this is the less-healthy option.

Sunflower Seeds

If it’s vitamin E you’re after, and any fans of healthy skin and eyes will be, sunflower seeds are your best bet in the world of kernels. A couple of tablespoons will net you over half your recommended daily intake of vitamin E, as well as a decent whack of protein and healthy fats.

How to use them: Like pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds are a tasty snack by themselves, even if you don’t salt them. They also spruce up a fruit-and-yoghurt breakfast.

See related

• Make This Macadamia, Pumpkin Seed And Fudge Protein Bar Recipe
• Expert Advice On How To Nail The High-Fibre Diet

Hemp Seeds

The protein kings of the seed world, a couple of heaped tablespoons will net you 10g of the stuff, and like many of its seedy brethren, hemp is also chock-full of unsaturated fats.

How to use them: Hemp seeds can be added to bread and salads, but the truly adventurous might also fancy making their own hemp milk by blending the seeds with water.

Linseeds (also known as Flaxseeds)

A similar nutritional profile to chia seeds, providing a bounty of healthy fats, protein and fibre, but without as much hype, so linseeds are generally a bit cheaper.

How to use them: Linseeds have a nutty flavour and are an excellent addition to salads or porridge, or even a homemade coleslaw.

Normally we’d entertain you with a witty introduction, but this time we’re going to give you four reasons why you need to make this dish.

1. Eggs are a fantastic source of protein, which is in the white, and heart-healthy fats, which are in the yolk. They also contain a treasure trove of vitamins: 10% of your RDI of vitamin D is found in an egg yolk, along with vitamins A, B6, B12, E and K.
2. Peppers are a fantastic source of vitamin C: weight for weight they contain more than oranges! Vitamin C is an antioxidant, and is also essential for the formation of collagen, a type of protein that keeps skin tight and looking young.
3. Garlic is high in immune system-boosting compounds that destroy any nasty invaders, as well as anti-inflammatory agents that reduce the physical damage caused by stress, pollution, exercise and general day-to-day living.
4. The dish is delicious.

One-Pan Mexican-Style Eggs Recipe

Ingredients (Serves Four)

• 100ml British rapeseed oil
• 3 red peppers, finely diced
• 1 red onion , peeled and thinly sliced
• 4 plum tomatoes, cut into wedges
• 8 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 jalapeño pepper, halved lengthwise
• 12 fresh basil leaves
• 2tbsp fresh marjoram leaves
• 1½tsp chilli powder
• 1tsp smoked paprika
• 120g ricotta cheese
• 4 large eggs
• Salt
• Ground black pepper

To make

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas 6.
2. Heat the oil in a large heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the diced red peppers and red onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and just beginning to brown.
3. Add the tomato wedges, garlic, jalapeño pepper, basil, marjoram, chilli powder and smoked paprika to the saucepan. Reduce to a low heat and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are very soft and liquid is thickened.
4. Season with salt and pepper and discard the jalapeño.
5. Transfer the veg mixture from the saucepan to a shallow baking dish. Using the back of a spoon, make four evenly spaced divots in mixture. Spoon a dollop of ricotta cheese into each divot and then crack one egg into each.
6. Bake in the oven until the egg whites are almost set but yolks are still runny.
7. Serve the spiced baked eggs with granary toast. The yolks will continue to cook as the dish sits, so serve right away if you prefer your eggs soft.

Adam Gray is a Michelin-starred chef and a champion of ethically and sustainably sourced food. He has been the head chef at award-winning restaurants including Rhodes Twenty Four, Skylon and Bourne and Hollingsworth in London.

More Breakfast Recipes

• Have a cracking breakfast with this eggs Florentine recipe
• Kick-start your weekend with this Turkish eggs recipe
• Five quick, healthy and delicious breakfast wraps

So-called superfoods come in many shapes and sizes, and boast all manner of health benefits, but if there is one thing common to every foodstuff that can claim nutritional superpowers, it’s that it contains antioxidants.

Antioxidants are firmly established as essential to good health, but most people will readily admit they have little idea about what they actually are or do. To find out why we need antioxidants and which foods to eat to get the biggest effect, we enlisted registered dietitian Susan Short of the British Dietetic Association.

Let’s start with the basics: what are antioxidants and why should we eat them?

“Antioxidants are substances found naturally in food,” says Short. “They are important because they protect your body’s cells from damage caused by harmful molecules called free radicals that can cause diseases such as heart disease and cancers. Antioxidants can also help to protect and repair our skin from pollutants.”

It’s also important to know that there are many different kinds of antioxidants, and they’re found in a variety of foods.

“Some antioxidants are vitamins such as vitamin C, vitamin E and selenium,” explains Short. “Others are phytochemicals, found naturally in plants, that can act as antioxidants and are called flavonoids, polyphenols and carotenoids.”

Being healthy inside and out sounds good to us, so what foods do we need to eat to ensure we’re getting enough antioxidants? Here’s a handy shopping list from Short.

Vitamin C is found in:

• Guava
• Peppers (red, yellow and green)
• Kiwi fruit
• Strawberries
• Citrus fruits
• Papaya
• Brussels sprouts
• Broccoli
• Leafy vegetables
• Tomatoes
• Potatoes

Vitamin E is found in:

• Almonds
• Sunflower seeds
• Vegetable oils
• Leafy vegetables
• Peanuts (including peanut butter)
• Sweet potato
• Avocado

Selenium is found in:

• Brazil nuts
• Fish
• Shellfish
• Meat and poultry
• Eggs
• Grain products
• Wheat germ and wheat bran in wholegrain products
• Beans
• Oats

See related

• Why You Should Be Eating More Wholegrains
• Get Your Five-A-Day In One Go With This Cauliflower Dhal Recipe
• This Easy-To-Prepare Lunch Contains Two Of Your Five-A-Day

Carotenoids are found in:

• Kale
• Tomatoes and tomato products
• Spinach
• Sweet potato
• Carrots
• Leafy vegetables
• Pumpkin and other squashes
• Guava
• Watermelon
• Grapefruit

Flavonoids are found in:

• Berries (especially dark-coloured berries)
• Cherries
• Red grapes
• Onions
• Apples
• Cocoa
• Tea, especially green tea

Polyphenols are found in:

• Extra virgin olive oil
• Dark chocolate
• Blueberries
• Olives
• Hazelnuts
• Plums

It’s clear there are lots of options if you want to have an antioxidant-rich diet. With that in mind, it shouldn't surprise you to learn that unless you’re recommended supplements by a medical professional you don't need to look beyond your diet for antioxidants.

“The best way to get antioxidants is from food,” says Short. “If you have a healthy balanced diet, with plenty of fruit, vegetables and wholegrains then you should be taking in enough. Supplements often have higher amounts than you need and may even be harmful.”

The food industry has become obsessed with protein in the past few years and there are good reasons for that. It’s important for maintaining and building muscle mass, and like fibre it keeps you feeling full for longer than other macronutrients.

It is not the be-all and end-all though, as we were reminded of when speaking to Anita Bean about her new sports nutrition recipe book The Vegan Athlete’s Cookbook. Bean talked us through the evidence that shows the performance advantages athletes achieve from a vegan diet, which come down to higher consumption of plant nutrients and improvements to the gut microbiome. And that’s coupled with the fact that you can get all the protein you need from plants – if you know what you’re doing.

“It’s true to say that most plant foods have a lower protein content than animal-derived foods,” says Bean, “but I wrote the book to dispel the myths surrounding vegan diets, including that vegans can’t get enough protein. The book shows people how they can get enough protein from a plant-based diet. All the main meal recipes in the book contain a minimum of 20g of protein, which is the magic number all athletes aim for.”

To get you started, Bean has shared three recipes. 

Chickpea Omelette Recipe

If you thought egg-based dishes like omelettes were off the menu on a vegan diet, then think again! With a few adjustments, it is perfectly possible to recreate your favourite breakfast dish. This omelette is made with chickpea (gram) flour, which is widely available from supermarkets. It’s a brilliant egg substitute for vegans because it is rich in protein, fibre and iron. I have filled the omelette with tomatoes and spinach, but you could add chopped red onions, mushrooms, red peppers or peas.

Ingredients (Serves One)

• 60g chickpea (gram) flour
• ¼tsp salt
• ⅛tsp baking powder
• Pinch of turmeric
• Pinch of paprika
• Pinch of nutritional yeast flakes
• 125ml plant milk alternative (any type)
• A small handful of chopped fresh herbs (eg parsley, chives or basil) or 1tsp dried mixed herbs

For the filling

• 2tsp olive oil
• 6 cherry tomatoes, halved
• A handful of baby spinach

To serve

• ½ small avocado, peeled, pitted and sliced
• Pinch of chilli flakes

Method

1. Whisk together in a bowl the gram flour, salt, baking powder, turmeric, paprika, yeast flakes and milk alternative until smooth. Add the herbs, stir to combine, then leave to stand for a few minutes.
2. Meanwhile, make the filling: heat 1tsp of the olive oil in a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat, add the tomatoes and cook for a few minutes. Add the spinach, then remove from the heat and set aside.
3. Wipe out the frying pan and heat the remaining oil over a medium heat. When hot, pour in the batter and tip the pan so it spreads out thinly over the base. Cook gently until the top sets and bubbles appear on the surface. Spoon the filling on to one half of the omelette, then fold the other half over using a spatula. Press down with the spatula to seal it and cook for another minute.
4. Slide the omelette on to a plate and serve with avocado slices and a sprinkle of chilli flakes.

Nutrition per serving: 463 calories | 20g protein | 22g fat (4g saturates) | 40g carbs (8g total sugars) | 11g fibre

Spiced Chickpea Pilaff With Almonds And Coconut Yogurt Recipe

This tasty combination of rice, chickpeas and almonds is an ideal pre-exercise meal that will sustain you through your workout. Chickpeas are nutritional powerhouses, packed with carbohydrate, protein, fibre, B vitamins, iron, zinc and magnesium. They are the perfect nutritional complement to rice, balancing out the shortfall of essential amino acids and raising the overall quality of protein. Carrots and butternut squash are both rich in beta-carotene, while green peppers and peas are loaded with vitamin C. Almonds add additional protein, healthy fats, calcium and vitamin E. Substitute pecans or cashews if you prefer. If you don’t have all the individual spices, then use 2tbsp of mild curry paste instead.

Ingredients (Serves Two)

• 1tbsp light olive or rapeseed oil
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• ½ green or red pepper, deseeded and chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 2cm piece fresh root ginger, grated
• 1tsp cumin seeds
• 1tsp ground cumin
• 1tsp ground coriander
• 1tsp garam masala
• ½tsp turmeric
• ¼tsp dried chilli flakes
• 1 large carrot, diced
• ¼ butternut squash (approximately 250g), peeled and cut into 1cm cubes
• 100g basmati rice
• 300ml hot vegetable stock or water
• 400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 25g sultanas
• 75g frozen peas

To serve

• 25g almonds, toasted and crushed
• Small handful of finely chopped mint
• 2tbsp coconut yogurt alternative

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large non-stick pan, and fry the onion and green pepper over a gentle heat for five minutes. Add the garlic, ginger, cumin seeds and the remaining spices, and continue cooking for one minute.
2. Add the vegetables and rice. Mix until coated in the spices, then add the vegetable stock or water, chickpeas and sultanas. Stir well, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for about 10 to 12 minutes until most of the liquid has been absorbed and the rice and vegetables are tender. Make sure the mixture does not boil dry; add extra water, if necessary. Add the peas for the last three minutes of cooking.
3. Serve topped with the almonds and chopped mint, and a spoonful of coconut yogurt alternative.

Nutrition per serving: 652 calories | 23g protein | 18g fat (2g saturates) | 91g carbs (25g total sugars) | 18g fibre

Super-Seedy Bars Recipe

I wanted to create a snack bar that delivered maximum possible nutrition plus fantastic taste and here is the result: super-seedy, crunchy, nutty, heavenly bars that are high in fibre, omega-3 fats, protein, B vitamins, vitamin E, magnesium, iron and zinc. Nuts and seeds are real powerhouses of nutrients, and therefore form the basis of these bars. They team beautifully with dark chocolate, which packs a hefty polyphenol punch. Perfect after exercise or any time you want a nutritious treat.

Ingredients (Makes Eight Bars)

• 125g mixed seeds (any combination of sunflower, pumpkin, sesame and flaxseeds)
• 100g mixed nuts (any combination of almonds, cashews, brazil nuts and pecans), roughly chopped
• 25g ground flaxseed
• 25g rolled oats
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• ½tsp cinnamon
• 75ml golden, agave or maple syrup
• 50g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas mark 4. Meanwhile, line a 900g loaf tin (18 x 6cm) with baking paper.
2. Place the seeds, nuts, flaxseed and oats in a large mixing bowl. Add the vanilla extract, cinnamon and syrup and mix. Spoon into the prepared tin. Press down firmly, making sure there are no gaps, and bake for about 30 minutes until lightly golden but not brown around the edges. Take out of the oven and press down again using a large spoon. Allow to cool completely.
3. Break the chocolate into small pieces, place in a microwavable bowl and heat on full power for two to three minutes, stirring at 30-second intervals, until almost molten. Stir again and leave for a few moments until completely melted. Alternatively, place the chocolate pieces in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water, and heat until the chocolate starts to melt, then stir until completely melted. Drizzle over the cooled nut mixture.
4. Pop the tin in the freezer for the chocolate to set. Once cooled, cut into eight bars. They will keep in an airtight container for up to seven days.

Nutrition per bar: 266 calories | 8g protein | 18g fat (4g saturates) | 16g carbs (12g total sugars) | 4g fibre

Recipes taken from The Vegan Athlete’s Cookbook: Protein-Rich Recipes To Train, Recover And Perform by Anita Bean (Bloomsbury, £16.99). Out now

Even though it’s the simplest of foods, for some reason cooking rice is a bit of an art, which can put a lot of people off making the stuff. But whether you’re wary of it or you’re looking to zhuzh up your plain boiled basmati, it’s time to introduce some nice rice to your life. The Rice Association has celebrated National Rice Week (13th-19th September, but you knew that already) by pulling together ricey recipes from a host of leading chefs.

You’ll find the full range of recipes on the Rice Association website, but the one that caught our eye was the baked Mexican rice with beans and greens, topped with a mango salsa, from Niki Webster at Rebel Recipes. It’s full of veg and beans, and pretty easy to prepare – anytime you see “combine all the ingredients” near the start of a recipe you know you’re in for a relatively easy ride. It also cooks the rice in the oven which, in our experience at least, is the most foolproof way of getting rice right.

Ingredients (Serves Four)

For the rice

• 650ml vegetable stock (or boiling water)
• 250g long grain rice, rinsed well
• 1 can black beans, drained
• 40g greens (eg asparagus/broccoli/spring greens), chopped
• 3 spring onions, sliced
• Salt and pepper, to taste

For the tomato sauce

• 1 red onion, sliced
• 1tbsp olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1tbsp smoked paprika
• ½tsp chilli powder or chipotle powder
• 1tsp ground cumin
• 1tsp oregano
• 5 tomatoes, chopped
• 3tbsp sun-dried tomato paste

For the mango salsa

• 1 mango, peeled and sliced into cubes
• Fresh coriander and mint, shredded
• Juice of 1 lime
• Pinch of sea salt flakes and chilli flakes

See related

• Finish Veganuary On A High With This Spinach, Sweet Potato And Raisin Biriyani
• Kedgeree-Style Rice With Smoked Haddock And Green Beans Recipe
• The Best Vegan Recipe Box And Meal Delivery Services

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180℃/gas 4. Combine all the rice ingredients in a casserole dish and stir. Cover tightly with foil, then bake for 15 minutes.
2. In the meantime, fry the onion in the olive oil on a medium heat for eight minutes.
3. Add the garlic and spices and stir to combine. Add the chopped tomatoes and sun-dried tomato paste and simmer for six minutes until the tomatoes have started to break down.
4. Remove the rice from the oven and add the tomato mix to the rice. Stir to combine, then bake for a further 15 minutes or until the rice is tender.
5. Make the salsa by adding all the ingredients to a bowl and mixing to combine. Serve with the baked rice.

One of the fundamental pieces of dietary advice given in the UK is to eat two portions of fish a week, one of which should be oily fish. There are several reasons for this, but one of them is that oily fish is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids.

You can also get these fatty acids from plant sources, though it’s not as easy for the body to absorb them in this form. You can also get them from supplements. For more information on why omega-3 fatty acids are important and how to go about getting them, we spoke to registered nutritionist (RNutr) Rhiannon Lambert.

What is omega-3?

It’s an example of unsaturated fat, and there are three main types of it: alpha-linoleic acids (ALA); docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which is the really important one; and EPA, which is eicosapentaenoic acid. ALA is mainly found in plant-based sources, while DHA and EPA mainly come from animal sources.

DHA is the one that we really need to be getting enough of. It’s actually the most abundant form in the body – 60% of our brain is made up of fat, and that’s predominantly those DHA fatty acids. Omega-3 plays a role in our cell structure. The outside coating of a cell is the cell membrane, which retains the structure, and you need these fatty acids to build those membranes.

What are the established benefits of omega-3?

The key research is on brain health, and a lot of it is on Alzheimer’s disease. You’ve got the umbrella term dementia, Alzheimer’s comes under that, and we’ve got a lot of research that with neurodegenerative diseases, perhaps dietary interventions can slow it down or reduce the risk.

There’s also a tonne of research that it’s beneficial for cardiovascular health. Fertility is another area as well – eating a Mediterranean diet which contains omega-3s has been linked to fertility.

They’re the key areas that we have a lot of research in. But it’s important to add, it’s still evolving. The brain is a difficult area to study, and there are lots of areas linked to brain health, but omega-3 is one pathway that we can look at.

We’ve covered Cochrane reviews of the available evidence suggesting that omega-3 has a limited impact on heart health. What’s your view on that?

What we can take from it is that we still don’t have a full understanding of omega-3 and messages can be mixed. The UK still promotes eating it for heart health, but there is some evidence that does suggest otherwise. Ultimately there is no harm in consuming omega-3 and there is enough evidence to suggest in other areas that it can be beneficial.

Is there any guidance on how much omega-3 you need?

We’re advised to eat two portions of fish a week, only one of which is oily. This is because of the levels of mercury in fish in the sea now.

When it comes to advising how much omega-3 we need, it’s a very grey area. There’s no official guidance in the UK on omega-3 itself, especially in supplementation forms. In America, they say a minimum of 250 to 500mg of combined EPA and DHA for healthy adults daily. So that’s a rough guideline. The American recommended daily allowance of ALA is 1.6g a day for men and 1.1g for women.

In the UK, we do advise that for children, boys can have more portions of oily fish than girls – boys could have two, girls could have one. That’s because of the potential impact on fertility for women with the stored minerals in their body from the pollutants that are found in fish.

What are good dietary sources of omega-3?

The key sources are oily fish, but if you don’t consume them, then nuts and seeds. Meat does have some omega-3, but it’s not known as a really good source. Some fish are higher in omega-3 than others – fish like sardines, salmon, mackerel are higher than white fish like sea bass and sea bream.

There is also algae. Most people know omega-3 comes from oily fish, but the fish eat the algae in the sea, which contains DHA, and we consume the fish that eat the algae. So if you’re a vegan, you can just take the DHA algae and cut out the middleman.

The reason we want fish, though, is because we absorb DHA really well when it comes from fish. When we’re simply getting the plant-based form ALA – which you get in things like avocado, nuts and seeds – we don’t absorb it very well. It takes a very long time to convert in the body to DHA and EPA.

See related 

• Eat This Moroccan Salmon Recipe Because We All Need More Oily Fish In Our Lives
• Tom Kerridge’s Cajun Salmon Recipe Is A Delicious Low-Calorie Dinner

Are there different types of omega-3 supplements?

Yes there are. You want to be looking for EPA and DHA in a fish oil supplement, and you can also get things like krill oil that will contain omega-3.

Vegans can have DHA in algae form if they don’t feel comfortable taking the oily fish, and actually, it’s often higher-quality these days anyway, because the quality of fish oil can vary greatly.

Can you have too much omega-3?

You can have too much, and pregnant women shouldn’t be taking it on top of a vitamin A supplement.

In the UK we don’t have recommended amounts but the European Food Safety Authority, which we use, says up to 5,000mg is safe in a dose. However, the FDA, which is the Food and Drug Administration in the USA, says you shouldn’t exceed 3,000mg a day. That’s because of the risk of excessive bleeding and blood thinning. The advice is mixed but it’s not good to take too much of anything.

I would always say speak to a health professional before taking a supplement, especially if you’re pregnant.

How does omega-6 relate to omega-3?

We have insufficient evidence about the impact of omega-6, but it’s believed that like with cholesterol, there’s a ratio of good and bad. You want more omega-3 and less omega-6, because it’s thought that if the ratio is the wrong way around, it can create inflammation in the body. But inflammation in nutrition is very blurred and confused as it is. There is no miracle food that you can eat and suddenly expect to have no inflammation in your body.

We spoke to Rhiannon Lambert around the launch of the Nutri Within supplement range at LloydsPharmacy

If you’re aiming to improve your gut health through your diet, there are a couple of key targets you should try to hit each week. The first is to eat enough fibre, and the second is to vary your sources of fibre and nutrients by eating at least 30 different plant foods per week.

Hitting both targets is good for more than just your gut health. It will benefit you in all sorts of ways, bringing a variety of essential vitamins and minerals into your diet.

It’s also relatively easy to hit both targets once you get into the habit. While eating 30 different plant foods in particular might sound tricky, you can easily tick off between five and 10 of those in one meal if you plan it right.

This overnight oats recipe, for example, contains at least nine plant foods (more if you go wild with the chopped fresh fruit). The recipe, which has been created by Dr Joan Ransley for Love Your Gut Week, obviously also contains oats, which contain two types of dietary fibre. It’s the perfect way to start a gut-healthy day, and takes just 15 minutes to prepare the night before. The oats will also last in the fridge for up to three days, so you can make a few servings at once.

Banana And Coconut Overnight Oats

Ingredients (Serves Four)

• 100g oats
• 15g chia seeds
• 300ml semi-skimmed milk
• 100g plain yogurt
• 40g walnuts
• 40g dates, pitted and roughly chopped
• 1 banana, peeled and chopped into small cubes
• 30g coconut flakes
• 60g chopped fresh fruit (eg apples, blueberries, strawberries)
• 30g nuts (eg chopped almonds, pecans)
• 10g maple syrup (optional)

Method

1. Place the oats, chia seeds, milk, yogurt, walnuts, dates and banana in a large bowl. Add 20g of the coconut shavings and mix well. Cover the bowl and place it in the fridge. It will be ready to eat after two hours but can be left in the fridge overnight (hence the name) and eaten the next day. Oats and chia seeds are very absorbent and will continue to soak up milk for several hours. Add more milk or water to the overnight oats if you think they have become too thick.
2. Serve the overnight oats with a mixture of chopped fresh fruit, the remaining coconut flakes and a few chopped nuts. Add a drizzle of maple syrup if you like.

For more recipes visit loveyourgut.com

More About Gut Health

• Treat Your Gut To This Chicken Schnitzel And Salad Recipe
• Improve Your Diet With These Foods That Are Good For Your Gut
• Are Fermented Foods Good For You?
• High-Fibre Foods To Help You Lose Weight And Get Healthier

If you’re looking to improve your diet, two changes that are pretty much guaranteed to help are to increase the amount and variety of vegetables you’re eating, and to ensure you have a portion or two of oily fish on your weekly menu.

This dish from Green Chef, one of the best recipe boxes, will help on both counts. The miso glazed salmon is paired with tenderstem broccoli, mangetout and peppers for a delicious dinner that contains two portions of your five-a-day.

Ingredients (Serves Two)

• 15g miso paste
• 2tbsp tamari sauce
• 2 salmon fillets
• 150g tenderstem broccoli
• 1 bell pepper
• 150g mangetout
• 1 garlic clove
• 1tbsp maple syrup
• 1tsp black sesame seeds

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 220°C/200°C fan/gas mark 7. In a large bowl, combine the miso paste and half the tamari. Pat the salmon fillets dry with kitchen paper. Add the salmon fillets to the miso marinade and ensure they’re fully coated. Make sure to wash your hands and equipment after handling raw fish.
2. Cut the larger tenderstem broccoli florets lengthways. Halve the pepper and discard the core and seeds. Slice into thin strips. Slice the mangetout in half lengthways. Peel and grate the garlic (or use a garlic press).
3. Place the salmon fillets on a lined baking tray with a drizzle of oil. Spoon any remaining marinade over the salmon. Bake on the top shelf of the oven for 14-16 minutes, or until cooked – the fish is cooked when it is opaque in the middle.
4. When the salmon has been in the oven for six minutes, heat a large frying pan on a high heat with a drizzle of oil. Add the tenderstem broccoli and pepper. Cook for two to three minutes until starting to char. Add the mangetout to the pan and cook for a further two to three minutes. If you’d like to, season with salt and pepper.
5. Add the garlic and sauté for one minute to soften. Remove the pan from the heat and pour in the maple syrup and remaining tamari. Stir to coat.
6. Divide the stir-fried maple veggies between two plates. Top with the salmon fillets, drizzling over any remaining marinade and sprinkling the black sesame seeds over the salmon.

More Salmon Recipes

• Tom Kerridge’s Cajun Salmon Recipe Is A Delicious Low-Calorie Dinner
• How To Cook Pan-Roasted Salmon
• Eat This Moroccan Salmon Recipe Because We All Need More Oily Fish In Our Lives
• The Simplest Grilled Salmon Recipe Imaginable

If you’re embarking on a health kick and casting around for advice, one of the first bits of diet advice you’re likely to receive is to reduce the amount of carbs you eat (a low-carb diet), or even remove carbs from your diet entirely (a ketogenic diet). It’s not an entirely unreasonable move, especially considering many of us overindulge in certain delicious carb-heavy and calorific foods like chips, but it is also true to say that carbs take more than their fair share of the blame when it comes to people being overweight.

To find out why we need carbs and how you can adjust your intake of them to be more healthy, we spoke to dietitian Richard Chessor, speaking on behalf of the British Dietetic Association, who’s also a SENr sports exercise nutritionist.

What switches would you recommend to eat healthier carbs?

Eating more complex carbs is not only beneficial from an energy provision perspective, often foods high in complex carbs bring with them various other nutrients – vitamins and minerals – and fibre, whereas foods high in simple sugars often contain few other nutrients. Quite simply eating more fruit, vegetables and wholegrains is a great place to start.

Staple foods such as pasta, rice and bread can easily be swapped for wholegrain alternatives. Refined cereals can be swapped for oats or muesli. Sweets and confectionary can be swapped for fresh and dried fruits.

Does eating protein make you feel fuller than eating carbs?

For most people, yes. For an equal amount of calories from protein and carbs, most people will feel fuller from the protein. This can be beneficial for weight loss or if someone is wishing to control their carbohydrate intake; including protein in a meal will help them feel fuller and hence reduce the desire to continue eating or eat again shortly after the meal.

Get The Facts On More Demonised Foods

• Is Bread Bad For You?
• Is Pasta Good For You?
• Is Cheese Good For You?
• Are Sweeteners Bad For You?

One of my bugbears about recipe box companies is how many of them make it surprisingly tricky to browse meals on the website without starting an order, or hide the nutritional details of the meals. Worst of all, some make it hard to find out how much you’ll actually have to pay without going through several steps of an order.

Green Chef deserves plaudits for its refreshingly easy-to-use website. You can see all the meals available for the next three weeks, along with the nutritional info of each, broken down by which plan they belong to. The price of a box is also shown as soon as you start setting up your order, and doesn’t vary depending on the meals you choose.

There are five plans you can sign up to, and one of those is keto – a particularly low-carb, high-fat diet which until now has been underserved by recipe boxes. The other options are low-carb (under 35g per serving, compared with under 20g for keto recipes), vegetarian, vegan and balanced.

I tried three meals from the service, one apiece from the keto, balanced and vegan plans. All the recipes were easy to follow and the cards clearly listed the nutritional info on the front, including how many portions of your five-a-day are contained in each serving.

Despite being a committed consumer of substantial amounts of carbs, the keto recipe won me over by including a huge veggie stir-fry, which is one of my favourite dishes. It was tasty too, with a sesame and ginger-flavoured steak (pictured, above) on top of that stir-fry of so many veggies – including cabbage and pak choi – that the extremely low carb content didn’t really register.

I also enjoyed the other meals I tried: a teriyaki sea bass with black rice for the balanced option (pictured, below), and a chana masala from the vegan plan. Each of the meals took around 30 minutes to make – the stir-fry would have been quicker if I was more adept at chopping – and the instructions were clear.

The amount of vegetables was also impressive, and the actual vegetable choices were varied. Since speaking to a dietitian about fibre, discovering there are nearly 100 types of it and we should all be varying our sources as much as possible, I’ve been trying to increase the range of plant foods I eat each week, and Green Chef certainly helped on this front.

One thing I noticed in the meals I tried was that the calorie counts were quite high – 745 per serving in the balanced meal, and 542 for the keto meal despite its lack of carbs. There are lower-calorie options to be found on the site, but it doesn’t seem a big priority for Green Chef, and if you’re sticking to something like a rough 400-600-600 plan for your meals you’ll have to hunt a bit to find meals.

See related 

• The UK’s Best Recipe Boxes
• The Best Vegan Recipe Box And Meal Delivery Services
• The UK’s Best Healthy Meal Delivery Services

There’s also a relatively small range of meals compared with what Green Chef offers in the US. I’m hoping this will expand quickly now the service has launched in the UK, but right now there are only three balanced meals in a week, for example, so if you followed that plan you’d have very little variety in your meals.

The price is also slightly higher than competitors like HelloFresh and Gousto, with the cheapest option £4.70 per serving (four people, four meals per week), and the more standard three meals for two people per week costing £5.95 per serving. HelloFresh starts at £3.25 a meal, and Gousto £2.98. I wouldn’t say the Green Chef offers tastier or healthier meals than its rivals, though the keto menu is something different, even if other brands offer low-carb options.

Still, there’s little to fault about the Green Chef service, and it’s one worth checking out if you are especially keen on low-carb recipes. The balanced meals would be my preference, and here Green Chef impresses with the amount and range of vegetables. In short, it’s a very good recipe box service. Give it a go.

Buy from Green Chef | From £4.70pp

Eating more vegetables is one of the easiest and most straightforward ways to improve your health. It’s a bit of advice relevant to everyone and it’s one of those rare bits of health science no-one contests. Of course, it’s well known that only a minority of us eat the recommended minimum of five portions of fruit and veg a day, and that’s supported by a recent piece of consumer research of 2,000 people commissioned by Tesco which found 9% of UK adults only eat vegetables once a week or less.

We won’t go into the why here (don’t get us started), but instead we’ll ask: what should we do about it? Tesco has made a great start by having its health ambassador Jamie Oliver create quick and easy recipes which contain at least two of your five-a-day.

The below recipe for roasted tomato and feta toast caught our eye because it looks like a fancy pizza baguette. At just 485 calories per serving there’s also space for an extra topping or two while still staying within Public Health England’s 400-600-600 calorie rule.

The recipe takes next to no time to prep, but requires a couple of hours in the oven (pro tip: slow-roasted veg is a shortcut to delicious sweetness). If you’re working from home, get it going during elevenses then enjoy the aromas as you finish your morning’s work.

You can find Oliver’s recommendations for easy ways to eat even more veg on the Tesco Real Food website.

Roasted Tomato And Feta Toast (Serves Two)

Ingredients

• 1 yellow pepper
• 360g salad tomatoes
• 1tsp dried oregano
• 50g feta cheese
• 1 small baguette (200g)
• 1 clove of garlic
• A few sprigs fresh basil
• Balsamic vinegar, for drizzling (optional)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C/gas mark 2. Deseed and thinly slice the pepper. Halve the tomatoes and place them cut side up in a roasting tray (25x30cm), poking the pepper in around them. Season with a small pinch of sea salt and black pepper, sprinkle with the oregano and rub with 1½tbsp of olive oil.
2. Break the feta into large chunks and add to the tray, then roast for two hours until the tomatoes and pepper are sticky and soft.
3. Ten minutes before the end of the cooking time, slice the baguette in half lengthways and then again widthways and place directly on the bars of the oven to toast.
4. Transfer the toasted baguette to serving plates or a board and rub with the cut side of the garlic clove. Spoon over a little of the cooking juices, then top with the roasted tomatoes and peppers, crumble over the feta and scatter over the basil leaves. Drizzle with a little balsamic vinegar, if you like, and serve.

More Recipe Ideas

• Four Tasty-As-Heck Healthy Packed Lunch Ideas
• These Bento Recipes Make Fantastic Packed Lunches For Work
• Spice Up Your Lunch With This Burrito Jar Recipe

The simplest way to take part in National Vegetarian Week, which runs from 10th to 16th May, is to eat a vegetarian diet for those seven days. However, we know that if you’re not used to it, switching to a vegetarian diet while still enjoying tasty and healthy meals isn’t that easy. So we’ve picked out a range of great vegetarian recipes below to get you on your way.

Before that, though, let’s talk about the Veggie 123 Challenge, which is the new way to take part in National Vegetarian Week this year. The first bit we’ve already talked about – eat a vegetarian diet for a week. The second part is to nominate two other people to join in the challenge, and the third is to donate £3 to the Vegetarian Society charity, which is currently raising £15,000 to send packages to food banks around the UK.

“I think the Veggie 123 challenge is a great way of getting people to try some new foods and meals that they wouldn’t normally eat,” says registered nutritionist Anita Bean. “I’m looking forward to experimenting more with tofu, which I don’t tend to eat very often. There are some delicious ways of using it in curries, noodle dishes and burgers that I am keen to try.”

You can join the Veggie 123 Challenge on the Vegetarian Society website. Now on to the recipes, starting with a great one from Bean herself.

Five Great Vegetarian Recipes

1. Cocoa and almond energy balls

This simple snack is ideal for keen sportspeople looking for some fast fuel before a workout. It’s from The Runner’s Cookbook, by Anita Bean, which is full of great meal ideas for active people. See the recipe

2. Roasted cauliflower tacos

If you’ve never been convinced by the merits of roasted cauliflower, we promise this recipe will change your mind. This recipe also explains how to make your own salsa and guacamole – essential life skills in our book. See the recipe

3. Spinach, sweet potato and raisin biriyani

Whip up a batch of this sweet and spicy dish early in the week and you’ll have a delicious, hearty meal ready to heat up for a few days afterwards. The biriyani is full of both flavour and healthy ingredients like veg, lentils and raisins, so it will put you well on your way to your five-a-day as well. See the recipe

See related

• Make These Hoisin Tofu Burritos To Celebrate National Vegetarian Week
• Why You Should Go Part-Time Vegetarian
• The 22 Best Vegetarian Sources Of Protein

4. Vegetable skewers

We’re hoping for sunny weather during National Vegetarian Week, and if it comes to pass you can take advantage with this great barbecue recipe. These vegetable skewers are super-easy to make, with no real cooking skills required aside from the ability to chop vegetables. See the recipe

5. Herby stew

Just in case the sun doesn’t appear, here’s a hearty stew recipe from the foodies behind BOSH! It’s packed full of a variety of herbs, plus beans, lentils and plenty of veg. It’s another one you can make a big batch of, so you’ll have quick meals on hand when required. See the recipe

Interest in plant-based diets has boomed in recent years. Whether driven by ethical or health concerns, many people are looking to reduce their intake of meat and animal products and boost the amount of fruit, vegetables and pulses in their diets. Veganuary reported a record 500,000 sign-ups in 2021, an increase of 100,000 from 2020 and double that of 2019. Of this year’s sign-ups, 125,000 participants were based in the UK.

But for habitual consumers of meat, cheese and eggs, early experiments in plant-based meals can be a challenge. New cooking techniques can be hard to master all in one go, and after a few bland salads or tasteless heaps of boiled veg, you might find yourself dreaming of steaks and bacon, rather than focussing on increasing the number of plant-based meals in your week.

Mail-order meal services like allplants are a great, convenient way of getting a variety of delicious, nutritious, meat- and dairy-free food into your diet without having to memorise recipes or slave over a stove. But if you’re up to the challenge of preparing your own food, we have some tips to help fill beginners’ tables with plant-based food bursting with flavour that will leave you counting the hours until your next meal.

Choose your ingredients with care

The quality of your ingredients can, unsurprisingly, have a big impact on the tastiness of your meals. If you are finding your plant-based meals uninspiring, then consider splashing out on fresh and higher-quality ingredients. In many cases, organic produce and ingredients without lots of preservatives and added sugar can help you achieve a richer flavour.

The world of fruit and veg also offers an unmatched opportunity to experiment and try new things. With so many varieties and variations to choose from, consider stepping outside your comfort zone and trying something new like a funky mushroom or colourful squash. You might discover a new favourite.

Spice things up

Herbs and spices are famously a source of flavours that can be combined and experimented with endlessly to create delicious meals, from sprinkling them on roasting veg to mixing them into sauces. Supermarkets carry them in plentiful supply, and if you find particular spices that work for you, they can be bought cheaply and in bulk in many local convenience stores.

Many vegan cooks swear by nutritional yeast in particular for its cheesy, nutty flavour – it works as a great parmesan substitute. For the green-fingered, herbs can be easily grown on a windowsill, so a burst of fresh flavour is always within easy reach.

Books like the staple Flavour Thesaurus can be a great guide for pairing spices and herbs with vegetables and other foods, and there’s much joy to be found in playing around with flavours and finding the ones you like best.

Explore the world

Consider taking advantage of some culinary expertise that has stood the test of time. There are many cuisines from across the world in which vegetables play a major role, and these can serve as a great inspiration for your plant-based cooking. From Mexico to Greece, India and beyond, there are countless beloved dishes that can be replicated and adapted. Exploring international cuisine is a good way of learning to combine ingredients and flavours in ways you might not have considered, and to increase your repertoire of recipes.

Equally, allplants’ menu of over 30 mains draws on flavours, ingredients and dishes from all over the world, giving you plenty of chances to work out what you enjoy the most and incorporate it into your repertoire.

Don’t fear salt

We’re primed to be wary of consuming too much salt, but the reality is that you would have to add a lot to your food to get it anywhere near to the levels of processed foods or the average supermarket ready meal. A plant-based meal prepared with no salt at all can be very bland, and just a small amount can make all the difference.

Salt helps to enhance the flavour and reduce the bitterness of vegetables. In cooking, it also assists in breaking down pectins to soften your vegetables and make them more deliciously tender. If your plant-based meals are missing something, adding a pinch of salt is a simple way to start.

Fatty flavours

While much focus is given to meat and dairy as a source of protein (and the ways to compensate for this in a plant-based diet), the source of much of their flavour is in their fat content. Fruit and vegetables tend to contain a lot less fat, so if you want to make sure that your meals are both satisfying your hunger and bursting with flavour you will need to choose the right ingredients.

Fortunately, there are plenty of delicious sources of fat that you can incorporate into your meals. Nuts and seeds are a popular source of healthy fats, as are avocados and olives. Dressing your meals with a good-quality olive or coconut oil is another easy way to add delicious fat to your food, as are sauces that incorporate peanut butter or tahini (a paste made from sesame seeds that is a key ingredient of houmous).

When you need a break from cooking, allplants is a great option. Its meals are designed by nutritionists and prepared fresh by a team of chefs in its London kitchen. Delivered in 48 hours, meals can be heated from frozen and ready to eat in as little as six minutes. On top of this, the sustainable packaging (recyclable or made from recycled materials) can be returned for free so that allplants can recycle it. Services like allplants offer a simple, easy and quick way to get more delicious, plant-based meals into your diet while teaching you about flavours, ingredients and techniques you can incorporate into your own cooking.

Visit allplants.com to get started with £10 off your first delivery – use code COACHMAG at checkout*

*Discount applies to first order only, one use per customer. Offer expires 31.12.21 and cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer.

The idea of eating healthier and losing weight has got a bad reputation, with the assumption that you’ll have to go cold turkey on eating for enjoyment. That’s codswallop – as anyone who has devoured a cold turkey sandwich with avocado and mayo on wholemeal will know. Cold chicken in a pitta is also good, and that just so happens to be one of the most popular recipes on Noom.

Noom is an online programme that uses the psychology of behaviour change, one-on-one coaching, education and perhaps most importantly very tasty recipes to help people eat healthier, as well as losing some weight along the way if they fancy it.

“Our role is not to tell you what to eat, but to empower you in making educated decisions for yourself,” says Alex Sizer, who is a registered dietitian in the US and a Noom coach. “Noom’s dietary advice encourages awareness, portion control, mindfulness and moderation over restriction so that all foods can fit into a healthy balanced diet.”

One way Noom informs your food choices is by helping you set a reasonable daily calorie intake. It then introduces the concept of calorie density, categorizing foods into a traffic light system according to how many calories a set weight of food contains.

“Foods that are less calorically dense – less calories and more volume – are categorised as green, where foods that are more calorically dense – more calories and less volume – are categorized as red,” says Sizer. “Noom encourages, but doesn’t require, you to choose foods that keep you feeling full, while still successfully staying within a calorie deficit to promote weight loss.

“If you follow Noom’s guidance, a typical day’s diet will reach your ideal calorie range without going too far over or under. You’ll be encouraged to balance your food choices in a distribution of 30% of daily calories from green foods, 45% from yellow foods, and 25% from red foods.”

That’s the science-y bit, but what does that look like in practice? And more importantly, what could you eat tonight (a question we’re always pondering)? Sizer pointed us towards three of the most popular recipes with Noom users (see below), but made it clear that you won’t be forced into a “three square meals a day” straitjacket. “While some individuals may strive for three meals per day, others may be grazers and eat small frequent meals. Possibly you’re more of a ‘two meals per day with a few snacks in-between’ type of eater. Or maybe you work night shifts, and eat your primary meals through the night. We recognise that everyone has their own unique background and their own unique schedule, meaning a typical day’s food intake really depends on you!”

If you’re tempted by the approach, or the recipes below and want more, Noom is offering a 14-day trial for £1.

Breakfast: Banana-Apple And Nut Oatmeal (Serves One)

Ingredients

• ¼ cup quick cooking oats
• ½ cup skimmed milk or almond milk
• ¼tbsp flaxseeds
• ½ medium apple, diced
• 1tbsp walnuts, chopped
• ½ banana, peeled and sliced
• 1tbsp honey

Method

1. Combine oats, milk, flaxseeds and honey in a microwave-safe bowl. Cook in a microwave for 1½ minutes (you may need to adjust depending on the microwave).
2. Stir the mixture, top with walnuts, apples and bananas. Serve hot.

Try a 14-day trial of Noom | £1

Lunch: Chicken And Avocado Pitta Pockets (Serves Four)

Ingredients

• 500g cooked chicken breast, cut into small pieces
• ¼ cup grated reduced-fat cheddar cheese
• ¾ cup diced avocado
• ½ cup bell peppers, seeded and chopped
• ½ cup celery, chopped
• ½ cup cucumber, chopped
• ½ cup carrots, peeled and shredded
• ½ cup cauliflower, finely chopped
• ¼ cup red onion, chopped
• 6tbsp balsamic dressing
• 4 wholewheat pittas, halved

Method

1. Toss the chicken, cheddar and vegetables with the dressing. Fill each pitta half with approximately ¾ cup of the mixture.

Try a 14-day trial of Noom | £1

Dinner: Turkey Cheddar Tacos (Serves Four)

Ingredients

• 1 cup shredded cooked turkey breast
• 2tbsp drained pickled jalapeño
• 1tbsp fat-free mayonnaise
• 2tbsp fresh chopped coriander
• Zest and juice of 1 lime
• 4 6in/20cm fat-free flour tortillas
• 1 cup shredded lettuce
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
• ½ cup grated reduced-fat cheddar cheese

Method

1. Combine the turkey, pickled jalapeño, mayonnaise, coriander, lime zest and lime juice in a medium bowl.
2. Warm a large nonstick frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the tortillas, one at a time, and warm until crisp and dark brown in spots, about one minute on each side.
3. Top each tortilla with ¼ cup of the turkey mixture, spreading it almost to the edge. Top with ¼ cup of lettuce, about ¼ cup of tomatoes and 2tbsp of the cheddar.

Try a 14-day trial of Noom | £1

We don’t have to tell you about Joe Wicks. Thanks to his PE With Joe series keeping the nation moving during lockdown he’s more popular than ever. But although Wicks’s workouts have been in the spotlight the past few months, it’s the Lean In 15 recipes he posts on Instagram and his best-selling series of recipe books of the same name that built his success.

The reason for the popularity of recipes might be that they’re quick and easy to make. Or that they’re delicious. Or that there are so many ideas that you’re bound to find one you’ll want to eat right now. But we think the real reason is that when people stop relying on ready meals and start cooking for themselves, they feel healthier and keep going.

If you want some inspiration to get you started, then browse through some of our favourite super-fast, tasty and healthy recipe ideas from Wicks’s Instagram below – but first, five recipes Wicks has shared exclusively with Coach. Cheers, Joe!

1. 10-Minute Halloumi Tacos With Peri-Peri Mayo

This recipe is from Wicks’s range for recipe box service Gousto and it makes an ideal working-from-home lunch. The ingredients are easily picked up from a nearby mini-supermarket, giving you an excuse to leave your residence after a morning spent grafting a metre or so from where you woke up. See the recipe

2. Lentil Bolognese Recipe

You’ll need a little longer to make this beauty from Veggie Lean In 15, but we’d happily spare more than the 30 minutes needed for this tasty meatless spag bol. The lentils bulk it out, but it’s the walnuts and red wine that make it taste deliciously rich. See the recipe

3. Low-Carb Hoisin Turkey Lettuce Cups

Another Gousto creation, this light summer bite uses a crunchy, fresh lettuce leaf as the taco shell. A great choice if you’re not exercising that day and don’t need carbs to refuel. See the recipe

4. Harissa And Tomato Chicken Recipe

You’ll find plenty of smart shortcuts to big flavours by following Wicks’s feed, and one of the spiciest is harissa paste. Dollop on a bit more yogurt if you need to douse the fire. See the recipe

5. Chickpea Kofte Pitta With Sweet Potato Fries

Pittas are not appreciated enough in this country – fact. While we admit the presentation in the photo is very appetising, we’ve been known to draw the curtains, shove the salad and fries in the pitta and eat like no-one’s watching. See the recipe

6. Peanut Butter And Raspberry Flapjacks

Get the energy to exercise with these easy flapjacks, which contain a tasty mix of nuts, seeds, oats and fruit, as well as peanut butter and honey.

7. Frozen Fruit And Nut Yogurt Bark

Have you not tried bark yet? It’s all the rage. Mix yogurt, honey, seeds, nuts and berries, chuck it in the freezer, then pull it out when you’re in need of a crunchy sweet treat. No trees involved.

8. Egg And Pesto Breakfast Wrap

Upgrade your morning meal with this speedy tortilla recipe, which contains eggs, spinach, avocado, cheese and a smear of pesto.

9. Crispy Honey Sesame Chicken

This one might take you longer than 15 minutes unless you’re as much of a wizard in the kitchen as Wicks, but it’s worth the time for the sweet-and-savoury chicken you get to eat at the end.

10. Chicken Tikka Wrap

The stuff lunchtime dreams are made of.

11. Chocolate And Banana Overnight Oats

About as easy and tasty a breakfast as you’ll find, with a scoop of whey powder thrown into the mix to boost the protein content and keep you full until lunch – or elevenses if you like to work out first thing. The only hard bit is doing the prep the night before, but persist and that’ll quickly become a habit.

12. Veggie Stuffed Peppers

These spicy, hearty stuffed peppers make for a satisfying and healthy winter dinner. Keep in mind that you’ll need some prepared grains or some other microwavable rice pouch to keep the cooking time under 15 minutes – and no, it is not cheating.

13. Creamy Pesto Pasta With Broccoli And Sun-Dried Tomatoes

When you disappear into the kitchen and come back with this beauty after just 15 minutes you’ll attract admiration, wonderment and perhaps even a little fear. This creamy veggie pasta dish makes for a delicious and filling lunch.

14. Chilli Beef Nachos

Here’s a quick treat to whip up next time you fancy some comfort food. Or just any time you fancy nachos, which, let’s be honest, is all the time.

15. Curried Root Veg Filo Pie

There’s no way you can make a root veg pie in 15 minutes, you protest. And we didn’t believe it either, but Wicks is a man of his word. This healthy winter warmer can be ready to serve in a mere quarter of an hour, though it does require masterful levels of efficiency in the kitchen.

16. Salmon And Egg Baked Rolls

This is breakfast bliss and a surefire way to impress if you’re cooking for someone else. Normally we’d defend the delicious carby innards of a bread roll with our lives, but we’ll make an exception when they’re replaced with a baked egg and salmon.

17. Thai Green Fish In A Bag

Think of this dish as a foil-wrapped present to yourself. This technique doesn’t just mean all of the amazing flavours intermingle, but also makes the prep bit easy and the washing up even easier.

18. Homemade Baked Falafel With Honey Roasted Veg And A Tahini Dressing

It’s not hard to figure out where Wicks gets his energy from if he’s treating himself to healthy and wholesome dishes like this on the regular.

19. Roasted Red Pepper And Pesto Frittata

Remember, you can never have too many epic breakfast recipes up your pyjama sleeve, especially ones that don’t lean on processed pork.

20. Veggie Mac and Cheese

It’s the return of the mac – you knew that it’d be back – and we’re delighted to let you know that Wicks has brought more vegetables to the show with the addition of butternut squash and carrots. And the sprinkle of paprika? Come on! Oh my God!

21. Bye-Bye-Beef Spicy Prawn Burgers

We facepalmed when we thought how long we’d had a food processor but hadn’t thought to whizz up prawns, spring onions, coriander and Thai red chilli paste to make next-level patties. Genius!

22. Stupendous Spuds

Ahh, those magic words we dream of hearing in every recipe video. “More cheese”.

23. Very Veggie Pasta

Top marks to Wicks for making a vegetarian version of his 90-Day Plan, which includes this hazelnut pesto and courgette pasta. Roll on meat-free Monday…

24. Red Hot Stir-Fry

Fire up the wok and get your wrist warmed up – half the fun of stir-fries is showing off your flair with the wrist flicks. The other half is wrapping your laughing gear round this spicy number, obviously.

25. Simple Salad Sides And Chicken Thighs

Er, we’re not sure we’d trust chicken that’s been on the barbecue for just 15 minutes, but however you cook it (thoroughly, cook it thoroughly), the star of this plate isn’t the chicken – it’s the salad with wholegrains. You’ll want to make it a staple of all future barbecues because it brightens up a plate of sad-looking burnt meat no end.

See related 

• Joe Wicks’s Diet And Cooking Tips
• Joe Wicks’s No-Bake Protein Brownies Recipe
• Take Your Time Over This Tandoori Cod Burger Recipe From Joe Wicks’s 30-Minute Meals
• Joe Wicks Veggie Lean In 15 Review: If You Buy One Lean In 15 Book, Make It This One
• Is Joe Wicks’s 30-Minute Meals Cookbook Any Good?
• Joe Wicks On Why You Should Avoid Crash Diets
• EXCLUSIVE: Joe Wicks’ Four-Week Fat Loss Workout

26. Game-Changing Salmon Scotch Eggs

Just imagine the look on your colleagues’ faces as they glumly peel back the wrapper on another £3 meal-deal sandwich at their desk and you crack open your Tupperware box to reveal a couple of these healthy homemade beauties. Midweek lunchtime? You’ve just won it.

27. Quickfire Lamb Kofta Pittas

Even if it’s absolutely biblical outside, cling on to some al fresco BBQ vibes with these grilled meat bombs. Opt for wholemeal pittas and get a dose of iron from the grains.

28. Rockin’ Vietnamese Rolls

Enjoyed summer rolls in your local Vietnamese joint but thought you lacked the culinary chops to pull them off at home? Hoo boy were you wrong. Load up on sweet chilli dipping sauce and get to work.

29. The Big Boy Breakfast Burrito

Everything tastes better in wrap form, even your favourite protein-packed brunch staples. We’d slather this fistful of greatness in hot sauce too. Although to be fair we’d slather everything in hot sauce if it wasn’t frowned upon.

30. The Give-Meat-A-Break Stuffed Mushrooms

Here’s one for those whose carnivorous side refuses to relent, even for a day. Trick your inner flesh fiend into thinking it’s gorging on a slab of meat with this giant steaky mushroom, topped with tastebud-tingling feta and goodness-rich salad stuff.

31. Ridiculously Good-Looking Baked Egg Rolls

Oh, this? Only the best idea ever. Slice off the top of a roll, hollow it out, spread some pesto in there, layer in some ham, crack an egg in it and pop it in the oven.

32. Stack-’Em-High Fruity Protein Pancakes

You always mean to make them; here’s your justification. Consider this a big protein-packed push towards the frying pan.

RECOMMENDED: Chocolate Protein Pancake Recipe

33. Low-Carb, Big Heat Spicy Chilli Bowl

The archetypal winter warmer in a hurry. Whack up the heat and get this dish down to 15 minutes.

34. Killer Chicken Katsu Curry

Good luck getting this cooked in 15 minutes – and good luck not wolfing it down within five. All is forgiven, though, for getting the sweetness in the sauce from an apple and for instructing us to bash the chicken breast with a saucepan.

35. Turbo-Quick Tortilla Pizza

Done, quicker than you can say “just like Mama used to make”.

Allplants is an entirely plant-based meal delivery service. However, its tasty and inventive meals are not only suitable for vegans. Regardless of where you sit on the dietary spectrum, Allplants' meals are exceptional and it’s undoubtedly one of the best healthy meal prep services available. 

Allplants Review: Price And Availability

Allplants deliver almost everywhere in Great Britain, with a few areas in Scotland excluded because the meals can’t be delivered within 24 hours. The main meals in the range cost from £4.99 for a single serving, and you can also get a two-person portion. The minimum order is £30, and you need to spend £50 to qualify for free delivery (only available if you have a subscription). There are also sides, breakfast pots, desserts and smoothies in the range, and you can order a meal bundle to get a saving.

How I Tested These Meals

I have tested Allplants’ meals on three occasions over the past five years, and have tried the Buddha bowls and sides along with the main meals. Most recently I tried the special range created in partnership with chef Rachel Ama. I’ve also tested many other meal prep services.

How It Works

The Allplants service is a simple one. You choose your frozen meals online, choosing between a single or double serving, and place your order. You can also add sides and other extras, and either buy as a one-off order or sign up for a subscription, which gives you access to free delivery if spending over £50. 

You then book a delivery slot between Tuesday and Saturday and your meals come in an insulated box so they will stay frozen until the evening if you’re not home when they arrive. The meals then take around six to 10 minutes to heat up in the microwave—you can use an oven, but it takes a lot longer. The tray and sleeve used to package the meals can be recycled, while the plastic film over the top cannot.

The Meals

Having tried a range of Allplants I can say they are very tasty across the board, and pleasingly varied in both flavors and ingredients used. Every meal contains at least two of your recommended five-a-day—often more—and the portion sizes are big enough to satisfy, though on particularly active days it’s worth ensuring you pick up one of the company’s sides or puddings alongside your main dish (or make your own).

The meals are also a source of protein and are low in sugar, as well as being generally high in fiber thanks to the amount of veg that’s packed in. I was also impressed by their texture—none of the meals came out of the microwave as a soggy mush, with crunchy elements in the stews and curries.

For omnivores it can be hard to believe the meals are entirely plant-based, such as the authentically creamy, cheesy Mac & Greens in Creamy Sauce. Another meal I especially enjoyed was the Three Mushroom Medley Risotto, especially paired with the Garlic + Chilli Green side.

Most recently I tested the range of four meals created by chef Rachel Ama, of which the standout is the spicy West African Peanut Stew, which was packed with flavor and not overwhelmingly hot despite the use of Scotch Bonnet chillies. This is the first range of meals released as part of Allplants’ “chef in residence” program, with more chefs set to be involved in launching meals in the future.

I was also very taken with Allplants’ range of Buddha bowls. Packed with an assortment of veg and grains, some kind of mash (made with beans and peas, or coconut and edamame, for example) and a protein source like nuts or tofu, these bowls are terrific and guarantee an interesting, delicious and healthy lunch.

There’s a comprehensive nutritional breakdown of every meal on the Allplants website, and it also lists how many portions of your five-a-day each contains—a detail I always like to see. There are some “lighter” meals that come in under 450 calories, and all the meals seem to be under 600 calories. 

The obvious time to try Allplants is when you’re testing the waters of plant-based eating during an event like Veganuary, when it will make getting started on a vegan diet much easier. However, there really is no bad time to enjoy the meals on the Allplants menu, and they’re right up there with the best meal delivery services available regardless of your dietary preferences.

Buy from Allplants

• The Best Vegan Recipe Box And Meal Delivery Services
• The Best Recipe Boxes

People in the UK have no time for fibre. According to the NHS, the average consumption is 14g a day, when 30g is the recommended amount. Fortunately, once you start looking out for it, it’s not a tricky requirement to meet.

Getting enough fibre can reduce the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers, as well as helping control your weight and ensuring you stay, ahem, regular. Fibre aids digestion by absorbing water as it passes through your bowel and therefore increasing the bulk of your waste products. It also sustains the bacteria in your gut, creating a well-fed colony that can help everything from your immune system to the functioning of your organs. Fibre is also a welcome ally in the fight against weight gain through the magic of satiety: broadly speaking, this means it makes you feel fuller for longer, but without adding many calories.

Although there are fibre supplements available, they can’t compete with food when it comes to fibre because it’s not a single nutrient, as we learned when we spoke to Dr Megan Rossi about gut health. The dietitian and author of new book Eat Yourself Healthy explained there are nearly 100 different types of fibre split across six food groups: vegetables, fruit, wholegrains, legumes, nuts and seeds.

“Each category has got slightly differently-structured fibre that feeds different bacteria,” says Rossi. “If we want good gut health, we have to have a very diverse range of bacteria in our gut, and we achieve that simply by feeding our bacteria a diverse range of food.”

It’s important to get fibre from a range of foods, then, and different types of fibre are actually linked with different positive health outcomes. For example, studies have found that eating fibre from wholegrains reduces the risk of breast and colon cancer, while fibre from fruit and vegetables didn’t seem to have the same benefit. So don’t just pick a couple of foods from the list below and stick with them for all your fibre needs – take yourself on a voyage of fibrous discovery.

High-Fibre Foods

Dietary fibre is only found in plant-based foods like vegetables, nuts, fruit and grains. Good sources of insoluble fibre include wholegrain bread, bran and other cereals and nuts. For soluble fibre, eat oats, fruit and root vegetables.

If you’re not already a fibre fan be careful to increase the amount in your diet gradually. Going from fibre zero to high-fibre diet hero too quickly can cause stomach cramps and bloating.

Wholegrain and wholemeal foods

If your current diet contains a lot of bread and pasta then going wholemeal is an excellent starting point if you’re looking to improve it health-wise. Not only will the increased level of fibre aid digestion, fat loss and internal gut health, but there will likely be a drop-off in calories too. On average, wholemeal foods also contain more protein which will help maintain muscle mass.

Quinoa

It may be fashionable, but it’s worth the hype. With around 6g of fibre per serving, quinoa makes an ideal addition to any considered nutrition plan. What sets this seed apart is that in that single serving, you’ll also find an impressive 8g of protein and a complete amino acid profile.

Chia seeds

Given their tiny size, you would be forgiven for not recognising just how important chia seeds can be to your diet. In just 30g you will find over 10g of fibre. It’s also easy to incorporate them into your diet – simply sprinkle and mix in with cereals, yogurts and salads.

Seeds

We’ve given chia seeds the spotlight because of their truly outstanding fibre content, but many other seeds are a good source of fibre as well. Pumpkin and sunflower seeds both contain around 9g of fibre per 100g, while flaxseeds outdo both to offer 24g of fibre per 100g. Sprinkling a variety of seeds on a salad is a great way to increase your overall fibre intake and vary the sources of that fibre, which is important, as dietitian Jo Travers explained when we asked her about foods for gut health.

“There was a study done fairly recently that found people who ate 30 or more different plant foods in a week had a much more varied gut microbiota in their digestive system compared with those who only ate ten or fewer different plant foods a week,” Travers said.

Mushrooms

Mushrooms are full of chitin, a type of water-insoluble dietary fibre that makes up the cell walls of all fungi. Insoluble fibre is not metabolically active so it doesn’t contain calories, but it does add bulk to meals. Add mushrooms to stews, sauces and omelettes to stay feeling full.

Nuts

All nuts are high in water-soluble dietary fibre, which is dissolved and fermented in the colon. Of all nuts almonds have the most fibre per 100g, so snack on them when hunger strikes to avoid the temptation of sweet snacks. You’ll also get a whack of vitamins B and E.

Legumes

Beans, pulses and other crops in the legume family are low in calories but high in soluble fibre and decent amounts of protein – 100g of chickpeas contains around 7g – as well as other essential vitamins and minerals. Use them to bulk out soups, sauces and other main meals.

Carrots

Most varieties of root vegetables are high in soluble fibre, while their skins are full of insoluble fibre, especially sweet potatoes. Cover chopped root veg and peppers in olive oil and roast in the oven for a low-calorie, nutrient-dense side for steak and other protein choices.

Jacket potato

All potatoes offer a fair chunk of fibre, but your best bet is a sizeable jacket potato with the skin left on. A baked potato brings in 2.6g of fibre per 100g. With an average jacket potato generally weighing around 180-200g, you’ll be cramming in 5g of fibre before you even take into account fillings.

Brussels sprouts

These tiny, green balls of fun have been confined to Christmas dinners for too long, especially when you consider the boatload of fibre they bring to the table. A 100g serving of sprouts counts for just over 4g of fibre.

Dried apricots

The perfect snack for fibre-hunters, just don’t go nuts and eat the whole pack, as there’s plenty of sugar in dried apricots too. A 30g serving contains a solid 1.9g of fibre, which will tide you over nicely until your next meal.

Oats

Just 50g of oats contains 4.3g of fibre so make every effort to insert oats somewhere into your daily routine. Whether that’s porridge or muesli for breakfast, or a flapjack snack. Or just chuck them in a curry. Will that work? Who can say until you’ve tried it?

Bran

Long-standing favourite of the fibre fan club, bran for breakfast is the surefire way to get your day off to the ideal start. A bowl of All-Bran contains 10g of fibre, an impressive third of your 30g per day target. Add in some raisins for extra fibre and, more importantly, for some flavour.

Cereal

We’ve singled out oats and bran as especially fibre-rich options to have for breakfast, but many cereals are also high in the stuff. Shreddies contain 12g per 100g, as does Shredded Wheat, while Weetabix has 10g per 100g. In general, choose wholegrain varieties of cereal and you’ll kick off your day with a healthy serving of fibre, but if you’re not a fan of going full wholegrain at least look for multigrain options like Cheerios, which contain 8.9g of fibre per 100g.

Brown rice

It might take a fair bit longer to cook, but brown rice brings in around double the fibre of white rice, notching 2g per 100g, so it’s worth making the switch.

Prunes

Here’s an old joke that will get fibre fans chuckling every time: “What’s the definition of a pessimist? Someone who puts prunes on their All Bran.” If the punchline doesn’t make immediate sense to you, don’t worry – you’ll catch on in the cubicle. An excellent fibre-filled snack, 30g of prunes will net you 1.7g of the stuff.

Sweet potatoes

As well as counting towards your five-a-day – unlike regular spuds – sweet potatoes pack in 2.4g of fibre per 100g. A large sweet potato usually weighs around 150g, so that’s 3.6g of fibre sorted.

Hummus

Thanks to its high chickpea content the king of dips is bursting at the seams with fibre. A quarter of a 200g pot contains 2.4g, so when you consider that all normal people compulsively eat an entire tub in one sitting, that’s almost 10g of fibre! A load of fat too, sure (even if most of it’s the “good”, unsaturated kind), but think of the fibre.

Canned sweetcorn

A cheap, convenient and tasty option to fill your cupboards with in case of a fibre crisis. Half a 325g can of sweetcorn contains 3.3g of fibre. For a double hit of fibre, chuck some sweetcorn in with your brown rice when you cook it.

High-Fibre Meal Plan

To show how to hit the magic 30g a day number, here are a few ideas for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Once you’re eating fibre-rich meals regularly, try this seven-day high-fibre meal plan,  or if you’re trying to slim down, this weight loss diet plan for men and weight loss diet plan for women include your recommended daily allowance of fibre, as well as other nutrients. 

Breakfast – All-Bran

A bowl of All-Bran brings in 10g of fibre, you’re already a third of the way there. Another option is a brace of Weetabix biscuits, which will give you 4g.

Lunch – Baked potato with beans

A fibre hurricane. The potato (with skin) counts for 5g, while half a can of baked beans is 7.4g. If you opt for sandwiches, two wholemeal slices add 3.5g.

Snack – popcorn

Popcorn is a great source of fibre, clocking in at around 9g of the stuff per 100g, while a small bag of almonds will contribute 2g to your total, the same as one apple (with skin).

Dinner – Pasta with vegetable sauce

Each serving of whole-wheat pasta logs over 5g. Make your sauce veg-heavy: carrots will bring in 4-5g per cooked serving, as will broccoli.

More of us are eating vegan meals than ever before, but making them is a different matter. For the uninitiated, vegan cooking is littered with proverbial banana skins. Take breakfast for instance. A fruit salad sounds like an easy solution, but no. “Don’t get up in the morning and just have a fruit salad because by nine o’clock you will be hungry again,” says chef Day Radley. “Fruit will give you that energy boost, but you need to add in nuts or oats for sustained energy, to keep you fuller for longer.”

If you’re eager to know more, you’ll be delighted to know Radley is sharing her expertise to know Radley is sharing her expertise through the Vegan Chef School. As well as teaching aspiring pro chefs, Radley has launched an online course for home cooks, with the next group starting on 1st April.

The course costs £140 and covers seven areas including easy meals, one-pot dishes, delicious desserts, tasty tofu and – drumroll please – healthy breakfasts. We asked for Radley’s advice on preparing healthy morning meals and she gave us plenty of ideas along with three recipes from the course.

Make It The Night Before

If you’re partial to a lie-in, or aren’t the most decisive in the morning, you’ll be pleased to know there are plenty of make-in-advance vegan breakfasts like overnight oats and chia puddings. “You can make them the night before and then in the morning your breakfast choice has already been made,” says Radley. “You just need to grab it from the fridge! Try soaking oats with grated apple, raisins and a pinch of cinnamon. You can even pop it in a Tupperware box to eat on the way to work.” For a more exotic flavour hit, try making her tropical chia pudding with coconut and lime.

Tropical Chia Pudding Recipe (Serves Two)

Ingredients

• 1 medium banana
• 2 large dates (Radley uses medjool, which are soft – if yours aren’t soft, soak them in just-boiled water for 10 minutes)
• Zest of ¼ lime
• 120ml water
• ¼ cup (4tbsp) ground almonds (or coconut flour)
• 1tbsp chia seeds
• 2tbsp desiccated coconut
• ½tsp cinnamon

Method

1. Put the banana, dates, zest and water into a jug or bowl. Use a hand blender to blend till smooth.
2. Add the ground almonds and mix well.
3. Add the chia seeds and mix again. Pour this into two bowls or glasses.
4. To make the topping mix the desiccated coconut with cinnamon. Scatter on top of the puddings.
5. Leave the puddings in the fridge to thicken for at least one hour, or overnight.

Eat Fruit And Nuts Before A Morning Workout

For a pre-workout breakfast that won’t weigh you down, whip up a fruity bliss bowl the night before, such as Radley’s mango berry bliss bowl with mango purée, raspberries and ground nuts. It thickens overnight into a mousse-like texture. The fruit delivers an initial boost and the nuts will give you sustained energy.

Mango Berry Bliss Bowl (Serves Two)

Ingredients

• 30g cashew or brazil nuts
• 1 mango, around 200-300g
• 40g frozen or fresh raspberries, plus a few for the top
• 1tbsp ground flaxseed

Method

1. Using the chopper attachment of a hand blender (or food processor) blend the nuts until they are crumbs.
2. Cut and peel the mango, roughly chop it, add to the chopper (or food processor) and blend.
3. Add 40g raspberries and the flaxseed, blend once again.
4. Spoon into two glasses, ramekins or cups.
5. Break the remaining raspberries into pieces and put on top of the desserts.
6. Allow to rest overnight.

Use Tofu Or Soy For A High-Protein Breakfast

In search of protein-based vegan breakfasts? “A tofu scramble is an amazing way to start the day,” says Radley, “if you’ve got time to make it.”

For mornings when you’re in a rush, a thick smoothie with soya yogurt offers a filling, protein-rich start to the day. “I know bodybuilders are always on the search for sources of protein, and soya yogurt is one of the few sources of vegan protein that doesn’t have any carbs in it.”

See related 

• Expand Your Pancake Day Recipe Repertoire With Vegan Mushroom Crepes
• Finish Veganuary On A High With This Spinach, Sweet Potato And Raisin Biriyani
• Vegan Chef Gaz Oakley’s Tips For Cooking Great Vegan Food

Treat Yourself With Pancakes

At the weekend, whip up some vegan pancakes for an indulgent breakfast. They’re tasty and, as long as you add toppings like fruit and nuts, healthy too.

Vegan Crepes Recipe (Serves Two)

Ingredients

• 80g potato starch or tapioca flour
• 80g gram flour
• A pinch of salt
• 200ml plant milk
• A little oil

Method

1. Heat a frying pan on a medium heat while you make the batter. Put the flours and salt in a jug or bowl and mix well. Add a third of the milk and mix, getting rid of the lumps. Add more milk, mix again and keep repeating this process until all the milk is incorporated.
2. Pour a small amount of oil into the pan and tilt the pan so the oil covers it. Pour some batter into the pan and tilt the pan again, so you get an even thin coating of batter.
3. Fry for a few minutes on a medium heat. Flip over, add a little more oil if needed and fry for another few minutes. Serve immediately with toppings of your choice.

We’ll freely admit that our pancake day can be a little basic. Once a huge batch of pancakes is made, the energy required to make intriguing fillings as well often goes missing, so we end up sticking to an unimaginative mix of lemon juice and sugar, chocolate spread, and just way too much cheese.

This year we’re going to make the effort, though, and so should you – and this vegan mushroom crepes recipe from the Avant Garde Vegan Gaz Oakley, which features in health and fitness app Oro, is top of our to-try list. Oakley’s original recipe uses brandy, but the Oro version shared with us uses apple juice instead. Essentially you’re adding a bit of sweetness and getting any flavoursome bits which have stuck to the pan into the sauce. Yum!

Ingredients (Serves One)

• 45g buckwheat flour
• 120ml non-dairy milk alternative
• ½tsp baking powder
• 1tbsp fresh chives, chopped
• 150g mushrooms, sliced
• 1tsp garlic powder
• ½tsp chilli flakes
• ½tsp tarragon
• 120ml vegan cream
• 1tbsp vegetable oil
• 24g mixed salad leaves
• 25ml apple juice
• Salt and pepper to taste

See related

•  Vegan Chef Gaz Oakley’s Tips For Cooking Great Vegan Food
• Healthy Pancake Recipes For Pancake Day Or Pancakes Every Day
• Great Veggie And Vegan Recipes On Instagram

Method

1. In a mixing bowl add the flour, baking powder, salt, pepper and chives, then mix well.
2. Pour in the non-dairy milk and whisk everything together until it’s a smooth, thin consistency.
3. Preheat a large non-stick pan over a medium heat and add a touch of vegetable oil. When the pan is hot, ladle in enough batter to cover the base of the pan. I use the back of my ladle to spread the batter out.
4. Cook the crepe for around two minutes on each side, and use a palette knife to help flip it over. Repeat the process until you've used up all the batter.
5. While the crepes are cooking, preheat another non-stick pan over a high heat. Add a little oil, followed by the mushrooms, garlic, chilli and tarragon. Sauté the mushrooms for three to four minutes, stirring often.
6. When the mushrooms are golden, glaze the pan with apple juice, scraping any bits from the bottom of the pan and stirring them into the sauce.
7. A minute after adding the apple juice, add the vegan cream and seasoning.
8. Let the creamy mixture come to a simmer for a minute, then serve.
9. Fill your crepes with plenty of the mushroom mixture and some salad leaves.

Preparing a healthy meal doesn’t have to take a long time – Joe Wicks’s 15-minute recipes are proof of that – and the best recipe boxes can make pulling together a nutritious feast a whole lot easier. However, at the end of a long day, even 15 or 30 minutes of food preparation can seem like more effort than you can muster, especially when food delivery apps require just a couple of clicks.

It’s not that a takeaway now and then is necessarily a problem, but if you find you’re relying on a delivery most nights, it’s probably time to improve your diet – and you can do so with minimal effort thanks to ready meals. Not just any old ready meal, because some have hair-raising levels of salt, sugar and saturated fats. As long as you go for one that has slashed the numbers on those three unhealthy characters while keeping the calories down, you’ll be golden.

Like takeaways, we wouldn’t recommend living on them, but they’re certainly better than another pizza turning up on your doorstep. We’ve tested out some of the best ready meals you’ll find available in UK supermarkets, as well as including the best healthy meal prep services that can help ensure you always have a nutritious meal on hand in your fridge or freezer. 

We’ve also been chowing down on the instant savoury meals that come in sacks from brands like Huel and The Protein Works, for another quick and easy option you make just by adding boiling water.

The Best Supermarket Ready Meals

Sainsbury’s Flourish range contains a wide variety of products that you can fit into a healthy diet, including soups, snacks, smoothies and sides alongside frozen and fresh main meals. We tried several of the fresh meals and they were all reliably tasty, if a little unadventurous, and showcased their healthiness with an array of green lights on the nutritional panel. There is a good portion of veg in each meal too, but the vegan options are very limited.

Myprotein’s frozen meals are designed to satisfy, with hearty servings of pasta and meat, and high salt contents common across the range. You get less veg than in other ready meals, so you need to add that on yourself for a well balanced meal. On the plus side, the larger meals in the range like the Meat Feast Pasta really hit the spot on active days. 

You can get Myprotein’s frozen meals at Iceland, in-store and online, as well as from Iceland’s sub-brand The Food Warehouse. Note that most meals cost £4-£4.75, but the larger ones will set you back £6.

Morrisons’ fresh ready meals contain an excellent selection of healthy options. While a few of the meals might throw up an amber on the traffic light system for nutritional guidance, in general they offer a balanced option for your evening meals, coming in under 600 calories and including welcome amounts of protein and fibre. Each meal is clearly marked with how many portions of vegetables it contains – most have two. More importantly, the meals taste great: the chicken paella and chicken biriyani were the stand-outs from the selection we sampled.

We think £3.75 for a fresh meal represents great value, and there’s a two for £6.50 offer on at time of publication. We’d like to see some vegetarian and vegan options in the range though – all the meals currently contain meat or fish.

These are our go-to option in a dinner pinch, simply because Bol Pots are often available in even the smallest inner-city supermarkets and everything in the range is essentially a load of vegetables in a tasty sauce – an approach that’s so healthy the traffic light system shows green across the board. Each pot packs in at least a couple of your five-a-day, and they’re low in fat, salt, sugar and calories – the Thai Coconut Curry contains only 274 calories, for example. The only downside is they can be a little too small to satisfy bigger appetites, but a couple of wholemeal pittas on the side will sort that.

Healthy Frozen Ready Meal Delivery Services

Tastily is our favourite meal prep service, offering a wide range of tasty meals that follow sound nutritional principles – they are balanced, provide around 400-500 calories, and contain a good portion of veg. The website makes filtering and picking your meals easy, though we’d like to see more plant-based options.

One welcome feature of Tastily’s range is that you can order a large portion size, which is very helpful for active people who need the extra calories to support their training. 

Plant-based meal delivery service Allplants has lunches, dinners and sides in its range, and all of them impressed us. The meals are tasty and satisfying, and pack in a variety of veg to help you towards your five-a-day. It’s not a cheap service, but Allplants is a great way to try a vegan diet if you’re considering switching permanently, or just for Veganuary, or even the occasional meat-free Monday.

Read more in our Allplants review

Recipe box company Mindful Chef’s frozen ready meals are gluten-free, dairy-free, high in protein and ready in around eight to 12 minutes. There’s a welcome mix of vegan and meaty options, and the calories and macronutrient info is on the site so you can pick meals that are lower in calories if you prefer, though even the most indulgent options come in under a sensible 600 calories per serving.

Stocked sells packets of eight frozen blocks of food, which allows you to heat up just the amount you need to make a meal. The range of meals is good and there are plenty of plant-based options, and there is something enjoyably futuristic about grabbing a couple of frozen cuboids for your dinner.

However, most of the blocks work best when combined with rice or pasta, since they are sauces like ragu or dal, which means you still have to do some cooking yourself. The suggested portion sizes are also a little small – we tended to use all eight blocks to make enough sauce for two people, even when adding in our rice and vegetables. Even if you buy six packs at once, at £1.10 a block Stocked doesn’t work out as a saving when compared with buying full ready meals from other brands.

Best Healthy Instant Meals

The Protein Works' answer to Pot Noodles surprised us in being more than merely acceptable when it comes to flavour: the Kickin’ Korean Noodle in particular was enjoyable enough to look forward to at meal times. After scooping the powder into a suitable heat proof container (an annoyingly hard process owing to the small opening on the sack, which means you cover your hand and wrist in powder), you just add boiling water and wait eight minutes. The meals don’t match the satisfaction of traditionally-made food, but they tick all the nutritional boxes and are suitable for vegans.

Huel’s savoury meals are an upgrade on the flavour, or lack thereof, in its meal replacement shakes, and some of the options in the range are positively tasty, like the Cajun pasta. The texture isn’t quite as enjoyable as The Protein Works’s instant meals, though, and we found that we tired of the flavour before the seven-serving sack ran out. However, it does the job it was designed for, remaining a pretty satisfying, nutritionally rounded and very easy option – we found these meals great for lunch.

Read more in our Huel Hot & Savoury review

They don’t call breakfast the most important meal of the day for nothing. Get it right and you can dose up on fibre, B vitamins and other nutrients. Also, having a meal in the morning is good for pleasant breath because it clears the stinky bacteria that can gather at the back of the throat. Oh, have we got your attention now?

And while there are plenty of healthy ways to start the day – porridge being our preferred option, and there’s always a place for eggs and toast – cereals offer a temptingly tasty, zero-faff option. But beware of filling your bowl with whatever’s to hand: many cereals contain high levels of fat, sugar and salt. Fortunately, we’ve done some out-of-the-box thinking by, um, reading the outside of the box to work out which cereals are truly worth getting out of bed for. But first…

What Makes A Breakfast Cereal Healthy?

Wholegrains

Wholegrains contain the fibre you’re almost certainly not getting enough of, and B vitamins which are difficult to find elsewhere.

You’ll find lots of cereal boxes love banging on about being made with wholegrains – but when you check, the proportions can be disappointingly low. That’s why it’s always worth checking.

Low fat, sugar and salt

It’s essential we get fat, sugar and salt into our bodies… but not too much. Aim for cereals that are low in all three of those ingredients and avoid any that are high in any one of them. There’s no need to know what counts as low and high – there’s a traffic light system you’ll find on the boxes.

Calories

The NHS recommends that you have roughly 400 calories for breakfast, which should include any drinks and pieces of fruit on the side (hey, you deserve a sweet, juicy treat in the morning). The trick here is to check out the calories per portion size, then check what the portion size is and – you’ll hate us for saying this – actually measure it out using scales. You’ll only need to do this once because the disbelief when faced with what a portion actually is will be etched on your memory forever. Remember, no cereal is healthy if you overeat it.

See related 

• This High-Fibre Meal Plan Is About As Healthy As It Gets
• Healthy Breakfasts Worth Getting Up For
• Five No-Fuss High-Protein Breakfast Recipes
• Upgrade Breakfast With These Healthy Porridge Recipes

The Best Healthy Cereals For Breakfast

The Rude Health breakfast range is extensive enough that most people should find something they like here – whether that’s a healthier take on classic cereals like puffed brown rice or spelt flakes, or one of the variety of granolas, mueslis and porridges available. Aside from Ultimate Granola, everything in the range is entirely plant-based, and while some options are higher in sugar and calories than others – particularly the granola – you’ll find options to suit any morning macronutrient goal. The range is stocked in Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Planet Organic among others, or you can buy direct from the Rude Health website.

Buy from Rude Health | From £2.10

If you want to give your tummy a real treat in the morning, opt for Bio&Me’s gut-loving granolas. There are four options in the range, all of which are full of fibre, with around 8g per 60g serving. The key to good health doesn’t just lie in consuming loads of one type of fibre though, so each bowl of Bio&Me contains 15 ingredients, giving your diet the diversity that’s vital for a healthy gut biome. Bio&Me has impressive credentials to back up its health claims too – the granola has been approved by the European Food Safety Authority, which checks that such claims are based on robust scientific evidence.

Buy from Bio&Me | £3.99 for 390g

This healthy wholegrain cereal has been knocking around since 1897, so there’s no excuse for not having tried it yet. Each 45g bowl of Grape-Nuts, which contain no grapes and no nuts are in fact kernels of wholegrain flour with added vitamins, contains 5g of protein, 5.8g of fibre, and just 3.9g of sugar, 0.9 of fat and 160 calories. You cannot argue with stats like those. grapenuts.com

Granola is many people’s preferred healthy option because it tastes so deliciously sweet. Of course, that’s because many varieties are crammed full of sugar. Natural sugars mostly, sure, but it’s still something to keep tabs on. You can eat this granola without a care, however, since it’s very low in sugar – just 1.9g in a 50g portion– and it packs in a healthy 4.9g of fibre as well as nutritionally desirably seeds. It’s noticeably less sweet than what you’ll be used to, but remedy this by topping it with some whole fruit like berries, and at just 250 calories per portion you’ve got room for some extras.

Buy from Lizi’s | £3.99 for 500g

These neat parcels of wheat are presents that won’t disappoint you or your body. The sugar, fat and salt levels of Shredded Wheat were the lowest of all the cereals we checked, and a 45g bowl with 125ml of semi-skimmed milk is just 222 calories. And because it’s made entirely from wholewheat, it’s a fantastic way of putting numbers on the fibre board. nestle-cereals.com/shredded-wheat

For those who have had their Weetabix, well done. For those who haven’t, listen up. Weetabix is a great ally in the pursuit of a healthy lifestyle. The wheaty biscuits are 95% wholegrain, with the remaining 5% consisting of barley extract and the important inclusion of iron, B2 and B1 vitamins, as well as folic acid, which helps with cell production. A bowl of two ’bix comes to just 136 calories, although that doesn’t include milk. weetabix.co.uk

It’s time to say hello to Cheerios, because these tasty little Os are actually packing a well-rounded complement of nutrients and vitamins. A portion contains B vitamins, vitamin C, iron, calcium and folic acid and although the sugar content is verging a little close to high, the wholegrain content definitely stops them flying too close to the sun. What’s more, the calorie count is just 174 in a 30g bowl with 125ml of semi-skimmed milk, meaning seconds are an option – but keep tabs on your sugar intake for the day if you do. nestle-cereals.com/cheerios

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These interwoven wheaty wonders are packed with wholegrains and have added vitamins and minerals. A 40g bowl with 125ml of milk is just 206 calories, bringing them into Shredded Wheat territory, although the Shreddies do have three times the amount of sugar with 2.9g per portion. nestle-cereals.com/shreddies

Biriyani works perfectly as a hearty and comforting winter dish – which is perhaps odd since its roots are in the Indian subcontinent, which does tend to differ in climate to the UK in the winter.

Its hearty comfort cannot be denied, though, and we thoroughly recommend making a load of this veggie biryani and feasting upon it for days to come. The recipe comes from Raisins South Africa, a body representing about 1,000 raisin producers in the Cape region, and naturally includes raisins of the South African variety along with sweet potatoes. The sweetness of those ingredients complements the Indian spices beautifully, and if you want an extra kick you can always add more chilli.

Ingredients (Serves Four)

• 500g sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into small chunks
• 1 large red onion, sliced into thin wedges
• 2tbsp olive or vegetable oil
• 150g basmati rice
• 1tsp cumin seeds
• 30g pine nuts
• Generous pinch of garlic salt (or regular salt)
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 80g South African raisins
• 400g canned green lentils in water, rinsed and drained
• 2tsp medium curry powder
• 50g young spinach leaves

To serve

• 4tbsp dairy-free yogurt
• Fresh coriander sprigs
• Thinly sliced red chilli

See related

• Make This Sweet Potato Vegetarian Curry Recipe To Mark Plant Power Day
• Spice Up Curry Night With This Healthy Chicken Korma Recipe
• What To Do If Veganuary Has Left You Hungry All The Time

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas 6.
2. Put the sweet potatoes and red onion into a large, deep roasting tin. Add the oil and toss to coat. Transfer to the oven and roast for 20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, cook the rice according to packet instructions, rinse with cold water and drain well.
4. Add the cumin seeds, pine nuts and garlic salt to the sweet potato mixture. Season with black pepper and return to the oven for five minutes.
5. Tip the raisins, cooked rice and lentils into the roasting tin and stir in the curry powder. Add the spinach leaves and stir them through the mixture. Return to the oven for a further 10 minutes until heated through. Share between four serving plates and serve topped with yogurt, coriander sprigs and red chilli.

Preparation is one of the key ingredients of a healthy diet. If you always have healthy meals in mind or even prepped in advance, it’s easier to avoid fast food or a ready meal when dinner time rolls around.

Even if you stick to this resolutely with your main meals, however, snacking can still stymie your attempts to eat healthily. Because when the taste for something sweet or salty strikes, it’s hard to ignore. Fortunately, a bit of prep can once again save the day, because if you load up your cupboard or desk drawer with the snacks below, you can be assured you’re eating something healthier than crisps or chocolate.

Maybe not that much healthier, because for a snack to be satisfying it still needs to hit that sweet or savoury spot, but there will be some kind of redeeming nutritional feature to each of our top snack picks. We promise.

A mix like this can be a great option if you’re trying to limit your snacking, because it tricks the brain into thinking you’ve had more to eat thanks to the wide variety of flavours and textures. These 100g bags come in three varieties, the cashew, goji and chocolate goldenberry being the most exciting.

The vegan mix contains a variety of handy vitamins and minerals, and while a 40g serving is relatively high in calories with 223 and sugar at 8g, that’s normal for a snack full of nuts, seeds and dried fruit – all of which are healthy in other ways. Just make sure you stick to the serving size and don’t nail the whole 100g in one go.

There are very few things in this life that can claim to be the equal of chocolate, but cheese is one of them, so it makes sense that a cheese bar is just as satisfying as a chocolate bar. That’s even the case with low-calorie, high-protein cheese as it turns out, because these snacks are a savoury delight, and each 30g bar contains a mere 51 calories and 11g of protein.

Buy from Eatlean | £2.50 for one bag of seven bars, £25.50 for 12 bags of seven bars

The Crazy Jack range is laden with healthy fruit and nut snacking options, but the dried apricots are the pick of the bunch. They’re darker, softer and sweeter than other dried apricots we’ve snacked on, and contain just 70 calories per 40g pack while bringing you one step closer to your five-a-day too. There is 14.6g of sugar in a pack, and although that’s the naturally occurring stuff you don’t need to worry about as much, it’s probably still not wise to eat several packs a day.

One thing we enjoy about hunting down healthy snacks is discovering a new ingredient – new to us, anyway – that makes something munchable a bit better for you. Case in point: popped lotus seeds, which we didn’t even know existed before trying Plant Pops. These puffy little treats come in at under 100 calories a bag and certainly deliver on flavour, especially the smoked chilli variety. There’s nothing else that really stands out in terms of nutritional benefits or drawbacks, so we’ll have a little gripe about the design of the packets, which are infuriatingly hard to open.

Buy from Plant Pops | £21.60 for 24 20g bags

Alesto Veggie Protein Power

This own-brand snack from Lidl costs just 69p for a 28g packet, and it packs a punch in both the protein (8.5g) and fibre (3g) departments. You’re getting a mix of roasted edamame beans, puffed chickpeas and baked cashews, with a spicy chilli, lime and sea salt coating. Each pack contains 134 calories, which is not bad at all considering the satisfying hit of protein, fibre and flavour you’re getting.

Buy in-store at Lidl | 69p for 28g pack

Another snack that comes it at under 100 calories a bag, Burts Lentil Waves didn’t wow us with their flavours, which are little bland – but they did provide a satisfyingly salty hit to tide us over to our next meal, something aided by the over 2g of protein per pack as well. Of the three flavours, the Sour Cream & Chive was the standout.

Buy from Burts | £10.50 for 16 20g bags

The Foodie Market Paleo Bar Almond & Cashew

You’ll find this date-filled bar in store at Aldi. Each 45g bar is made up of just four ingredients – dates, almonds, cashew nuts and almond oil – and although the calorie count is reasonably high at 203, you’re getting a highly satisfying snack thanks to the 4g of fibre and 6g of protein. However, with 16g of sugar in a bar, mostly from the dates, this is more of a treat to be enjoyed on active days than something to make a desk-drawer standby.

Buy in-store at Aldi | 49p for a 45g bar

They might not look the most appetising, but these vegan bites come in a range of delicious flavours – apple and beetroot is definitely our favourite. We seriously recommend dividing the pack up as soon as you receive it, though, because if you find you’ve scoffed the lot you’ll have eaten the calorie equivalent of dinner and your max recommended daily intake of sugar in one sitting – not to mention a fiver’s worth of snack. Ouch. A couple of the little cubes will take care of your afternoon munching.

Buy from Protein Works | £4.99 for 140g bag

There are just 75 calories in the 25g packs of this delicious dried meat – and we would advise opting for the 25g pack, because if you get the 70g one you’re definitely going to end up munching through 70g of biltong in one sitting. While the calorie count is low, you have to be a little careful with your salt intake for the rest of the day when you snack on this because 25g contains 1.3g of salt, which is 21% of your recommended daily intake. But each 25g pack also contains a solid 12.5g of protein, which helps to make this about as satisfying a post-workout snack as you could hope for.

We’re not saying chemical-y names on ingredient lists are bad – ascorbic acid, for instance, is just another name for vitamin C – but we are saying an ingredient list that reads like a smörgåsbord of healthy snacks is good. Two dates, nine almonds, half an apple, raisins and cinnamon artfully arranged on a plate might sound like a smug Instagram post, but it’s what’s in Apple Cinnamon, the tastiest flavour of these bars. One thing to be wary of, however, is that once you turn that lot into a bar you have to put in writing that there’s 19g of sugar (two-thirds of your daily maximum) and more than 200 calories. Really, they’re only marginally more healthy than a chocolate bar and other unhealthy snacks, but they are sensationally tasty.

This is one of the stronger entrants in the category of healthy chocolate bars, with just 6.9g of sugar and a magnificent 7.8g of fibre in each 35g bar. The bars also only contain 193 calories each, which isn’t low enough to call them a low-cal treat, but it’s certainly an amount that qualifies them to be part of a balanced diet. We’re not going to come out and say they’re as delicious as a real chocolate bar – it would be difficult for that to be the case, given that a standard 51g Mars Bar contains over 30g of sugar – but Prodigy’s bars are tasty enough that you won’t miss the real deal too much on your snack break, and that high fibre count means your hunger pangs will be well satisfied. The bars come in an Orange Chocolate With Baobab flavour, which has slightly more fibre and three calories fewer, but we preferred the taste of the Chunky Chocolate option.

Adding nuts and seeds to your diet can bring real benefits, so if trail mix doesn’t do it for you these handy snack packets of those very foodstuffs come highly recommended. We honestly don’t know if the activated (as in, they’re germinating) nuts and seeds Boundless sells are that much better for you, but frankly that’s by the by. The nutritional numbers are solid, with each flavour coming in under 200 calories and packing between 5g and 8g of protein. Unlike their dry roasted cousins, there’s minimal salt here and little saturated fat, which is the one you want to watch (trans fats are the ones you want to avoid). Of the four flavours available we recommend cayenne and rosemary, which delivers an aromatic, herby taste with a little kick in the aftertaste, and the very moreish turmeric and smoked paprika.

If you’ve got a roaring hunger, these tasty treats will sate the savage beast in your stomach – the whey or plant-based protein will help to fill you up (about 10g of protein with the whey, 5-7g otherwise), as will the healthy serving of fibre (somewhere between 4-6g). There are eight flavours in the original range, with cherry bakewell being our favourite if only for the well-executed novelty factor. There’s also a new breakfast line which adds gluten-free oats to the mix, plus smaller packets that clock in at under 100 calories.

Look, chocolate isn’t inherently bad for you, as long as you eat an appropriate amount. Conversely, nuts – a perennial healthy snack pick – are highly calorific if you inhale multiple servings in one sitting. You can either develop willpower or have I Love Snacks apportion out appropriately-sized servings for you. Of the six options, we’d highly recommend the dark Belgian chocolate (119 calories), the smoked Californian almonds (152 calories) and dehydrated mango (85 calories).

There is a lot to like here. From the rip-and-tip (into our mouth) opening on the packet, to the few grams of protein and gram or so of fibre, to the bonanza of micronutrients, to the fact that the 25g packet really does tide you over. The flavours are great, although anything sweet does come with a lot of natural sugars, but you can always opt for the ever-so-slightly salty Sesame Sprinkles (with only 0.2g salt) or Chilli Bites. Beware the latter though – we love spicy foods but these tickled our tonsils something rotten.

Buy from Munchy Seeds | £2.50 for 5 25g mixed flavour packets

This is a textbook example of a snack that isn’t exactly healthy, but is sensationally tasty and certainly better than grabbing a Mars Bar. Kind Bars are relatively high in protein and fibre, which will help ensure you won’t need another snack after you’ve finished the first one, and the prevalence of nuts in each means that the fat is mostly of the “good” unsaturated kind. While they are sugary and contain around 200 calories per bar (for reference, a standard Mars Bar is 230), Kind Bars are widely available and a decent option when your snack drawer is empty and you pop to the shops for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up.

Our advice here is to only get the 30g packets of these tortilla chips, which are a mix of black bean (30%) and corn to make them slightly healthier than your standard triangular treats. The reason we’d avoid the 100g packets is that it is impossible to leave any of the chips uneaten because they are so darn tasty. They are a healthier alternative to standard tortilla chips, with less than half the fat, and far more protein and fibre than, say, a pack of Doritos.

There are several salty options in the Well & Truly range, but forget all others and grab as many bags of these paprika-flavoured Nik-Nak-alikes as you can handle, because they are a taste sensation. They’re not really that much healthier than crisps apart from containing half the amount of fat, but they’re so delicious any relative nutritional benefit really is just a bonus.

Buy from Well & Truly | £10 for seven 100g packs

Bounce Balls are available in pretty much any supermarket nowadays, making them a great option when you’re stuck for snacks. There’s an impressive range of flavours (our top pick is Cacao Orange) and each is high in protein, contains a decent amount of fibre, and has a fat profile that leans heavily towards the unsaturated kind.

See related 

• Is It Worth Paying More For Healthy Snacks?
• The Best Low-Calorie Snacks That Will Fill You Up And Taste Great!
• High-Protein Snacks: Quick And Easy Protein Hits
• Healthy Crisps: The Most Satisfying Snacking Alternatives

These salty sticks are as winning a combination of rice and green peas as we’ve ever come across. They will mush up and stick in your teeth long after the packet is empty, but that just prolongs the enjoyment. The standout flavour is Soy & Balsamic Vinegar, and in terms of nutrition you’re getting around half the fat and twice as much fibre and protein as with regular crisps.

More people are doing Veganuary in 2021 than ever before, and while veganism is an ethical stance, many may have been influenced by the promise of following a healthier diet for the first 30 days of the year. Except, of course, going vegan doesn’t automatically result in a healthier diet – in fact, done poorly it can leave you short on nutrients (just like a poorly planned omnivore diet can).

The new book Vegan Savvy: The Expert’s Guide To Nutrition On A Plant-Based Diet by dietitian Azmina Govindji doesn’t try to convert anyone to veganism, but gives practical advice to help any vegan (or dabbler) eat well. We spoke to Govindji about her experiences following a vegan diet when writing the book and what a nutrient bridge is.

You tried following a vegan diet for eight weeks. What did you learn?

You have to plan. I thought with all the knowledge that I’ve got, it would be quite easy for me just to swap foods and still eat well. But what I noticed was, if I didn't plan well then I wasn’t going to get to the range of nutrients I thought I could get.

Mainly, I was eating lovely whole plant foods, but it’s difficult sometimes to eat enough – to get all the calories and nutrients you need.

I also found that I needed to spend more time cooking, because I noticed that some convenience foods were very high in salt or didn’t have enough of certain nutrients.

In my experience, you can’t decide to become vegan overnight and get it right. I think what is needed is careful planning, a great shopping list, time to cook and a bit of awareness around how you plate up your meals.

Have you got any tips for making sure you eat enough and don’t feel hungry constantly on a vegan diet?

Look for foods that are more filling. We know from research that those foods are the foods that are high in protein and that are high in fibre. A lot of people doing Veganuary tend to forget that. So they’ll have beautiful colourful soups and salads, and roasted aubergines and all sorts of delicious foods, but they haven't thought about the protein that will help them to be satiated for longer.

That’s where that VVPC plate [dividing every plate of food into quarters filled with vegetables, vegetables, protein and carbs] comes in. My daughter and her friends, they think about that VVPC plate and go, right, I've got my roasted veg here and I've got my crusty bread for the carbs, then they'll throw on some cashew nuts. I didn't think about the protein. And it's the protein in those cashew nuts that will help you to stay fuller for longer.

Where do you think vegan diets can go wrong and become unhealthy?

When you change from an animal-based diet to a completely plant-based diet, you need to be aware that some of the nutrients within your foods may be less available to the body for use, and therefore these can be nutrients of concern.

There are some key nutrients like vitamin B12 which generally you will only get in animal-based foods like meat. And there are other key nutrients that are less talked about, like iodine, which you get from fish, eggs and dairy products, mainly – you can get them in vegetarian foods, but not quite so much.

The other thing to remember is that even if, for example, there’s calcium in spinach, there are also substances called oxalates in spinach that can reduce your absorption of the calcium. The calcium is less bioavailable, which means it's less able to be used by the body. With an animal-based diet, there are other factors that improve calcium absorption – dairy foods in your diet helps improve absorption of nutrients. That doesn't mean you shouldn’t eat spinach, or you should think you’re not getting your calcium from spinach. It’s making you aware so that you eat more, so that the amount that you get from that portion is enough for your body.

A similar example, which I use in the book, is comparing steak with spinach in terms of iron. There is 2.6mg of iron in 100g of cooked beef and in 100g of cooked spinach. So the same amount of food, same amount of iron, but because of absorption differences, you only get a small amount of that iron from spinach.

In your book you use the concept of “nutrient bridges”. Are these essentially tips and tricks to address these areas where the vegan diet can leave you short of nutrients?

It’s exactly that, because I found that there were so many nutrient gaps that I needed to find a creative way for people to make up for the shortfall in a practical sense.

The nutrient bridges, like putting lemon juice on hummus, are very small changes. Will they really make a noticeable difference?

Once is not going to make a great difference to your iron levels. But over the course of a week, if you are adopting a few of the nutrient bridges for different micronutrients, then you are far more likely to get enough of the nutrients that are less available.

It’s about choosing the bridges that work for you and your lifestyle, and making those into habits. So whenever you’re cooking, shove in some nutritional yeast and you can’t go wrong. Whenever you’re thickening a stew or a curry, throw in some peanut butter or tahini paste.

Over time, taking on small changes like adding lemon juice to hummus can be quite significant. If you did that every time you ate beans or hummus, you would be improving your iron status. So yes, one bridge isn’t going to make a significant difference, but it’s about creating these small changes in habit.

Have you got a favourite nutrient bridge that you find yourself using all the time?

I quite like throwing sesame seeds into everything, because they’re a good source of calcium and they're really versatile. Calcium is needed for bones and teeth and for other other reactions in the body so we need to make sure we're getting enough calcium, especially older people or teenage girls whose bones are developing.

You can throw sesame seeds into broccoli or a stir fry, or use them as a coating for homemade mock fish fingers. If you’re vegan you could put them on toast. Sesame seed paste, which is tahini, is great for giving foods a creamy texture with a calcium, protein and fibre hit.

See related

• The Vegan Diet: What You Need To Know
• The Best Sources Of Protein For Vegans
• The Best Vegan Recipe Box And Meal Delivery Services

If you get the vegan diet right, what benefits can it have?

The evidence is still growing, but there are so many things we know about the change to plant-based eating. Assuming you’ve got all the nutrients you need on a well-designed vegan diet – and that’s a really important assumption – then you can have all the nutritional and health benefits.

Simply by increasing the number of plant-based foods in your diet, you're going to increase your fibre intake, which is great for your gut and digestive health.

Then there is research to suggest that people who are vegetarians and vegans – again, who do it right – have a lower BMI. There are lots of diet-related conditions, like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, that are based on your metabolic health and your BMI can influence your metabolic health.

I've had patients with diabetes tell me that when they’ve changed to a plant-based diet, their blood glucose control has improved. That’s great for long-term management of diabetes.

I've also had people say to me that they’ve got more energy, because when you’re having a plant-based diet, you’re more likely to get your five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. And a lot of these nutrients in fruits and veggies do help to reduce tiredness and fatigue.

Vegan Savvy: The Expert’s Guide To Nutrition On A Plant-based Diet is published by Pavilion Books, RRP £12.99

Vegan Savvy: The expert's guide to nutrition on a plant-based diet

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Whether you’re a lifelong vegetarian or vegan, or trying out a plan-based diet for the first time, Tex-Mex food should be a regular part of your weekly menu. That’s because it’s easy to swap protein-packed beans for the meat in dishes like burritos, fajitas and tacos.

However, hitting the beans hard every time can start to get old, so if you’re looking for a new spin then consider roasted cauliflower. This cauliflower taco recipe is delicious and easy to make, and either serves four, three, two or one, depending on how many of the 12 tacos you want to keep to yourself.

The recipe is from Saskia Gregson-Williams, a former ballet dancer who now runs an online workout studio and vegetarian recipe resource called Naturally Sassy.

Roasted Cauliflower Tacos Recipe

Ingredients (Serves Four)

For the tacos

• 1 small cauliflower head, chopped into bite-size pieces
• 1tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 1tsp ground cumin
• 1tsp chilli powder
• 1tsp smoked paprika
• ½tsp garlic powder
• ½tsp black pepper
• ½tsp sea salt
• ½ head purple cabbage, shredded
• 12 small corn tortillas

For the corn salsa

• 2 cups cooked sweet yellow corn, cut off the cob
• 2 small tomatoes, seeded and diced
• ½ cup red onion, diced
• 1 jalapeño, diced
• 2tbsp chopped coriander
• Juice of 1 lime
• ½tsp salt

For the guacamole

• 2 avocados, peeled and pitted
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 garlic clove, minced

See related

• Great Veggie And Vegan Recipes On Instagram
• Make This Sweet Potato Vegetarian Curry Recipe To Mark Plant Power Day
• Joe Wicks’s Lentil Bolognese Recipe Is An Absolute Winner

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 200℃/gas 6. Divide the cauliflower between two large baking trays. Add the coconut oil, cumin, chilli powder, paprika, garlic powder, black pepper and salt. Toss to combine. Roast until golden brown and tender, about 20 to 25 minutes.
2. While the cauliflower is roasting, make the corn salsa. Place all the ingredients in a large bowl. Stir to combine well. Place in the refrigerator until ready to use.
3. To make the guacamole, mash the avocados in a medium bowl. Stir in the lime juice and garlic.
4. To serve, warm the corn tortillas in the microwave. Fill with roasted cauliflower and top with corn salsa and guacamole. Garnish with shredded purple cabbage and additional fresh coriander if desired. Serve with lime wedges.

If the first time you think about what you’re going to eat for dinner is when you step in the door after work, the odds of making a healthy choice are not in your favour. When a ready meal or a takeaway is the fastest and easiest option available, then that’s the option you’ll probably take.

Fortunately there is a better way, and it’s not one that involves cooking from scratch each and every night. Prepping several meals in advance each week puts you on the fast track to a healthy diet, because eating those meals then becomes as easy as a ready meal, quicker than a takeaway, and healthier and cheaper than both.

New to meal prep? Here’s how to get started.

Map Out Your Week

Before you lift a spatula in anger, it’s worth checking your schedule to see how many nights there are when you might be a tight spot come dinnertime. You could have more free evenings for cooking than you think, and there’s no point prepping a vast array of meals only to never eat them. At this point you’ll also need to decide if you’re only prepping dinners, or if you want lunches too. Once you have a rough number of meals in mind, it’s time to hit the kitchen.

Block Book A Regular Weekend Slot

Sunday is primetime for meal prep. That’s when most of us have more dead time and if you’ve mastered the basics in the kitchen you can easily cook enough on Sunday for the week. Cook all the meat medium-rare, so when you heat it up in the microwave it will taste good without being dry or rubbery. Roast a whole tray of vegetables – sweet potatoes, squash and broccoli are all good candidates – and then divide them into sealable bags. Leave enough in the fridge for Monday and Tuesday, and place the rest in the freezer. Each day, move a portion into the fridge so it’s ready for the next day.

Consider Your Menu

Some meals taste better after a few days in the fridge, but others will dry out and lose all flavour by the time it comes to eating them. As a general rule, sauce-heavy dishes like curries, chilis, soups and stews are a good option for meal prep, because they become more and more delicious with each day in the fridge. Up to a point, of course. And speaking of which…

Don’t Leave The Food Sitting Around For Too Long

It only takes one bout of food poisoning to really put you off ever eating leftovers again, so be sensible. Get the food in the fridge quickly after cooking – within two hours – and as a general rule eat it within two days. You can always turn to the freezer for longer-term storage, but make sure you store the correct portion size because you should avoid reheating frozen food more than once.

Stock Up On Storage Solutions

Treat yourself to a range of variously sized and shaped containers to ensure you have what you need to allocate portions and even divide up food within one container if you don’t want it getting mixed up. The most convenient containers will be safe for the microwave, freezer and dishwasher. And leak-proof, obviously.

Meal Prep Recipes

We have plenty of great, healthy recipes here on Coach, and many of them are so quick and easy you can pick up the ingredients on your way home from work and have them cooked and on the table in less time than you need for a takeaway delivery. But we also have plenty of curries, stews and chillis that will do you a lunch later in the week and fill up your freezer, ready to be whipped out and enjoyed at any time (providing you have a microwave). Here are four of our top picks for batch-cooking on a lazy Sunday.

Tom Kerridge’s Malaysian-Style Beef Curry Recipe

Taken from the Michelin-starred chef’s Lose Weight & Get Fit book, this curry will take about 1½ hours to make. It packs in 66g of protein in each serving, making for an ideal post-workout meal, especially since it features complex carbohydrates in the form of brown rice (don’t make that part ahead of time). See the recipe

Roasted Butternut Squash Tagine

You’ll need a slow cooker for this, but if you’re serious about meal prep, a slow cooker is one kitchen gadget worth investing in. This recipe is one of three shared from Masterchef finalist Dean Edwards’s book Cook Slow. Apart from peeling and dicing (we hope you have a sharp chef’s knife) and the optional roasting of the squash, this takes minimal effort to throw together. Six hours later you’ll have a rich, hearty and very healthy dinner. See the recipe

Chilli Con Carne

It always tastes better reheated, but you won’t be able to resist a portion of chef Adam Gray’s chilli right away. The ingredients are easy to find and the recipe is straightforward and effective, but remember to double or even triple it – the quantities listed serve two. See the recipe

Chilli Con Veggie

You don’t have to be a committed vegetarian to add a veggie version of chilli to your culinary repertoire, especially when the version in question is full of such flavourful, nourishing goodness. The recipe from chef Bruno Loubet throws the kitchen cupboard at the pan, but the recipe serves eight so your efforts will be well rewarded with a freezer full of Meat-Free Monday dinners you can look forward to. See the recipe

See related

• 7 Quick Ways To Eat Roast Chicken
• 6 Recipe Ideas For Roast Beef Leftovers
• 6 Quick Meal Ideas For Herbed Roast Pork Leftovers

Next-Level Meal Prep Tips

Once you’ve familiarised yourself with the basics, here’s how to become a master prepper.

Turn One Grain Bowl Into Five Lunches

Chef Charity Morgan, who prepares vegan meal plans for 15 NFL players, offers this killer tip. Cook two types of grains, roast a batch of vegetables, then prepare some fresh veg too. Mix and match those ingredients to create a different combination for each day, but to make sure you’re not stuck with the same flavours, Morgan recommends preparing five different sauces, as she did for her husband, Tennessee Titans quarterback Derrick. “One day was a balsamic vinaigrette, day two had a chimichurri, day three had a Thai peanut sauce, day four was a tahini garlic dressing and day five was a buffalo vinaigrette,” Morgan says.

Swerve Soggy Veg

A standard combo, especially for dedicated gym-goers, is chicken breast, brown rice and veg, but it’s easily ruined if you overcook the veg. To avoid this, use a simple culinary technique all professional kitchens use but few amateurs cooks know – blanching. Chef Jonny Marsh, who’s served bespoke meal plans for elite footballers like Paul Pogba, Kevin de Bruyne and İlkay Gündoğan, turned us on to the method.

“When you cook veg, take it out when it’s half cooked and plunge it straight into ice-cold water – ice cubes and really cold water – which is called refreshing,” says Marsh. “Blanching traps all the nutrients, keeps all the colour, and when it comes to heating up you can either drop it in a bit of hot water or heat it up in the microwave – done.”

Pretty much any food or drink has some benefits, but the longer and more varied that list gets the more suspicious we tend to be. And not many edibles have a longer lists of purported health benefits than kombucha, a fermented tea from east Asia.

But we’re always open to being told we were wrong, and perhaps kombucha is indeed a miracle elixir that should be coming out of all our taps. So we spoke to dietitian Aisling Pigott of the British Dietetic Association to find out what research, if any, has been done into kombucha’s effects, but first let’s look into exactly what kombucha is.

What is kombucha?

Fizzy fermented tea, made with sugar and scoby. If you haven’t got a Scooby what scoby is, it’s an acronym that stands for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeasts. You can buy some if you’re planning on making your own kombucha at home.

To make kombucha you add the scoby to sweetened black or green tea that has been left to cool, then cover and leave the mixture for a week or so while the magic of fermentation takes place. The result is a fizzy, sweet and sour drink.

What health benefits have been ascribed to kombucha and are any of them backed up by scientific research?

The list of benefits not claimed of kombucha is probably shorter, to be honest. Among other things, kombucha is claimed to bolster the immune system, counteract the effects of ageing, improve digestive health and even help prevent certain cancers. Unfortunately, the science just isn’t there to back up kombucha’s credentials right now.

“There are actually very few studies or evidence of any benefits at present,” says Pigott.

See related

• How To Improve Your Gut Health
• Gut Check: Are You Eating Enough Microbes?
• A Killer Kimchi Recipe from YO! Sushi’s Head Chef

Are there any risks to drinking kombucha?

If you ladle in mounds of sugar into your kombucha then it’s not going to be great for you, but in general it’s not going to be harmful, so if you’ve become addicted to the stuff you can drink on.

“It depends on the preparation, and sugar and caffeine content,” says Pigott. “As with anything if you enjoy it and find it helpful, then great! Otherwise it’s probably not going to be a miracle cure.”

Does drinking kombucha pose any risk to your dental health?

“Persistent long-term consumption can damage the enamel of the teeth, especially if you are constantly sipping on such drinks throughout the day,” says Dr Ruth Baidoo, a private dentist and ambassador for mouthwash maker Waken Mouthcare. “This is because it is highly acidic. Some brands of kombucha also add a lot of sugar to the drink, and we all know how damaging an excess of sugar can be to dental health.

“One of the signs of kombucha consumption affecting your dental health is that your teeth will start to appear darker in colour and more stained. This is most likely to be because your enamel – the white part of the teeth – is slowly being worn away by the acidity of the kombucha.

“If you are finding it difficult to limit your intake of kombucha, use a straw (ideally a stainless-steel reusable one) to reduce the contact of kombucha with your teeth.”

Slow cookers really come into their own during the colder months, when we turn to warming stews and soups to ward off the chill in the air.

This beef stew recipe comes from the TerriAnn 123 Diet Plan, and it’s pretty much as simple as they come as long as you have a slow cooker in your kitchen. After 15 minutes of prep and frying the ingredients, flick the switch on your cooker and leave the stew to it, coming back to a winter feast several hours later.

Ingredients (Serves four)

• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 celery sticks, finely chopped
• 2tbsp rapeseed oil
• 3 carrots, halved lengthways and cut into chunks
• 2 bay leaves
• ½ pack thyme
• 2tbsp tomato purée
• 2tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 beef stock cubes or 1 stock pot
• 900g beef for braising, such as skirt
• 2tsp cornflour (optional)
• ½ small bunch parsley, chopped

Method

1. Fry the onion and celery in one tablespoon of the oil over a low heat until they start to soften – about five minutes. Add the carrots, bay and thyme, and fry for two minutes, then stir in the purée and Worcestershire sauce.
2. Add 600ml boiling water, stir and tip everything into a slow cooker. Crumble over the stock cubes or add the stock pots and stir, then season with pepper (don’t add salt because the stock may be salty).
3. Clean out the frying pan and fry the beef in the remaining oil in batches until it is well browned, then tip each batch into the slow cooker. Cook on low for eight to ten hours, or on high for four hours.
4. If you want to thicken the gravy, mix the cornflour with a splash of cold water to make a paste, then stir in 2tbsp of the liquid from the slow cooker. Tip back into the slow cooker, stir and cook for a further 30 minutes on high.
5. Stir in the parsley and season again to taste. Serve with mash.
   

More Slow-Cooker Recipes 

• How To Use A Slow Cooker To Make Healthy, Hearty Recipes
• Three Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes