Going Sugar Free??!!
I love chocolate, I love cake, I love biscuits - I love sugar!
But over the last year there has been overwhelming evidence to show just how bad for our health it is and how horrifyingly it is added to everything from bread to beans. In my grandparents day the only way to add sugar to your diet was to take a spoonful out fo the sugar bowl, now we have very little control over how much we consume.
With my sugar addiction getting out of control and a minor health scare at the end of last year I intend to drastically reduce my sugar intake if not cut added sugar out of my diet all together.
I couldn't have decided to start this new regime at a better time as two new cookbooks have just been published. The first is by the very beautiful Ella Woodward, better known as Deliciously Ella, and the second is 5 Weeks to Sugar Free by Davina McCall.
I first came across Deliciously Ella early last summer when I ordered a spiralizer to make vegetable pasta. At the time I had two sons rowing 6 days a week who wanted to eat pasta most nights and i was utterly fed up with the stuff. The spiralizer is a plastic kitchen aid that basically grates vegetables such as courgettes or carrotts into long twirls of spaghetti. I absolutely love it. Anyway when i was looking for recipes to use the spiralizer Ella's website came up and I started trying a few recipes. Since then she has become an internet phenominen and her recipe book was reprinted SEVEN times before it was even available to buy in the shops. Well my copy has not yet arrived so I've had to make do with my own recipes. I am on day three of my new sugar free life and have to say I feel great. I'll be reviewing Deliciously Ella in a week's time.
Here are two super quick and tasty recipes of my own which I love and make all the time.
Sweet Potato & Coconut Soup
Serves 2
2 medium sweet potatoes
1 small onion
1/4 can coconut milk
Vegetable stock
Peel and chop the sweet potatoes & onion into small chunks and place into a pan with 5 tablespoons of water. Cover with a lid and steam for 5 mins. Add enough vegetable stock to cover the vegetables and put the lid back on and simmer for 10 minutes. Check the sweet potatoes a re cooked by pressing them with the back of a spoon, they should crush easily. Pour in the coconut milk and blitz with a hand blender till smooth.
Avocado, Pea & Mint Dip
Serves 1 as lunch or 2 as a snack.
1 ripe avocado
handfull of frozen peas
Fresh mint
Dash of Olive oil
Put the frozen peas into a bowl with 4 tablespoons boiling water and leave for a couple of mins. Spoon the ripe avocado flesh into the bowl with the pease & add the mint and olive oil. Blitz using a hand blender until smoothish. In summer the addition of a squeeze of lemon juice or lime is delicious.
Serve with warm chunks of sourdough bread.