green goddess soup

A no-brainer way to pack some leafy greens into your day, this verdant beauty delivers hefty amounts of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and fibre. Adding the lemon lifts the flavour from earthy to heavenly. Sprinkling some seeds on top will add a hit of protein, while chucking some lockdown home-baked bread on the side gives you the perfect lunch.

A couple of reasons why it’s a bowl of green goodness:

Broccoli hails from the cruciferous family of vegetables, notable for being rich in beneficial plant compounds called glucosinolates. Once eaten, these get converted into substances that are thought to have cancer-protective properties. This green god of the veg world also has huge amounts of vitamin C, crucial for immune response, and bone-friendly vitamin K amongst many other helpful nutrients.

Leeks come from the allium family, and have an abundance of prebiotics – a type of fibre that stimulates the growth of the good bugs in your gut – so great news for digestive health. They also deliver antioxidants, vitamin C, B6 and folate.

 Ingredients

2tsp coconut oil (or light olive oil)

2 medium leeks, chopped

2 sticks celery, chopped

3-4cm ginger, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 green chilli, chopped (deseeded for less heat)

1 head broccoli, chopped (include the stalk)

2 handfuls spinach

1.5l vegetable stock

Juice of 1 lemon

Directions

• Heat the coconut oil in a large saucepan. Add leeks and celery and fry for 5 minutes. Add ginger, garlic and chilli and fry for a further 2 minutes.

• Add broccoli, spinach and vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Simmer, partly covered, for around 20 minutes, until the broccoli is tender.

• Leave to cool slightly then blend. Add lemon juice and seasoning to taste.

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spicy fresh tomato and lentil soup

With coronavirus rampaging around and the flu season approaching, now is the time to make sure your diet is full of foods to help your immune system work efficiently. This soup is packed with good-for-you ingredients and perfect for a chilly autumn day.

A couple of reasons why you should try it

Lentils are loaded with iron, zinc and vitamin B6, which are essential nutrients for good immune function. They’re also a great source of fibre, which helps to maintain optimum levels of beneficial gut bacteria leading to a healthy gut. And why is this important, I hear you ask? Well, 70 percent of your immune system is in your gut, that’s why.

Tomatoes are filled with antioxidant vitamins C and E, and beta-carotene, which protect cells from free radical damage that can compromise your immune system. And helpfully, because they’re bursting with vitamin C, by adding tomatoes to your lentils you double the amount of iron your body absorbs, Win win!

Ingredients

2 tbsp light olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2cm piece ginger, chopped

1 red chilli (optional), chopped

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp cumin

2 carrots, chopped

500g tomatoes, chopped

175g red lentils

1.2l vegetable stock

1 tsp dried thyme

Instructions

Heat the oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pan. Add the onions and fry for 2 minutes. Add the garlic, ginger and chilli (if using) and fry for 1 more minute. Add the turmeric and cumin and stir well.

Add the carrots, tomatoes, lentils, stock and thyme. Bring to the boil and simmer for 25 minutes, until the lentils and carrots are tender.

Allow to cool slightly and blend. Add salt and pepper if you like.

incredible green juice

I don’t possess a juicer as I’m not a huge fan - we need the fibre from the whole fruit and vegetable and it’s a shame to waste the nutrients in the pulp (although the slower, masticating juicers do retain some pulp). I prefer to whizz up soft fruits and veggies in the blender and drink in all their fibrous glory but I make an exception for this incredible green juice. I tried drinking it with the pulp but, well, no.

Time to bring on board the nut milk bag! Blending then squeezing out every last drop of that vibrant green juice leaves you with a zingy and delicious drink, packed with nutrients. This recipe uses spinach, but kale works equally well, and you can add parsley, use lime instead of lemon and generally make it to your taste.

A couple of reasons why it’s good for you

Spinach The nutritional content of spinach is staggering - it’s packed with antioxidants like beta-carotene and vitamin C and as well as huge amounts of eye-friendly carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin. Spinach has a good amount of calcium and magnesium, and tons of vitamin K, all of which are essential for bone health.

Apple Full of fibre and vitamin C, as well as flavonoids, which may have some benefits for cardiovascular health (1).

Plus it tastes really good!

Ingredients

1 serving

2 handfuls kale (or spinach)

1/4 cucumber, chopped

1 green apple, cored, peeled and chopped

1 stick celery, chopped

2cm piece of ginger, peeled and chopped

Juice of 1 lemon

100-150ml water

Instructions

Blend on high speed for around 2 minutes. Strain through a nut milk bag or muslin (you can also press through a fine sieve but it’s best to be able to squeeze the juice out).

Tomato and ginger soup

The end of the tomato growing season signals the end of summer (sob) but it also means a glut of tomatoes (yay). One of the many ways I’ve been using them up is by trying out various soup recipes and this is one of the tastiest - the addition of ginger gives it warmth and a hint of chilli brings a real kick of heat.

This recipe is not only delicious, it’s a powerhouse bowl full of nutrients and here are a couple of reasons why:

Tomatoes Packed with vitamins, minerals and fibre, the tomato is most renowned for a versatile caretenoid called lycopene, responsible for the tomato’s vivid red colour. A hefty amount of research has focused on lycopene’s potentially protective effect against prostate cancer (Rowles et al 2017), but evidence suggests tomatoes may reduce the risk of other common cancers and cardiovascular disease (Petyaev et al 2018).

Ginger A natural anti-inflammatory, ginger also has significant antioxidant properties (Wang et al 2014), which may explain its reputation as a restorative folk remedy.

Ingredients

Makes 6-8 servings

2 tbsp light olive oil

2 leeks

5cm piece of ginger

1 red chilli (remove seeds for less heat)

1 glove garlic, chopped

1 heaped tsp turmeric

3-4 small carrots, diced

1kg tomatoes, chopped (use any variety)

1.5l vegetable stock

Instructions

Heat oil in a large, heavy-based pan. Add leeks and cook for 5 minutes on medium heat. Add ginger, garlic and chilli and cook for 2 minutes. Add turmeric and carrots and stir well then cook for a further minute.

Add tomatoes and stock. Bring to the boil then simmer for around 20 minutes until all the vegetables are tender.

Allow to cool slightly then blend. Add seasoning to taste.

• Add chickpeas or white beans and heat through before serving to add protein.