Jessica Powell from the Evening Standard recently asked me for some hacks to help people eat more fruit and veg in winter. Here’s my response:
You don’t need to eat fresh! Frozen, dried and canned fruit and veg all count towards your “at least 5-a-day” recommendation. These varieties can be particularly useful at a time when you may be paying fewer visits to the grocery store. Sometimes the cheapest foods can be extremely nutrient-dense.
Winter squash are amazing simply baked in garlic and olive oil. One of my favourite ways to cook butternut squash is in a spicy soup. Head over to my instagram page if you want to check out how to make it).
Dried beans and lentils as well as canned versions can make really cost-effective meals such as spicy dhal curry, bean stew, baked beans on jacket potato, or lentil and coriander soup. These are great foods if you’re doing Veganuary or just eating more plant-based foods in general.
If you shop at the end of the day, you might pick up some bargains of fruit and veg that have reached their sell-by date. Eat them quickly because vitamin C is lost on storage when the fruit is exposed to heat and light. Shopping at the end of the day means you may interact with fewer customers, keeping you safe as well!
3 quick hacks
- Satisfying Snack: Flavour canned chick peas with a little sweet chilli sauce.
- Cheat’s pesto: Add a handful of frozen broccoli to the water when boiling pasta. It disintegrates so it looks like pesto.
- Rainbow rice: Get into the habit of adding veg like sweetcorn, carrots and peas to the water when you’re boiling rice. The more colours the greater the variety of nutrients. Check out my recipe for VegPowerUK here.
