Upping my veg for January - The Jewish Chronicle

I've started the new year with the best intentions - once I'd eaten all the festive chocs, crisps and nuts.

Following the advice I've given on my own food pages I'm implementing do-able changes:

According to Gemma Hirsch of Fitbuddie (whose tips really do work) I should load up my plate so it's half filled with vegetables - the more colours the better.

Bored with same old recipes - and vegetables - I've been trying to broaden my repertoire via the countless clipped recipes that litter the floor in my home office and fill folders on my shelves.

So far, I've knocked up a barley risotto - packed with leeks and topped with roasted carrots; turmeric and ginger butter beans with onions and kale; a Buddha bowl filled with cauliflower rice base and topped with *Gochujang-coated roasted celeriac, edamame beans and spring onions; and another cauliflower rice-based salad packed with coriander, parsley and sauteed mushrooms.

(*Gochujang is a Korean fermented paste which PACKS flavour into anything you serve it with. Well worth giving it fridge space.)

Cauliflower rice and salmon

Salmon

My first hack to up your veg is to buy cauliflower rice. Sure, you can make your own very easily, but it means getting out the food processor and cleaning off the grains that fly around the kitchen, refusing to leave the bowl and sticking to everything. The pouches are my no-effort, zero mess solution It may be lazy but isn't it more important to eat the veg? I'm loving the Full Green brand - which is hechshered. I mixed it with herbs and edamame beans before topping with a piece of baked salmon - for my Omega fix.

Basil plant

Picking plants for a nutritional punch

Hack two is above. If I'm eating a simple sandwich, this new addition to my kitchen helps me add bonus green matter by picking a few leaves from my newly acquired kitchen basil plant. Fabulous nutritionist, Laura Southern keeping the plant (or other potted herbs) in your kitchen so you can pop leaves into salads and sandwiches for an immediate health hit. Every time I see Laura, she is the very picture of health, so she has to be doing something right. Possibly not the most seasonal solution in January, but if I can keep it going until the summer that has to be good? (Not that I've ever kept a basil plant going longer than a week or so.)

Vegetable peel soup and toastie

Photo: Victoria Prever

Hack three is to hold onto your vegetable peel. I'm also trying to do my bit for the planet. Vegetable peelings were frozen and when I had enough, turned into suprisingly good soup. I sauteed an onion, then added the peel, topped it up with veg stock, some hawaj spice mix and a handful of tinned beans. Simmered it for 20 minute and then blitzed it with the stick blender. I've branded it Saintly Soup - because that's how it makes me feel.