Chef Wise

The summer BBQ can be heavy on fat and calories but there are easy ways to create a healthier BBQ feast without scrimping on taste.  Try these simple tips from The Yorkshire Dietitian Vanessa Quarmby and HECK. Fill your plate with veggies and salad. We should all be eating plenty of veg and BBQ season is the best time to eat more. Vegetables can be transformed into delicious dishes. Why not try asparagus brushed with oil or vegetable kebabs? Try peppers, mushrooms, courgettes, tomatoes and onions on skewers. They are really tasty if brushed with oil or a marinade. Corn on the cob is another delicious way of hitting your 5 a day. Try not to burn or char food too much.  Keep turning meat over on the BBQ and remove charred portions of meat before eating; all these tips can help you reduce your intake of unhealthy substances that can form when meat is heated at very high temperatures. Many of us these days might be a little more conscious of the food we eat, wh...

Eat Beautiful, Eat Lighter, Eat itsu…. If you’re done with carb-heavy dining and fed up with fat-laden fillings, then it’s time to rejoice…. this September will see itsu, the innovative chain of healthy Asian-inspired, butterfly light fast food, launch a brand new shop in central Brighton. The new Brighton shop will be only the second itsu venture outside of London. With nearly 50 itsu shops across London and two flagship restaurants in Chelsea and Notting Hill, moving to Brighton represents an exciting step forward for the brand, which plans to open further regional sites next year. Only a handful of quality healthy eating options currently exist in the seaside city and itsu will be introducing a brand new style of light, quick and delicious cuisine to Brighton’s discerning dining crowd. With that in mind, itsu Brighton will launch a number of exclusive ‘firsts’ in-store, including an exciting Autumn menu, a full range of frozen yoghurt (fro-go), juice bar and live...

Summer has well and truly arrived, and what better way to celebrate than with a Mediterranean-inspired feast? This colourful vegetable tart will make a beautiful addition to any tapas spread, bringing that holiday feeling to the table in no time. Vegetable Tart   Difficulty: Medium Preparation time: 50 minutes Ingredients: 300g flour 125ml beer 20ml olive oil 5g salt 1 egg, beaten 4 cloves of garlic, chopped 2 peppers, diced 2 tomatoes, chopped 1 onion, diced 100g anchovies Handful of black olives Salt, pepper, sugar, paprika and oregano Preparation Mix together the flour, beer, oil, salt and egg, and knead into shape until it no longer has a sticky consistency. Leave to stand and then stretch a little with a rolling pin to the desired shape. Place in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes at 180 degrees. Sauté all of the chopped vegetables together for 10 minutes, adding the tomatoes halfway through. Season with salt and pepper,...

NO MEAN FEAT: DARING ROOT VEGETABLE YOGHURT MADE WITH BEET This June, the UK’s fastest growing yoghurt business The Collective ( www.thecollectivedairy.com ) is launching Britain’s first ever beetroot yoghurt with a daring root vegetable Limited Edition. Blackcurrant & Beetroot retails at just £1 per 150g pot and can be bought nationwide from Waitrose, Ocado, Wholefoods, Nisa and Booths. Traditionally pre-cooked, pickled and served with salad, The Collective is providing Brits with a completely innovative way to enjoy this versatile vegetable. Its striking, deep purple colour and rich earthy flavour produces a deliciously unique yoghurt unlike anything else available on supermarket shelves in the UK. With beetroot renowned for being rich in fibre, vitamins and packed with antioxidants, this purple pick-me-up is a delectably daring way for consumers to get some of their five a day. Amelia Harvey, Co-founder of The Collective says: “Until now, most of us w...

Following the success of January’s free 28-day Healthy Diet Plan, bbcgoodfood.com , the UK’s leading food website, is launching a Summer Diet Plan to help you slim down, achieve glowing skin and boost energy with the help of an original 9-day plan full of delicious breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Those who sign up before the 12th June will receive regular motivation in the form of newsletters packed with tips and advice on how to make the most of the plan, as well as access to Q&As with experts including author Jennifer Irvine, nutritional therapist and Food Doctor founder Ian Marber and BBC Good Food’s cookery team and nutrition advisers. Experts advise that a healthy diet should be balanced and followed all year round with this nine day plan designed to kick-start healthy habits and help you to quickly see the benefits of healthy eating. The plan was written by author and Pure Package founder Jennifer Irvine and overseen and tested by BBC Good Food's cooker...

Gluten and wheat free brand Feel Free for Gluten Free have just launched an exciting new range: 100% corn pasta in four varieties. Made in the traditional Italian style, the allergy friendly pasta range includes penne, fusilli, spaghetti, and an alphabet pasta aimed at children.  As well as being wheat and gluten free, Feel Free for Gluten Free’s new dried pasta is also free from egg, dairy and soya. The pasta is low in fat and has a low glycaemic index too. Sally Allister, Managing Director of Yorkshire-based Feel Free for Gluten Free, said: “There are very few 100% corn pasta ranges widely available in the UK. We chose a single ingredient pasta for our brand’s first dried pasta range as our focus is on how the product tastes, and not on how it looks in comparison to regular pasta. “We feel that a 100% corn pasta has the best taste and cooks well too. We’re satisfied that each of the four varieties in our pasta range is of the highest quality. Plus as t...

Monday 19 May marks the start of Yogurt Week, the UK’s first celebration of all things yogurt! Whether it’s for breakfast on the go, a delicious snack or to use in your favourite recipes, yogurt contains a range of nutrients important for a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle, and is a versatile food staple for all the family to enjoy. With so many ways to enjoy yogurt, the Yogurt Council has launched the first dedicated Yogurt Week, in celebration of one of the most popular food items in the British diet. Just how popular is yogurt? • One in five British consumers eat yogurt on a daily basis • Almost two thirds of adults eat yogurt at least once a week • In Britain, we purchased over 2.7 billion pots of yogurt in the last year, that’s 86 every second of every day. Which means 7.4 million pots are consumed everyday • Brits eat enough yogurt every week to fill more than 3.5 Olympic size swimming pools – equivalent in weight to 4 x The London Eye or 737 double decker ...

This March, the SPLENDA® Sugar Alternative team has joined forces with celebrity healthy cooking guru, Nadia Sawalha to show women that weight management doesn’t have to be stressful with the Small Steps campaign. From stripping completely naked to blow drying wet hair and even breathing in, British women go to extreme and somewhat bizarre lengths to think themselves slim, according to new research released yesterday by the SPLENDA® Sugar Alternative team. The new poll of nearly 2,000 women commissioned by the SPLENDA® team found that 81 per cent of British women find dieting stressful and nearly half of them (46 per cent) said stress is the main reason for them to fail on a diet. The survey also revealed that many women feel extreme pressure to get results from dieting with some reverting to extreme measures to reach their goals. The strange tactics included: ·         Stripping completely naked before weighing themse...

This deliciously light pasta salad is the ideal way to shed that extra holiday weight after overindulging at Christmas, without compromising on taste. Made with tagliatelle, it’s satisfying enough to ensure dieters won’t fall off the wagon, whilst providing almost all of the five-a-day in one sitting! Chicken and Vegetable Tagliatelle Pasta Salad Serves 4 Level of difficulty: medium       Preparation time: 60 minutes Ingredients 2 tbsp + 1 tsp olive oil 300g tagliatelle pasta 2 skinless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips 1 cucumber, cut into thin slices Half a head of lettuce, shredded 1 red pepper 1 green pepper 1 yellow pepper 2 tomatoes cut into thin slices 1 tbsp sherry vinegar Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 2 tsp runny honey 15g pistachio nuts, roughly chopped PREPARATION 1.      Heat 1 tsp olive oil and fry the chicken for...

The New Year heralds many new resolutions with weight and health being one of the top motivations for most of the British population. However, achieving a healthier generation may require more than will power according to the World Health Organisation. With sugars reportedly playing a key role in rising obesity and heart diseases, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is considering to slash the recommended sugar intake by half.[1] This includes all sugars "added to foods by the manufacturer, cook, or consumer, plus sugars naturally present in honey, syrups and fruit juices". Many obesity and health experts say such a change cannot come quickly enough, given skyrocketing obesity rates across the globe.  The NHS estimates the average person in Britain now consumes 20 teaspoons of sugar a day. That's approximately 7,300 teaspoons in a year. [2] There are now 1bn overweight adults worldwide, and 300m of them are clinically obese. In 2012 an NHS survey found t...

Tesco is launching a new range of healthy foods to help customers lead healthier lifestyles in 2014. The new brand, Tesco Healthy Living,  will replace Tesco Light Choices and Tesco Eat Live Enjoy. It aims to give customers an easy and even more appealing way to control the amount of salt, sugar and fats they eat, without compromising on flavour. The range includes more than 230 products, from bakery and ready meals to yoghurts and healthy treats. 85 per cent of the whole Healthy Living range is new or improved. All Healthy Living branded products have controlled levels of salt, sugar, fat and saturated fat and none are red on nutritional traffic-light colour coding.* Each product has also been benchmarked in customer taste panels against our Tesco own-brand range equivalents, to ensure they match on flavour. David Wood, Tesco UK Marketing Director said: "Helping our customers and colleagues to lead healthier lifestyles is very important to us. This r...

Nutritional expert advises Duchess of Cambridge to follow seafood programme to boost baby’s development and support ideal postnatal nutrition.  As it was revealed that the Duchess of Cambridge likes to do her own food shopping and cooking, a top nutritional expert is advising Kate to sign up for the not-for-profit Healthy Happy Hearts challenge delivered by Seafish (the UK authority on seafood). The six-week challenge will help young mothers get a healthy balanced diet and crucially, the recommended two portions of fish per week that are essential to boosting their baby’s development and supporting ideal postnatal nutrition (*see below for more on the official recommendations). Evidence shows that at least 60% of people in the UK are not eating the right amount to get these important health benefits. Dr Jane McKenzie, a dietitian and lead academic for food and drink at Queen Margaret University said: “Research has shown that the right nutrition in a baby’s first 1,000 ...

With half the fat of regular ice-cream Bessant & Drury is a coconut milk based dairy free ice-cream and in January flew off the shelves as healthy regimes kicked in. Traditional ice-cream has an average of 11 grams of saturated animal fat per 100 grams, whereas Bessant & Drury has just 5.1 grams of the healthiest medium chain saturated fat, the unique properties of which means it cannot be stored as body fat.  Furthermore it contains zero cholesterol - only animal products contain this. Also vegan and free from gluten, soya, artificial additives, colourings and preservatives Bessant & Drury comes in four flavours; strawberry, vanilla, chocolate and lemon and created a storm upon launch as foodies and celebrities alike voiced their approval at the first ever coconut milk dairy free ice-cream. Far from a tasteless 'free from' food Bessant & Drury's is a luxury dessert made with the highly nutritious coconut milk which gives it the creaminess...

Some times, you do not want to spend a long time cooking or you might find that you have friends around suddenly and you have to cook. Or if you are like me and you have been cooking all day and you want some thing that is simple and easy. Well this dish can fill all of those occasions. You will need 500g/1lb 2oz mussels 250g/9oz whole raw prawns 6 tbsp olive oil 1 garlic ½ red chilli, finely sliced 50ml/2fl oz white wine The juice of 1 lemon Flat leaf parsley 400g/14oz linguine Salt and freshly ground black pepper So start by cleaning your mussels, removing the beards, tapping them see if they close all that sort of thing and then just give them a good wash. You can Peel the prawns, removing the heads but I do not bother, this is food to get involved with. Gte a pan on with some salted water in it and bring this to the boil. Add the linguine into the boiling water and cook for about for 7-8 minutes until al dente. While you are doing this h...

Right I think this is going to be the last low fat and healthy recipe that I will be doing this week, but it is a good one.  It only take a little time too cook and like all soups it is simple and flavourful as well.  The real beauty of this one is that it is made from things that you will no doubt find around your kitchen.  You will need 100ml orange juice 1 tin of tomatoes 1 carrot 1 onion Small hand full of dry rice Salt and pepper to taste A few fresh herbs if you have them chopped at the end You are hungry and you want some thing to eat and do not want to spend all night in the kitchen.  Or you want some thing warm to eat but do not have time then this is the soup for you. Also if you have a hand blender then this is even easier all you have to wash up is the pan, bowl spoon and hand blender. And if you eat out of the pan you do not have a bowl to think of. Simply peal your carrot and onion dice them and throw them in to the pa...