You may well have seen my feature on BBC news where I got a fantastic opportunity to film my take on a healthy Christmas Dinner (& test it out on a few willing participants :))
My ethos is always to use fresh, high quality & home grown (where possible) ingredients to get the best possible nutritional benefits from food. Against each of the recipes I’ve given a ‘flavour’ of why they are of specific benefit to endurance athletes. However, they are all super tasty so no reason not to feed them to all!
Enjoy x
PS – I didn’t list “Roast Turkey” but make sure you don’t forget that crucial part of the meal!
Beetroot has great notoriety with endurance athletes. It’s often used as a performance enhancer on race day as the high nitrate content promotes vascular dilation throughout the muscles. Or put more simply, improves the blood supply to your legs 🙂
Ingredients
- 4-5 large beets
- 1 can of coconut milk
- 1 large thumb size piece of ginger
- 1 red chilli pepper
- 1 large onion
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 600-800ml vegetable stock
- Flowers to garnish (optional, not easy to find in the winter!)
Method
- Roast the beets in the over at 180C for about 30mins until soft. Cool and chop into small chunks
- Sweat down the onion, garlic and chilli in a soup pan with a little coconut oil
- Add the chopped beets, vegetable stock and coconut milk and simmer gently for 10-15minutes.
- Blitz with a hand blender until all of the beetroot chunks have broken down.
- Add salt and pepper to taste and for a creative touch add a small swirl of coconut milk on top with a few fresh (edible) flowers
Many thanks to the wonderful Simon Stützel who we met in St Moritz. He first cooked this for us!
Turmeric has been widely acclaimed for its’ powerful anti-inflammatory properties. Muscle soreness experienced post exercise is caused by micro tears and swelling within your legs. Anti-inflammatory foods are essential to quickly recover these aching muscles following a hard workout, allowing you to train again sooner.
Ingredients
- Sweet potatoes cut into large chunks
- Turmeric powder
- Olive oil
- Fresh rosemary
- Garlic cloves (whole, skin on)
- Fresh turmeric root (optional as it is hard to find, but really great if you can! Try your local chinese supermarket or specialist health food store)
Method
- Place the sweet potatoes into a large roasting tin
- Drizzle with good quality olive oil then coat liberally with turmeric powder, salt and pepper
- Give it all a good mix to get a nice even coating of oil and turmeric on the potatoes
- Add sprigs of fresh rosemary and scatter with whole garlic cloves
- Roast in the oven at 180C for 45-60mins until soft
- To finish grate over fresh turmeric root. Be sure to wear gloves an use an old grater as it will permanently stain everything yellow!
Many shop bought sauces are high in refined sugars and lack nutritional content, so if you have the time, try to make it fresh. It also will last for many days in the fridge – perfect for turkey sandwiches 🙂
Ingredients
- 300g fresh cranberries
- 100ml fresh orange juice
- 50ml agave syrup (or honey if you don’t have agave)
Method
- Place all ingredients in a saucepan and slowly bring to a simmer
- Simmer for 5-10minutes. Ensure you allow some of the cranberries to keep their shape.
As with the cranberry sauce, there’s so many more nutritional benefits from making from scratch with good quality ingredients rather than going for pre-made shop bought versions. So, if you have the time, opt for this tasty method
Ingredients
- 1 red onion finely chopped
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 50g toasted oats
- 125g breadcrumbs
- 10 finely chopped fresh sage leaves (from your garden if you grow it!)
Method
- Sweat down the red onion in a pan
- In a bowl, combine the onion, oats, sage & breadcrumbs
- Add a good glug of oilve oil and a little water to combine the mixture
- Form into balls, add to an oiled baking sheet and bake at 180C for around 15-20minutes until golden
- If fed to your husband, ensure all windows are open 3-4hours after consuming
I make quite a few different Tahini sauces. It’s really versatile and can be combined with sweet or savoury ingredients. For roast dinner vegetables, I prefer the savoury option
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp Tahini
- 1-2 tbps extra virgin olive oil
- Juice of 1 lemon
Method
- Combine all ingredients
- Drizzle over any vegetables e.g. Brussel sprouts, kale, carrots etc
Avocados are extremely high in potassium, great for restoring electrolyte balance in your muscles after exercise. Raw cacao also contains lots of essential minerals including magnesium and has also been proven to be a natural mood enhancer. This recipe does really taste better than it sounds, give it a try and I’m sure you’ll be staggered by how nice it tastes
Ingredients
- 2 large, ripe avocados
- 1/3 cup agave nectar (replace with honey if you don’t have agave)
- 1/3 cup raw cacao powder
- Glug of almond milk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp chia powder (blitzed up chia seeds)
- Pinch of salt
- Coconut shavings and fresh raspberries to garnish
Method
- Blitz up the avocados in a food processor until smooth. Add the almond milk slowly to help loosen the mixture until a mouse like consistency has been achieved
- Add the cacao, chia powder, agave and vanilla. Mix for a further few minutes until everything is combined
- Spoon mousse into bowls, sprinkle on coconut shavings and top with a few berries.
- Chill in the fridge for a few hours before serving.
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