Count the calories
Being a failed vegetable grower gives me the space to experiment with different things, says Leigh Bramwell
IT SEEMS KIWIS just can’t get enough of Dr Michael Mosley and his revolutionary approach to weight-loss. The Fast 800 has been the a popular diet book here since its publication in 2019 and now there’s an additional companion cookbook on the shelves.
The Fast 800 Easy by Dr Clare Bailey — GP, and Dr Mosley’s wife — and acclaimed food writer Justine Pattison includes 130 new, quick and simple recipes to help you through your 800-calorie fasting days, as well as eight weeks of calorie-counted meal plans.
As well as making mealtime fuss-free, there are options to adapt meat dishes for vegetarians, and the other way round; plus easy additions to enable you to boost recipes either for non-fast days or for feeding the whole family.
Following is a recipe from the book:
LOW-CARB PORTOBELLO ‘PIZZAS’
Serves 2 Prep 10 mins Cook 10 mins This is adapted from a particularly popular recipe in our Fast 800 online programme. With a wide Portobello mushroom as a base and a delicious tomato and mozzarella topping, it has all the flavour of a traditional pizza, but only a fraction of the calories.
Ingredients
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for greasing
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 tsp dried oregano, plus some fresh oregano leaves (optional), to serve
4 Portobello or large flat mushrooms (each around 90g)
3-4 Tbsp tomato pure´ e 6-8 cherry tomatoes, sliced 100g ready-grated mozzarella
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C (fan 180C/gas 6) and lightly grease a baking tray.
Mix the olive oil, garlic and oregano in a small bowl.
Place the mushrooms on the tray, stalk side up, and spread each one thickly with the tomato puree. Top with the sliced tomatoes and drizzle with the olive oil mixture. Sprinkle with the mozzarella and season with a little salt and plenty of ground black pepper. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and has started to brown.
Serve sprinkled with fresh oregano leaves, if using, and lots of green vegetables or a large salad.
Cook’s tip
Add extra protein by topping each mushroom with anchovy fillets, chorizo or salami. But don’t forget to add the extra calories.
PER SERVING 287 cals | PROTEIN 15.5g | CARBS 6g | FAT 22g | FIBRE 3g
IAM A FAILED vegetable gardener. Every two or three years I have success with one thing or another, but never more than a couple of veg at a time. This year has been an embarrassment. One green pepper. Three handfuls of cherry tomatoes. Five lettuces.
Fortunately, a friend who is an excellent vegetable gardener shares his potatoes, beans and tomatoes with us, so I figure that frees me up to try growing a few different things. Since I can’t even grow ordinary veg with any success, how much worse can it get?
So I’m going to have a go at amaranth. It’s one of the few greens that will grow well in hot, humid conditions, which is what we have here.
It works as a reasonable substitute for plants like chard, kale, and spinach.
With watermelons emulating the price hike of Auckland housing, it seems a good time to try my hand at mouse melons — don’t you love the name? They are also called cucamelons, and they produce small, cucumber-like fruits that are shaped like tiny watermelons. They taste a bit like cucumber with a dash of lime, and you don’t even have to peel them.
They will grow in part shade (but need full sun to produce high yields), they’re fairly drought-tolerant, they seem to grow well in most regions and they produce well into autumn so I can try my hand at them right now.
When I first read ‘samphire’ in a recipe I misread it as sapphire and thought it could be hard on the teeth. It is actually quite crunchy, although certainly not as crunchy as a mouthful of sapphires might be.
I won’t be planting it any time soon because it needs a marshy environment, which is about the polar opposite of what we have at the moment, but with climate change, who knows?
It’s an asparagus look-alike and is available in the UK and no doubt elsewhere, but unless you’re going to grow your own from seed, you’ll have to go coast-combing in tidal zones to get it in New Zealand.
It has vibrant green stalks with a crisp texture and succulent tender tips, and a distinctive salty flavour. It’s low calorie and high vitamin C. No need to rush out looking for it now because the harvesting season is very short and ends in early December, but next summer’s not that far away. And what a good excuse for exploring the coastline.
Something of a superfood
Even if you don’t recognise the name ‘purslane’, you’ll probably recognise the plant. It’s a messy, creeping succulent lookalike and is generally considered a weed.
But if you have it, don’t yank it out. It’s actually something of a superfood with antibacterial, diuretic, antiscorbutic, febrifuge (fever-reducing) and depurative (detoxifying) properties. (Yes, I did have to google the last two.) It also has high levels of Omega-3 fatty acids — 4mg per gram — and has been used as a food and medicine for a couple of thousand years.
It grows like a ground cover in dry, bare spaces and easily self-seeds, which is probably why gardeners are often keen to get rid of it.
It has fleshy, rounded, paddle shaped leaves and tiny yellow flowers from November to March which only open up when the sun is shining.
Sometimes used as a substitute for rocket, it’s crunchy and slippery at the same time, and has a slightly sour, lemony flavour. You can eat the stems when they’re young but it’s more common to eat the leaves. It’s usually eaten raw but it can be steamed, stir-fried or used in soups.
I hadn’t thought about sorrel for years but was reminded of it when I ran into an old friend from the mainland called Sorrel. Sorrel (the plant, not the friend) is an evergreen and its tasty leaves are always ready to pick. Once a plant is established, all it needs is a decent cut-back and a bit of compost every now and then to keep it healthy. It likes the cooler weather and can be planted in early March, so for once I’ve got my timing right. It should supply you with leafy greens all winter long if you plant it in a well-drained, composted garden bed with plenty of sun.