NUTRITION
Guilty of eating fast food when you’re short of time? Kate Percy shows you how to create tasty, performance recipes from simple ingredients…
How often do you order a takeaway or grab a ready meal because there’s no food in the house? Well, look again. Most of us have enough tins and jars lurking in the back of the cupboard to cook up a tasty, nourishing meal. Line your store cupboards with key essentials – chopped tomatoes, butter beans, curry pastes, tuna, anchovies, coconut milk, butternut squash, red cabbage, rice and couscous – and you’ll never go hungry again. This month I challenged myself to create four nourishing training recipes for you from my store cupboard. I hope you enjoy them!
First up is probably my favourite pasta dish, Spaghetti Puttanesca. This luscious, gutsy mix of tomatoes, capers, olives and
salty anchovies is packed with antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin C and fibre, and, of course, you’ll enjoy the slow-releasing carbohydrates from the pasta. Add this one to your training repertoire.
If you want to spice up your lunchtime routine, try my quick and easy Thai-style Tuna Burgers with Asian Slaw. Super convenient and high in protein, tuna’s an excellent store cupboard staple, and totally delicious combined with other long-life ingredients such as Thai fish sauce, curry paste, ginger and peanut butter. The slaw is packed with the good stuff, including fibre, vitamin A and C, calcium, iron, potassium and other minerals.
On a cold day, warm up with this velvety Smoky Bean Soup. Simple, delicious and extremely nutritious, it works well as a pre-exercise lunch or light supper. Prepare it in advance and freeze it if you like, but quite frankly it only takes about 20mins to make. Low in fat and high in fibre, butter beans are a good source of slow-releasing carbohydrate, protein and B Vitamins.
Breakfast, lunch or supper, there’s always an excuse to lose yourself in a bowl of Shakshuka. It’s loaded with goodness, including fibre, vitamin C and the powerful antioxidants beta carotene and lycopene. Breathe in the smoky aroma, scoop up the juices with a warmed flatbread and imagine you’re in North Africa!
Hopefully these recipes sound better than your usual grab ’n’ go takeaway or supermarket lunch deal option and show you that you can create simple meals from basic ingredients. They’ll help keep you energised for all your training too – and be kinder on the wallet!