Rocket fuel

With the world and his wife out training for triathlons and the like, says Rachel Allen, we’ve never taken our food as seriously as we do now. Photography by Tony Gavin

It’s rare to drive on a weekend morning and not see hordes of runners or cyclists out pounding the streets. Keeping fit is part of everyday life for so many people now, and eating for performance is not just restricted to professional athletes, as so many of us are obsessed with improving our PB (personal best) on a daily basis.

It’s not only us midlife-crisisers that are jumping on the fitness bandwagon nowadays, though; the levels of fitness demanded of teenagers who are competing in sport has reached a whole new level, where it’s not only their physical state, but their mental positivity and nutrition too, that is of paramount focus. I see it in our son, Lucca, in the extraordinary level of fitness that he needs to maintain to be competitive in his motor racing, and the food that he eats in preparation for a race is calculated to maximise performance.

We all know that upping the vegetables and a certain amount of the good fats is a great idea, but there are also many other foods that will help us reach our potential, so including brown rice, good wholemeal flour, nuts, oily fish and particular proteins in our diets will help to give us the edge that we might just be looking for.

Including oats in a meal after exercise can help your body recover, and also power you through the rest of the day, so our grannies really were right in saying that we should all have a nice big bowl of steaming hot porridge for breakfast. Eggs, of course, are the food of champions, and more often than not, they feature in my breakfast after a workout on the beach.

Apologies to those suffering from quinoa-yawn, but this pseudocereal, which is actually related to spinach and beet, is a dinger for post-workout grub. Applauded for its insane levels of amino acids, calcium, magnesium, potassium and zinc, this is one food not to ignore.

For sweet treats while training, you can do a lot worse than bananas and a bit of dark chocolate, and Derval O’Rourke’s recipe for dark chocolate banana bread, right, is great with a cup of tea and your feet up.

DERVAL O’ROURKE’S DARK CHOCOLATE AND BANANA BREAD

This recipe from Derval’s first book, Food For The Fast Lane, published by Gill, is what Derval loves to have stashed away in her bag for a post-training-session treat. For a wee bit more indulgence, you can, as I did for the photo above, increase the dark chocolate to 75g (3oz). See my Tip, above, also. Makes 1 loaf.

You will need:

2 ripe bananas, peeled 1 egg 40g (1½oz) maple syrup 3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 100g (4oz) plain flour 50g (2oz) gram flour (chickpea flour) ½ teaspoon baking powder 50g (2oz) wholemeal flour 25g (1oz) 70pc cocoa-solids dark chocolate, chopped or in drops Preheat the oven to 180°C, 350°F, Gas 4. Line a 900g (2lb) loaf tin with parchment paper.

Using a fork, mash the peeled bananas on a plate and set them aside.

Whisk the egg, the maple syrup, the melted coconut oil and the vanilla extract in a large bowl until the mixture is smooth. Sift the plain flour, the gram flour and the baking powder into the bowl, and add in the wholemeal flour. Mix until everything is just incorporated. Stir in the mashed banana and the chopped dark chocolate or the dark chocolate drops, whichever you’re using. Pour the cake batter into the prepared loaf tin. Bake the cake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Set the cake aside to cool for 10 minutes, then remove it from the tin and leave it to cool on a wire rack.

HOMEMADE NUT AND SEED BUTTER You will need:

Nuts (such as such as almonds, cashews, hazelnuts) Seeds (such as sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds) Maple syrup, chopped dates, spices, chocolate (all optional) Salt (optional) Nut butter is one of my favourite toppings for toasted sourdough bread, or as a dip for banana or apple slices, too. You basically only need just one ingredient, and that is nuts. Either use just one kind of nut, or a mixture, and, if you fancy, throw some seeds in as well. Of course, you can add in maple syrup, chopped dates, spices or even

chocolate, but you can make a delicious nut butter without any of these. You can add oil, but it isn’t necessary if you whizz up the nuts for long enough, as the point is to get the nuts to release their natural oils. A bit of equipment that you need is a food processor, otherwise you will be pounding the nuts for three days before they turn to butter.

I like to roast the nuts first, as I think it enhances their flavour, but if you want to keep the nuts raw, then that’s perfect, too.

If you’re roasting the nuts, then spread them out on a baking tray, and put it in an oven preheated to 150°C, 300°F, Gas 3 for 10 minutes. Add in the seeds for the last 2 minutes. Tip your chosen blend of nuts, seeds, and maple syrup, chopped dates, spices and chocolate, if you’re using them, into your food processor and blend for 10-20 minutes, making sure to stop the machine every few minutes to scrape down the sides and give it a chance to cool down (so as not to kill the motor!) before starting again.

When it’s ready, the mixture will have turned from gritty to smooth, then to oily. If you want crunchy nut and seed butter, add some chopped nuts towards the end of blending. Season to taste with salt if you wish (I do). Transfer the nut butter to a clean sterilised jar, cover it with a lid and store it in the fridge, where it will keep for a few weeks.

QUINOA, SWEET POTATO AND POMEGRANATE SALAD

Serves 6.

For the sweet potatoes, you will need:

2 teaspoons coriander seeds 1 sweet potato, peeled, cut into 2cm (1in) chunks 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the quinoa, you will need:

250g (9oz) quinoa 600ml (1pt) vegetable stock or chicken stock 50g (2oz) sultanas 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 2 cloves of garlic, crushed Zest of 1 lemon and juice of ½ the lemon 1 teaspoon turmeric 3 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper Seeds from 1 pomegranate 2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts 75g (3oz) feta cheese, coarsely crumbled Preheat the oven to 200°C, 400°F, Gas 5. Put a small frying pan on a medium-to-high heat and tip in the coriander seeds. Cook them, tossing them regularly for 1-2 minutes until they are slightly darker and just beginning to smoke. Crush the toasted seeds using a pestle and mortar. Put the sweet potato chunks in a bowl and add in the crushed coriander seeds, the extravirgin olive oil and some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Toss the sweet potato chunks well, then scrape everything onto a baking tray and roast the sweet potato chunks in the oven for 20 minutes until they are golden and tender.

Put the quinoa and the vegetable stock or the chicken stock, whichever you’re using, in a saucepan. Bring it to the boil and simmer it for 10 minutes, uncovered, or until the liquid has evaporated. Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the sultanas. Cover the saucepan and allow it to sit for 10 minutes.

Mix the extra-virgin olive oil, the crushed garlic cloves, the finely grated lemon zest, the lemon juice, the turmeric, and most of the chopped fresh coriander together. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, then stir this mixture into the quinoa and sultana mixture. Tip everything into a serving bowl, and gently mix in the roasted sweet potato. Scatter the pomegranate seeds, the toasted pine nuts, the crumbled feta cheese, and the remaining chopped fresh coriander over the top. Serve this salad either on its own or with lamb chops or roast chicken.