HOW YOU CAN ENJOY PLANT POWER!

Thirty plants a week may sound like a lot, but here Hugh reveals all the quick and easy ways you can hit that target with deliciously healthy meals

As a passionate convert to the benefits of eating 30 different plants a week it now falls on me to show you how to do it. Happily, it’s a task I relish: not only do I believe I can make it pretty easy for you, I’m also confident you are going to enjoy the ride.

Don’t assume that just because this approach is undeniably good for you, getting there must somehow be a chore. I genuinely think the opposite is true.

There is much fun to be had from changing your approach to shopping, cooking and eating in order to incorporate 30 plants into your meals each week. Ultimately, I believe it will help you relish your food even more than you already do.

After all, the combining and layering of plants of all kinds has always been at the heart of great cooking. Indeed, it is in the world of edible plants I would say that the greatest range of scrumptiousness is to be found.

What’s more, crossing the 30-plants-a-week line is so much easier than you might think. Today, I want to share with you some useful strategies that will help you get there.

I’m not about to ask you to go in search of a bunch of obscure ingredients or radically change the way you eat. I’m just suggesting you open your eyes a little wider when you shop, cook and eat — scanning for delicious plants at every opportunity.

When it comes to store cupboard ingredients, it’s better to choose two or three types (each) of beans/nuts/seeds/spices that you like the look of and are fairly confident in using — perhaps taking inspiration from some of the recipes I’m sharing with you today. That will help you build up, over a few weeks, a fairly fast-moving rolling roster of really useful store-cupboard ingredients that you can crack through easily and enthusiastically.

When it comes to fresh vegetables, try to avoid overstocking on produce that you won’t get round to eating while it’s still really fresh, so it doesn’t get wasted.

A note too here on thriftiness: I’ve found that including the half red pepper that’s in the fridge, a squeeze of juice from yesterday’s zested lemon or the handful of cashews at the bottom of the jar adds a new dimension to a dish while also minimising food waste. A leftover plant is still a plant!

Eating more nuts and seeds becomes an easy win in an area where many of us somehow often fall short. They are also stunningly versatile, crossing over from sweet to savoury effortlessly, whether they’re being sprinkled over salads, stirred into curries or baked into puds and treats.

Meanwhile, if you are sweating some onions for a dish, and not adding some garlic alongside, then I would argue that you are missing an opportunity. If you also happen to have a leek handy, add that too. Suddenly you’ve added three plants where you might otherwise have only included one. Even a little healthy snacking can help get you over the 30 plants line in any given week. To my mind, the best food groups that are going to help you do this are nuts and seeds, raw veg and seasonal fresh and dried fruits (the latter in moderation, as they have quite high concentrated sugars).

And why not just a little dark chocolate? Oh, and just in case you were wondering, you can only count each plant once in a week

— by all means count it again the following week!

So, if you are currently eating carrots or kale, or walnuts or even watercress twice, or indeed several times a week, then that’s great.

But you only get to count it once. So, let me help get you to a place where adding more plants into your cooking becomes second nature. And doing so will become a pleasure in itself.