If you’re looking for a-cure to rejuvenate your skin, I know just the thing.

I truly believe that the skin is a reflection of what’s going on inside. If you’re experiencing acne, dryness, eczema or the emergence of one too many fine lines, it may be time to look at your diet, your gut health and your stress! That being said, what you put on your skin is extremely important too. Your skin absorbs almost everything you put on it so, be sure to choose only products you’re happy going into your body. If you wouldn’t eat parabens, petrol and formaldehyde (ingredients common in many skincare products), why would you put them on your skin?

While natural skincare can be expensive, it doesn’t have to be. If you’ve ever looked at my reviews before, you’ll know I love ACURE products. ACURE makes cruelty-free and natural beauty a breeze. All of their products are convenient, easy to use and free from parabens, sulphates, mineral oil, petrolatum and formaldehyde. Plus, they’re vegan-friendly and cruelty-free. I use many of their products daily so, when I found out about their new Radically Rejuvenating Marula & Rose Serum Stick, I was giddy like a schoolgirl talking about their new crush.

Let me tell you, the Radically Rejuvenating Marula & Rose Serum Stick lives up to its hype. And at only $32.95, it’s worth every cent. This solid serum stick perfectly rejuvenates dull skin. It uses a combination of marula, rose and avocado to help boost skin health and reduce fine lines and aging. Avocado is wonderful for skin as it’s high in vitamin E which can help reduce any oxidative damage. It’s also extremely nourishing and hydrating for the skin. Rose extract can reduce inflammation because it has antibacterial properties, making it great for oily or acne-prone skin. Rose can also stimulate collagen to keep skin moisturised. Marula oil is high in antioxidants, and is beneficial for oily, dry, acne-prone and aging skin.

The serum stick is extremely easy to use and feels silky smooth upon application. It absorbs quickly and leaves my skin feeling extremely hydrated. Adding this to my daily routine makes me feel like I’m giving myself a good ol’ pampering every day of the week, and you deserve that too. I use it after cleansing and before I apply moisturiser, sunscreen or makeup. I recommend keeping it in the fridge for a cooling blast – trust me, you won’t regret it.

The downside? The other day my dog Oscar stopped what he was doing to sniff my face because of the delightful rose smell. Looks like someone took the saying ‘stop and smell the roses’ a little too seriously!

ACURE’s whole new range is available globally and is sure to brighten and rejuvenate your skin. With only natural and cruelty-free ingredients, pampering never felt so good. You can learn more about ACURE products here.

After being a solo mum for many years, I know just how hard it can be to serve up nutritious foods that kids will actually eat, let alone enjoy. It took me several years to master this skilful art, but I know we don’t all have that time. If you want to create wholesome and nutrient-rich recipes that your kids will devour again and again, Supercharged Food for Kids is the book for you. With advice on how to establish and maintain healthy eating habits for life, this is a fun and fresh book for both parents and kids. 

I understand that making healthy food for kids can seem like an arduous task, but there’s much more to celery snacks than meets the eye. One of the key reasons we need to be mindful of what our children eat is due to the microbial shifts that occur during early childhood. Scientific literature is indicating that the microbiome is linked to infant and childhood development and immunity. A vast number of variables influence the gut microbiome, including maternal weight status, whether or not the child is breast or bottle fed, dietary habits and antibiotic exposure (1). Avoiding antibiotics where possible, supporting microbial diversity through child-appropriate probiotics and having a well-balanced diet are the building blocks for a strong gut and immune system later in life. 

When it comes to things that can disturb the gut microbiome, be aware of sugary foods. Foods high in refined sugar can feed bad gut bacteria and cause an overgrowth, reducing our beneficial bacteria. While it’s tempting to give in and allow your kids to eat all the junk, be mindful of their intake and try to put in a few boundaries around it.

One of the most important things to remember when looking at childhood health is microbiome diversity. We want our kids to receive a plethora of nutrients to optimise their gut microbiome to keep them robust and their gut immune system strong for childhood and into later life. 

An easy way to do this is by including vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, wholegrains and legumes. While the aim is to include five vegetables a day and two pieces of fruit, these don’t need to be boringly boiled potatoes or sad and soggy brussel sprouts. It’s all well and good to make healthy recipes but, if your kids aren’t going to eat it, don’t waste your time. 

 So, how do we take this one head on? 

If your kids are opposed to eating plain vegetables, try sneaking them into tasty recipes. I love including vegetables and fruits in baking to add flavour and texture, while including a gut-friendly hit of goodness. One recipe children don’t get sick of is my Bonkers Banana-cado Bread . I mean seriously, who can say no to banana bread? Nobody, absolutely nobody.  You could also try these scrumptious Strawberry and Chia Roll Ups. 

Another simple way to add in an extra portion of fruit and vegetables is to disguise them in smoothies. Sweet fruits like bananas, berries and mangoes always have a place in smoothies. For an added nutrient hit, try boiling and freezing cauliflower and zucchini to add a smooth texture to your smoothies, too. My Chocolate and Raspberry Smoothie Bowl is a Holmes Home favourite. It’s tasty, fun to eat and includes antioxidant-rich raspberries and cacao to provide an immune boost. 

If your child dreams of pizza, cookies, and spaghetti Bolognese, swap it out with a healthier, but similar, option. Try my Ham and Cheese Pizza, Golden Gut Oatmeal Cookies and  Zoodles. This way, kids can enjoy their favourite foods but not feel deprived of their cravings.

As I’m sure you’re aware by now, I love food. To me, there’s no greater gift than sharing my love of food and helping people harness their own healthy relationship with food. One of the best ways to show my appreciation for the people around me is by baking. It also connects me with my deeper purpose – to help nourish people, whether that’s on an emotional or literal sense. If your kids refuse to touch the freshly chopped celery you’ve cut them, get them involved in cooking. Cooking can be a fantastic shared activity that gives children a much deeper understanding and richer appreciation of food. 

My favourite treats to make with kids are the ones that bring me back to my own childhood. Chocolate curly wurlys do just that to me. I remember sitting on the playground, breaking off individual squiggles with my friends. Whenever I break a piece off my chocolate curls nowadays, it exudes a child-like joy within me that I can’t explain. 

My Chocolate Curly Wurlys from Supercharge Your Gut provide gut-friendly deliciousness in a nostalgic and extremely pleasurable form. 

 Chocolate Curly Wurlys

This gut-friendly treat offers so much flavour and chocolatey fun! It’s a great one to make and enjoy with kids.

Ingredients:

• 240g (8 ½ oz/1 cup) cacao butter
• 30g (1 oz/ ¼ cup) raw cacao powder, sifted
• 1 heaped teaspoon maca powder 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla powder
• 2 tablespoons rice malt syrup or raw honey, or 1 teaspoon liquid stevia
• 25g (1 oz/ ¼ cup) desiccated coconut

Method:

Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Melt the cacao butter in a heatproof bowl, over a saucepan of boiling water, stirring constantly.

Stir in the cacao powder, vanilla powder, maca powder and rice malt syrup or raw honey (or the stevia) until combined. Set aside until thick enough to pipe.

Pour the mixture into a piping (icing) bag and pipe it onto the baking paper, in a squiggly pattern, forming fingers about 15 cm (6 inches) long, and leaving space in between. (Alternatively, use a skewer to drag the mixture across the paper to create a pattern.) 

Top with the coconut and place in the fridge for about 1 hour to harden. It will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for 2–3 weeks. 

(1)  https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40124-017-0140-9

Have you been thinking about following an intensive detox or juice diet but can’t bite the bullet? Are you so close to booking your colonic but something’s holding you back?

Before you do, please know there’s a natural and maintainable way that you can look after your colon health; it’s time for a natural colonic!

I’m sharing my natural toolkit for creating a sparkling clean and shiny gut and I know you all want the inside scoop. Before I spill the beans, there are some key factors about the colon and detoxification that you need to know.

There are three critical organs that help filter and clean up the body: the liver, the kidneys and the colon. The liver is our first line of defence, the kidneys help filter our blood and the colon helps remove toxic waste.

While the colon isn’t so glamorous and isn’t usually the topic of dinner-party conversion, we can’t achieve a thrivingly healthy gut (which is why we’re all here!) without it. To help with waste removal and to ensure we have energy, we need to keep the colon in good shape!  If your colon is burdened by the junk of digestion in your trunk, you may experience symptoms of a sluggish colon including constipation, bladder infections, bad breath, body odour, digestive pain and cramping, acne, brain fog, fatigue and allergies.

If you're struggling with any of these symptoms above, eating a wholefoods diet high in lacto-fermenting bacteria and prebiotic fibre is your go-to! These foods help break through and clean out toxins, rebuild your gut flora and nourish your colon.

If you want more specifics, there are various colon-friendly foods that you can wrap your head around.

Keep this list on the fridge, or maybe on your phone, and keep your colon thriving without taking any drastic measures.

Clean up your colon with cloves and black pepper – this helps break down the biofilm that occurs in the colon and causes waste.

Apple cider vinegar helps strip out important minerals to keep the biofilm matrix surviving. I love adding Apple Cider Vinegar to stocks and soups! Try it in the recipe below.

Wholefood probiotics such as coconut yoghurt, fermented vegetables and sauerkraut can help quickly rebuild gut microbes which in turn, will resynthesise nutrients from food, degrade toxins and provide energy to the cells lining the colon. Try my Fermented Vegetables here.

Foods high in plant-based fibre such as flaxseeds or linseeds, psyllium husk and oats can help sweep out the colon, naturally aid your detoxification and increase your bowel movements. Try out my Chia and Berry Overnight Breakfast Jar and Baked Fish with a Flaxseed Crust for dinner.

We all know dark leafy greens are good for you, but why? Well, they’re rich in chlorophyll which helps heal and seel a damaged colon and draw out toxins. Just throw all your wheatgrass, spinach, sprouts and dark leafy greens in a blender, block your nose, close your eyes and pretend you’re sipping margaritas on a tropical island. Bliss. Or why not try my Greened Up Shakshuka here.

How can I speak about colon health without a little sprinkle of magic? My Love Your Gut powder, made of diatomaceous earth, naturally lessens the build-up of waste in the colon and removes heavy metals. It can also sweep out toxins, pathogenic bacteria and parasites from the body. I suggest having 1 teaspoon daily initially and working your way up. It goes great in Raw Mini Lime Tarts, my Hello Vera Smoothie and Cherry Ripe Easter Eggs. If you travel a lot or are short on time you can also try our new Love Your Gut capsules here or you may read the green detox review.

Hydration hydration hydration! It is VITAL (yes, I said vital and used capital letters, so you know it’s important!), to drink at least 2 litres of pure, filtered water every single day. Not only does drinking water help your energy levels, it also keeps your cells happy and your gut hydrated and cleansed. If you’re feeling #fancy, add a splash of lemon juice in the morning to rehydrate and kick-start detoxification for the day.

And now for a gorgeous colon friendly recipe, my Bestest Ever Roasted Vegetable Stock. Adding broths and stocks is an extra insurance policy to ensure that your body is being flooded with easy-to-digest nutrients!

You can find the recipe here.

Enjoy 🙂

Lee xo

If you've wondered near and far for a suitable way of eating but you tend to find yourself swinging from one popular diet to another, then this post might help?

When there are just too many diets to choose from, it may seem like it's the time to just throw in the towel, stop trying to be healthier altogether and grab a piece of chocolate cake. I'm here to tell you that it is possible to eat a healthy balanced diet and you shouldn't throw the towel in just yet!

I'd love to de-bunk some myths about a few of the popular diets going round, so you can figure out what works best for you.

But first, in my years of studying nutrition, writing and researching books, I've personally found that the supercharged approach is simple and common sense! Basically it's all about letting let go of rules!

The everyday act of consuming food should never bring you a feeling of captivity or worry.  In a supercharged life, food is to be enjoyed and savoured.

A few of the things I’ve discovered in my journey of writing fifteen books about health and wellness is...

Eat mostly plants:

The one thing we can all agree on is that eating plant foods is really good.  I like to ensure that plant foods – such as nuts, seeds, fruits, grains, vegetables, herbs and spices – make up the majority of my diet, with the greatest emphasis on seasonal vegetables and especially greens. I still enjoy animal products but in smaller quantities. For great recipes consider reading my book Eat Clean, Green and Vegetarian.

Balance out your eating:

Eating is all about balance. If you’ve been out of your normal routine while at work or on holidays and found you’ve overindulged in a specific food, spend the next few days nourishing yourself back to balance with the foods you’ve been missing.

Cut down on processed and inflammatory foods where you can:

Industrially produced foods that your ancestors wouldn’t comprehend are best eaten in small amounts. Any ingredient with a number, or a name that doesn’t register as ‘food’ when you read it, probably isn’t food and may not make you feel that great. Eat Yourself Beautiful is based on an anti-inflammatory style of eating.

Look after your gut

This is the engine room. Between 70-80% of your immune system tissues and cells reside in the gut. Our bodies function best when we eat foods that support the healing of our gut lining.  Smoothies, soups and gelatinous homemade broth-based meals are wonderful. Probiotic and prebiotic foods are also important in creating the perfect environment for friendly bacteria in your micro biome to flourish.

Munch mindfully, eat slowly and think about what you are eating and how it will nourish you.  Rushing and stressing when you’re eating can interfere with digestion, and create imbalance in your gut ecosystem- this can lead to lack of energy, bloating, weight gain and digestive disturbances. Heal Your Gut or Supercharge Your Gut are great to read if you’d like to learn more about gut health or if you don't have time to read try my Love Your Gut powder or Love Your Gut Capsules.

Live by the 80:20 rule

Sticking to your nutritional values 80 per cent of the time will allow you a healthy margin where you can say yes to the chocolate cake at your friends’ birthday parties, or enjoy a big slab of pizza as you travel through Naples. Don’t be the killjoy.

Eggplant Bharta and Indian Dosas

Take an Ayurvedic approach

I’ve been deeply impacted by the ancient healing art of Ayurveda. It’s a whole-lifestyle approach that begins with determining your unique type, also known as a dosha. From there you can learn a host of lifestyle choices that best suit your emotional, physical, mental and spiritual needs.

In Ayurvedic philosophies, the sense of taste is a natural roadmap directing us towards good nutrition and characterised by six individual tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, astringent and pungent.

I love this philosophy, as it recognises that no one diet is perfect for everyone, and it empowers you to be the author of your own health based on the knowledge you’ve gained about your unique self.

It’s a place where you walk to the unforced rhythms that come with a common sense attitude towards food and a balanced approach to eating. Basically, letting go of a rule- bound approach to eating will bring you a sense of freedom, but still allow you to commit to food choices that equate to vibrant health and longevity – and a life fully lived.

Eat Right for Your Shape, has all the information, tools and recipes you need to reap the benefits of an Ayurvedic lifestyle.

Practice mindful eating

Do what the French do and make an occasion of your meal, even if it’s just morning or afternoon tea. Unplug, turn off the TV, sit at the table, use proper dinnerware, eat with friends and family, and give thanks. Tune in to all your senses and pay attention to enjoying and savouring each glorious mouthful.

Food that’s considered, selected, prepared, served and enjoyed with genuine love and thankfulness will bless your body far more than you know. Eat slowly and not on the run. Taste, smell and experience all the sensations of your meals. Honour yourself by taking the time to sit down to eat. Chew your food and say thanks. Be grateful to the earth and to the divine blessing that food is.

Layered Salted Caramel Peanut Fudge

Enjoy your food

Think of pleasure and fulfilment when it comes to food. The bottom line is that every body is different and has different needs. It’s your own responsibility to listen to your heart and steward your body through your lifestyle choices, ranging from movement, sleep and food right through to the emotional and spiritual factors that enable you to best maintain your health and find fulfilment. Supercharge Your Life is the recipe book that covers this.

So anyway, back to why we are here,  when it comes to be bunking diet myths here’s what I think…

And by the way you may notice that I’m not including the Keto diet here, but you can read my thoughts on it here.

Lamb Mulligatawny

Paleo Diet

In the Stone Age, our cavemen and cavewomen ancestors would only eat what they could hunt with their bare hands. The Paleo diet mimics this hunter-gatherer lifestyle; For example, you’d never see a caveman eating a processed granola bar, so you probably shouldn’t be eating a processed granola bar either!

The Paleo Diet removes all grains, beans, soy, dairy, certain vegetable oils and refined sugar. What you’re left with is unprocessed foods like vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, certain fats, nuts and seeds. Whilst I do think removing processed foods; in particular processed meat, is helpful, by demonising food groups, such as carbohydrates or dairy, we can lose benefits of many nutrients that we need to support our gut function and immune system and start to fear food. It’s important to focus on balance – if you’re absolutely craving a block of chocolate, just eat a few pieces! You should enjoy eating, not be afraid of it.

The paleo diet is often misconstrued as just eating meat, meat and more meat. This shouldn’t be the case. By following a balanced paleo diet, you can minimise stress on the body and increase your vitality but I think its also important to eat prebiotic and fibre rich veg like sweet potato and some paleo enthusiasts don’t include them and they are an integral part of having a thriving and robust digestive system.

Fermented Vegetables

Probiotic Diet

Probiotics are finally experiencing the recognition they deserve and I’m loving every single minute of it! Probiotics have been used for centuries to treat a variety of bowel conditions including constipation, diarrhoea and irritable bowel disease.

Probiotics help balance and grow our gut microflora which in turn, supports positive moods, boosts energy and can help produce other essential nutrients.

The probiotic diet includes include sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, kombucha and various yoghurts. While consuming probiotics is great for us and our guts, some people do experience not-so-subtle effects, such as gas and bloating from these foods, so it’s important to eat them in moderation and start off slowly.

Also if you suffer from histamine intolerance, fermented foods can be aggravating. You can read my low down on histamine intolerance here.

Chocolate and Raspberry Smoothie Bowl

The Clean Eating Diet

The Clean Eating Diet is a simple and maintainable approach to healthy eating. Essentially, the Clean Eating diet is exactly how it sounds – you eat a diet based on clean, real and whole foods.

Clean Eating includes some whole grains like brown rice, quinoa and oats, most vegetables, fruits, healthy fats, dairy, beans and other protein sources like meat, fish and chicken. When following the Clean Eating Diet, you remove ‘unclean’ foods such as sugar and processed foods like cakes, cookies, white breads and processed snack bars.

Clean Eating can lead to maintainable weight loss and cause increased energy, cardiovascular benefits and digestive improvements. Some may find it difficult to follow initially but it’s generally a good diet to follow all-round. However, like all diets, it’s important to not over-eat as you can still gain weight while eating ‘clean’ and really, when it comes down to it, who wants to be on a diet anyway?

Ginger Seared Tuna with Avo and Crushed Peas

Mediterranean Diet

This diet is based on, you guessed it, the Mediterranean. It’s inspired by the Greeks, Southern Italians and Spanish in the 1940’s-1950’s. It’s renowned for being one of the world’s healthiest and sustainable diets in the world. The majority of gut health specialists I've interviewed over the years have agreed that this is a favourable approach to eating.

It’s rich in fruit, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and olive oil and features moderate amounts of fish and poultry and the occasional glass of red wine. The diet emphasises extra-virgin olive oil over other oils and butter.

The Mediterranean diet is more than just the food on your plate, it’s also focused on lifestyle. Do like the Greeks, Italian’s and Spanish do and make your next meal a big fiesta! The Mediterranean diet doesn’t include added sugars, refined grains like white breads and pasta, trans fats like in margarines, refined oils like canola oil, processed meat like sausages and other highly processed foods.

Smoked Salmon and Eggs

Low Carb, High Protein Diet

While this diet may sound fantastic, carbohydrates are not the enemy. While this diet can cause short-term weight loss, it usually results in long-term weight gain due to the restrictive nature of the diet. By cutting out carbohydrates, we lose the benefits of many important nutrients that can support our gut-health and immune system.

Some foods that are excluded from the low carb, high protein diet include grains like rice and oats, potatoes, high-carb fruits like bananas and mangoes, and products heavy in gluten like bread, pasta and cakes. Foods included in this diet are meat, fish, low-carbohydrate vegetables like spinach, zucchini and some low carbohydrate fruits like berries.

Complex carbohydrates are fibre rich and help the functioning of our gut. If you eat unrefined carbohydrates, like fruit, starchy vegetables and some grains like oats, you don’t need to fear weight gain! In fact, the fibre in these foods actually help move things along!

Chia Seed Pot

Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting is a sustainable approach to achieving longevity, improving vitality, increasing mood and shedding a few excess kilos! I cover all the different methods of intermittent fasting in Fast Your Way to Wellness.

In a nutshell the 5:2 approach to (IF) is calorie restriction on two days of the week. This means you consume a total of 600 calories (2510 kilojoules) for men and 500 calories (2090 kilojoules) for women.

In my opinion, this is a great way to rest the digestive system however, the food consumed on fasting days, should be real whole foods – not low-fat, processed junk-food, which a lot of people lean towards for convenience. By choosing sustainable, organic and real foods, you’ll get the most out of intermittent fasting practices.

If you look at (IF) as a time of cleansing and nourishing the body, and eat naturally you could benefit from this approach.  There are studies that show Intermittent fasting can improve your metabolism, revamp good gut bacteria, and improve the balance of our hormones but timing of eating is an issue.

Gut Friendly Broths

Supercharge Your Gut Diet

Gut health is all the craze these days and it’s definitely not slowing down anytime soon. Read my Gut Health 101 here.  The Supercharge Your Gut way of eating, as seen in Supercharge Your Gut, isn’t just a diet, it’s more of a holistic lifestyle.

Unlike some popular diets out right now, Supercharge Your Gut focuses on eating a diverse range of foods, eating the rainbow and including both probiotics and prebiotics. Whilst probiotics are currently on stage getting all the fame and glory, it’s important to not forget the camera crew and production team; prebiotics!

Prebiotics help nourish the probiotics within our digestive system, and without them, our probiotics have a poor chance of survival. Some prebiotic-rich food includes dandelion greens, avocadoes, bananas, leeks and onions. I encourage you to incorporate both prebiotic and probiotic-rich foods into your diet, because once you’ve established a healthy gut, you want to maintain it.

Through consuming real, gut-friendly foods, including prebiotics, probiotics, lots of veggies, fruit and quality sources of protein and good carbs, you can achieve a fully functioning engine room.

By supercharging your gut, through consuming easily digestible and delicious foods, you can get your gut glowing, healthy and working at its prime. You can also fix your sleeping patterns, control your hormones and improve your immune system.

Just to give you a little insight into foods that'll supercharge your gut, I’m going to share my Prebiotic Tray Bake from Supercharge Your Gut.

This prebiotic bake is pimped up with a tangy garlic and tahini dressing. Roasting these prebiotic-rich veggies is a great way to cheer up any older veggies that may have been left in the refrigerator a little too long!

The vegetables all cook at different speeds – so some are crunchier than others – which really is the beauty of this dish. But don't just listen to me, try it out for yourself!

Prebiotic Tray Bake with Garlic Tahini Drizzle

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 200 g Jerusalem artichokes
• 1 jicama, peeled and cut into wedges
• 200 g parsnips, peeled and quartered lengthways
• 300 g heirloom or Dutch (baby) carrots, trimmed
• 2 leeks cut into 2 cm rounds
• 2 medium red (Spanish) onions, peeled and cut into wedges
• 12 asparagus spears, trimmed
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Garlic tahini drizzle

• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• Celtic sea salt, to taste
• 70 g sesame tahini
• 3-4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice or more, to taste
• 2-3 tablespoons water
• Aleppo pepper or red pepper flakes

Method.

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).
2. To prepare the artichokes, scrub well but don't peel unless the skin seems too rough. Cut in half lengthwise and immediately rub the cut surface with half a lemon to stop it browning.
3. Place all the prepared vegetables, except the asparagus, in a single layer, on a lined roasting tray (or two). You don’t want the vegetables to crowd, as they won’t roast and crisp up. Drizzle with oil and rub to coat.
4. Roast for 25 minutes, turning the vegetables once, and then take out and add the asparagus. Roast for a further 5 minutes or until the asparagus is just cooked and all the vegetables are golden around the edges.
5. Meanwhile, to make the garlic tahini drizzle, place the garlic and a pinch of salt in a mortar and pestle and mash to a purée. Transfer to a bowl and whisk in the tahini. Add the lemon juice and a little bit of the water, whisking continuously, adding a little more water each time until the sauce reaches the consistency of thick cream (or runny yoghurt). Taste and adjust seasoning.
6. Arrange the roasted vegetables on a serving platter and pour over garlic tahini drizzle.

November is an exciting month as I’m going to further my cooking skills and education by becoming a certified Ayurvedic chef at Hale Pule in the beautiful landscape of the North Island of New Zealand.

Many of us, myself included, are aware of the power of food and how it has the ability to heal and transform our bodies and minds. When we approach eating from its true, sacred nature, it’s like no other medicine on the planet and when we harness its goodness, it enables us to further improve our health from the inside out.

The last cooking adventure I immersed myself in was a few years ago when I travelled to Kerala in India. It’s where I cooked up the pages and recipes for my Ayurvedic cookbook Eat Right for Your Shape. 

This year, I’ll be packing up my bags and joining the lovely folks at Hale Pule on the North Island of New Zealand for the certified Ayurvedic Chef course which runs from November 16th – 29th 2019.

The course is a one hundred-hour program, that teaches you how to incorporate the principles of Ayurveda into personal and commercial kitchens so that you can bring health and wholeness to every body.

Ayurvedic Chef Training is run by Myra Lewin who has been studying, practicing, and teaching Ayurveda and Yoga since the late 1980s. Myra holds a Certificate of Advanced Clinical Study in Ayurveda from Vinayak Ayurveda Chikitsalaya, Nagpur, India. She was grandfathered with Yoga Alliance as one of the first ERYT500s in the US, and is a professional member of the National Ayurvedic Medical Association (NAMA). Myra is also the host of two podcasts on holistic healing, “Everyday Ayurveda and Yoga at Hale Pule” and “Spark Your Intuition”.

If you’re considering joining the course, the certification is ideal for Ayurvedic health counselors and practitioners who want to better support clients' eating habits or for anyone looking to become a personal Ayurvedic chef, run a catering business, prepare healing food at a spa or wellness center or simply enhance your family’s or client's eating habits.

In the 100-hour certification program, you’ll learn:

• How to apply the principles of Ayurveda, including bhutas, doshas, agni, dhatus, food combining, gurvadi gunas and maha gunas, to every bite.
• The use of Ayurvedic herbs and spices to bring healing, balance and great taste.
• How to lead cooking workshops and one-on-one training for individuals desiring a healthy relationship with what and how they eat.
• How to prepare meals for different needs, including illness recovery, restoring balance and large group settings where people have a range of health issues.
• How to bring sattva into meals by creating a harmonious cooking environment, managing your energy as a chef, applying sustainable cooking practices and understanding the role of prana in food.
• In-depth instruction in meal planning, recipe development, kitchen management, cooking tools and food preparation.
• What it takes to cook with consciousness in a commercial setting, including catering events and professional kitchens.
• How to respond to trends in eating and work with clients based on their unique starting points.
• The many ways you can work as an Ayurvedic chef and tips to start your own business.

For more information you can visit the website here or walk through a typical day on the program here.

And to celebrate I’m sharing my delicious Eggplant Bharta and Dosas recipe from Eat Right for Your Shape for you all to enjoy.

Eggplant Bharta 

Serves 2

This kapha-balancing shaggy mash that can be eaten cold as a dip is perfect as a side dish or entrée. I encourage you to make a few serves ahead of time and keep it in the fridge to be enjoyed as a snack with batons of raw carrot, celery and cucumber. Note: It is recommended that all doshas eat tomato in moderation.

Ingredients

• 1 large eggplant (aubergine)
• extra virgin olive oil, for brushing
• 1 tablespoon ghee
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 2.5 cm (1 inch) piece of ginger, peeled and grated
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• ½ small green chilli, seeded and finely chopped
• 1 tomato, finely chopped (to yield ½ cup)
• ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
• ½ teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon garam masala
• Celtic sea salt, to taste
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped coriander (cilantro) leaves, to serve (optional)

Method

Cut three or four slits in the eggplant, then brush the eggplant with a little olive oil. Heat a medium frying pan over medium heat, then fry the eggplant for 10 minutes, turning frequently, until it is soft and charred. Remove from the heat. When cool enough to handle, remove and discard the skin. Mash the flesh and set aside.

Heat the ghee in a clean frying pan over medium heat and add the cumin seeds. Cook for 1 minute, then add the onion and cook for another minute. Add the ginger, garlic and chilli, then cook, stirring frequently, for 1 minute.

Add the tomato and ground turmeric, coriander and cumin, then continue to cook, stirring frequently, for 3 minutes. Add the mashed eggplant, garam masala and salt. Stir to combine and cook for a further
2 minutes.

Top with the coriander leaves (if using) and serve with Indian dosas.

Indian Dosas

Vata and Kapha. To balance pitta, omit the fenugreek

MAKES 10

Ingredients

• 110 g (3 3⁄4 oz/1⁄2 cup) urad dal

• 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
• 
pinch of Himalayan salt, plus extra to taste

• 210 g (7 1⁄2 oz/1 1⁄2 cups) quinoa flour
• 1 litre (35 fl oz/4 cups) filtered water,
• plus extra for soaking ghee, for shallow-frying

Method

Soak the urad dal and fenugreek overnight in a bowl of filtered water with the salt.

Rinse the dal, place in a blender with the flour and blend to a fine paste. Add enough of the water to make a thin batter. Pour into a large heatproof bowl.

Heat the oven on 200°C (400°F) for 10 minutes, then turn the oven off.

Sit the bowl in the oven for 15 minutes or until the batter is slightly bubbly and frothy (this fermenting step is optional – the taste is the same whether you do it or not). Remove from the oven and season with salt.

Heat a frying pan over high heat and add a small amount of ghee. Ladle about 80 ml (21⁄2 fl oz/13 cup) batter into the pan and quickly swirl to spread evenly over the base of the pan.

Add a few drops of ghee. When the edges are looking crisp, fold the dosa in half and remove from the pan. Repeat with the remaining batter.

Before the days of pasta being made out of zucchini and pizza bases out of cauliflower, the Greeks were making lasagne out of eggplant. Who knew they were so food-forward?

But forget Hercules. If we’re going to talk about all things Greek and dreamy, we have to have the Moussaka conversation. If you’ve never heard of Moussaka, it’s similar to a lasagne; it uses silky and smoky eggplant, lamb mince with a gorgeous tomato-based sauce with lots of delicious herbs and spices and a creamy, cheesy layer.

If that’s not a plan for perfection, I don’t know what is!

But alas, while this delicacy is down-right delicious, it tends to cause people to have upset stomachs... a running joke in my family, if you know what I mean.

This time, I’ve decided to cut to the cheese (sorry), and make a Lamb Moussaka – Supercharged style.

In order to do so, we’re going to have to go through this layer-by-layer.

First, we have the eggplant layer – sweetly deep, purple eggplant. Did you know eggplant is high in a phytonutrient that can help protect the brain from damage?  Just like humans, eggplants can be bitter if they’re not cared for properly. Before you start to assemble your moussaka, be sure to slice, salt and then drizzle or spray the eggplant with olive oil. This gets rid of that bitter taste. Note to self: this doesn’t work on bitter humans AKA instagram trolls, but you can try.

Next up, we have the lamb mince. While lamb is traditionally used in this Greek delicacy, you could swap it out with beef or even lentils for a vegetarian option! The optional addition of bone broth here gives it an extremely rich flavour and increases the gut-healing benefits of this dish. You can read more about my love for bone broth here. Bone broths are amazing for healing and sealing the digestive tract. Vegetarians can switch it up by using vegetable stock for great results.

For the creamy layer, I’ve used Meredith Dairy Sheep’s Yoghurt Pot Set. While it’s no traditional white cheese, it certainly makes this dish perfectly creamy. Coconut yoghurt also does the trick if you're avoiding dairy.

Lastly, we have nutritional yeast. Nutritional yeast gives our Moussaka that perfectly cheesy flavour. Nutritional yeast is actually known as a complete protein, containing all of the essential amino acids!

So, get ready to throw on your favourite toga, break some plates and get cooking, Supercharged Style!

Supercharged Moussaka, Lamb or Lentil Your Choice

Serves 4

Ingredients

For creamy layer:

• 500 gm thick yoghurt (pot set is good) - I used Meredith dairy pot set sheep’s yoghurt (or coconut yoghurt for dairy free)

For topping:

• ¼ cup nutritional yeast flakes

Eggplant layer:

• 2 TBS olive oil
• Pinch sea salt
• One large eggplant (sliced, salted, then drizzled or sprayed in olive oil).

Lamb layer:

• 750 gm minced lamb or beef (or use 1 cup of cooked lentils for a vegetarian option)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 2 cups tomato passata
• 2 tbs tomato paste
• 1 cup bone broth (optional)
• 2 tsps oregano

Method:

• Pan-fry the eggplant frying pan over medium–high heat in batches until browned. This should be about 2-3 minutes on each side. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
• Pan-fry garlic in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Add mince and cook until browned, stirring frequently to remove any clumps. Or add lentils if using.
• Place remaining ingredients in and stir. Reduce the heat to medium-low to reduce the sauce down until it is nice and thick and the liquid has evaporated.
• Meanwhile preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grease a baking dish.
• Place a layer of cooked mince (or lentils) at the bottom and top with eggplant slices then add yoghurt and smooth it on top.
• Repeat until all the three layers are complete – this may be two or three times, depending on your baking dish. On the very top layer of yoghurt, sprinkle with nutritional yeast flakes.
• Bake for about 20 mins until golden.