Nutrition: Eat healthy with Amelia Freer

If you’re trying to lose weight or eat healthier, celebrity nutritionist and best-selling author Amelia Freer is the person to help you out. With stars such as Sam Smith and James Corden amongst her clients, her popularity has boomed so much that the waiting list for her services has now had to close!

Here she takes the time to share her top tips and a few recipes from her book Cook. Nourish. Glow.

What are your top tips for healthy living?
Cook meals using fresh, whole ingredients in a variety of colours. Eat mindfully and with grace, get enough sleep and move your body every day in a way that you enjoy.

Which foods improve our mood?
Nourishing ourselves with unadulterated wholefoods is one of the best ways to help stabilise our energy and mood. But to be truely happy you need to adopt a balanced lifestyle of positive thinking, moderate exercise, connected community and eating real food (not packets and promises!).

How can we maintain our energy levels when we’re out on the course?
I don’t believe in snacking. Stable energy is really about our overall eating habits, not having a quick burst of calories before activity. Meals should combine a little carbohydrate (such as some fruit, vegetables or grains) with a little protein (such as some nuts, fish, poultry, eggs or dairy).

What are your favourite ingredients to cook with at the moment?
I really care about eating seasonally and so I’m mostly driven by what the garden produces. Seasonal food is fresher, cheaper and ecologically kinder. It also provides the correct nourishment – hydrating foods in the summer, and warming ones in the winter to boost immunity. This autumn I’ll be eating lots of kale, pumpkins, squashes and apples.

Amelia Freer Salmon

POACHED THAI SALMON WITH PAK CHOI
Ingredients

Coconut oil
2 shallots, fi nely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, fi nely chopped or grated
A thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped or grated
1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped
1 lime leaf, finely shredded
1 stalk of lemongrass, finely chopped
500ml fish or vegetable stock
2 salmon fillets, skinned
2 pak choi, leaves separated
1 small handful of fresh coriander leaves

Method

Heat 1 tablespoon of coconut oil in a medium saucepan and fry the shallots, garlic, ginger and chilli for a few minutes to soften. Add the lime leaf and lemongrass to the pan and cook for another minute.
Pour in the stock, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat. Simmer gently for 10 to 12 minutes to infuse the flavours.
Add the salmon fillets and allow to poach for 7 to 8 minutes over a gentle heat. Add the pak choi leaves for the last minute of cooking.
Arrange the salmon fillets and pak choi in serving bowls and ladle the fragrant broth over – remove the lime leaf and lemongrass before serving.
Garnish with the coriander.

Amelia Freer Chickpea

CHICKPEA AND AUBERGINE SALAD

Ingredients

½ a small red onion
Flaked almonds, to serve
1 large aubergine, cut in half and sliced
Glug of extra virgin olive oil juice and zest of 1 lemon
2 x 400g tins of chickpeas
2 large tomatoes, cubed
1 bunch of fresh parsley
2 tsp garlic-infused oil
1 tsp cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper

Method

Cover the onion with water and set aside for half an hour.
Next spread the slices of aubergine out on a baking tray and brush them with olive oil. Place under a high grill for 5 minutes, then take out and brush again with a mixture of olive oil and lemon juice. Place back under the grill until the edges of the slices are slightly blackened and the flesh is soft. Set aside in a large bowl.
On the same baking tray, spread out the chickpeas and grill until they’re golden. Add them to the bowl of aubergine.
Dice the tomatoes into small cubes and add to the bowl along with the parsley, drained red onion slices, garlic oil, cayenne pepper, remaining lemon juice, zest, salt and pepper and mix well.
Serve warm, with a sprinkling of flaked almonds.

Amelia Freer Yoghurt

COCONUT YOGHURT JELLY WITH RASPBERRY AND FIG COMPOTE

Ingredients

4 fresh figs
4 dried figs, soaked overnight
120g raspberries
½ tsp vanilla essence or seeds from ½ a vanilla pod
6 fresh mint leaves
6 leaves of gelatine
500g coconut yoghurt
Chopped Brazil nuts, cacao nibs and small mint leaves, to serve

Method

Blend the fresh figs with the soaked dried figs, raspberries, vanilla essence or seeds and the mint leaves until smooth, slightly thickened but still of dropping consistency. Add some soaking water if needed. Divide this mixture between two serving jars.
Soak the gelatine leaves in water for 10 minutes. Once softened, heat them with 4 tablespoons of water until dissolved; add this to the coconut yoghurt and whisk the mixture until well incorporated. Pour on top of the fig mixture and cool in the fridge.
Just before serving, sprinkle with chopped Brazil nuts and raw cacao nibs. Decorate with small mint leaves.

Cook. Nourish. Glow by Amelia Freer, published by Michael Joseph

Amelia Freer Book