Bulgur with tomato, aubergine and preserved lemon yoghurt

Prep 15 min
Cook 45 min
Serves 4 as a main

2 large aubergines (500g net weight), cut into 3cm chunks 
100ml olive oil
Salt and black pepper
2 onions, peeled and finely sliced
3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 tsp ground allspice
400g cherry tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste
250g bulgur wheat
200g Greek-style yoghurt
1 small preserved lemon, pips discarded, skin and flesh finely chopped
10g mint leaves (about 1 tbsp) finely shredded

Heat the oven to 220C/425F/gas 7. Put the aubergine in a large bowl with four tablespoons of oil, half a teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper. Mix, then spread out on a large oven tray lined with grease-proof paper and roast for 30-35 minutes, stirring once halfway, until the aubergines are caramelised and soft. Take out of the oven and leave to cool.

Meanwhile, put three tablespoons of oil in a large sauté pan for which you have a lid and heat on a medium-high flame. Once hot, fry the onion for eight minutes, stirring a few times, until caramelised and soft. Add the garlic and allspice, fry for a minute, stirring continuously, until the garlic is aromatic and starting to brown, then add the cherry tomatoes, mashing them with a potato masher to break them up. Stir in the tomato paste, 400ml water and a teaspoon of salt, bring to a boil, turn down the heat to medium-low, cover and cook for 12 minutes. Add the bulgur, stirring it in so it’s completely coated, then turn off the heat and set aside for 20 minutes, so the bulgur can absorb all the liquid.
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In a medium bowl, mix the yoghurt with the preserved lemon, half the mint and an eighth of a teaspoon of salt.
Divide the bulgur between four plates and serve with the yoghurt and aubergine alongside and a sprinkling of the remaining mint.

Are you getting enough sleep for optimum health?

Scientists have discovered that insufficient sleep is now one of the most significant lifestyle factors influencing whether you will develop Alzheimer’s disease. According to Matthew Walker in his book Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams our brain has a ‘remarkable sewage system’, called the glymphatic system, which, when we enter deep sleep, cleanses the brain of a sticky, toxic protein linked to Alzheimer’s, known as beta amyloid. Without a sufficient night’s sleep our brain is unable to cleanse, and the Alzheimer’s disease risk heightens.

Another negative aspect of sleep deprivation is increased potential for weight gain. Insufficient sleep raises the level of hormone that makes you feel hungry whilst suppressing a hormone that otherwise signals food satisfaction. The subsequent imbalance has the effect of making you want to eat more, despite being full.

With respect to meals, how varied is your weekly, monthly, seasonal menu? Do you eat the same meals on a week by week basis? Try and set yourself a challenge of cooking one or two new recipes each week! If you are struggling for ideas, drop me a line, in the meantime try our delicious recipe from Ottolenghi.

Being an owner of an iPhone and having it connected to both my car and my watch, I am amazed at how my travels and timetable are recorded and I am subsequently informed. On getting into my car in a morning, I will receive a message that says '7 minutes to Frogmarsh Mill traffic light'! OK, I leave the house the same time every morning and its very early, but when I get into my car on Thursday mornings at 11.30, I get the message '10 minutes to Minchinhampton Golf Club'! It appears my car, my watch and phone know what I am doing and where I am going.  Was George Orwell right, or are we all creatures of habit?

Those of you who have brought up children or trained puppies, will be fully aware of the need for routine and set boundaries. And so, it is, our bodies and mind function best when we follow a schedule that is relatively consistent and regular. But do these habits always help?

If you are looking to make changes in your lifestyle or looking to get the optimum performance, it becomes even more important to establish and follow a routine. For instance, getting dramatically different amounts of sleep from night to night or waking up at different times is confusing for your system. If you can follow a consistent and predictable sleep routine and regular meal times and be consistent with your exercise, you will give yourself a better chance at improving your quality of life.

We were all blown away by your generosity and ultimate success of our Food Bank donations. Later this year we will be appealing for wash bags and toiletries for the Stroud Women’s Refuge, but in the meantime, here are some details for their latest fundraiser.

In the era of #MeToo and the Women’s Marches, domestic abuse is on the agenda and yet remains the crime hiding in plain sight in our communities. No respecter of age, race, class or circumstances, domestic abuse flourishes through silence, embarrassment and shame.

• 1 in 4 women experience domestic abuse/violence.
• Between 2 and 3 women are murdered EVERY WEEK in their own homes.
• 750,000 children witness domestic violence every year – leading to their own trauma.
• Stroud Women’s Refuge is the ONLY women’s refuge remaining in Gloucestershire.
• It costs £250,000 a year to run Stroud Women’s Refuge.

Orzo, giant couscous or even macaroni all work for this recipe. Add a handful or two of frozen petit pois with leftover meat (save the roast chicken bones for a lovely stock) and you'll have yourself a perfectly light and healthy supper. Frozen herbs work just as well as fresh.

Serves 4
750ml chicken stock
50g orzo pasta
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
2 celery sticks, finely chopped
100g cooked roast chicken, shredded
100g frozen peas
4 spring onions, finely chopped
30g fresh mint

1 Pour the chicken stock into a large saucepan and put over a high heat. Once boiling, add the orzo, garlic and celery. Allow this to cook for 10-12 minutes or until the pasta is completely cooked.

2 Add the shredded chicken, peas and spring onions. Heat through before adding the mint.

3 Serve with crusty bread or a mixed salad.
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• Cook On A Shoestring by Sophie Wright (Kyle Books)

Chestnut and chorizo soup
I cannot believe that I have not cooked this soup before! Hiding in the pages of Moro The Cookbook by Sam and Sam Clark (Ebury Press), this warm soup combines some of the classic flavours of Spanish cooking to produce a comforting and mildly spicy meal in a bowl!

Serves 4

4 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 medium carrot, diced
1 celery stick, diced
120g mild cooking chorizo, cut into 1cm cubes
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tsp ground cumin
1½ tsp fresh thyme leaves, finely chopped
2 small dried red chillies, crushed
2 tomatoes, fresh or tinned, roughly chopped
500g cooked peeled chestnuts (fresh or vacuum-packed), roughly chopped, (I used two packets of vacuum packed chestnuts)
20 saffron threads, infused in 3-4 tbsp boiling water
1 litre water
Salt and black pepper

1 In a large saucepan heat the oil over a medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery, chorizo and a pinch of salt and fry for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until everything caramelises and turns brown.

2 Now add the garlic, cumin, thyme and chilli and cook for 1 more minute, followed by the tomatoes and, after about 2 minutes, the chestnuts.

3 Give everything a good stir, then add the saffron-infused liquid, and the water, and simmer for about 10 minutes.
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4 Remove from the heat and mash until almost smooth but still with a bit of texture. Season with salt and pepper.

Just because you may have failed in the past, doesn’t mean you will fail again. If you really want to change something in your life, know that if you truly believe it will happen, then you will find a way to make it happen. Belief is the fuel of ambition!  In attempting to do anything new or remotely ambitious in your life, check in with your overall belief system to ensure that you are congruent. When you believe you can achieve great things, you will. 

Perhaps one of the greatest examples of this was the belief that running a mile under four minutes was humanly impossible, a view reflected by the hundreds who tried and failed. However, Roger Banister decided that this daunting physical barrier could be overcome. After he smashed the record in his exhausting, historic performance, people immediately believed that it was now possible and in the 18 months after his historical achievement the sub 4 min mile was achieved by more than 45 runners.

Research has also shown that many of the people at the top of their professions strongly believe that they are better than they really are. But this belief allows them to BE better than they really are. And the more successful they are the more evidence there appears to be to support their belief in their greatness. 
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It is also worth pointing out, that one of the functions performed for us by our mind is the validation of our ways of thinking about the world. We will tend to seek confirmation for what we believe, even if those beliefs are harmful to our wellbeing and better good. If you believe that you are capable and confident, you pay attention to those signals from the outside world which reinforces those beliefs. If you believe that you are not as good as others or that you are being judged badly, you seek the confirming evidence just as readily. When this happens, often at the first sign of difficulty in achieving an objective, we are more likely to abandon our plans and shrink back into our comfort zone. 
 

We hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and New Year break and are now looking forward to a positive start to 2019.

It's that time of year again when gym memberships are at their peak, fridges are full of fruits and vegetables and all your friends are ‘dry’ for January! I am sure you are all wise enough to avoid the trap of following the masses and creating a resolution that you cannot fulfil! But the New Year offers an opportunity to review and plan, so for those of you still struggling to come to terms with the New Year and have yet to make a New Year resolution, why not try this technique inspired by Tim Ferris?

This weekend, sit down and create a past year review! Keep it to and personal and family life, you can always do a separate one for work and career!

Using an A4 sheet of paper, create two columns: POSITIVE and NEGATIVE. Look back through last year’s diary and the photos on your phone looking at every week in turn.

Make a note of any people or activities or commitments that were either positive or negative and place them in their respective columns.

Once you have reviewed the whole year, look at the Positive list and highlight the top 20% of activities, people and events.

Based on these answers, schedule more of them for 2019 Get them in your diary now! Book things with friends and prepay for activities/events/commitments that you know work. It’s not real until it’s in the calendar.
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Step two is to review your “negative” list and write, “NOT-TO-DO LIST” at the top. Place this list somewhere you can see it each morning for the first few weeks of 2019. These are the people and things you “know” make you miserable, so don’t put them on your diary out of obligation or guilt.

Serves 4

olive oil
butternut squash 750g peeled, deseeded and cut into 4cm chunks
onions 2 large or 3 small, diced; plus 1 cut in half and thinly sliced into half moons
garlic cloves 3 fat, crushed
leeks 3, trimmed, cleaned and finely chopped 
potatoes 3, unpeeled, cut into 4cm rough chunks 
ripe vine tomatoes 5, roughly chopped into chunks
ground cumin 4 heaped tsp 
ground cinnamon 1 heaped tsp 
smoked sweet paprika 2 tsp 
chilli paste 3 tsp 
sea salt
black pepper freshly ground 
chickpeas 2 x 400g cans (reserve the liquid, plus a couple of handfuls of chickpeas to garnish)
large courgette 1, finely diced 
feta cheese 100g

For the herb oil
olive oil 6 tbsp 
flat-leaf parsley good handful
dill good handful 
coriander good handful, plus extra, chopped, to garnish
pistachio nuts handful 
lemon juice squeeze

Preheat a large saucepan over a medium heat and put in enough olive oil to generously coat the base of the pan. Add the butternut squash, diced onions, garlic, leeks and potatoes and sauté, without browning, until the vegetables soften slightly. Then add the tomatoes, spices and chilli paste and give it all a good stir to ensure the spices are evenly coating the vegetables. Cover the vegetables completely with freshly boiled water, add a generous amount of sea salt (I would suggest at least 4 heaped teaspoons, crushed) and a good amount of black pepper, stir once more and cook for 30 minutes on a gentle boil.
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Insert a knife into the squash and, when it is soft, purée the mixture in a food processor or blender until you get a lovely even, smooth soup. Once smooth, add the chickpeas and their liquid and stir well. At this stage you can add some more water to achieve your desired soup consistency and check the seasoning to see if more salt or pepper is needed. Cook for a further 20 minutes, then add the courgette and cook for a final 20 minutes before serving.
Meanwhile, drizzle some olive oil into a large frying pan set on a high heat and fry the sliced onion until brown and crispy. Add the reserved chickpeas and brown them with the onions. Using a slotted spoon, remove the onions and chickpeas from the pan and set aside.

To make the herb oil, put the olive oil, parsley, dill and coriander in a bowl with the pistachios, lemon juice, sea salt and pepper. Blitz with a hand blender until finely chopped and with the consistency of pesto. If you need to slacken the mixture, add a bit more oil.

Pour the soup into large bowls (preferably wide, shallow ones), then generously crumble in the feta. Drizzle a couple of tablespoons of the herb oil into each bowl over the feta. Finally, add the reserved crispy fried onions and chickpeas. Finish with a little freshly chopped coriander (if using). Serve with some nice crusty bread.