Eat like the English

Apparently about 4000 lives a year could be saved if the Scottish and the Welsh ate "more like the English".

Sensationalist and hardly groundbreaking, as the article goes on to define that as simply eating more fruit and veg.

As a person living in Wales, I tend to agree. I know more than a handful of fully grown adults who flat out refuse to eat 95% of vegetables I can think of. But what's behind this? On one of my grouchier days, I would simply call them childish....but even children eat vegetables!

We need to get people excited about vegetables again.

Here's a link to a fantastic broccoli stir-fry to get you started!

Pariah Potato

The potato is a wonderful thing. You'll probably not be surprised when I say I am really confused about the latest suggestion by the United States Department of Agriculture.

There are more ways to cook a potato than there are to skin a cat, and the majority of those won't have a negative effect on your health as long as you don't eat doofus amounts.

As for the low-Gi thing.... that's not really a problem. As long as you vary the carbohydrates that you eat and fill your diet with other healthy foods.

Anyway, there's not much else I can really say that the article doesn't cover quite nicely, so I'm just going to share my stupidly easy potato wedge recipe.

2-3 potatoes (preferably roasting ones--the amount of potatoes you will need is entirely down to you. Despite their "low GI" they are incredibly filling)
2-3 spoonfuls of oil OR spray oil like Frylight
Chilli powder and paprika (to taste)

• Cut the potatoes into eights--if any of the wedges seem to be too big, cut them in half lengthways.
• If you are using oil, poor it onto the oven dish/tray you are going to use. Make sure it has at least a lip on the edge, you don't want to hot oil spilling all over you when you pull it from the oven. Add the spices to the oil and mix them about.
• If you are using an oil spray, spray the tray before placing the wedge skin down on it. Sprinkle the spices lightly over the potato and spray them until they are just over half-covered with oil.
• Place the wedges in a pre-heated oven-- 200 degrees-- 30 minutes should do it, but you may want to make that 35 if you have particularly thick wedges.

I tend to have my potato wedges with dijonnaise. For the "poor man's" version, mix mustard with mayonnaise on a 1:6 ratio.

Pumpkin Soup

As a child, I used to really dislike pumpkin. I grew up in France and thankfully (for my preteen self) "Citrouille" is not a staple vegetable in their cooking. Even in the United Kingdom it doesn't tend to make much of an appearance except in photographs and recently--due to the ever increasing encroachment of American holidays-- at All Hallow's Eve.

I can't even recall exactly what it was about the dreaded pumpkin that caused me to develop such avoidant behaviour. As with most things, it was probably due to unimaginative and just plain awful preparation.

A few days ago, one of my good friends dropped by with a basketful of vegetables. I cooked up a storm with most of the offerings (curry, ragu etc) but the world's smallest pumpkin has been sitting on my kitchen counter for almost a week, taunting me. I decided to tackle it today.

I don't make soup that often, but it seems the best way to try out pumpkin for the first time in 15 years. Right now there's a tray of pumpkin flesh, chopped carrots and a giant bulb of garlic roasting in the oven.

I'll let you know how it went.