Healthy eating in the New Year

Here are some ideas to help you get back in shape after the Christmas excesses while at the same time practicing your English.

14 Enero 2014

It seemed like fun at the time as you relaxed all your regular eating norms and enjoyed all the rich food that we eat at Christmas and New Year. But now you are paying the price as your clothes feel tight and the scales tell you things you don't want to know. You have put on some extra kilos! So, it's time to get back in shape with some exercise and healthy eating. This month our Food & Drink section has some mouthwatering, simple yet low calorie recipes to help you. We hope you enjoy them. Don't forget to get your English back into shape too at www.facebook.com/EnglishToday where we have tips, quizzes and news all through the week.

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Pea & mint soup

Nutrition per serving

kcalories

108

 

protein

8g

 

carbs

17g

 

fat

1g

 

saturates

1g

 

fibre

4g

sugar

1.6g

 

salt

0.84g

A healthy starter or snack that's great hot or cold

Ingredients

• 1 bunch spring onions, trimmed and roughly chopped
• 1 medium potato, peeled and diced
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 850ml vegetable or chicken stock
• 900g young peas in the pod (to give about 250g/9oz shelled peas)
• 4 tbsp chopped fresh mint
• large pinch caster sugar
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon or lime juice
• 150ml buttermilk or soured cream

Method

1. Put the spring onions into a large pan with the potato, garlic and stock. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until the potato is very soft. For the garnish, blanch 3 tbsp of the shelled peas in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, drain, put in a bowl of cold water and set aside. Add the remaining peas to the soup base and simmer for 5 minutes – no longer, or you will lose the lovely fresh flavour of the peas.
2. Stir in the mint, sugar and lemon or lime juice, cool slightly then pour into a food processor or liquidiser and whizz until as smooth as you like. Stir in half the buttermilk or soured cream, taste and season with salt and pepper.
3. To serve the soup cold, cool quickly, then chill – you may need to add more stock to the soup before serving as it will thicken as it cools. To serve hot, return the soup to the rinsed-out pan and reheat without boiling (to prevent the buttermilk or soured cream from curdling).
4. Serve the soup in bowls, garnished with the remaining buttermilk and the drained peas.

Recipe from Good Food magazine, May 2004

Glossary

• in shape- en forma
• scales - balanza
• starter - entrante
• spring onion - cebolletas
• trim - recortar
• roughly chop - en trozos grandes
• blanch - escaldar
• drain - escurrir
• pour - echar
• whizz - licuar
• stock - caldo
• curdle - cortarse (leche)