Recipe ideas on how to create healthy and nutritious foods in January with some fun foodie twists.
January has a reputation for being a month of redemption for the excesses of Christmas. While the nation is dusting off the gym pass, you don’t necessarily have to eat ‘boring’ healthy food in the grim winter months.
Use these recipes to create healthy and nutritious meals with foodie twists and unusual flavours this January.
Try Vegetables in a New Way
If you want to balance out the excesses of Christmas by having more vegetables in your meals, why not try something a little different? Ingredients such as spaghetti squash can be used to create lighter dishes with strong flavours, such as this garlic parmesan spaghetti squash with mushrooms. This dish pairs the mild nutty flavour of the roasted squash with deep earthy mushrooms and creamy parmesan. This idea for parsnip carbonara adds a lighter twist to a classic without compromising on flavour. In fact, the addition of creamy blended parsnips adds a sweetness to the indulgent sauce. Use an immersion blender in your saucepan to whip up the parsnip, creme fraiche and nutmeg sauce.
Go Flexitarian
More are opting for a flexitarian diet, where meat is only eaten on special occasions, or reserved for dining out. Try out some healthy vegetarian dishes in January, like this spiced aubergine bake, which layers slices of roasted aubergine in a mildly spicy sauce made with creamy coconut milk.
Replace beef burgers with these protein-packed best black bean burgers by Sally’s Baking Addiction. The addition of salty feta cheese means this mixture holds really well together and doesn’t crumble. This means you can griddle the burgers in a grill pan to get an extra layer of smokiness from the black beans.
Experiment With Flavour in Salads
The typical January diet holds a lot of comfort food in the cold weather, but many will be swapping their sandwiches for salads after Christmas. Foodies can see this as an opportunity to explore new flavours, such as incorporating gut-friendly fermented vegetables and creating dressings with umami flavour with this cabbage salad with a miso vinaigrette.
Another way to level up your salad this January is to use unusual grain such as freekeh. This middle-eastern freekeh salad recipe by Rick Stein shows how easy it is. Simmer the nutty grain in a saucepan for fifteen minutes and mix in sweet pomegranate seeds and fresh mint.
Korean-Inspired Bowls
Feel like making something healthy and trying a new cuisine? Korean food is certainly enjoying a wave of popularity, and a Bibimbap Bowl is simple to make at home. This mix of rice, meat and lots of veggies is cooked with plenty of firey and umami flavours and then topped with a fried egg. Get some Seoul in your bowl.
Try Pho At Home
Another healthy Asian cuisine for health-conscious foodies to explore is Vietnamese. A bowl of pho is the most popular meal in Vietnam, and once you nail the basic recipe, there’s plenty of room for variation. This light beef broth filled with noodles, meat, vegetables and fresh herbs is perfect for a cold January evening.