Barbara's Articles

An A to Z of Healthy Eating
(Appearing in the Southern Daily Echo)

C...

Carrots, cashew nuts, chicken and chickpeas, these are just some kinds of food beginning with ‘C’. There are some fabulously tasty dishes you can make with these ingredients and exotic ones like chilli peppers, cardamom, cayenne and cumin. Today’s Nutrichef recipe (below) is for a chicken curry. So let’s have a lookat some of the ingredients and the health benefits they provide.

Carrots are a great source of a variety of minerals – the building blocks of all the essential biochemical processes that go on inside us each and every day. Some of the minerals in carrots (and their associated functions) are calcium (for bones, teeth and nerves), magnesium (heart, muscle and digestive enzymes), potassium (muscle and nerves) and phosphorus (the membranes of every single cell in our body!)

Cashew nuts are also a good source of minerals including calcium, magnesium, iron (in blood) and zinc (in hormones), as well as providing folic acid - a vitamin required for controlling sleep, pain and mood, and protein synthesis during pregnancy.

Cauliflower (like all vegetables) is also a great provider of minerals and vitamins (especially vitamin C).

Chicken provides most of the protein in this curry. It is also a good source of a variety of vitamins (including vitamins A, B3, B6 and K). If you don’t like chicken, you can get your protein from cod (also high in omega oils – essential for a healthy heart). Vegetarians can use chickpeas instead of chicken or fish. Chickpeas are also a good source of protein, as well as folic acid and manganese.

They say ‘variety is the spice of life’ – well it certainly is when it comes to nutrition. The greater the variety of healthy ingredients you consume, the greater your chance of enjoying good health. With this in mind I’ve chosen 3 nutrient-rich spices for this curry: cardamom, cinnamon and coriander.

 

Recipe for Chicken Curry (serves 4)

Ingredients:

85g cashew nuts
1tsp garlic paste
200ml water
4 tbsp vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
5 cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick
½ tsp ground tumeric
250ml coconut cream
140g cauliflower florettes
140g carrots
140g green beans
4 chicken breasts, diced
OR cod fillet
OR 100g chickpeas

Directions:

• Fry onion in vegetable oil and add garlic, cardamom pods, cinnamon and turmeric until golden brown.
• Add coconut cream and water; let simmer.
• Add cauliflower, carrots, green beans; simmer until soft.
• Fry chicken in a pan; add to curry.
• Stir and serve on a bed of rice.
• Garnish with cashew nuts and coriander.

For more information about Nutrichef, call 0845 366 9900