Healthy Eating: Food and Health with Healthy Eating Recipes by Lucy Hyland at Food For Living

Wednesday 29th September

Check out my article today on http://blog.localmarkets.ie/

If you happen to miss it, check it out below:

I’m doing it again!! I’m staring a great vegetable this week which is just going out of season. I promise, as of next week, I’ll start getting into this Autumn thing but for now, in the last days of September, I’m still holding on to summer!

This week I’m going to talk about courgettes. We’ve had the sweetest courgettes for the summer and I’ve mostly been eating them raw, grated in a salad or sliced up in a pitta bread. However, as the season comes to an end, I’ve been roasting them up for the top of my Autumn salads.

I often find at the turn of the seasons that I eat a lot of warm salads – the large raw salads of the summer are well on their way out.

Courgettes are a great source of Manganese and Vitamin C. Manganese is not just a powerful anti-oxidant but also is also known as an ‘enzyme activator’, improving the utilization of a range of nutrients. Vitamin C is fairly well-known as a vitamin but one thing to remember is that it is a water soluble vitamin, meaning that the body cannot store it for long. For this reason, its good to eat Vitamin C rich foods on a daily basis… well there you go!

It is important not to overcook courgettes and so having them raw or cooked al dente - i.e. with a little crunch is best. I’ve oven roasted mine here, which I only occasionally do. If they turn translucent they are overcooked.

Roasted Courgette and Halloumi Salad

Serves 4 as a side salad or 2 as a good sized lunch

1/2 packet of halloumi (about 120g) – cubed
2 medium courgettes – sliced
1 sweet potato – diced into small squares
2 red onions – cut into 8 pieces
1 garlic clove – crushed
2 tbsp of freshly chopped coriander
1 tbsp of parsley
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Juice of a lime
Freshly cracked pepper

Preheat oven to 160 oc (Fan) or 180 oc

Place all of the vegetables in a large mixing bowl (courgettes, sweet potatoes and onions) and mix well with 1 dessert spoon of olive oil, garlic and pepper.
Place on a baking tray and cook for 20 mins – until sweet potatoes are cooked.
Meanwhile make the dressing by mixing the olive, lime juice and pepper together.
Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and sprinkle on the halloumi. Place under the grill for 10 minutes until they start to brown (remove vegetables is you have a grill and oven in one).

Serve on a bed of mixed leaves if you wish.

Wheat free, gluten free, sugar free

If you are interested in a one on one consultation, contact me on lucy@foodforliving.ie