I remember looking forward to the first of the asparagus and the first of the strawberries because the seasons were so fleeting, which made it feel like extra special produce. "Growing up in New Zealand, we naturally ate what was in season and I tended my own vegetable garden. One way to ensure your veggies taste amazing is to eat seasonally." If you beautifully char-grill some broccoli or roast a cauliflower with spices, then you get a different flavour profile to just steaming them and the resulting dishes are immensely satisfying. I love vegetables, so it never feels like a hardship to eat them and there are so many ways to get the best out of them. Of course, it’s not just your sleep that benefits from a plant-focussed diet it helps several other aspects of your health too, from increasing your gut diversity to looking after your heart. During colder months it’s nice to have comfort food such as warming stews made from squashes and celeriac, along with lentils and pulses and other complex carbs that keep you sustained until morning. If it’s close to bedtime, then a plant-based meal can be much easier to digest. One of the things I do to improve my sleep is focus on what I eat. I don’t usually have problems falling asleep after a long shift in the kitchen yet the quality of my sleep is a different matter: on busy days I sometimes wonder if I get into a truly deep sleep. When I can, I get up first thing to enjoy it. "You might think all chefs are night owls, but actually, I love the early morning light. The chef, author and restaurateur shares her sleep story.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |