A JANUARY STEW FOR YOU

a delicious antidote to all the diet & weight loss noise

Hello and happy new year!

I am so so happy to be back at my desk and sending out this recipe to you all. I have a genuine love for January, for all its bleakness I also find it a very restorative and rejuvenating time. I like to hibernate a little, take stock of the year to come, make plans and goals quietly in the deep dark winter, ready to emerge in Spring felling renewed. I find this month is a really good time to lean into deep rest, nourishing the mind and body with all the cosy activities, reading in bed, movie nights at home, long blustery walks and lots of warm bowls of food. If I’m being really honest, I would prefer to eat all of my meals from a bowl, something about it feels comforting and caring, versus the flat confrontation of a plate.

This time of year, while being great in many ways, also comes with a lot of pressure from the media to get fitter, leaner, thinner, ultimately to make ourselves smaller. I have never been someone to really make resolutions, I find they often don’t stick and then the resulting fall out makes the situation worse than it was before. I find the fashion of brutal diets and exercise regimes like 75 hard and whole 30 frankly cruel. I’ve never been someone that responds well to a mean attitude, I am at my best when I’m being showered in praise and compliments. So, I find the incessant messaging online a bit tricky around this time of year, and I try to keep my own mind free from negative self talk around the body. Every January I like to focus on eating foods that are yes, healthy and make me feel good, but that are also delicious. Foods that nourish my body and my mind, that have me counting the seconds down to dinner, making a double batch so I can have it again for lunch the next day. I want to eat foods that bring me joy, warm my bones, keep me full and happy while the dark stormy weather rages outdoors. Winter is hard enough on our mental health without having to also worry about depriving ourselves of certain foods.

Today I’m sharing a new discovery, a stew I whipped up in a hurry as a staff meal for our supper club team before an event. I didn’t have much in the house in the way of fresh produce, so I raided the pantry and fridge for the tinned and fermented ingredients in this stew. It was a real hit with the team and an even bigger one with me, so much so I made it three more times before I left London for the Christmas break. I’m really proud of this stew, it’s certifiably good for you, packed full of protein and gut healthy ferments. But more than that, it is delicious, warming and moreish. It’s naturally gluten free and I’ve included substitutions to make it vegetarian and vegan below, so it’s a good option to make when you have a lot of dietaries to cater to. The full batch serves 6 and is a perfect mid week family dinner, but could also be batch made and meal prepped to get ahead on the week’s lunches. I really hope you like it as much as I do.

Sending love, Rosie x