*NEW RECIPE* from Gut Gastronomy 

This recipe is a show stopper on special occasions, if you can, buy grass-fed lamb as it is rich in CLA - which can aid weight loss and replenish your digestive health. Eating organic meat has distinct advantages to your nourishment, healing and disease prevention.

Lamb with grilled asparagus and salsa verde 

This unusual marinade uses anchovy fillets to flavour red meat and, surprisingly, it works a treat. The trick is to undercook the lamb and allow it to rest – this ensures that the meat remains juicy, tender, succulent and pink. The richness of the colour is an indicator of the nutrient density of red meat.

Serves 8–10

4 x 125g pieces lamb loin, fully trimmed and all sinews removed
20g clarified butter
2 bundles of asparagus, trimmed and cut in half
1 tsp chia oil

For the marinade:
2 garlic cloves, crushed 3 rosemary sprigs
chopped grated zest of 1⁄2 lemon
1 tsp local runny honey

For the salsa verde:
25g mint leaves, 25g basil leaves, 25g flat-leaf parsley
1 garlic clove, crushed
3 spring onions, 1 tbsp capers, 8 anchovy fillets, 1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and ground black pepper

Method
Mix together all the marinade ingredients in a bowl. Add the lamb, then cover and leave to marinate for 2 hours in the fridge.

Make the salsa verde, put all the ingredients in a blender and blitz until smooth. Keep in a screwtop jar in the fridge for up to 1 week.

Preheat the oven to 200°C, 400°F, Gas mark 6.

Heat the clarified butter in a small frying pan over a high heat.

Remove some of the marinade from the lamb and then add the lamb to the hot pan and sear it on all sides. Season with some sea salt and black pepper, and then roast in the preheated oven for 5 minutes until pink. Remove and allow to rest.

Heat a griddle pan over a high heat. In a bowl, drizzle the asparagus with the chia oil. Season with salt and pepper and then arrange the asparagus on the hot griddle. Cook for 11⁄2 minutes, pushing down on top of the spears with the base of a clean heavy pan, so they steam as well as grill, and the spears will be crisp with a vibrant green colour. Turn the asparagus with a pair of tongs and replace the pan on top. Cook for a further 11⁄2 minutes.

Slice the lamb and serve it with the asparagus and a good drizzle of salsa verde.

Pea, feta & sesame lollipops with mint yoghurt sauce

A recipe from Gut Gastronomy 

This recipe really is a must try at home! There’s a lot going on in these delicious treats, with protein from the different cheeses, sesame seeds, gram flour (chick pea flour), peas and the yoghurt dip, all bursting with a fresh tangy flavour. Make these lollipops in large batches, as they will disappear faster than you expect.

Serves 4

250g cooked garden peas

125g feta cheese

10g mint leaves, chopped

1 fresh green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

30g grated Parmesan

2 organic free-range egg yolks

½ tsp chilli powder

30g gram(chick pea) flour

sesame seeds, for sprinkling

60g coconut oil

For the radish salad:

1 tsp hazelnut oil

1 tsp sherry vinegar

½ tsp local runny honey

60g radishes, thinly sliced

10 mint leaves, finely shredded

For the mint yoghurt sauce:

100ml 24-hour fermented or live yoghurt (page 52 in the book describes how to make fermented yoghurt)

1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and

finely chopped

pinch of saffron

pinch of salt

1 tbsp chopped mint

½ tsp local runny honey

Use a stick blender to blend the peas, feta cheese, mint, fresh chilli, Parmesan, egg yolks and chilli powder. The mixture does not need to be really smooth – a few lumps are fine. Pour into a large mixing bowl and stir in the gram flour to tighten up the mixture.

With your hands, roll pieces of the mixture into 8 equal-sized balls. Flatten them a little and skewer with a lollipop stick. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and arrange them on a plate lined with greaseproof

paper. Keep in the fridge until ready to cook.

Make the radish salad: whisk together the oil, vinegar and honey to make a dressing for the radishes. Toss lightly with the radishes and arrange on a plate. Sprinkle with the shredded mint.

Make the mint yoghurt sauce: gently stir all the ingredients together in a small bowl. Do not whisk them as the yoghurt will break up and become too runny.

To cook the lollipops, heat the coconut oil in a small pan and then shallow-fry them, turning occasionally, until they are golden brown and hot in the centre.

Serve the lollipops on the radish salad with the mint yoghurt sauce in a side dish for dipping.

Enjoy!

Visit my website: www.vickiedgson.com

The official introduction to Gut Gastronomy by Elaine Williams and Stephanie Moore of Grayshott Spa.

The Route to True Health

Nutrition has always been a cornerstone of our health philosophy at Grayshott Spa. Two years ago we pooled our collective 50 years of clinical research, experience and practice to develop a more structured programme for our guests and created The Grayshott Health Regime.

One of the main factors influencing our approach was our concern about people’s often misguided notions of needing to ‘detoxify’ and their desire for a spartan, punitive regime to achieve this. We felt this was mistaken as the demands of modern life, such as over-work, over-exercise, over-fatigue and continuous exposure to stress, were leaving people depleted and in need of nourishment rather than cleansing through deprivation. One of the main casualties of such a lifestyle is a compromised digestive system, and from this emerged the core of our Plan, which focuses on digestive health as the route to true health.

We not only wanted to show people how to regain good health and nourish their bodies through eating real food but also to make them understand that eating the appropriate foods would support and take care of detoxification. This enables us to confidently recommend eating delicious, healing and satisfying foods, such as good-quality, grass-fed red meats (including the fat), fish, eggs, fermented foods, butter, cream, nuts, avocado and a rainbow of wonderful, organic vegetables.

On the Plan, our guests have noticed improvements in their health in as little as one week. We knew that these principles worked over several weeks or months but never imagined the dramatic results that could be attained on such a focused programme. We have repeatedly recorded measurable improvement in such markers as blood glucose, serum cholesterol, triglycerides and gamma GT.

Whilst these objective health measurements have excited us and various members of the medical fraternity, our clients are more often thrilled with the unexpected weight loss aspect, especially as it is body fat that has been lost and not muscle. This reinforces our long-held conviction not to make weight loss the primary focus, as it will often take care of itself as the body heals. We regard being over or under weight as merely a sign of a deeper problem. Correct that and people generally achieve a healthy weight.

In our new book Gut Gastronomy, out this month, we introduce readers to our Plan. We have worked alongside nutritionist Vicki Edgson, who undertook the arduous task of writing about the Plan in order that it may reach a wider audience, and also Adam Palmer who has created the delicious recipes.

Pick up your copy of Gut Gastronomy now!

Tomato & bean soup with goat’s cheese panatellas & pesto

This great meal-in-a-bowl soup can be eaten without the goat’s cheese and basil panatellas if you want a simple supper, but they do complete the dish beautifully if you are entertaining. The pesto is essential for the Italian approach and can be made in larger batches and used with other recipes.

Serves 4

150g borlotti beans, soaked overnight in water with lemon juice

knob of clarified butter

1 onion, finely chopped

2 celery sticks, roughly chopped

1 small leek, roughly chopped

1 carrot, roughly chopped

1 garlic clove, sliced

few oregano sprigs, leaves stripped from stalks

pinch of salt

300ml strained passata

300g canned tomatoes

50g sun-dried tomatoes, soaked overnight

750ml Chicken Broth (see below)

For the goat’s cheese & basil panatellas:

80g semi-soft goat’s cheese

4 slices Parma ham

4 large basil leaves

1 tsp clarified butter

For the pesto:

50g basil leaves

1 small garlic clove, peeled

80ml extra virgin olive oil

30g toasted pine nuts 

salt and ground black pepper

30g grated Parmesan

For the vegetable garnish:

1 courgette, cut into 1cm dice

1 carrot, cut into 1cm dice

2 celery sticks, cut into 1cm dice

small piece of clarified butter

Drain the soaked borlotti beans and cook in a pan of boiling unsalted water for 30 minutes. Drain well and set aside.

Make the pesto (in advance, if wished) by pounding all the ingredients in a pestle and mortar until smooth. Cover and leave in a cool place.

To make the soup, melt the butter in a large saucepan and fry the onion, celery, leek and carrot until golden brown. Add the garlic, oregano and salt. Cook for a further 2 minutes, then add all the remaining ingredients. Simmer gently for 15 minutes over a low heat. Remove from the heat and add half the cooked beans, reserving the rest for the garnish, and blitz in a jug blender.

To make the panatellas, split the cheese into 4 equal chunks. Using your hands, roll them into 5cm long cigar shapes. Lay the Parma ham on a chopping board and place a basil leaf on each slice together with a ‘cigar’ of goat’s cheese. Roll up in the ham and saute in the butter just before serving.

Just before serving, saute the vegetable garnish and reserved borlotti beans in a pan over a medium heat until light brown.

Serve the soup warm over the vegetable garnish, with a good dollop of pesto and the panatellas on the side.

PROTEIN-RICH FASTING BROTHS

This broth can be enjoyed as a soup or used as stock in other dishes throughout this book. You can make it in advance and freeze it, if wished, or you can make double or triple the quantity and then freeze for later use. To intensify the flavour, it can be reduced by one-third before adding the garnish at the end. 

All meat stocks prepared in restaurant kitchens start with the carcass being roasted in the oven before simmering for several hours to extract the very best from the bones and marrow. The minerals that go into making up the bones are released and the resulting reduced stock is bursting with flavour and very nutrient-dense. These two fasting broths are really easy to prepare and have a complex yet delicious flavour. Enjoy these broths when you are intermittent-fasting or limiting your food intake. Both broths form the basis of many soups in the recipe section, so it is a good idea to make large amounts and batch freeze them. Never throw away a chicken carcass and buy beef bones from your butcher.

Serves 4

1.5kg chicken bones

4 celery sticks

4 carrots

2 onions

5 garlic cloves

15g coriander seeds

2 star anise

15g fennel seeds

1 tsp Szechuan peppercorns

3 bay leaves

bunch of thyme

100g raw minced chicken

2 egg whites

For the vegetable garnish:

2 spring onions, sliced

2.5cm fresh root ginger, peeled

and cut into fine strips

thin strips of carrot

1 tsp Tamari

juice of . lime

pinch of chilli flakes

Preheat the oven to Gas mark 6.

Cut the chicken bones into small pieces. Cut the celery, carrots, onion and garlic into rough dice – approximately 2cm. Mix the vegetables and chicken bones with the coriander seeds, star anise, fennel seeds and Szechuan peppercorns. Place them in a roasting pan and roast in the preheated oven for 30 minutes until golden brown.

Using tongs, put the roasted vegetables, chicken bones and spices into a large saucepan. Cover with 4 litres cold water and then remove any visible fat from the surface of the liquid with a small spoon.

Add the bay leaves and thyme. Mix the minced chicken with the egg whites and put into the pan. 

Simmer very gently for at least 4 hours until reduced and well flavoured. Allow to cool and then refrigerate the broth. Strain to discard the vegetables and bones, etc.

Pour a little of the cooled broth into a 1cm deep ramekin and leave to set in the fridge to a jelly. 

Remove when set and cut into dice to use as part of the garnish.

Just before serving, reheat the broth and serve in bowls garnished with the chopped jelly, spring onions, ginger and carrot strips. Add the Tamari, a dash of lime juice and a few chilli flakes.

Baked eggs with tomatoes, peppers and chorizo

A sneaky peak at one of our fantastic Gut Gastronomy recipes, this baked eggs recipe is packed with antioxidant betacarotene and vitamin C, as well as lycopene, which supports prostate health. Eggs supply every nutrient required for healing and repair. 

Prepare the sauce the night before to give you a head-start in the morning. This may be batch-cooked and frozen successfully. It is perfect when you need a full meal in the morning, but it can also be eaten as a light supper.

Serves 4

1 green (bell) pepper

12 slices chorizo cooking sausage

100g (3½oz) onion, sliced

1 garlic clove, sliced

250g (8oz/1 cup) canned chopped

tomatoes

1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped

1 tsp paprika

pinch of chilli powder

150ml (¼ pint/2

/3 cup) chicken stock

1 tsp coconut palm sugar

pinch of salt

4 organic free-range eggs

chopped parsley, to garnish

drizzle of olive oil

Preheat the oven to 170°C, 325°F, Gas mark 3.

Roast the green (bell) pepper in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

When the skin is blistered, allow to cool, then peel, core, deseed and

shred into fine strips.

Over a low heat, cook the chorizo in a pan until the fat is released,

then add the onion and fry over a medium heat until golden brown.

Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Reduce the heat and add the

tomatoes, thyme, green (bell) pepper, paprika, chilli powder, chicken

stock, sugar and salt. Cook gently until it reduces to a thick paste.

Divide the paste between 4 individual cocotte dishes. Make a small

indent in each and crack a whole egg into the centre. Bake in the

preheated oven for 12 minutes. Alternatively, put the paste in one

ovenproof dish or pan, break in the eggs and cook as above.

Serve hot, sprinkled with chopped parsley and drizzled with olive oil.

For more recipes and to learn about the unique Gut Gastronomy plan, pre order your copy from Amazon by clicking HERE.