The beautiful days are coming and with them a desire to lighten and color our menus. Bye bye tartiflette and other raclette by the fire, make way for healthy cooking and spring Clean Eating !
A sign of renewal, spring is the season that makes us grow wings. The prospect of the very near holidays gives us a new impetus to undertake a dietary refocusing after the excesses of winter. Take advantage of the change of season to offer your body a slight RESET by doing, if not a fast (preferably supervised), a detox . The goal: avoid fats , meat and alcohol for several days (from 7 to 21 days, depending on your desires). Then, you can start off on a lighter foot towards summer by adopting Clean Eating!
Focus on spring fruits and vegetables
The brand new arrivals on the stalls are fun and colorful. We take the opportunity to reconnect with composed salads and we put seasonal fruits and vegetables in our menus. As for the calendar, here are the guest stars of the shopping cart to inspire you during your shopping!
In April
- Vegetables: lettuce, romaine, cabbage, purslane, turnip, watercress, asparagus, peas, snow peas, carrot, broad bean, radish, cucumber, spinach
- Fruits: apples, kiwi, lychee, grapefruit, mango, orange
In May
- Vegetables: green beans, fennel, arugula, rhubarb, chard
- Fruits: strawberry, melon, peach
In June
- Vegetables: celery, eggplant, pepper, cucumber
- Fruits: plum, apricot, raspberry, cherry
The little extra tip: don't hesitate to grow aromatic herbs in your kitchen, it's ideal for flavoring your homemade dishes!
How to include fruits and vegetables in your menu?
It’s not easy to change our eating habits!
As with everything, you have to adopt the technique of small steps: "today more than yesterday and much less than tomorrow". Here are different ways to put more green on your plate:
- Reinstate a vegetable starter .
- Make colorful plates . This works great with kids. What's for dinner tonight ? Red (tomatoes/peppers/strawberries) or green (peas/asparagus/apples)
- Let yourself be tempted by an unknown vegetable at the market gardener. Celery for example, not a common vegetable, but it can be enjoyed raw with an anchoïade type sauce or as a puree for a change.
- Think about soups (cold or hot) even in spring!
- Let yourself be tempted by the “discovery baskets” available in most organic stores.
- Invent salads for everything ! It's easy. You could almost think you were a chef!
- Sign up for a hive near you to buy directly from nearby producers. Each region offers a unique selection of local products that travel approximately 60 kilometers before arriving on your table.
Putting freshness at the heart of your plate
To benefit from the benefits of spring fruits and vegetables, we pimp our cooking recipes a little . With cooking magazines, Pinterest, Instagram (following expert hashtags like #HealthyFood, #RecetteFacile, #RecetteHealthy) or different apps , it is much easier to imagine new tasty recipes.
For example, on Marmiton, by typing "spring," you find, after spring rolls, a spring salad with langoustines, a spring marmot salad (heart of palm, grapefruit, apples, shrimp) or even a spring couscous (semolina with seasonal vegetables, etc.).
Honestly, there are no excuses if you don't have any ideas for dinner. Take this "task" as a game to lighten the constraints a little. If you have children, take advantage of it! They love playing little chefs and preparing beautiful plates (OK, after the kitchen is a work in progress... But it makes for very nice memories). Personal anecdote with my youngest: for a long time (every Tuesday) he did the shopping and filled his little cart with different foods, then we prepared a "healthy" dinner together. All with lots of organic lemonade and for the occasion, we brought out the party service.
Why eat seasonally?
Eating in tune with the seasons allows us to reconnect with a "normal" rhythm that respects nature. Strawberries in December don't make sense. Fruits that are picked green and ripen on the plane are nutritionally less good than those picked ripe from the local producer. It's a question of common sense. Supporting local producers is also a way of committing to the environment.
Healthy recipe ideas
Finally, many books are sources of inspiration. Among all the new releases, two are worth remembering:
- Orahe, my anti-aging method by Estelle Lefébure.
A complete guide (health/nutrition/sport/beauty) to fully enjoy the passing of time and each season. For spring, La Belle offers inspiring recipe ideas: a healthy juice with the sweet name of bikini (with celery and cucumber), a vitamin-packed salad revisiting traditional grated carrots and a dish based on mackerel and soy (J'ai Lu/Bien-être, €8.40).
