Light Meals

As a salad this dish ticks the main checkboxes, loaded with veggies, olives, cheese, and a delightful dressing. The addition of cooled rice though gives this dish some complex carbohydrates, adding sustenance once eaten. As a vegetarian dish, the iron-rich spinach is complemented by the vitamin-c containing tomatoes and peppers. This homemade dressing ensures you aren’t loading your healthy salad with unnecessary kilojoules so often found in store bought bottled dressings. Enjoy on the side or add some extra protein for a main dish.

Sushi boasts protein with heart-healthy fats, cooled rice that’s higher in resistant starch (lowered GI) and vegetables, however, per piece of sushi, the ratio of rice to protein and veg is often disproportionate. For these reasons, a sushi bowl becomes a healthier alternative to ‘per piece’ sushi as the ratios of these ingredients is altered to represent a more balanced meal. Packed with raw vegetables, avocadoes boasting healthy fat, lean protein, and sufficient rice, this meal is complete and can be enjoyed for lunch or dinner.

If you’re using left over rice, this dish becomes a snack that requires no cooking and minimal preparation time, key in our busy day-to-day lives. This on-the-go snack is an energy powerhouse, loaded with low GI dates, cooled cooked rice (lowered GI), condensed milk (although very sweet it is part reduced milk and therefore contains protein and is an intermediate GI), nuts and coconut (protein and fats), and cocoa powder (low GI carbohydrates, fats, fibre, and caffeine). All these ingredients lend themselves to high sustaining energy, great for an anytime of the day snack (in moderation), and even pre-exercise or during endurance events.

Vegetarian dishes are not as simple to conceptualize as one may think, in the absence of animal protein, ensuring these dishes contain a plant protein and nutrients to enhance the absorption of other essential nutrients require planning. These stuffed oven baked peppers make for a great vegetarian dish. Peppers are loaded with Vitamin C and when cooked become sweet and soft making it a family favourite, whilst using them as a holder for the dish ensures portion control. This rice dish is a great base to include the added vegetables, nuts, and cheese, all nutrient dense ingredients.

The addition of a salad as recommended is important to complete the meal and offer more sustenance but isn’t
necessary if this dish is to be enjoyed as a snack or braai side.

As a side dish or light meal, this cumin fried rice with spinach and chickpeas offers a blend of carbohydrates (pre-prepared cooled rice and chickpeas), plant-based protein (chickpeas) and fat (oil of your choice- canola or olive oil is most recommended) providing a more balanced side dish than most. The addition of spinach boasts iron and is a nice vegetable to enjoy in this format. As a complete meal this would need to be paired with another vegetable or fruit, as well as some additional protein.

Let’s face it, wraps often appear healthy and are a relatively better menu option, but they are typically too big for one meal sitting and are carbohydrate loaded. While these wraps do contain carbohydrates, they have been prepared in a way that offers sustained energy (rice is cooled and then reheated lowering its Glycaemic index) and are combined with protein from the eggs and chicken, and veggies.

This wrap can be best enjoyed at lunch, portioned smaller for snacks, or as a pre-exercise meal (2-3 hours prior).

Meals in a bowl have become all the rage, showcasing separate wholesome ingredients. The aim of these bowls is typically nutritionally dense elements that look beautiful, complement each other, and offer a complete meal in an alternative format. These chicken rice bowls offer exactly this. Chicken and beans offering low fat protein, and complex carbohydrates; cooled cooked rice and corn providing sustenance and fibre; avocado for healthy monounsaturated fats; and fruit, veggies and herbs for vitamins, minerals, and fibre. Prepared with olive oil and baked, this dish makes for a healthier meal anytime of the day.

In the past couple of years, we’ve seen mushrooms come to the forefront of plant-based eating. From mushroom patties, to mushroom biltong, they’re the new protein that vegetarians are being encouraged to consume as they have a savoury flavour similar to that of meat. While small and low in kilojoules, mushrooms boast about 15 vitamins and minerals, they’re low carbohydrate, almost no fat, and with some protein. Boasting antioxidants, phytochemicals, and anti-inflammatory compounds, they’ve become powerhouses of nutrition. This dish showcases this incredible ingredient in an easy one pan dish. The addition of parmesan adds some more protein, while the rice provides the staple carbohydrates.

Soups need not be seasonal to winter. Yes, they’re warm and hearty, but they’re often packed with vegetables and protein that are beneficial year-round and this soup is no exception. With its tomatoes, carrots, celery, onions and parsley, this soup delivers on micronutrients, while the hearty lamb provides protein, all important for immune function. Rice and pearl barley provide the bulk of the soup, filling us up and offering fibre. With all this, one needn’t enjoy it with anything else. Enjoy for lunch or dinner.