The world has gone mad for green smoothies. Wherever I look I find health food blogs proclaiming the fountain of eternal youth spouts whizzed up celery and spirulina, perhaps with a few chia seeds thrown in for good measure. And there’s always the photo of course: the jar, the rustic background, the recycled straw. Can you hear my scepticism? (Ironic, I know, given the intentions of this blog … )

It’s not that I am averse to stirring tales of detoxes used to restore perfect health or photos of white-teethed, long-limbed beauties presenting exquisitely gooey sweet potato brownies – indeed, an evening spent browsing such blogs can be as relaxing and fantasy-filled as reading a good novel.

But the glorification of particular – near magical – ingredients is another matter. Because eulogising about exotic berries and peregrine seeds makes healthy eating seem so inaccessible, so out of reach for us ordinary people.

You see, there is no magic bullet to good health, other than mostly eating well and not too much, exercising energetically and getting just about enough sleep. If any of these are missing for too long, green smoothies for breakfast may not harm you, and indeed they are more nutritious than Cheerios, but they may also be a costly distraction, when you’d be better off going for a brisk walk and eating a couple of celery sticks for your mid-morning snack. 

But it’s the sheen of glossy deception that bothers me most, just as with adverts for shampoos. Lovely as it would be if owning a high-powered super blender made you thin and happy, but the chances are it won’t, only serving to clutter your kitchen cupboards and leave a dent in your bank balance instead.

And somehow it seems hard to believe that the most extreme healthists actually cook and eat the food they post. Call me suspicious, but those recipes are too hearty for their delicate frames and too time-consuming to be cooked in and around the day job for hungry families and friends. This is not food for every day.

So homemade almond milk may well have become the latest glamourous lifestyle accessory, but if long term health and happiness are your aims, I’d forget the spirulina and start cutting back on sugar and walking a bit more instead.

Not super, just superb, vegetables: 

Ingredients:

Vegetables ….

• 1.5 tsp coconut oil
• 2 carrots
• 1 kohlrabi
• 1/2 head of cauliflower
• Cup of frozen peas

Dressing …

• Juice of a whole lemon or lime
• Generous bunch of parsley
• Generous bunch of basil
• 1 clove of garlic
• Olive oil

Method: 

Peel and slice the carrots and kohlrabi, making sure to remove all of the hard outer green skin of the latter. Cut the cauliflower in half, break into medium-sized florets and then slice thinly.

Having prepared the vegetables, gently heat coconut oil in a large non-stick, lidded frying pan. Once the oil becomes liquid, add the vegetables, stir to ensure they are coated with the oil and put on the lid. You can now leave these on a medium heat, stirring from time to time to prevent sticking. Add the frozen peas after five minutes.

Then prepare your dressing. The quickest way to do this is to add all the ingredients into a small food processor and whizz for 20 seconds until completely liquid. But not to worry if you don’t have one. Instead, you can finely chop the herbs with a large kitchen knife, grate the garlic and use a fork to whisk everything together in a water glass or small jug – just as effective, if slightly more rustic in appearance.

Now test one of each of the vegetables to check they are tender. Keeping a slight crunch is much better than having them mushy.

Then serve with some form of protein – whether this be feta crumbled into the vegetable mixture at the end, or a piece of steamed fish (salmon works particularly well) or some smoked mackerel.

If you’re very hungry, also cook rice or quinoa. Once your plate is assembled, generously drizzle your dressing over all components of the meal.

There will be far too many vegetables to eat in one sitting, so either share the meal or save plenty to eat cold the following day. (What a packed lunch!) And, if you like things spicy, add a chilli to your dressing at the blitzing stage, or finely chop one and throw it in with the vegetables at the beginning.