Now, imagine a card factory before Valentine’s Day: a never-ending line of pink-hearted, teddy-bear headed cards filing out of a printing machine, before being neatly slotted into a cellophane envelopes. Or the chocolate factory: great vats of vegetable oil, sugar and lactose swilling around before being dropped into little heart-shaped moulds and wrapped in red shiny paper. The thundering machines, the sickly smells of rancid fat … Romantic, no?

It must be the same at Christmas, though the hearts will be jingle bells. Present giving is so easy: a box of chocolates and a card, that will do – if only it weren’t all junk. But mostly it is junk, which may be pretty harmful to the recipient’s waistline (and indeed health if we’re taking this very seriously). So wouldn’t it be kinder to give them nothing at all? Just think, you could store up your lovely generosity and get them a deeply and profoundly thoughtful present another time.

Bah Valentine’s Day humbug, but hear me out. There is a broader relevance to all of this. Your food should be delightful, sumptuous, sensual, a real treat. Dine right and every time you eat, you’re giving yourself a little present – think of it as Valentine’s Day three times a day. Eat rubbish, and you’re missing the opportunity to nourish your body with something marvellous. It’s the culinary equivalent of spending 55p on a daily packet of crisps, when you could be investing that £2.75 on a packet of almonds to see you through the week.

Are supermarket Valentine’s meal deals any better? Not really – let’s cast our minds to parma ham wrapped chicken on factory conveyer belts. That £20 could be spent on fresh ingredients for a simple but exquisite meal you make yourself (or together) – so much better and more fun. Now be off with you and your reusable bags to the shops.

A Valentine’s Day dinner for two: 

Ingredients

Main

• Pumpkin seeds
• Broccoli
• 3 cloves of garlic
• Yellow pepper
• 150g quinoa
• 4 fillets of smoked trout
• Juice of 1 1/2 lemon
• 7 cherry tomatoes
• 10 good quality olives
• 2 tbs natural yoghurt
• Mustard
• Parsley

Dessert

• 1 apple
• 1 kiwi
• 10 red grapes
• 1 lime
• Fresh mint leaves

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Then toast your pumpkin seeds in a small frying pan over a low heat until they start to crackle and jump. Transfer to a plate to cool.

Trim the broccoli into small florets, and cut the yellow pepper into chunks. Drizzle olive oil over the vegetables in a baking tray and turn with your hands to make sure each piece is thoroughly covered. Put the tray into the heated oven and leave for 15 minutes, after which scatter and stir in the finely chopped garlic, before returning the tray to the oven for another 5 minutes. Remove from the oven once the edges of the broccoli florets start to brown and the stalks are tender to the bite.

In the meantime, cook the quinoa. Thoroughly rinse in a sieve under cold water and transfer to a pan of boiling water. Leave to simmer for 10 minutes or so, and then check to see whether the grains are starting to split – or simply taste a little bit. If it seems really nearly cooked, drain and steam until the rest of your ingredients are ready. An easy way to do this is to place the sieve, with the drained quinoa in it, over the empty pan, cover with a clean tea towel, which you then weigh down with the pan lid. The pan should not be on the heat, of course.

Whilst the quinoa is cooking, finely chop the garlic ( see above), halve the cherry tomatoes, slice the olives, and prepare your dressing. All this requires is a couple of generous tablespoons of natural yoghurt in glass, squeezing in the juice of half a lemon, adding a quarter of a teaspoon of mustard and chopping in a good bunch of parsley using the kitchen scissors. A sprinkle of pepper is welcome here too. Give the whole mixture a quick whisk with a fork.

On removing the vegetables from the oven, put them into a large serving bowl, add in the steamed quinoa, and finally the tomatoes and olives. Squeeze the juice of another full lemon into the bowl (taking care to catch pips), give it a dash of olive oil and a sprinkling of salt and pepper, and then stir gently.

To serve, put a few of large spoonfuls of the quinoa, broccoli, and pepper mixture on each plate, balance the trout fillets on top. Throw on a few toasted pumpkins seeds and then drizzle the yoghurt dressing over the top, letting it spill over both the trout and the quinoa beneath. Eat at the table – with candles. 

Dessert can be simply and easily prepared after you’ve eaten the main course, giving you time to digest and tasting fresher for it. Core and chop (and peel where necessary) the fruit and divide between two pretty bowls. Give each a squeeze of lime juice, a quick and gentle stir, and chop in a mint leaf or two, again using the kitchen scissors.