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The Self-Care Cookbook: Easy Healing Plant-Based Recipes

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First make the mash. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil. Add all the potatoes and a pinch of sea salt and cook for 20 minutes, until soft. Not until my husband and I were struggling to have kids. After having five late miscarriages over the period of five years, I examined my diet. I wasn’t brought up on a vegetarian diet, but I soon discovered how a plant-based wholefood diet can reduce inflammation and improve mental health. I started feeling more positive when going through a really difficult time.

The gut plays a vital role in our health,” Ogston writes, “by helping control digestion and assisting our immune system. There is also a lot of recent research showing that our gut health has a direct link to our emotions and mood. So many of us go about our busy lives without eating wholesome food. Yet without giving our body what it truly needs to fuel us through the day (and night), we get ill, feel low, and have trouble sleeping. This is where her passion for mood foods really began, but cooking has always been a big part of Gemma’s life. Growing up in a big family, as the youngest of five, everyone had chores to do around the house, so Gemma’s mum taught her to cook. Eating well is a vital part of good health, and yet so many of us are not fuelling our bodies in the right way. Presented in 4 parts: Recovery, Replenish; Staying Well and Supercharge, with a wellness toolkit, this beautiful book outlines how to harness the power of plant-based eating to recover from illness, and create a strong foundation of long-term health. What’s it about? A recipe and self-care book rolled into one, this is the first of its kind. With over 60 delicious recipes including fiery bean stew for the days we feel we need some comforting, calming miso pasta to give your gut a boost and indulgent chocolate pud for those days you need a treat. This is a recipe book for anyone who feels they need some good mood food to replenish and restore – the type of food that takes away guilt and makes you feel good inside and out.

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While the potatoes are cooking, heat the olive oil in another large saucepan set over a medium heat. Fry the onion and garlic for 2 minutes, until starting to soften. Spread it out evenly and top with the mash. Run a fork through the mash and bake for 35–40 minutes, until the edges of the mash are crispy.

I think making it a priority is something everyone can do. It could just be going for a walk at lunchtime – getting out of the office to have a breath of fresh air and sit on your own – or making a conscious effort to do something for you every day, whatever that may be.” Broke Vegan (Picture: Supplied) Broke Vegan: Over 100 plant-based recipes that don’t cost the earth by Saskia Sidey Hey, how’s your gut doing? We only ask because, well, ours has been all out of sorts for going on five months now. (Could be the carb-y comfort food binges…or the constant anxiety and stress.) This gut-healing broth, from Gemma Ogston’s The Self-Care Cookbook: Easy Healthing Plant-Based Recipes, is designed to nourish and heal your troubled tummy (and tastes downright delicious). That’s something I’ve been doing the past few years, saying no to things that I don’t really want to do – or if I do them, then it’s going to mean that I’m tired. It’s about choosing to do things that serve you and your family, rather than doing stuff to please other people.” Self-care isn’t selfish – it’s essential for life,” Gemma says. “You’re not selfish by taking some time out on your own. It’s something we should all do every day. But people don’t, and it’s a shame because we all deserve it – we all deserve to have five minutes of peace to ourselves, or whatever that may be. And to eat well, of course.”As many of us know though, as much as we can have good intentions with self-care, so often busy schedules take over and we just seem to not have enough time. Gemma’s response to that? Prioritise it. I was in the mental health sector for 15 years, working in the NHS with women with serious drug and alcohol issues,” says Gemma. This is exactly why she wanted the recipes in her book to be both physically and mentally nourishing. She avoids using phrases like ‘guilt-free’ and tells me it’s more about taking care over the food you’re eating, and making it a pleasurable experience. Reading more about Gemma, I learned that she turned to a plant-based diet after a number of miscarriages. “I had to have all sorts of tests. I tried acupuncture, and then I started looking into diet and how food can help,” Gemma says. “I didn't go totally vegan, but I started eating much better – way more plants and whole foods, and now I have my two babies. I was having treatment at the time as well, but it just helped with my mood and made me feel better.” Drain the spuds and mash them with a little plantbased milk and olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.

To help support the growth of healthy bacteria,” she continues, “we need to eat a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fermented foods.” The best part? A batch will keep up to three months when frozen, so you can always have some close at hand. Stir the tamari, thyme and parsley through the pulses mixture and spoon it into a large pie dish (remove the bay leaves if you can find them!).

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Your first book, The Self-Care Cookbook: Easy Healing Plant-Based Recipes, which was published by Penguin in 2019, is focussed on what we might now call “conscious eating”. Were you always a fan of food that nourishes and nurtures? Partly due to hard work, but my first book has really helped. Penguin said The Self-Care Cookbook would never go out of fashion and it was right; I was on Saturday Kitchen recently and the book sold out everywhere. I do a lot of work with Soho House, including pop-up kitchens at Brighton Beach House. I share recipes with brands like Sweaty Betty and create energy-boosting menus for corporate meetings. I’m aware that there’s some scepticism around plant-based eating, so I developed a bean burger and a plant-based lasagne that are so good you don’t miss the meat. I’m not a fan of processed vegan food and I’m certainly not here to dictate what anyone should or shouldn’t eat. There are no rules. But the ultimate act of self-care is, of course, listening to your body and what it needs. “It’s alright to have a bit of chocolate cake if that’s what you want!” Gemma notes. “It’s about giving yourself permission to do that, rather than getting sad about it, and beating yourself up.”

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