Steve Haywood Health & Fitness

Here are a few handy recipes for carbon loading the week before a long-distance race, for vegetarian guests or just for a quick, tasty, healthy meal. The tomato sauce is especially useful for freezing and adding to others recipes later. You can add all sorts of meat and leftover vegetables to these basic sauces.

Basic tomato sauce

• Chop an onion and gently brown in a saucepan in a little oil.
• Add canned tomatoes (about one large can per person).
• Add black pepper to taste and some mixed herbs.
• Bubble for about 10 mins (keep stirring so it doesn’t stick to bottom of pan).
• Serve with a sprinkling of grated cheese.

Roasted vegetables

• Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC / gas mark 4.
• Roughly chop vegetables of your choice into large chunks and place in an ovenproof dish or roasting tin. Most veg roast well – especially mediterranean varieties and root vegetables.
• Drizzle a little olive oil and a sprinkling of mixed herbs over the vegetables and put them in the oven for about 30 minutes.
• When cooked, heat up one or two tins of chopped tomatoes and heat through on the hob.
• When the pasta is cooked, mix in the roasted vegetables and tomatoes and season with some black pepper.

Cherry tomatoes and basil

• Wash and halve a few handfuls of cherry tomatoes – or use normal tomatoes quartered.
• Place in a saucepan with a little olive oil and cook gently over a low heat with a sprinkling of seasoning.
• Roughly chop a few handfuls of basil – fresh is the tastiest but can be pricey – (if you’ve got a garden or windowsill, you could grow your own) – dried basil or a couple of tablespoons of pesto are a good substitute for fresh.
• Once the tomatoes have softened, add the basil to the pan. You could also stir in some other veg – like sweetcorn or sliced courgette – and cheese – either mozzarella or parmesan are good with this.
• Heat and serve.

Garlic mushrooms, bacon and yoghurt

• Gently cook some chopped onions, button mushrooms and chopped bacon in a pan with a bit of oil.
• Add some crushed garlic and cook until the onions and mushrooms are starting to soften.
• Stir in a couple of tablespoons of low fat natural/greek yoghurt.
• Serve with pasta of your choice.