Jan 1, 20213 min
So January's here - hurrah! A great time to kiss 2020 goodbye and begin with fresh hope and excitement.
And what better way to do it than begin with breakfast?
I've got 5 delicious gluten-free ways to start the day and each caters to a different need. Whether you like to prepare the night before, cook as you go or buy in a mix, there's an option here for you, and 2 of them are also vegan.
1. Overnight oats
Use quinoa flakes if, like me, you can't tolerate gluten-free oats, and omit the syrup if you'd prefer it not to be so sweet. The nut butter in this vegan recipe from Ultra Nutrition makes it absolutely sensational. Indulge away!
Cooked too many potatoes for dinner? Use the leftovers for your morning breakfast and you'll create a speedier version of this delicious dish from BBC Good Food.
3. Pancakes
One of the best gluten-free pancake mixes I've recently tried has to be this one from Lovegrass. All you have to do is add oil and water. It really couldn't be more simple.
Save even more time: grab a pack of Genius American-style pancakes and pop a couple in the toaster. Smear with nut butter and enjoy!
4. Smoked salmon & scrambled eggs
Just the thing to perk you up on a cold morning start, smoked salmon has an air of decadence about it like no other. Squeeze a lemon on top, add some fresh parsley and voila! A breakfast of dreams.
5. Red velvet smoothie
Healthy smoothies are a great way to start the day, especially if during lockdown you started your own kitchen garden/vegetable patch/window box (delete whichever isn't physically possible).
One of my favourites is most definitely a red velvet smoothie. This particular one began when I was able to take my children to their grandfather's allotment and pick some fresh beetroot.
That's right: beetroot.
Now before you head for the hills, let me reassure you that beetroot has never been my go-to vegetable. Ever. Sometimes it's made me wretch.
But that's vacuum-packed supermarket beetroot for you. As I keep (re)discovering, buying plastic-covered cheap veg is never a path to enlightenment. (You may remember the episode where I tried budget bagged up kale. Ugh.)
So when I was handed some fresh beetroot, I decided I'd try it in a hidden smoothie (because added banana and chocolate will disguise anything, right?).
I chopped the beetroot leaves off, leaving 2 inches of stalk so the beetroot would stay whole and not 'bleed' into the water. Then I boiled them for 30 minutes.
I then added frozen banana, cacao powder and hazelnut milk (my preference to almond milk in the recipe) and whizzed the whole thing up in a Magimix.
The next thing I knew, the most delicious and intensely satisfying drink stood before me and I drank the whole thing in gluttonous isolation. (Hey, I'm only human.)
But there was a considerable amount of beetroot left. What to do? Well, try it, obvs. And my, oh my, did it make an impressive salad, both in colour and taste.
So if you'd like to recreate an equally satisfying breakfast drink (and have leftovers for an amazing salad), I heartily recommend getting the freshest beetroot possible and giving it a whirl. Here's the smoothie recipe so you can make it happen. (Psst! Not only is this vegan, you'll only need 4 other ingredients, and if you switch almond milk for whatever's in your fridge and protein powder for cacao/cocoa powder, you've probably got all the ingredients already.)