Is there such a thing as too many lentils? Tim Spector doesn't think so.
I'm a real lentil fan, but my head, heart and stomach can't handle eating them every day. Fortunately, Spector's first recipe book contains many other ingredients. The Food For Life Cookbook is the first from the founder of Zoe, the personalized diet and nutrition program that has gotten large numbers of women (mostly middle-class, middle-class, possibly menopausal) to score what they eat every day, and as you'd expect, it's it's filled with super healthy ideas for your daily diet.
The book is the practical addition to Spector's bestseller Food for life which was released in 2022 and laid out the 66-year-old famed scientist's approach to eating right for overall good health. Spector believes that diet and good gut health determine many of our other health outcomes, especially chronic diseases. The epidemiologist changed his own diet after suffering a stroke in 2011, a few years after he became interested in the role of the gut microbiome in genetics.
Before I open the book, I know to expect lots of fermented foods and generous sprinkles of nuts and seeds; By adding foods instead of cutting back meals, Spector's followers can get closer to his mantra of eating 30 plants a week, an approach shown to improve gut diversity. But I wasn't expecting so many delicious-sounding sweet things, from beet brownies made with real sugar, chocolate and eggs (and a king's ransom of olive oil), to chocolate spread and chocolate chip cookies with pecans.
After all, dark chocolate is a healthy food, so I do my part and make the brownies right away. They're not fudgy like I think brownies should be, due to the lack of butter, and I wish I had used 70 percent chocolate instead of the 100 percent that I had been kicking around and that no one wanted to eat alone, but otherwise they are a hit. I feel like I should warn them, but no one complains or turns them away - although if you like really sweet things, it might take a while to adapt to lower sugar cakes.
Then I go for a simple recipe from the 'Entertaining' chapter. Spector points out that in places like Sardinia, Crete and Okinawa, where communal eating is common, this would contribute to longevity, while in Britain social eating should make us happier and more satisfied with life. Fine, but it's a cold Monday night and I can't think of anyone who would feel happier or more satisfied hanging out with me, so I choose a really quick black bean chili recipe to eat myself while I toss a can of beans . one of tomatoes and a few herbs in a pot and serve it with avocado, although I must admit I cheated a bit: I ate it with white rice instead of the recommended pearl barley and puy lentils, which have much more fiber and contain proteins.
Eating more fiber is one of the six core principles that Spector explains in his introduction. He thinks our current obsession with packing protein has gotten out of hand, and that we should instead focus "our proteins" on plant-based sources that give us fiber at the same time. This means more lentils (the cookbook contains 10 lentil-based recipes), but also nuts, edamame, yogurt, cheese, kefir, beans, tofu and eggs.
In addition to the lentil recipes, there are 25 that deal with beans, from cannellini to borlotti: canned and jarred beans contain a lot of protein and fiber and are a sustainable food in agricultural terms. Eating '30 plants' and 'the rainbow' are other principles, both of which promote diversity in our diets, which will nourish our gut microbiome and, as a result, improve our overall health. Spector also recommends eating fermented foods like kefir and kimchi, choosing quality over quantity (for example, by avoiding ultra-processed foods), and experimenting with time-restricted eating (TRE) - overnight fasting for 12-12 hours a few days a week . 2pm - to give our guts a break.
According to the recipe, the black bean chili contains 5-10 g of fiber and 10 plants. In Zoe-speak, these are both decent reviews. It is recommended that we eat 30 grams of fiber a day, but 90 percent of people in Britain and the US do not meet this target. I haven't counted points since my desperate Slimming World days and I don't intend to start now; the idea reminds me of the calorie counts on restaurant menus, which makes me feel guilty. But I appreciate that if you want to increase your plant consumption, keeping a count can be helpful.
I enjoy the leftover chili on day two and make the eggplant parmigiana from the "Satisfying Mains" chapter for dinner. It's a standard parmigiana made with eggplant slices, rich in olive oil and tomato sauce, with a "gut-healthy twist" of added lentils. On day three, after another lunch of leftovers from this, my intestines are absolutely churning and need a TRE break. I'm going to get to the recipe for "Juno's Lasagna," named after Spector's mother, but when I discover it's made with even more cans of lentils, I put it off until later in the week. Instead, I make kale and cashew soup. This is the only recipe that disappoints me as mine turns out to be thin and has little flavor. But the pomegranate tabbouleh I made with it - bulgur stuffed with herbs, lemon and olive oil - was delicious. I'll return to the lasagna later in the week: the sauce, made with fresh mushrooms, dried porcini mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, lentils, passata, miso and basil, is rich and deeply savory. It comes in on 13 plants; I feel like throwing caution to the wind and adding oregano and paprika to bring the total to 15.
If you're new to the Spector style of eating, you'll definitely need some pantry supplies - lentils and beans (of any kind), of course, as well as seeds, nuts and fermented foods like kimchi and miso make regular appearances in the recipes. But the good news is that there are plenty of quick, easy dishes to be found in the '15-Minute Meals' and 'Cupboard Raid' sections: think tahini miso beans, corn and spinach dahl, and coconut spinach lentils. And I feel pretty smug making my 'seed mix litter' (5 plants, 5g fibre) at home, knowing it will save me from splashes of M&S's Zoe gut shot or Waitrose's Zoe Daily30+ supplement.
Much has been written about how expensive healthy eating can be, particularly about the Zoe program itself, which costs £300 for the initial test kit, followed by a subscription from £24.99 per month. And it's true that good food comes at a price. But the Food for Life diet is also surprisingly cheap - certainly cheaper than buying convenience foods like packaged snacks and ready-made meals, and eating a lot of meat. Stocking your cupboard with expensive items such as olive oil, nuts and seeds seems like a significant expense at first, but when I go back to the price of the brownies I find that 200ml of olive oil, which seemed pitifully wasteful, costs £2. £2.50 - the same as a stick of butter.
If you're someone who eats the same packaged ham sandwich for lunch every day, switch to the Food for life mindset can take some effort. But approach it like Meat Free Mondays, which we all seem to have taken part in, and it's easy to integrate: choose one of the Food for Life recipes once or twice a week and if you enjoy it, keep going. That's what I plan to do.
Tim Spector's Food for Life Cookbook is published on October 10, Jonathan Cape, £28Tim Spector's Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 12 cookiesIngredients
- 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
- 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 200 g ground almonds
- 50 g pecan nuts (these can be replaced with pumpkin or sunflower seeds), coarsely chopped
- 80 g dark chocolate (at least 70 percent cocoa solids), coarsely chopped
- Pinch of salt
Method: Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/gas mark 4 and line a baking tray with baking paper. To make the flax egg, mix the ground flaxseed with 4 tablespoons of water and let it sit for 15 minutes.
Mix the brown sugar, olive oil and flax egg together. Add the ground almonds, pecans, chocolate and salt and mix again.
Form into 12 tight balls and flatten lightly into cookies about 1cm thick (it helps if you do this with damp hands). Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges are golden brown, then let cool completely on the baking sheet. Store in an airtight container.
Eggplant parmigiana
Serves 4 with leftoversIngredients
- 3 eggplants, cut lengthwise into 1 cm thick slices
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
- 1 red chili pepper, thinly sliced
- 1 can of diced tomatoes of 400 g
- 1 can of 400 g black or green lentils, drained
- 30 g basil, leaves torn plus a few for garnish
- 125 g mozzarella ball, torn
- 20 g finely grated Parmesan cheese
- Salt and black pepper
- Kimchi, for an addition
- Extra basil, for a supplement
Method: Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/400°F/gas 6.
Line a large baking tray with baking paper and arrange the eggplant in one layer. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown and soft.Meanwhile, place a frying pan over medium heat and fry the onion in the remaining oil for 3 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and chili and cook for a further 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and lentils, fill the tomato can halfway with water and add this to the pan. Simmer for 10 minutes until it thickens slightly. Add the basil, fry for another 5 minutes and season with salt and pepper.
Spoon a third of the ragu mixture into the base of a 20-23cm square baking dish (or similar) and place a layer of aubergine on top. Repeat this two more times and end with the mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.
Bake for 30 minutes until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown. Serve with some steamed vegetables.
Sweet corn and spinach dhal
Serves 4Ingredients
- 2 195g tins of sweetcorn and their liquid
- 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1½ teaspoons chili flakes
- 160 g red split lentils
- 2 cubes of frozen spinach
- 2 tablespoons cumin seeds
- 1 tbsp dried curry leaves (optional)
- Salt and black pepper
- Soft-boiled egg, as a supplement
- Fresh chili, for an addition
- Coriander, for an addition
Method: Pour 1 can of corn and its liquid into a blender, add 550 ml of water and blend until smooth.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan over medium heat and fry the onion for 3 minutes.
until soft and translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds.Add the ground spices and cook for 30 seconds. Then stir in the lentils, frozen spinach, pureed sweetcorn stock and the remaining can of sweetcorn and liquid.
Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until the lentils are soft. Add a dash of water if the dhal becomes too thick. Season generously with salt and pepper.
Just before the dhal finishes cooking, heat the remaining olive oil in a small frying pan and add the cumin seeds and curry leaves (if using). Cook over low to medium heat for about 1 minute, or until the seeds begin to pop. Pour over the dhal, stir to combine and serve.
Extracted from The Food for Life Cookbook by Tim Spector (Jonathan Kaap, £28)
