Gill Books 12 Feasts of Christmas: The Christmas Cure

The Gill Books 12 Feasts of Christmas celebrates the festive season with 12 feasts featuring recipes from our wonderful authors. Recipes that will impress the visitors, help cure any overindulgence, sustain you, help you celebrate in style and most importantly, taste delicious. The tasty recipes below will help cure any overindulgence while giving you a new lease of life!

Natural Born Feeder: Serene Green Soup

This recipe is from the No. 1 bestseller Natural Born Feeder by Rozanna Purcell. Roz’s approach to cooking is simple: use whole foods to live a whole life. For Roz a healthy lifestyle isn’t about extremes, it’s about balance.

Pure green soups can be hard to stomach sometimes. This one is great for any veggie dodgers, as it’s packed full of nutrients and is tasty as hell.

Serves 6

coconut oil, olive oil or butter, for frying
1 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
25g fresh basil leaves
3 courgettes, chopped
250g baby spinach
1 litre vegetable stock
600g frozen peas
flaxseed oil, to garnish (optional)
freshly ground black pepper

Gluten-free, Vegan if you use coconut or olive oil, Paleo, Dairy free if you use coconut or olive oil

Heat a little oil or butter in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Sauté the onions and garlic for about 6 minutes, until the onions are translucent, then stir in the basil and cook for 1 minute more. Toss in the chopped courgettes and cook, stirring, for a further 6 minutes.

Add the spinach, then pour in the vegetable stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer for 25 minutes over a low heat. Stir in the peas, raise the heat to medium and cook for a further 5 minutes. Blend until smooth. Ladle into bowls and drizzle with flaxseed oil, if using, to serve and grind some black pepper on top.

Eat Yourself Fit: Green Goddess Juice

Following on from her massive bestseller, Eat Yourself Beautiful, Rosanna Davison is back with her second book Eat Yourself Fit. Packed with over 100 recipes to complement and enhance fitness routines, as well as sample diets, exercise plans, as well as mental tips and tricks to help keep even the most reluctant athlete motivated, it has everything you need to help make 2017 your fittest year yet.

This is a highly energising and refreshing minty green juice with ginger and lime. I love green juices because their vast array of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients are quickly absorbed into your bloodstream, where they deliver their nutrients to every cell in your body for deep cleansing, detoxing and nourishment. I’m not a big fan of juicing fruit because the fibre has been removed and it hits your bloodstream too quickly. This can cause an energy crash, which may affect your mood. If you would like a sweeter green drink, try adding a little puréed banana or blueberries to the juice.

2 cucumbers, cut into medium-sized pieces (leave the skin on and buy organic cucumbers if possible)
60g kale leaves, tough stems removed
60g baby spinach
1 handful of fresh mint leaves
2 tsp freshly grated ginger
1 lime, peeled and halved ice cubes, for serving

Prepare the ingredients and process them through the juicer in the order listed.

Serve chilled in a tall glass or jar with a couple of ice cubes. It’s best to drink this juice as soon as possible after pressing, but it can be frozen for up to three months.

Happy feasting to you and yours, stay tuned for more fantastically festive recipes. Follow us @GillBooks on Twitter, @gillbooks on Instagram and like us on Facebook for the latest author news.