Many of us know what we should be eating and why, but not how to put it into practice, according to Nadia Lim.
MasterChef New Zealand winner in 2011 and a trained dietitian, she will be speaking in Dunedin and other places in the South between November 18 and 22 to promote her latest cookbook, Good Food Cook Book (Random House).
''What I found is there's a real lack of connection and we need to bridge the gap.
"Dietitians and nutritionists have all the scientific knowledge about what we should be eating and why, but you can't just tell that to someone because they might not know how to put it into practice.
"If they don't know how to cook what you are telling them to eat, there's no point in telling them.
"I guess that's what I'm all about now, to incorporate both of them and turn it into something practical that people can actually do.''
Growing up in Auckland and Malaysia with a Kiwi mother and Malay Chinese father, she enjoyed food from a young age.
Food tech was always her best subject at high school.
At 13, she would cook three-course meals for her friends and teachers and at school she was known as the girl who was obsessed by food.
She wanted to go to chef school but her father, being Asian, set the rule that she must get an academic degree.
The closest thing was human nutrition and dietetics, which she studied at the University of Otago for five years, she said.
She had always wanted to write a cookbook but thought it might be after she had had children.
However, when she saw part of the MasterChef prize was having a cookbook published, she decided to enter.
The competition was tough and she would not do it again, but the publicity and cookbook opportunity were a great springboard, she said.
''I don't know if people realise, but the food industry is really very hard to crack and do well in, and it's one of the hardest-working industries,'' she said.
For a while after winning MasterChef, she worked in Simon Gault's restaurant, Euro, on the Auckland waterfront.
''While I loved it, I didn't see my husband at all because of the hours and you have to work very hard.
"I admire people who can do it but it's not for me and there isn't really a creative outlet in that type of restaurant work. I'm more of a person who cooks with the seasons and who cooks simple food.''
However, contrary to popular opinion, she does not like spending much time in the kitchen on weekdays - 20 minutes at most, so she is more suited to easy recipes for the average home cook, she says.
There are two guiding principles in her philosophy of good food: Eat from the ground, the sea and the sky instead of from the factory; and follow the plate model at dinner - half the plate should be vegetables, a quarter protein, such as meat or fish, and the other quarter starch, such as potatoes, rice, or pasta.
''Even that one simple change can make a huge difference to their health. If everyone ate like that, I think obesity wouldn't be half the problem it is,'' she said.
Besides writing cookbooks, she is one of the founders of My Food Bag, a business that delivers recipes and the ingredients (all free-range) for them to people's homes each week.
The classic bag is designed to feed up to five people for five nights, and the gourmet option is for couples for four nights.
At present it is available only in parts of the North Island, but they are about to expand to Wellington and hope to take it further afield in the future.
• Recipes from Nadia Lim's Good Food Cook Book (Random House)
Roast stuffed eggplant and Greek salad
Serves 4
There are many variations on stuffed eggplant recipes from the Mediterranean, where this vegetable is so plentiful. Try stuffing them with whatever takes your fancy - feta cheese, herbs, cooked potato cubes, couscous ... the list is endless.
Ingredients
2 purple eggplants
1 Tbsp olive oil and extra for drizzling
salt
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
½ tsp ground cumin
2 Tbsp tomato paste
½ x 400g can crushed tomatoes
1 tsp sugar freshly ground black pepper
1½ cups cooked brown or wild rice
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese and extra for sprinkling
2-3 Tbsp pine nuts
Greek salad
3-4 tomatoes, chopped
1 telegraph cucumber, diced small red onion, thinly sliced
½ cup kalamata olives, chopped
50g feta, crumbled
¼ cup mint leaves, sliced
juice of one lemon, to dress
extra virgin olive oil to dress
Method
Heat oven to 200degC. Cut eggplants in half lengthways, leaving stems intact. Place cut side up on a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt. Bake for 30 minutes until soft and lightly browned.
While eggplant is baking, make the tomato sauce. Heat olive oil in a frypan on medium heat and cook onion and garlic until soft, 3-4 minutes. Add cumin, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes and sugar. Simmer, stirring frequently, until thick and the consistency of chutney, 8-10 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
When eggplants have finished baking, remove from oven and scoop out the soft flesh with a spoon, being careful not to tear the skin. Mix soft eggplant flesh into tomato sauce. Lightly mix tomato eggplant sauce with cooked rice and parmesan. Fill eggplant halves with mixture, dividing equally.
Drizzle over olive oil and sprinkle with pine nuts and more parmesan. Return to oven for 10 minutes until parmesan has melted.
To make the Greek salad, combine all ingredients and dress with lemon juice and olive oil just before serving. Serve 1 eggplant half per person, with Greek salad on the side.
Barbecued lamb olive panzanella
Serves 4
This is one of those super-tasty barbecue-and-toss-all-together-type meals. If the barbecue is not going, you can cook the lamb and vegetables in a frypan on the stove top. Serve immediately after it is tossed with the dressing, as while you want the croutons to suck up a bit of juice, you still want them to retain their texture.
Ingredients
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
600g lamb backstraps or leg steaks salt
sour
dough or ciabatta bread* - thick slices, roughly torn into 2.5cm chunks
1 bunch asparagus, washed with ends trimmed and halved
To assemble
½ cup black olives
6 medium vine tomatoes, ripe, chopped
1 roast red capsicum (from a jar)
sliced small red onion, sliced
large handful basil leaves
½ cup red wine vinegar dressing
Method
Heat barbecue hotplate to medium to high. Rub 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over lamb and season with salt. Cook lamb for 1-2 minutes on each side for medium rare or until cooked to your liking. Remove meat and set aside on a plate to rest for 5 minutes, reserving any juices.
Meanwhile, toss remaining olive oil with bread chunks (using your hands) and fry on the barbecue hotplate for a few minutes, turning once, until golden. Season with a little salt. Wash asparagus, shake off excess water, and add to hotplate. Cook asparagus for 1-2 minutes until just cooked.
Slice lamb on an angle. Just before serving, toss with reserved juices, asparagus, toasted bread, olives, tomatoes, capsicum, onion, basil leaves and dressing. Serve immediately.
* Tip: Bread that's a few days old is best for this salad.
Red wine vinegar dressing
Combine 3 Tbsp red wine vinegar, juice of ½ lemon, 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, 2 tsp runny honey and 1 tsp wholegrain mustard. Makes about ½ cup. Keeps in the fridge for weeks.
Little maple walnut cookies
Makes 22-24 little cookies
These cute little gluten-free cookies were inspired by my favourite ice-cream flavour, maple walnut!
Ingredients
2 cups blanched ground almonds
½ cup shredded or desiccated coconut
1 tsp ground cinnamon
50g butter, melted
½ cup maple syrup
4 Tbsp milk
24 walnut halves
Method
Heat oven to 170degC (150degC fanbake). Line a baking tray with baking paper. In a large mixing bowl, mix all ingredients except walnuts together until well combined.
Roll tablespoonsful of mixture into balls and place on prepared baking tray. Flatten slightly with the back of a wet teaspoon and push a walnut half in. Bake for 18-20 minutes until light golden. Remove and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
These cookies will keep for up to a week in an airtight container.(Dairy free with coconut or soy milk)
See her, hear her
Nadia Lim will share her food philosophy and her passion for delicious, healthy food that is simple and easy to prepare at venues around the country.
• November 18, 6pm: Dunedin City Library, 4th floor
• November 19, 7.30pm: Fenwick School Hall, Oamaru
• November 20, 7pm: Paper Plus Gore
• November 21, 7pm: Fiordland College, Te Anau
• November 22, noon: Edgewater, Wanaka
