Fibre does not just help us go you-know-where, it aids anti-inflammatory immunity and protects us from heart disease, diabetes and bowel cancer among other things.
Studies report that our fibre intake on average is dramatically lower than the recommended amount, which is about 30 g. A mountain of lentils. Several loaves of brown bread. A bucketful of wholemeal pasta and an entire market stall of fruit and vegetables.
So how to boost fibre intake? How about we cut out cakes and replace them with beans and kale? Hahaha. Indeed.
But here’s a bunch of recipes that may help improve the fibre fiasco if we incorporate them into our regular menu.
Breakfast to start off, and oats are IT when fibre is concerned. This recipe has homemade yoghurt in it but go ahead and use shop-bought, as long as it’s plain and full fat. Also, give homemade yoghurt a try if you can.
If you’re not keen on raw oats, go for baked buttermilk oatmeal. This is so good I sometimes scoff leftovers for dessert. And it can be topped with fresh or frozen fruit for an additional fibre boost.
Baked buttermilk oatmeal
RECIPE
This loaf is easy to bake in an afternoon, best on the next day and fantastically good for gut health. It goes with cream cheese or fish pate, or just a lick of butter and honey.
Hello, fermented cabbage! From total East European obscurity sauerkraut is rising to the superfood status, and rightly so because it’s a double-goodie: fermented and full of fibre. Instead of buying it in jars, often inauthentic with added vinegar, make a jar at home. It’s easy (and only a little smelly)!
This isn’t just oats providing fibre, the content here is augmented by poppy and sesame seeds making it a double-fibre-whammy. And they are super tasty, inspired by Nairn’s rough oatcakes.
A sprinkling of fibre, that’s what this delicious topping is: a mix of seeds and nuts toasted in a barely warm oven. It is judiciously seasoned with soy sauce, making it versatile on salads, vegetables, pasta, noodles, soup and sandwiches.
Roasted nut and seed topping
RECIPE
A wholesome dish if there ever was one: beans are fibre and protein plus extra fibre from spinach and tomatoes. And it’s all incredibly delicious. You can use cooked butter beans from a jar but it’s cheaper to cook them from dried.
Tomato and spinach butter beans
RECIPE
This bread is gluten free, it’s made from just two ingredients and it’s fermented making it sourdough. And it delivers bags of fibre. You might think, being so virtuous, it must be gross: and that’s where you would be very, very wrong.
Fermented buckwheat bread
RECIPE
Another protein-fibre combo and a vegetarian dish with plenty of different plant ingredients. Bulgur wheat is easy to cook and it’s delicious, not only sprinkled on salads.
Two great fibre providers meet in one dish: beans and sweet potatoes. Baked sweet potato halves are stuffed with black beans, baked with Cheddar cheese and topped with sour cream and avocado. Sounds good? I thought it might.
Sweet potatoes with black beans
RECIPE