On the Table: Want to eat well? Put a rainbow on your plate

“Variety is increasingly turning out to be the spice of life. . .” As Cambridge Cookery MD Tine Roche explains, the benefits of eating a plant-based rainbow are boundless

Never is the craving for colour, acidity and spice more acute than in late winter. Most of us are aware that we should aim to eat a wide range of colourful vegetables and fruits. Not only do deep green, yellow, orange and red plants deliver a wide range of health benefits, from anthocyanin to fibre and a full range of vitamins, they also play a visual part in tempting us to eat. Brown and beige food, no matter how delicious it might be, does not tend to make us salivate.

The nutritional value of plant-based food and a diet rich in them – alongside full-fat dairy and whole-kernel cereals found in Nordic and German-style rye bread, as well as a bit of unadulterated animal protein - keeps most guts healthy.

Professor Tim Spector, the man behind the Zoe project, has been instrumental in focusing on the gut biome, led there from his expertise as a geneticist looking at, among other things, the cause of different health in identical twins. The gut biome emerged as the main cause and it is something we can all affect simply by expanding our eating-

Variety is increasingly turning out to be the spice of life. The wider the range of food, mainly plant-based, that we feed our guts, the more healthy our highly individual gut biomes will be.

It is very easy to get stuck in eating habits, even rituals, particularly when it comes to breakfast. Even when that same breakfast menu is good for you, it is its very lack of variety that makes it less good. Start the day on protein - full-fat natural yoghurt and kefir, fruit, rye bread, eggs, olive oil, tomatoes, peppers - they all give slow-release energy, keeping your blood sugar and therefore your hunger in check.

The winter months offer a wonderful range of fruits from southern Europe, not least all the delicious citrus fruits. Pink grapefruit, satsumas, blood oranges, and of course, this time of year only, the famous oranges from the Andalusian city, Seville. Few people make their own marmalade these days, but those who do will know that the flavour of these knobbly-looking oranges is much closer to lemons than it is to sweet oranges.

The skin of Seville oranges is very high in pectins, the setting agent needed for making jam and marmalade. Obviously, a fair bit of sugar is also needed when making marmalade and the contrast that the very high acidity in Seville oranges offers is what makes it so very delicious. It is also the orange intended for the classic French dishes Crêpes Suzette and Duck à l’Orange - not the sweet eating oranges.

Acidity is an important factor in cooking. Try Seville orange juice - just be prepared for the high number of pips - squeezed over a piece of white fish, whether steamed à la January lean eating, pan fried or grilled. The aromatic juices also complement brassicas exceptionally well. Squeeze over tenderstem broccoli. Steamed or boiled if you must, but what a bland way both are for cooking any vegetable. Water neither imparts nor brings out flavour in anything. It makes vegetables soft, that’s about it.

A little bit of good fat, such as extra virgin olive oil is so much better for cooking. Try roasting tenderstem broccoli or ribbons of any dark green cabbage such as Cavolo Nero with sea salt and red chilli. When it comes out of the oven blisteringly hot and slightly caramelised, squeeze over some Seville orange juice for a burst of aromatic acidity and enjoy tasting a perfect match for earthy brassicas.

If January has brought out the urge to purge, why not chuck out all of those out-of-date dried herbs in your pantry and instead buy fresh - or if you are lucky, use those you have outdoors in pots. Peppercorns, warm spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg and seeds such as cumin, caraway and fennel come dried, but leafy green herbs such as oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary and tarragon deliver a fraction of their actual flavour profile when dried, so use those fresh.

My g- to 10-minute mid-week dish is a stir fry, usually with a few strips of organic chicken breast thrown in as I eat my stir fry without noodles or rice - my personal blood sugar triggers - or a tomato sauce made over high heat using cherry tomatoes, garlic, fresh red chilii, a sprig of basil and - an absolute must when cooking with tomatoes - a good pinch of sugar.

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