Latest news with #sourdough
Telegraph
a day ago
- Health
- Telegraph
Stop demonising bread, I eat it every day
I eat a slice of bread a day, either for breakfast or lunch. That may surprise you, as bread doesn't have the best reputation when it comes to our health – but it's misunderstood. It's one of the first things humans made – there are records of flatbreads going back some 14,000 years. So it's part of our culture; let's not demonise it but enjoy it. But, in some forms, it should be a rare treat (for me, that's when it's topped with marmalade). If you're having it on a regular basis like me, make sure that it's both tasty and good for you. My everyday bread – and favourite treat options Most days, I eat sourdough rye bread that I make myself with wholemeal flour, rye flour, malted flakes, water, salt, a sourdough starter and some mixed nuts and seeds like in the Zoe Daily30+ (I've shared the exact recipe below). It's got a really rich taste, a nutty feel to it, lots of structure and you know it's doing you good. It's heavy, dense and fills me up. It's free from additives and preservatives, full of high-quality grains, is high in fibre and fills you up – meaning you eat much less of it than you would a shop-bought equivalent. I often make more than I need and freeze it – slicing it thinly, so it's simple to take a couple of slices and toast as you need it. But if I don't have any, I'll buy something like Gail's rye and barley sourdough or the robust rye sourdough from M&S. Sometimes I'll pick up a pre-packaged long-life German rye bread. These don't look very appetising but are nutritious and do the job until I can next make my own. I certainly wouldn't now buy the heavily processed supermarket bread that I used to, like white or even wholemeal sliced; but I'll eat it if I'm at someone's house or travelling and it's really the only option available. They're full of sugar, packed with artificial ingredients and won't fill you up. Once you get used to healthier breads, these options no longer taste nice, either – they're very light, dissolve in your mouth and feel very sugary. But I don't always just stick to my healthy rye sourdoughs. My guilty pleasure is warm bread in restaurants, which is often quite sugary but delicious – options like homemade ciabatta and focaccia that I cover in extra-virgin olive oil. I've found that I'm not very good at saying no to it but as I don't go to restaurants every day, I see it as a treat. The healthy toppings – and ones to avoid I'm now completely turned off the classic sandwich and popular fillings. In my 25 years working as a hospital doctor, I'd buy a daily meal deal (in health terms, probably the worst possible invention in the name of convenience). Tuna and sweetcorn or cucumber with mayo on brown bread was my go-to, with a packet of crisps and orange juice. At the time, I thought this was a healthy option but it definitely wasn't – the bread was dyed and full of sugar and additives and I don't think it had a single wholegrain in it. And all that tuna is probably why I've got high mercury levels now. Instead, I now make much healthier high-fibre open sandwiches at home with whatever I have in the fridge. If I'm in a hurry, I would opt for cream cheese topped with sauerkraut or kimchi. I've just done a new study for my book Ferment, which is out in September, and we tested Philadelphia cheese that counts as a fermented food as, surprisingly, it contains live microbes. We could be snobby and say it's mass-produced but, ultimately, fermented food improves your digestion and gut health and we don't eat enough of it – though I prefer to buy a cream cheese from my local delicatessen that tastes better (but I'm not too proud to buy Philadelphia). If I have more time, I would drizzle my toasted bread with olive oil, spread over some hummus (either regular or beetroot) and top with jarred artichoke hearts, as well as some sauerkraut or kimchi. As a treat, I love dipping bread into olive oil and balsamic vinegar – that's something the British don't do enough of. Not only does it taste fantastic, the dips are full of healthy fats, which counteract some of the sugar in the bread. It feels like a luxurious thing to do but may have some benefits. Ultimately, many of us choose the easy route and have the same single-ingredient sandwich most days that we spend an estimated £48,000 on over a lifetime. As well as being unhealthy, it reduces the diversity of plants you are eating, depriving your gut microbes of a treat. So it's important to look for new ways to enjoy our sandwich. The UK's more popular fillings – like ham and cheese, BLT, prawn mayo – are all pretty rubbish for our health. Instead of always having our bread with meat, try to think of veggie options you could make. Most people like hummus and have it in their fridge but most don't think to put it on a sandwich. Try to be more adventurous. How to pick a healthy supermarket bread It's pretty hard to find good healthy bread in most supermarkets. The top-selling breads all tend to have a nice healthy label promoting vitamins or fibre, some seeds scattered on top and they tend to look brown and may even mention the word sourdough on the front of the packaging. But you're never going to be able to tell from the appearance or the front of the packet whether you're buying healthy bread because there's no agreed legal definition for the words wholegrain, or freshly baked, and dyes are often added to bread to make them appear healthier than they are. Sourdough is sadly often added as a 'fake' ingredient to sell the product. If it's 'baked on the premises', supermarkets don't have to share the ingredients in it and this category includes breads that have been made in a factory, kept frozen for up to two years in warehouses and then thawed out and baked in-store. It creates a lovely smell in the shop but will do little for your health. Instead, you need to look at the ingredients list on the back of the label. There, you're looking for a high percentage of fibre in your bread (ideally over 6-10 per cent) and as little sugar as possible. It's also important to try to avoid too many ingredients, especially red-flag ingredients like emulsifiers and palm oils. If vitamins have been added to the loaf, it's often a sign that the bread isn't healthy. Adding vitamins is a legal requirement in the UK for bread that is made with refined (non-whole) wheat flour. A lot of the vitamins out there come from big factories overseas, often made using modified microbes, and there are real concerns about whether they actually contain what the labels say. The combination of ingredients like salt, sugar and fats in unhealthy loaves are designed to make them very easy to overeat, which is known as hyperpalatability. If you go for a healthier option with lots of fibre it will actually fill you up – you'll eat less and feel fuller. Loaves made with rye flour, spelt flour or wholegrains are best. Another good sign is that it has a short ingredient list. I know this is a really difficult food for people to work their way around and I don't think people should stop eating bread, but I do think everyone should be trying to select a bread that is healthier than the one they're eating at the moment. If you're just a bit fussier about the bread you eat, you can actually improve your health a lot.
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Health
- Telegraph
Seven clever ways to use up stale bread
While we might all be aware of the need to minimise kitchen waste, there are some everyday foods which, despite our best intentions, still end up hitting the bin more often than we'd like. According to London's largest food redistribution charity, The Felix Project, bread tops the charts of Britain's most wasted foods with an astronomical 24 million slices of bread tossed out every day. There's plenty we can do to prevent it turning mouldy. Jason Geary, master baker at Jason's Sourdough, says that storing bread correctly is key to keeping it fresh: 'Bread bins or paper bags are the best options, allowing the loaf to breathe while keeping excess moisture at bay.' He explains that keeping bread in plastic bags, as many of us do, isn't ideal as it traps moisture and 'encourages condensation, leading to a sad, soggy loaf or an unwelcome bout of mould'. Staleness can be swerved, too. If you do discover your loaf has lost its bounce, Geary suggests a simple way to revive it: 'Sprinkle the crust with water and warm it in the oven at 180C for five-to-10 minutes. This reinvigorates the crust and softens the interior, giving your bread a second lease of life.' And as for those old slices at the end of a loaf (be it sourdough, seeded, or good old white sliced) that need saving from the bin, give them a delicious new purpose with these resourceful ideas. Flavoured croutons While plain croutons are great for adding crunch to soups and salads, there are plenty of ways to make them more exciting. Cut thick, sliced stale bread into cubes (or tear up pieces of flatbread or pitta) and toss with oil, spices and herbs, then bake at 180C for 10-15 minutes until crunchy and golden brown. Try using shop-bought infused herb oils or make your own – sprinkle some olive oil with cumin seeds and chilli flakes, say, or rosemary and lemon zest, and warm in the microwave for one minute. Leave to sit for a few minutes before using. Panzanella A classic Italian bread salad is a wonderful way to use up open-textured leftover bread such as ciabatta or sourdough. I like to lightly toast the torn bread under the grill for a few moments first, before tossing with lots of roughly chopped tomatoes, some black olives and maybe some caper berries or red onion, along with lots of seasoning, olive oil and red wine vinegar, finishing with soft herbs, such as basil or parsley. Make it more of a main meal by adding some prawns or mozzarella, or try this sardine panzanella recipe. Tear-and-share garlic bread This is my favourite way to use up the off-cuts of any bread including the heels of baguettes and the random rolls that always seem to be clogging up the freezer. Many supermarkets take a similar approach – slicing end-of-the-day bakery baguettes and ciabattas and stuffing them with garlic and butter to resell as frozen garlic breads. Begin by stirring together a mix of grated or torn cheese (another chance to use up those leftover nubs and ends) – I like a blend of mozzarella and a flavourful cheese such as mature cheddar or comté – along with some crushed garlic and chopped soft herbs such as parsley and chives. The bread pieces don't need to be a regular size or thickness, but cut them to roughly the same height as the ovenproof dish you're using. Butter the bread, then sandwich pieces together into the dish, sprinkling the cheese mix between the slices. Cover with foil and bake at 200C for around 30 minutes, removing the foil for the last 10 minutes, so the top can become golden and crusty. Muhammara A mezze platter staple, this Middle Eastern dip of roasted red peppers and breadcrumbs is easy to make by whizzing up 50g of stale white bread, torn into pieces, with a garlic clove, a handful of walnut halves and half a jar of roasted peppers, until coarsely blended. Add olive oil, salt, ground cumin and lemon juice to taste. Swirl the mixture into a shallow bowl and serve with a sprinkle of pomegranate seeds or crumbled feta, and toasts or flatbreads for dipping. Cheesy bread and butter pudding Bread and butter pudding is a satisfying way to use up half a sliced loaf – but it doesn't have to always be served for dessert. I love a savoury cheesy version with grainy mustard for lunch or dinner. Make up simple cheddar sandwiches with a generous spread of mustard (or Marmite); ham, sliced tomato and finely sliced spring onion all make welcome additions, too. Cut the sandwiches into triangle quarters and arrange in a heatproof dish before pouring over eggs beaten with milk and a splash of cream. Top with a little extra grated cheese and leave to settle for a few minutes before baking at 180C for 40 minutes or so, until golden and set. Cinnamon toasts Butter slices of tired white, wholemeal or fruit bread and cut them into quarters. Cook in a non-stick frying pan for two to three minutes on each side until crisp and golden. Stir a little ground cinnamon into some icing sugar and sift this liberally over the top. Eat immediately. Fabulous with sliced strawberries or some lavender, or flowering thyme from the garden. Trifle sponge fingers Run out of sponge fingers for your trifle or tiramisu? Brioche, with its gentle sweetness, makes a good alternative, stale or otherwise. I like to give it a light toast first for a little extra flavour or, if you're making individual portions, slice brioche finger rolls into discs; they look pretty in glass dishes.
Al Arabiya
3 days ago
- Business
- Al Arabiya
Careem Groceries launches exclusive UAE partnership with Marcel Bakery
Careem Groceries now offers customers in Dubai and Abu Dhabi premium, freshly-baked goods delivered in under 20 minutes through an exclusive partnership with Marcel Bakery by Boulangeries de Paris. Marcel Bakery, renowned globally for supplying artisan sourdoughs, viennoiseries, and patisseries to Michelin-star restaurants and luxury hotels in London, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas, brings its expertise directly to UAE homes exclusively via Careem Groceries. 'For years, our sourdough has been served in the kitchens of Michelin-starred chefs and luxury hotels around the world. We've always been about quality, not quantity - but this partnership with Careem lets us do something special,' Chef Fouhade Belaid, Founder and CEO of Marcel Bakery, said. 'Through our partnership with Marcel Bakery, customers can now enjoy chef-quality baked goods delivered oven-fresh in under 20 minutes - whether it's a warm sourdough loaf for breakfast or an elegant dessert to elevate a dinner party at home,' Chase Lario, VP of Carem Groceries, said. In addition to premium bakery items, customers can stock up on a wide range of everyday essentials through Careem Groceries, including fresh produce, pantry staples, household supplies, stationery, personal care items, and electronics. Customers can order from the new bakery collection and everyday essentials by downloading or opening the Careem app and selecting 'Groceries' on the home screen. Careem Plus members benefit from free delivery and exclusive discounts on food and grocery orders, along with savings across a wide range of services including international money transfers, rides, home cleaning, and Careem Bike.
The Guardian
27-05-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
What's the best bread for sandwiches?
What's the best loaf to bake for sandwiches, and any filling ideas?'Obviously I'm biased, but soft and squishy sourdough makes the best sandwiches,' says Martha de Lacey, sourdough teacher and writer. 'The flavour is so much more complex and exciting than anything else you could use, and the crumb can have a slight moistness to it, which really contributes to the mouthwatering lushness that you want in a sandwich.' That's not to say sourdough doesn't come without some provisos, mind. First, you want a loaf that's been baked that same day ('Several hours earlier, ideally,' De Lacey says), with a tender crumb and a nice, thin, crisp crust that 'isn't too teeth-pullingly chewy'. As is often the case, success comes down to the quality of your ingredients: 'Use really good flours, not just supermarket basics,' says De Lacey, who favours an 80:20 mix of strong white and granary, and 'a pretty high hydration for the requisite soft crumb'. Then, try and try again. 'Really practise your preferred sourdough tekkers until you can do it in your sleep. Honestly, the main trick to excellent sourdough is practice – boring but true!' Phil King, executive chef of Pophams in London, meanwhile, stands by his bakery's tin loaf made from a mix of white and 20% rye flour. 'It needs to be recognisable as a white sandwich tin loaf, while also giving that earthy, nutty flavour associated with rye bread, only without the denseness.' To achieve something similar, King suggests taking a white bread recipe, cutting the yeast by 80% and using a two-stage rising process: 'One before you shape it, then knock it back, put it in the tin and let it have another rise.' This will produce a fluffy texture and even crumb structure, so 'you're not left with large gaping holes that the filling falls through'. Alternatively, try something with a crust on both sides, says Richard Snapes, author of Bread & Butter: 'An Italian-style bread such as focaccia or ciabatta, say. People are often scared of them, because they require a wet dough, but they're not hard to make at home.' Sandwich construction, meanwhile, should be carried out as close to eating as possible, King says, starting with a fat barrier (butter, mayo, cream cheese) to stop moisture getting into the crumb, and balancing the fillings with the same attention you would give to a main meal. Snapes combines ricotta, olive oil, lemon zest and parmesan to spread on focaccia, then tops with charred asparagus ('if you eat meat, put some speck in there, too'). And, as summer rolls in, tomatoes are always on De Lacey's agenda, with a very good home for them being a BLT with plenty of mayo ('homemade or Hellmann's, and absolutely nothing in between'), a load of crisp smoked streaky bacon and crunchy iceberg lettuce. 'Anything you put in a salad will also be excellent in a sandwich,' King says, adding that you won't go far wrong with tomatoes, a good dressing, loads of fresh herbs, maybe a few capers and definitely seasoned 'to the max, because the bread will temper those flavours'. Otherwise, cool things down with cucumber: 'Big chunks with fresh coriander chutney and loads of cream cheese.' It's also worth considering sweet and savoury combos – think rhubarb jam, peanut butter and pancetta, which, King says, 'is every shade of wild'. But sarnie satisfaction ultimately comes down to one thing, De Lacey says: 'Be liberal with the moistness. There's nothing worse than forcing a dry sandwich down your gullet.' *Shudders* Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@
Vogue
26-05-2025
- Health
- Vogue
How A Nutritionist Eats 100g Of Protein Every Day
When we think about protein, it is easy to jump straight to images of bodybuilders and gargantuan shakes. But the truth is, protein is about so much more than muscle. It plays a central role in how we feel after we eat, supporting fullness, steady energy, balanced blood sugar and mood regulation. It underpins hormone production, skin health, immune function… even the way we sleep. The good news is, you do not need to eat like an athlete or rely on processed powders in order to get enough. It is about weaving real, satisfying sources of protein into your meals throughout the day in a natural and enjoyable way. Here is what a typical day of eating looks like for me: simple, colourful and full of flavour, with enough protein to feel properly satisfied without overthinking it. Morning I start my day with a collagen matcha. It is a small daily ritual that makes a real difference. I use Jenki Matcha for a gentle caffeine lift without the crash. Breakfast is when I like to build in a good amount of protein. A savoury start always wins for me. It keeps me fuller for longer and helps stabilise blood sugar throughout the day. I usually make soft scrambled eggs and add in a few extra egg whites, which I buy in a carton for ease. Two whole eggs give around 12g of protein. Adding a couple of extra whites pushes that up closer to 20g. I top the eggs onto toasted sourdough. A good quality loaf offers more protein than you might expect. I buy it fresh, slice it up and freeze it. This keeps it lasting longer and boosts its resistant starch content, which is brilliant for gut health. To finish, I spread on a little cottage cheese for extra protein and calcium, then top it all with a quick mix of chopped tomatoes, avocado and red onion. It is a simple, filling breakfast that comes in at around 30g of protein. Lunch Right now, I'm really into one-bowl salads. Everything goes straight into the mixing bowl, dressing included. It is quick, no fuss, and full of flavour. I eat a variation of this at least three times a week. One of my go-to combinations is a Greek-inspired salad with roasted chicken.
