For a healthy gut, it is helpful to increase the variety of vegetables in your diet, don’t stick to peas, sweetcorn and carrots! There is a whole range of vegetables, from brassica’s to root vegetables to the avocado to salads like rocket, watercress, endive and fennel.
At Nutritional Therapy Link we suggest to clients to make a rainbow on their plates. Vegetables provide a great source of fibre, as well as providing phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals.
The cellulose or fibre in vegetables is a great source of fuel for our bacteria allowing them to thrive, where high carbohydrate diets and sugary foods tend to encourage the less friendly bacteria to thrive and reduce the diversity required to support us.
A great way of getting more vegetables into your diet is a good stir-fry. Here’s one of my favourites!
| Prep Time | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time | 5 minutes |
| Servings |
4 servings |
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 chilli
- 1 medium sized 1 leek sliced in half lengthways and chopped to half moons
- 3 cloves garlic - sliced
- 1/2 head Chinese lettuce, sliced to strips
- 1 red pepper, sliced
- 1 inch fresh ginger, grated
- 200 grams Shitake mushrooms, chunkily sliced
- 1 large carrot, sliced in .5cm moons
- 4 stems purple sprouting broccolli, chopped
- 2 heads gem lettuce leaf
- Any cooked meat, fish, seafood or tofu optional
- 2 tbsp Korean kimchi
- 1 tbsp soya sauce
- 1 handful toasted seasame seeds
Ingredients
| |
- Heat the wok on high, add the coconut oil
- When oil is really hot, add leek, pepper, carrot, broccoli and mushroom and toss in wok for a minute or two until vegetables start to sweat
- Add chilli, garlic, Chinese lettuce, ginger and chicken if using.
- Toss all in wok until vegetables are hot and softened for another minute or two
- Just as veggies are cooked splash with soya sauce and add sesame seeds
- Serve with gem lettuce on each plate (you can use the lettuce to make delicious small stir fry parcels!) and the option of a korean kimchi pickle!
