Callum Hann - Quick. Easy. Healthy. Good Food Every Day

Callum Hann is former MasterChef runner up (2010) and a MasterChef All Stars (2012) winner. He has since published two successful cookbooks, The Starter Kitchen (2012) and Id Eat That! (2014), both with Murdoch Books. He is an ambassador for a range of worthy charities and is the Chief Taste Officer at Thankyou Co. foods as well as host of the Channel Seven Television Show, SA Life.

Themis Chryssidis , Bachelor of Psychology (B. Psych) and Masters of Nutrition and Dietetics (M Nut & Diet) is an Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD), and specialises in weight loss, eating disorders and irritable bowel syndrome. After five years working in private practice and with over ten years in the health and fitness industry he has helped countless individuals improve their health and take control of their life.

Themis and Callum are also the founders of Sprout Health Studio, a multidisciplinary health clinic which offers a relaxed but evidence-based and professional approach to healthcare.

Seasonality is natures way of ensuring we enjoy a variety of foods throughout the year, ensuring our diet is interesting and nutritionally complete.

About Sprout

Sprout is a hands on interactive cooking school run by Callum and Themis in Adelaide, South Australia. It is one of the largest purpose built and privately owned cooking schools in the country, and is dedicated to getting people of all ages into the kitchen and cooking delicious, fresh, seasonal, healthy food.
www.sprout.edu.au

We dont believe in health products, superfoods, diets or strict eating plans. We just believe in food: food that doesnt cost a fortune or require expensive equipment; food that is nutritious, simple and convenient to make.

In Quick. Easy. Healthy. authors Callum Hann and Themis Chryssidis present over eighty recipes for fresh, simple, nutritious and flavoursome dishes that use easily sourced, seasonal ingredients; represent good value for money; and require minimal preparation and clean-up time. Collected into four seasonal chapters, the recipes feature nutritional information and tips, as well as suggestions for swap-outs and substitute ingredients.

Master some of the delicious and nutritious recipes in this book and cooking with the seasons will soon become second nature.

CONTENTS

introduction

Weve been working together since 2011, although we use the term working very loosely.

Thats when we started Sprout Cooking School in Adelaide, South Australiagetting people into the kitchen and sharing our belief that food should be fresh, seasonal and enjoyable. Until we began Sprout, its fair to say neither of us understood what people meant when they said, Find a job that you love and youll never work a day in your life. Well, now we do. We love our work. Talking about healthy eating, promoting real food, enjoying great meals with friends and family, and educating others about the importance of local, seasonal produce. We havent worked a day since 2011.

Quick, Easy & Healthy was the very first cooking class we ever held, and its really at the heart of our cooking philosophy. So when we were given the opportunity to turn what is now our most popular cooking class into a cookbook, we jumped at the chance.

This book is all about getting people of all ages into the kitchen and cooking delicious food thats good for you. We dont believe in health products, superfoods, diets or strict eating plans. We just believe in food: food that doesnt cost a fortune or require expensive equipment; food that is nutritious, simple and convenient to make; and most of all food that the whole family will enjoy.

You dont need to be an amazing chef to have fun in the kitchen and create dishes that you can be proud of. You just need to have a positive attitude and desire to learn. Cooking is a skill that can be learnt over time and definitely improved upon with practice. Learning to cook helps improve our understanding of what we are putting into our body, and it inspires good food choices that you will carry with you forever. We see food as a social glue bringing people together, and the key to a healthy and happy life.

So what are we waiting for? Lets get cooking!

The Importance of Seasonal Produce

Seasonality is a very important concept when creating fresh, healthy and delicious food. Seasonality refers to the weather conditions such as temperature, rainfall and sunlight which, at certain levels, facilitate optimal growth of specific fruits and vegetables. As a result of these factors, fruits and vegetables grow and ripen at different rates, depending on the time of year. When produce is growing and developing to its potential in optimal conditions, it is referred to as being in season. Meat, particularly seafood, can also be considered seasonal, as certain weather conditions affect feeding patterns, breeding conditions and location or habitat.

No single fruit or vegetable (or any food for that matter!) provides us with all the nutrition we require to be healthy. This is why variety within a meal, over a day, over a week and over a year is important for good health. We need to be constantly eating a wide variety of foods to ensure we meet our nutrition requirements.

Seasonality is natures way of ensuring we enjoy a variety of foods throughout the year, ensuring our diet is interesting and nutritionally complete. The fruits and vegetables that are in season often coincide with what our bodies need, and reflect what we like to eat and cook at that time of the year. For example, citrus fruits are in abundance in winter and are a great source of vitamin C, which can help fight off those pesky colds and bugs. Similarly, root vegetables such as potatoes and carrots flourish in winter and lend themselves well to roasts or slow-cooked meals, which is precisely the comfort food that many of us enjoy in cooler months.