Ellis - Healthy eating for life: over 100 simple and tasty recipes

Healthy
Eating
for Life

Robin Ellis is best known as having starred in the BBC classic serial, Poldark, playing Captain Ross Poldark. It is widely regarded as one of the most popular British costume dramas ever produced. Other TV and film appearances have included roles in Fawlty Towers, Elizabeth R, Blue Remembered Hills, The Europeans and Heartbeat. His most recent role was in the original Swedish version of the detective series Wallander.

In 1999 Robin was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Although he had no symptoms, he took the diagnosis seriously as his mother suffered with type 1 diabetes for 35 years. In the same year he and his wife, Meredith, moved to southwest France where he has become known locally as the Anglais who cooks! By changing the way he ate and taking more exercise, Robin was able to control his blood sugar sufficiently to avoid taking medication for six years.

In 2011 Robins collection of favourite dishes was published in Delicious Dishes for Diabetics. Now, in his second cookbook, Robin shows how anyone can easily enjoy the benefits of a healthy Mediterranean style of cooking.

Photos of many of his recipes and information about the workshops he runs can be found on Robins blog at http://robin-ellis.net/

That which one eats as the fruit of his own labour is properly called food.

Old proverb

Healthy
Eating
for Life

Over 100 Simple
and Tasty Recipes

Robin Ellis

Illustrated by Hope James

Constable & Robinson Ltd
5556 Russell Square
London WC1B 4HP
www.constablerobinson.com

First published in the UK by Right Way,
an imprint of Constable & Robinson, 2014

Text copyright Robin Ellis 2014
Illustrations copyright Hope James 2014

The right of Robin Ellis to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-0-7160-2353-1 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-0-7160-2354-8 (ebook)

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Printed and bound in the EU

Cover design by Paul Turner

Carmen Callil, publisher and author:

This is the kind of great book that teaches you how to cook as you go. Read, cook, eat and be healthy, a marvellous Mediterranean combination for happiness. Robin Ellis is a truly great cook. Here he is at his delicious best.

Brian Cox, Scottish actor:

Of course I am biased! Robin is a very old and dear friend! Even so, he is simply one the best cooks ever. Why? His cuisine is always a delicious culinary paradox, strong and delicate with an exquisite balance of flavours. One of the truly great treats of my life is a meal prepared by Robin with the commitment, love and detail of a great actor preparing for a classical role. Once tasted, never forgotten!

Donald Douglas, actor:

His cooking is superb! Wonderful flavours, textures and presentation. His cookbook is a must for those who love their food, but also like to stay healthy!

Lindsay Duncan, actress:

Robin is the perfect cook to have as a friend. He loves food, cooks superbly and likes nothing more than sharing his food with as many people as he can get round a table. Generosity is at the heart of good cooking and Robin cooks to give pleasure. It always works.

Louise Fletcher, Academy-Award winning actress (One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest):

To have Sunday lunch at Robins and to go home with his recipes is the perfect southwest France Sunday. Oh, let there be many more Sundays in the kitchen with Robin.

Robins cooking and Robins recipes: simple, fresh and simply glorious.

Romaine Hart, former cinema-owner (Screen on the Green/the Hill/Baker Street):

Robins cooking did what five different medications failed to do: bring down my high blood pressure. I suffered a stroke and no medication brought my blood pressure below 177/70. After staying only one week with Robin and eating his delicious meals, it came down to 120/59.

Sir Derek Jacobi, actor (Emmy, BAFTA, Olivier and Tony Awards):
I can highly recommend Robins delicious recipes, some of which I have had the pleasure of sampling at his table in France. The recipes have all the richness of classical Mediterranean cooking. Enjoy yourselves as I have with this mouthwatering cornucopia!

Michael Pennington, actor and author:

Robin Ellis has the gift of writing recipes that you can taste as you read them. Absolutely delicious.

Eva Marie Saint, Hollywood legend, Academy-Award and Emmy winner: Robin Ellis is a superb chef! His cookbooks, filled with delicious and healthy recipes, have become my best friends in our kitchen.

Imelda Staunton, actress:

How can food this good be this good for you!

Timberlake Wertenbaker, playwright (Our Countrys Good):

Ive used Robins recipes again and again. Theyre elegant, delicious, imaginative and easy to use.

The Basques are great cooks and giving a dinner in the Basque Country is scary. One also eats very late so no one wants anything too heavy. I always use one of Robins recipes and end up with nothing but compliments and a demand for the recipe.

An English woman who can cook tuna! someone said to me in complete astonishment. Of course, the recipe was Robins.

I want to thank Judith Mitchell, my editor at Constable and Robinson, for trusting me enough to do a second book and being such a positive and encouraging presence. Shes a tennis fan and our rallies are always lively and enjoyable.

Hope James, whose drawings so enhanced Delicious Dishes for Diabetics, has done it again! Her illustrations, all sketched here, perfectly capture the spirit of this place, my kitchen and our everyday lives. Merci infiniment Hope!

Thanks to friends who kindly agreed to share their recipes for inclusion here. Tari Mandair, Romaine Hart, Conner Middleton-Whitney, Lina Abild-Jones, Hilton McRae, Helen Richmond, Charlotte Fraser, Julie Ide, Irv and Iris Molotsky and Janet Bradley.

Thanks too to my friends who have written such generous endorsements please come and visit us again!

I could not have done this without the gentle hand of my wife Meredith Wheeler at my back. She is my taster-in-chief, my in-house inspiration thumbs up or straight face, I know immediately from her reaction if a dish is a goer or a gonner! Does it have the ding factor? Thats the question at table. Thank you, Meredith, for your moral support, your tolerance of a sometimes moody cook, your judgement and above all for your love.

The easiest and most pleasurable way to eat well is to cook. (New York Times, 2013)

No one is born a great cook, one learns by doing.
(Julia Child, American cook, food writer and legend)

Eating healthily is an aspiration everyone can share though its not always easy to follow if the person believes that