Dishes to Get Your Skin Glowing

Even though it's already the second week of January, you're probably still attempting to finally make a start keep up your new year resolutions. You'll probably nod in agreement if part of this is to go through a detox of some sort.

For me, this involves trying to get my skin back to some sort of normality - it takes a pretty bad hit when I scoff excess amounts of chocolate in particular.

Now there are plenty of foods out there that you can eat to feed your skin. A quick search on 'skin foods' pulls up plenty of listings showing what vitamins you need for great skin and what foods you can find them in.

But sometimes it's not enough to just know what they are, you want to be able to put them into dishes you will eat, rather than just buying random ingredients and hoping for the best.

So here are some quick ideas of ones I have made over the last week or so which all contain skin-boosting foods to get you started.

Pineapple Stuffed Sweet Potato (above)

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For 2:

2 sweet potatoes
50g green pepper, finely chopped
2 pineapple rings, finely chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
Large handful of salad leaves of your choice (watercress, spinach and rocket used here)

1) Prick the potatoes all over with a fork. Microwave on high for 8-10 minutes, turning once halfway through, or until cooked through.
2) Carefully slice the top quarter off the potatoes (lengthways) and scoop out the flesh.
3) Mix the flesh with the pepper, pineapple and lemon. Spoon back into the potatoe shells.
4) Bake in the oven at 180 degrees C for 15-20 minutes. Serve atop salad.

Broccoli Salad With Cranberries

Click on the recipe name for full details.

Ok, so you'll probably spot that this one's a bit naughty as it's got bacon in! But this was borne out of a response to a tweet by Dan from The Haggis and Herring looking for a photo to add to a recipe he posted. And since the main elements were on my hit list of skin foods to work into a dish, I was all over it! The original dressing is actually made from mayo, but since I don't eat that, I replaced it with yogurt instead (which happens to be another skin-boosting ingredient too!). The full recipe can be found at The Haggis and Herring here

Apricot and Coconut Rice

This wholegrain rice dish takes a hungry while, but is easy and worth it because you cook it all in one pan. Add a bit more water than you usually would to white rice as it takes longer to cook. I often sit the rice in water overnight or during the day to help it soften.

Print-friendly recipe

For 2:

150g wholegrain rice
350ml water
100g dried apricots, chopped
2 tbsp flaked coconut
200g chopped tomatoes
100g tenderstem broccoli
2 celery sticks, chopped
1 tsp garlic salt

1) Rinse the rice a few times then add to a pan with the water. Bring to the boil, then turn down to simmer.
2) Add in the tomatoes, coconut and garlic, leaving to simmer for a few minutes. Part cover with a lid and continue to simmer for 40-45 minutes. You may want to stir it every now and again.
3) After about 25-30 minutes (when there is still a bit of water left), add in the celery and broccoli.
4) In the last 5 minutes when the water has pretty much absorbed, stir in the apricots.
5) Turn off the heat, and mix again well before dishing up.

You might also want to try my Skin-boosting Omelette...


And my Orange Asparagus Pie too...

Your skin will be feeling happier in no time :-)