The smart way to match foods and flavours
There's an art to choosing great food and flavour combinations. We show you how getting it right can offer great health benefits.
Fish and chips. Cheese and red wine. Tomato and mozzarella. Carrot and coriander. There are endless classic food and flavour combinations out there, and if you’re a keen cook you’ll be discovering new ones all the time.
When planning dishes and menus by pairing foods together, we’re usually thinking of how they will taste together. Some foods however, when eaten together, do far more than just treat your tastebuds – they can have some great health benefits too, from boosting the immune system to improving brain and heart health.
This is because some nutrients work better as a team. What’s more, this approach to healthy eating is much more tempting than traditional advice, which generally involves cutting foods out of your diet instead of adding more in.
Burger and ketchup to cut cancer risk
Of course this sounds too good to be true, but a tablespoon of ketchup provides a decent whack of lycopene, an important antioxidant which helps to prevent cancer.
Eating processed tomatoes is best (though avoid the saltiest ketchups), because cooking releases the lycopene so you can absorb it more easily.
Poached egg and spinach
This is a great breakfast combo taste-wise, and adding a handful of spinach to your breakfast eggs will improve bone health. Just one cup of spinach provides plenty of vitamin K, calcium and magnesium, all of which are important for strong bones.
Team this up with the egg, which has vitamins B6 and B12, and you’re doing your bones a long-term favour.
Try Mat Follas' pizza florentine for an alternative way to enjoy both poached egg and spinach.
Garlic and fennel for good breath
This certainly seems like an unlikely combo. In general we avoid garlic altogether if we want to maintain sweet breath, but paired with fennel, the smelly after-effects of the pungent bulb are counteracted.
Chewing fennel seeds is an ancient way to get rid of halitosis, but if you want to eat garlic, add some fennel into the meal and you’ll come away with kissable breath.
Henry Dimbleby's spanish chicken pot roast uses both garlic and fennel seeds so why not give it a whirl?
Green tea and lemon to lower cancer risk
We know that green tea alone is rich in antioxidants, but a university study has shown that adding lemon to the tea increases some of these antioxidants, known as catechins, fourfold. Other citrus fruits are effective too, but lemon is the best.
Soup and beans for lower cholesterol
Black beans and pinto beans are staples in the Mexican and Central American diet and across many of the southern states of the US. Here we are just catching on to their cholesterol lowering qualities.
The beans are high in fibre, which fights “bad” (LDL) cholesterol from building up in arteries. They work together with a hot dish such as any kind of soup, because the heat cooks the beans through quickly.
Try Denis Cotter’s black bean soup with chocolate and chillies (both of these are great antioxidants too).
Spinach and sesame for low blood pressure
Spinach has many wondrous healthy qualities, and it has long been praised for its part in the fight against high blood pressure. More recently, a daily intake of sesame oil has been recommended – it lowers blood pressure and levels of sodium in the blood.
Spinach and other nutrient dense green vegetables, such as kale, cooked in sesame oil and perhaps garnished with more oil and seeds, is a common dish in many Asian cuisines – order a side of greens in sesame with your dim sum to balance out the fatty pork buns.
Tea and cake
Naughty teatime treats, taken in moderation, can give your brain a welcome boost. Our brains use sugar for fuel and caffeine can improve cognitive function. This explains why we always feel like a sugar hit come 4pm.
However, the key here is portion control. Too much sugar and your energy levels will drop. It is also best to choose a cake with some carbs that release their energy more slowly, such as one made with wholemeal flour, or with some oats, bananas or nuts in it. Why not try Gizzi Erksine's blueberry, oat and nut bars?
Likewise, the beneficial effects of caffeine have been shown to drop off after one or two cups, so don’t go overboard.
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