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Ragdale Hall Cookbook, Healthy Food - Tasting Good
www.ragdalehall.co.uk
My copy of this colourful and highly colourful paperback arrived at just the right time, a few days after the end of the festive season when the need for sensible and healthy eating was at its peak, matching the bookings for havens of health treatment centres like Ragdale Hall.
A multi award winning spa in the Leicestershire countryside it has risen to the peak of the health farm market through the quality of the accommodation, the treatments offered to its increasing volumes of annual guests and for the quality of the food on offer, ironic for an establishment where weight loss is a constant aim.
The healthy food cookbook is a natural product to launch from such an illustrious platform, it is unlikely that anyone will depart from Ragdale without this delicious paperback in their suitcase, everyone determined to maintain the toned and re shaped body over the months ahead through a more dedicated lifestyle, regular exercise and the very heart of this book, healthy eating.
With almost one hundred pages it is no lightweight, with an equal division of pages of guidance and instructions, including helpful hints, matched to excellent photographs that are sheer temptation. This is a theme I love to see, a colour picture for each recipe, acting as both an aim for the apprentice chef lurking within most of us as well as stirring our taste buds, making us hungry.
The healthy theme is both understandable and appreciated, even more so from someone like me, with many years experience as a food and travel writer, dedicated to eating for enjoyment as well as satisfying the increasing hunger for restaurant recommendations and reviews. The recipes have been created within Ragdale by Executive Head Chef Scott Williams, who together with his enthusiastic kitchen team, initially created the ingredients for this cookery book, serving the finished products to the many thousands of Ragdale guests. It was those very guests who have clamoured for the publication of those dishes, gently diluted into easy to follow recipes for use at home.
And thus the future for me is a little healthier eating, without any reduction in quality. With recipes neatly divided into section it offers alternatives, from bread to smoothies, soup to desserts, fish dishes and meat based dishes, as well as dishes for children and vegetarians. There are also a large number of dishes for enthusiastic foodies like me.
Among the outstanding recipes that have been tried and enjoyed is the Fennel, Leek and Barley Risotto, each time I open the book it opens at this particular page, a sure sign that this dish was destined for my plate! Sue, my fish loving wife fell in love with the Sea Bass with Artichokes.
Among the next group of planned fact finding missions in the kitchen is the San Danielle Ham with Figs, Mozzarella and Wild Rocket, for me an ideal starter or a relaxed supper dish. Equally enticing is the Thai Spice Lentils with Coconut, Lemon and Coriander, a main course with a touch of spice in it.
Whatever your taste there is something for you, but, of far greater importance is the fact that you are looking a little closer at your eating habits, it certainly gave me the incentive to look at little closer at dishes made at home. With so many meals eaten out in the pursuit of culinary perfection in restaurants throughout the land, eating at home for me is certainly a healthier pursuit and much more rewarding than it once was thanks to the recipes in this healthy cookbook. I now have the taste for it.
Thank you Ragdale!
Alan McColm
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Alan McColm is QFOL's Restaurant Critic and Travel reviewer. Alan is working all over the country ... more
