Two easy recipes to try from Madeleine Shaw’s bestselling cookbook

Nutritional therapist and author Madeleine Shaw shares two of her easiest recipes: spinach, leek and potato soup, and black bean brownies

Be it breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner, food blogger turned cookbook author Madeleine Shaw has plenty of recipe ideas to help you be creative in the kitchen. In her bestselling book Get the Glow, she shows how eating well can easily become a way of life, but she’s the first to admit, “I’m not a chef, I cook from home. I like ease and simplicity and ultimately I want to empower people to cook.” And with the two recipes she shares with us here — spinach, leek and potato soup, and black bean brownies — she proves how easy it is.

Looking back, Madeleine says: “As a teenager I ate really badly and was always on a diet. My skin was dull, my hair was lank and I constantly complained of being tired. Unsurprisingly, living off diet cola and low-calorie ready meals meant I developed terrible digestive problems: bloating, cramps and all sorts. Gradually, I realised I had to change my destructive ways. I learnt to cook and started eating whole foods and found I was gradually falling in love with food, life and most important of all, myself.”

“I’m a firm believer that when you look after your insides, you’ll shine on the outside,” she adds. And that’s what her recipes are all about. Her recipes are divided into breakfast, snacks, soups and light salads, speedy suppers, weekend wonders, sweet treats and drinks to glow.

Spinach, leek and potato soup

Serves: 4

Takes: 50 mins

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 leek, sliced and chopped
• 150g potatoes
• 600ml stock
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 100g spinach
• yoghurt, to serve
• chilli flakes, to serve

Method

1. Put 2 tbsp olive oil in a casserole pot, heat and fry the onion, garlic and leek for 10 mins.
2. Scrub and peel the potatoes. Put the peelings to one side, then cut the potatoes into quarters.
3. Add the potatoes to the pot, season with salt and pepper, pour over the stock and coconut milk and simmer for 30 mins.
4. Add the spinach, stir until it wilts then blend until smooth. If you want the soup to be thinner, add more water or stock.
5. Pop 1 tbsp of olive oil in a pan and fry the potato skins with salt and pepper for 5-10 mins until crispy.
6. Put the soup into bowls, top with yoghurt, chilli flakes and crispy potato skins.

Black bean brownies

Makes: 12

Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

• 400g can black beans
• 3 eggs
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 120g coconut sugar
• 80g chocolate, melted
• 3 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp baking powder

Method

1. Drain, rinse and then mash the black beans and stir in the eggs, followed by the cocoa powder, coconut sugar, melted chocolate, coconut oil, vanilla, baking powder and a pinch of salt.
2. Bake at 180C or 160C with fan, gas 4 for 25 minutes and enjoy.