Fruit and vegetables are easily incorporated into breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack, making your recommended 10-a-day a doddle. We’ve curated this meal plan from AJ’s archive to show you how...

Breakfast: Rye and vanilla malt overnight oats

Although peaches are used here, any seasonal fruit will work, depending on when you’re making it: pears, extra apple, plums, bananas, figs, stewed quince, diced mango … take your pick.

Makes 2 bowls

For the overnight oats

80g rolled oats

50g rye flakes

1 lemon

200ml almond milk (or milk of your choosing)

1 apple

In the morning

1 tsp barley malt or maple syrup

2 ripe peaches

A dollop of Greek yoghurt

A handful of almonds, toasted and roughly chopped

1 The night before you want to eat this for breakfast, combine the oats and rye flakes in a bowl with the zest of half the lemon and the milk. Grate the apple into a little bowl and squeeze over a tiny bit of lemon juice, toss to stop browning, then add to the oats. Cover and put in the fridge overnight to soak.

2 In the morning, sweeten the oats mixture with a drizzle of barley malt or maple syrup, then mix well.

3 Divide between two bowls and slice the peaches over the top. Finish with a dollop of Greek yoghurt and some chopped almonds.

Lunch: Fennel, green olive and herb freekeh

Here, freekeh (green wheat harvested before it is ripe) is tossed with roasted fennel, leeks and courgettes, in a vibrant dressing made with fat green olives, almonds and chopped green herbs.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest You could swap the fennel and leeks for almost any roasted vegetable: broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, beetroot ... Photograph: issy croker/The Guardian

Serves 4

200g freekeh

2 fennel bulbs, trimmed and thinly sliced, leafy tops reserved to garnish

2 leeks, washed and thinly sliced

2 courgettes, sliced

4 garlic cloves, peeled

1 tbsp coriander seeds

Salt and black pepper

Extra virgin olive oil

A splash of herb-infused vinegar or white wine vinegar

A small bunch each of mint, coriander and flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

150g green olives, rinsed then pitted

6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

100g almonds, toasted and chopped

1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and roughly chopped

2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice, plus more to taste

1 bunch of fresh parsley or basil

1 tbsp pul biber (crushed red pepper flakes) or ½ tsp red chilli flakes

1 Soak the freekeh in cold water for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4.

2 Put the fennel, leeks, courgette and garlic on a baking tray in one layer if you can – use 2 trays if you have to. Sprinkle over the coriander seeds and a generous amount of salt and black pepper, then drizzle with olive oil. Roast for 20-30 minutes – removing the trays from the oven and carefully shaking them every now and then – until the vegetables are cooked through and crisp around the edges.

3 Sprinkle the vinegar over the vegetables as soon as they come out of the oven, then set aside to cool. When cooled, scatter the finely chopped herbs over the top.

4 Drain the soaked freekeh and add to a saucepan with 750ml cold water and ½ tsp salt. Put on a medium heat, cover and bring to a boil, then lower the heat to simmer it gently for about 12 minutes. Cook until tender, but not so long that the grains become mushy. Drain off any extra water, and set aside to cool.

5 Coarsely chop the olives and put them in a bowl along with the olive oil, almonds, chopped fresh chilli, and lemon juice. Roughly chop the parsley/basil; add it to the bowl. Stir well and set aside until ready to serve the salad.

6 Combine the roasted vegetables, freekeh, pul biber and olive mixture in a bowl and mix well. Taste and adjust with salt, lemon juice or olive oil, if needed. Garnish with the reserved fennel tops.

Dinner: Massaman curry

When we shoot the pictures for Anna’s column, she cooks with fellow food stylist Emily Ezekiel. This is Emily’s recipe, so deeply layered with flavour that it is one of Anna’s “favourites of all time”. You could replace the green beans and broccoli with many a green vegetable here, and also leftovers. On Boxing Day, for example, Cook threw in the leftover roast potatoes at stage 6, followed by residual cooked brussels sprouts and carrots several minutes before serving.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest This is endlessly versatile, as all staple recipes should be. Photograph: Issy Croker/The Guardian

Serves 4

1 portion massaman curry paste (see below)

500g new potatoes

300g green beans

2 x 400ml tins of coconut milk

300g purple sprouting broccoli

100g unsalted peanuts

200g firm tofu

2 tbsp tamarind paste



For the paste

3 shallots, peeled and chopped

5 garlic cloves, peeled

2 sticks of lemongrass, bashed and roughly chopped

5cm piece of ginger, peeled

½ tsp cloves

1 tsp coriander seeds

2 tbsp cumin seeds

1 small cinnamon stick

5 dried red chillies

2 tbsp groundnut oil

1 tbsp runny honey



To serve

Cooked brown rice

1 First make your curry paste. Toast the shallots, garlic, lemongrass and ginger in a dry pan for 5 minutes. Set aside. Now dry-toast the spices in the pan for another 5 minutes.

Rachel Roddy’s recipe for minestrone soup with regional variations | A kitchen in Rome Read more

2 Put the shallot mixture into a blender with the chillies and pulse until you have a fine paste. Add the spices and pulse again. Finally, add the oil and the honey and blitz to an even, finely textured paste. Any leftover paste can be frozen for later use.

3 Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Get a large roasting tray and add the potatoes along with about 2 tbsp massaman paste, toss well, then roast in the hot oven for 40 minutes, or until almost cooked. Throw in the green beans, toss well and put the tray back into the oven for a further 15 minutes.

4 Put a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the remaining massaman paste to the pan and cook for about 10 minutes, or until the paste has turned dark and smells a little smoky. Add the coconut milk and tamarind paste, then fill one empty can with boiling water from the kettle; add this to the pan and bring to the boil. If you would like your curry to have more of a soupy consistency, add a little more water until it reaches your liking.

5 Add the roasted potatoes, the beans and the purple sprouting broccoli, then cook for 10 minutes to bring everything together.

6 Put the peanuts on to a baking tray and toast in the oven for about 5 minutes until golden. Slice the tofu into 1cm slices and griddle on both sides until charred and warmed through, then add to the large pan.

7 Serve the curry on top of warm brown rice and finish with a sprinkling of the peanuts.

Snack: Beetroot and caraway soda bread

Beetroot – alongside its happy bedfellow of the spice family, caraway – is sneaked into this ultra-easy bread. Soda is a brilliant method for making a fuss-free loaf: there’s no waiting for rising and there’s very little that can go wrong. The beetroot is best bought fresh and roasted yourself, because it has a more intense flavour than the pre-cooked stuff.

Makes 1 x 750g loaf

300g cooked beetroot, chopped

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp caraway seeds

100ml buttermilk (or plain yoghurt let down with a splash of milk)

200g white spelt flour

200g wholemeal spelt flour

50g pumpkin seeds, plus more for sprinkling

1 tsp salt

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Black pepper

1 Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/gas mark 7. Put the beetroot (see the note below if you’re roasting your own), spices and buttermilk in a food processor and puree until smooth.

2 Put the flours, pumpkin seeds, salt, bicarbonate of soda and pepper into a large bowl and mix well.

3 Pour the beetroot mixture into the flours and mix with a fork until well combined, then use your hands to bring the lot into a rough ball. Don’t knead it though, or it will make the finished loaf tough.

4 Scatter some flour over a baking sheet and put your ball of dough on top. Dust with a little more flour and a few more pumpkin seeds.

5 Cut a deep cross in the bread, then bake for 40 minutes, or until golden and risen. Remove from the oven and tap the bottom of the loaf. If you get a hollow sound, it’s perfect, so pop it on a wire rack to cool. This is delicious warm with salted or almond butter.

If you are roasting the beetroot yourself:

Wash the beetroot well and trim the stalks. Put the whole beetroot in a foil parcel, wrapped really tightly so the steam doesn’t escape. Cook for around 60 minutes (depending on the size of your beetroot), or until they are tender. Once cooked, allow to cool in the foil parcel: this will make it really easy to remove the skins. When cool enough to handle, slip the skins off and discard. Extra roasted beetroot can be used in salads or alongside dips such as hummus.

Anna Jones is a chef, writer and author of A Modern Way to Eat and A Modern Way to Cook (Fourth Estate); annajones.co.uk; @we_are_food