The amount of sugar eaten this weekend can be a little scary, but Donegal Nutritionist Sorcha McElchar from Sorchas Healthy Living has some tricks to treat yourself in a tasty and healthy way!
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With Halloween upon us there’s one thing on most people’s minds…. sugar. Like I always say you should never restrict yourself from any type of food, but moderation and a bit of common sense goes a long way. If you overindulged in too many sweets or alcohol last year and felt terrible the next day, why would you want to repeat it?
Halloween started off as a Celtic festival called Samhain, where the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead was at its thinnest and it marked the beginning of winter. Food played a major role in the celebrations as the harvest would be at its best and there would be plenty of food. The Celts would meet around a large bonfire and share food, drink, and stories… and sacrifices to the Gods (we could maybe leave out the sacrifices!) They would have had turnips, apples, apple cider, mulled wines, ale, beer, nuts, pork, poultry. The Church then adapted Samhain into all Saints Day.
Today a lot of the traditional Halloween dishes have been forgotten and replaced with foods that are okay in small doses, but usually eating a bucket of sweets in one go is not advisable for anybody!
Here are some ideas to bring traditional Irish Halloween food back while using seasonal fruits & vegetables. When fruit and veg are in season they not only taste better, but they also cost less!
Here are some fruits & vegetables that are in season in October
- Rooster potatoes
- Marrow
- Cabbage
- Radishes
- Scallions
- Kale
- Celeriac
- Beetroot
- Mushroom
- Tomatoes
- Peppers
- Parsnips
- Pumpkins
- Butternut squash
- Onions
- Lettuce
- Cauliflower
- Leeks
- Celery
- Carrots
- Cabbage
- Brussel sprouts
- Broccoli
- Strawberries
- Raspberries
- Apples
- Brambley apples
- Thyme
Some traditional Halloween Dishes still made today.
- Colcannon – Mashed potatoes, cabbage, kale, and scallions mixed through.
- Irish stew – Lamb, turnips, parsnips, carrots, onions, and gravy
- Soda bread – Traditional Irish soda bread is something that used to be made frequently in most homes around Ireland. I think there’s nothing nicer than a nice thick slick of homemade soda bread still hot from the over with a thick spreading of butter!
- Boxty – personally I have never heard of this one before. It’s a potato cake cooked on a griddle.
- Barmbrack – It used to be that there were 4 items baked into the cake. A ring symbolises true love. A rag signifies poverty, a thimble signifies that person would never marry and a coin signifies riches. Obviously, most people wanted to find the ring or the coin.
Even if you don’t decide to try these dishes you should take advantage of all the amazing in season produce.
To make it exciting try carving some bell peppers like you would a pumpkin. Stuff them with a tasty filling and bake them in the oven.
Why not try a flavoursome homemade tomato-based sauce then toss in some spaghetti (AKA guts) and add a few mozzarella balls (eyeballs).
Make a fruit punch using strawberries, raspberries, and apples. Fill two rubber gloves with water and stick them in the freezer. When frozen cut the gloves off and put the ‘ice-hands’ in the punch.
As for toffee or chocolate covered apples -well an apple is an apple no matter what way you dress it up!
Then you’ve got all the amazing comfort soups like Vegetable, Butternut squash, tomato, and – don’t knock it till you’ve tried it! Broccoli soup.
So, you see, Halloween doesn’t have to be all about sweets for it be tasty and fun, and if you’re someone who gets a lot of colds and flus around this time, all these amazing dishes are packed full of vitamin C.
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