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The ideal Irish diet - eat your way to weight loss with healthy Irish recipes - POLL

Eating the right wholesome Irish foods can have you on the right track for the New Year

By
BERNIE MALONE,
IrishCentral Staff Writer
Published Wednesday, January 4, 2012, 3:20 PM
Updated Thursday, January 5, 2012, 11:43 AM

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Delicious and hearty lunch of smoked salmon and brown bread
Delicious and hearty lunch of smoked salmon and brown bread
Photo by Google Images


IrishCentral.com Poll

Have you made a New Year's resolution to change your diet?

Yes, a new year a new me!


Kind of...well at least for the month of January


Nope. I'm perfect just the way I am!


Irish food has developed a bad rap as being heavy and stodgy but this is not the case. It’s true that you can dine out on full Irish breakfasts and mashed potatoes with cream but there is much more to Irish cuisine.

In fact, the beauty of the traditional Irish diet is that it changed very little between the late 1800s and the mid-1900s. Its ingredients were based on local food or foods that could be easily imported. What was created was a simple diet made up of local and healthy foods.

Here are some healthy Irish food ideas for those of you eating your way to weight loss:

1. Stew

During these cold winter months, a hearty Irish stew is the perfect meal to come home to; what could be healthier than a pot of vegetables, broth and some lean beef.

If you’re launching yourself into an Atkins-style diet for January you can even skip adding the beloved potatoes and replace it with another vegetable.

Here’s our recipe for beef and Guinness stew. Of course you could leave the Guinness out, but come on, you don’t want to go overboard.

2. Oysters and Fish

Great for the brain and your diet - get some fish oils into you this January with some oysters or fish recipes.

Although Chef Gilligan’s chilled kumumoto oysters with sturgeon caviar and vodka recipe might be a little too fancy for a cold January evening, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of grilled salmon or cod and a side of veg.

3. Soda bread

I know, I know, starch and carbs are the weight-watcher’s enemies but if you’re going to break your diet by eating bread, this is the one you want. The simple ingredients in this bread and its great taste make it both healthy and delicious.

Here’s a healthy recipe for Irish soda bread.

Also nothing goes better with soda bread than smoked salmon. Here’s a recipe with a modern twist.

4. Soup

Vegetable soup has long been a staple of the Irish winter diet. There’s nothing better than coming home to a bowl of hearty soup after walking out in the blustery Irish weather.

Not only are these vegetable soups low fat but they’re also nourishing and delicious.

Here’s Chef Gilligan's country potato and cabbage soup recipe and a delicious Guinness French Onion soup recipe.

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8 Comments

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ciaradexy | Jan 06, 2012, 09:48 AM EST
Maybe 100 years ago,

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DanCinTX | Jan 05, 2012, 09:29 PM EST
Clara - I thought that oats were a staple of the Irish diet; oh well, it was an awesome breakfast anyhow, authentic or not.

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ciaradexy | Jan 05, 2012, 06:08 PM EST
DanCinTx-creme fraiche, fruit and coffee arent all that Irish!

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ciaradexy | Jan 05, 2012, 06:08 PM EST
Irish food is now just a nice mix of other nations food. Theres no such thing as ''irish food'' just good quality food.

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DanCinTX | Jan 05, 2012, 02:08 PM EST
What about the oats? I had one of life's better breakfasts at Bewley's on Grafton St - a bowl of oats with crème fraîche and fruit. Add the beautiful toasted soda bread and a great cup of coffee - breakfast nirvana.

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solyeant | Jan 05, 2012, 01:48 PM EST
The Irish have quite a lot to add to the culinary world and indeed the primary nutriment milk and its by products provide some of the most intersting reading into the cultural nature of the Irish and Celts at large Butter churns from ireland are different than those in central Euroope but bear a striking resemblance to those used in Mongolia However the Ceili was often used to gather together people to churn butter in a pigs bladder The bladder was filled with mlilk and then either to music or to lilting the belly went from one to the other auntil it started to turn. If only the Irish of the 1845 period had used the natural goodness of the land and sea they may have prevented so much death . Works have existed on communal farming long before the Famine and yet those in the educative process concentrated on latin and greek instead of studies on brassicas or Onions or grains which allowed many French communities to avoid disette and disaster We may admire a classical link to understanding but the cost was horrendous and wanton on the part of the "educators" namely the clergy. Another case which should have opened the eyes of the ordinary guy in the street to the brainwashing effect of our elders and betters and we can see it even now in the Kenny government where the administration hold the key to the success of the Kenny Doctine and not the guy who promotes it. The ruling class of middle and higher ranking civil servants , those who may know Latin and Greek yet again will administer in their own way and watch the imminent decay irish society all with the intention to protect themsleves as the clergy had done before the famine What use in knowing of Ceasar's gallic wars when the only plate of food they could think of was potatoes

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LaoiseRyan | Jan 05, 2012, 12:20 PM EST
Carrickcourt, that wasnt too long after the famine in fairness. The diet has changed since then.

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carrickcourt | Jan 05, 2012, 10:48 AM EST
An account of a distant late cousin of her growing up on her family's farm in Co. Cavan in the late 1890's and early 1900's talks of rarely eating meat, maybe some chicken on a rare Sunday. The diet was mostly potatoes, cabbage, and dairy products.

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