Flourless Lemon & Raspberry Swiss Roll

I have to say, this light and airy, low-carb, grain-free, refined sugar-free and fat-free Swiss roll cake mix is probably the best Primal/Paleo cake I’ve ever made! Rightly so, because I made it for my daughter Sarah’s birthday on 4th July, and she is most definitely worth it. 

The night before her birthday, I was slightly panicked as to how I was going to bake a birthday surprise at such short notice. I’d bought in a stack of fresh summer fruits - just in case I could conjure up something fabulous - but the idea for this impressive looking, light-as-a-feather cake didn’t come to me until about ten 'sleep-hours' before Sarah was due to come over the following morning to unwrap her presents.

Baking an impromptu, untried, made-up recipe for a special occasion isn’t normally my bag, but since only cake will do when there’s a birthday to celebrate I got up early the next morning with my fingers crossed. I am so glad I did. This beautiful cake is not nearly as daunting to make as it looks and the finished result is so light in texture and tastes so fresh that it cannot fail to delight anyone lucky enough to share it. In fact, it is so good, four of us couldn’t restrain ourselves from eating the whole cake in one sitting. Furthermore, as Sarah’s elder sister hadn’t been there for the birthday party itself, it was a great excuse to bake two of these cakes on consecutive days! Once you try this light and lovely treat, you’ll understand why we find this delicious lemon and raspberry Swiss roll totally irresistible.

On the face of it, I should probably consider myself ‘caked-out’ for now, however the truth is, I’m actually motivated to seek out more people whose birthday is imminent! As there’s nothing unhealthy about this Flourless Lemon & Raspberry Swiss Roll, you really don’t need an excuse to indulge. If you love someone enough to want to bake them cake, this one’s gorgeous good looks and lemony, raspberry goodness is all you need to impress.

Flourless Lemon & Raspberry Swiss Roll (makes 12 slices)

Ingredients - for the Swiss roll

4 large organic free-range eggs, separated

40g Sukrin:1 granulated sweetener

40g organic ‘runny’ honey (I actually used raw unpasteurised honey and gently heated it to make it runny)

Zest of 1 organic lemon, finely grated

75g organic ground almonds                            

25g organic tiger nut flour

½ tsp baking powder

1 tbsp Sukrin icing sugar - for dusting top of cake

Ingredients - for the raspberry sauce

150g fresh raspberries

75g no added sugar raspberry spread

Ingredients - for the lemon cream

125ml organic double cream

1 tbsp Sukrin icing sugar

Zest of 1 organic lemon, finely grated

Instructions

Butter and line a 22.5 cm x 32.5 cm (approx. 9” x 13”) Swiss roll tin with non-stick baking paper. 

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350℉ / Gas mark 4

Sift the tiger nut flour and baking powder together into a bowl and then add the ground almonds. Stir to combine.

If using ‘set’ honey, place in a small saucepan over a very gentle heat until it liquefies. Take off the heat and allow to cool down for a couple of minutes.

In a medium/large bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff. In a separate large bowl, whisk the egg yolks, the lemon zest, Sukrin:1 and 'runny' honey until light, airy and mousse-like i.e. very pale and thick – this will take about 3 minutes using an electric whisk on high speed.

Stir the ground almonds and tiger nut flour into the egg yolk and lemon zest mixture. 

With a rubber spatula, gently fold in the egg whites, a third at a time, until completely mixed in.

Pour the mixture out onto the lined baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes until golden, firm and springy (mine took exactly 13 minutes).

Remove from the oven and leave in the tray to cool, covered with another piece of baking paper and a damp tea towel.

To make the raspberry sauce: In a small saucepan set over a low heat, cook 75g fresh raspberries with the raspberry spread. Bring to a gentle simmer, then using the back of a fork, crush the raspberries down into a sauce. Take off the heat and set aside to allow the sauce to cool down completely.

To make the lemon cream: Whip the cream with 1 tablespoon of Sukrin icing sugar and the lemon zest until almost thick i.e. stiff but still speadable. Cover and keep in the refrigerator until you’re ready to assemble the cake. Cut the remaining raspberries in half.

When the cake is cool, remove the tea towel and parchment paper and lay them down flat onto a work surface - with the non-stick paper sat on top of the tea towel. 

Generously dust the top of the sponge with Sukrin icing sugar then flip it out onto the parchment paper with one of the short edges facing you. Carefully peel the baking parchment off the cake.

With a small sharp knife score a line 2 centimetres in from the short edge nearest to you - making sure you only cut about halfway through the depth of the sponge. 

Next, spread the raspberry sauce all over the top of the cake to within about 2 centimetres of the edge. Then layer the whipped lemon cream on top of that - again leaving a 2 cm edge all the way around. Finally, dot the raspberry halves evenly on top of the cream. 

Start rolling the cake up tightly from the short end where you scored a line. Using the parchment paper to help you, keep rolling tightly until you get to the end. Carefully lift the Swiss roll onto a plate with the seam side down.

Chill for 30 minutes before serving.

Notes

Aside from Sukrin’s stevia/erythritol sweetener, the best natural alternative sweetener for baking is organic maple syrup because it is not chemically affected by heat. However, whilst testing this cake recipe out I didn’t want to risk maple syrup’s distinctive taste coming through, so I chose to use honey.

Using half honey and half Sukrin:1 to sweeten this delicate sponge minimises the potential aftertaste when using stevia alone. Whilst the vast majority of honey available in the shops has already been subjected to heat - so it makes no difference whether you decide to heat it or cook with it at home - this is not true of Na’vi’s wonderful, raw, unpasteurised honey. Heating Na’vi’s honey is sacrilege! It destroys many of its beneficial effects, killing off its ‘superfood’ status. If you’re going to buy Na’vi honey - and I recommend that you do - simply enjoy its health-giving benefits spooned straight from the jar. It was Hobson’s choice that I used it for my cake because it’s the only honey I ever keep in my store cupboard! 

Carbohydrates 8g Protein 4g - per slice

Cheesy Sweet Potato, Cauliflower & Spinach Gratin

Want something fast, fresh and fabulous for supper tonight? This vegetarian cheesy gratin ticks all the boxes - comforting, healthy, delicious and on the table in under 45 minutes.

Although today’s recipe includes full-fat crème fraîche, cheese and sweet potatoes, let’s be clear - a Primal, low-carbohydrate / high fat diet (LCHF) does not mean eliminating carbohydrates completely or that it’s okay to gorge yourself on fatty food. In my view, Dr. Atkins was much maligned and misrepresented in this respect. It does mean that oftentimes you’ll find Primal Plate recipes are contrarian to decades of public health advice which has hoodwinked most people into believing that saturated fat - fatty meat, milk, butter and cheese - is the root cause of clogged-up arteries, high cholesterol, heart attacks and obesity. Truth is, there’s never been a shred of reliable scientific evidence that can demonstrate saturated fat is harmful to human health. In fact, numerous scientific studies show the opposite to be true. The real culprit for the type 2 diabetes epidemic and obesity crisis (which are themselves a risk factor for heart disease and stroke) is a fat-phobic society indoctrinated into believing that a healthy diet is one low in fat and high in carbohydrates (LFHC). 

This myth has been perpetuated for the past fifty years or so and it’s time we turned things around. In a nutshell: It’s not fat that makes you fat and sick, it’s sugar. 

In layman’s terms, all the carbohydrates we eat are converted by the body into a type of sugar called glucose. Glucose is fuel for the cells and is transported around the body in the bloodstream. In response to glucose in the bloodstream the pancreas secretes insulin. Without insulin, glucose stays in the bloodstream - it’s insulin that allows glucose to enter the cells (of the brain, heart, liver and muscles) to provide the energy for them to work. Or, if it’s not required for immediate use, to be converted into glycogen and stored in the liver and muscles for later. 

However, once the cells are full to the gunnels with excess glucose they become increasingly resistant to the call of insulin to open up their cell doors and let more in. When there’s nowhere for glucose to go it stays in the bloodstream and blood sugar levels stay high - a toxic situation. What follows is pancreatic panic! In a frantic attempt to get rid of excess glucose in the bloodstream, the pancreas makes even more insulin. Unfortunately excess insulin is also toxic so then the cells become even more insulin resistant. Catch 22!

Eventually the over-production of insulin will help convert the excess glucose into fat but in the meantime the glucose in the bloodstream forms a sort of sludge that blocks arteries and causes systemic inflammation - the underlying cause of multiple degenerative diseases, including heart disease and cancer. Furthermore, an excess of insulin stops the fat-burning enzyme lipase from working efficiently inside the cells, so you don’t even burn off the fat that’s been stored!  

Most human beings are genetically predisposed to insulin resistance, which worsens with age and inactivity. The solution is to stop feeding the problem with high carbohydrate food - no grains, no potato, no sugar - and to exercise more. When you’re not constantly topping-up the body with sugar and starches it can start burning fat for energy instead. Without high carb foods spiking your blood sugar, natural, healthy fat becomes your new best friend. It satiates your appetite, you feel full for longer, it stops sugar cravings and it helps make all food look and taste yummy. 

As for the shoddy science and scaremongering that aims to convince you otherwise, I’ve been on the frontline of a randomised double-blind controlled study (the ‘gold-standard’ of scientific research) when I taught a group of asthmatics the Buteyko Method in the first UK Clinical Trial funded by the National Asthma Campaign. Unfortunately, several participants reported back to me that the study was biased against Buteyko because during their reviews with research staff they had been actively encouraged to continue using their asthma medication. According to our carefully compiled records, over ninety per cent of the Buteyko group either significantly reduced or gave up their bronchodilators completely during the study. However, when the scientific paper was finally published these remarkable results were buried. True, there was much scientific gobbledygook that I wasn’t familiar with, but suffice to say it took several more years before the method was given any credence whatsoever by the NHS. Why did I expect otherwise? Like most people I never imagined that highly respected academics would stoop so low. In reality, too many vested interests - years of study potentially wasted, livelihoods at risk, research funding cut, pharma greed and charity donations threatened - is a massive incentive to keep schtum or worse, go on the offensive to protect the status quo. It’s just how egos rock n’ roll. Nobody wants to admit they’ve been complicit in giving health advice that actually destroys tens of thousands of peoples’ lives but the truth is, there’s safety in numbers and the powers that be are far more interested in self-preservation than your health and well-being.

Dr Aseem Malhotra says it best: “In my opinion a perfect storm of biased research funding, biased reporting in the media and commercial conflicts of interest have contributed to an epidemic of misinformed doctors and misinformed patients. The result is a nation of over-medicated sugar addicts who are eating and pill-popping their way to years of misery with chronic debilitating diseases and an early grave.”

After years of trial and error, I found my way through the lies, confusion, chronic illness and creeping weight gain to discover that the exact opposite of ‘conventional wisdom’ is the truth. It convinced me that eating LFHC is tantamount to death, disease and obesity by the Food Pyramid and that switching to LCHF diet stops the rot. However, if you’re overweight or unwell please don’t ‘wait and see’ how the continuing debate about fat plays out between the warring scientific community - and please don’t take my word for who’s right either. For a few short weeks, simply test out the LCHF hypothesis yourself - using Primal Plate recipes for your inspiration - to see if it works for you.   

Primal Plate is proud to play its part by translating unbiased scientific evidence into a pleasurable eating plan for life. If you want to join in, I think the quick and easy-to-make cheesy deliciousness of today’s vegetable gratin might be a very good place to start. 

Although a LCHF diet avoids white potatoes, we still eat orange-fleshed sweet potatoes because of their versatility in recipes and powerful nutritional punch. In spite of them being sweet-tasting, they have more fibre, fewer calories and less carbohydrates than white potatoes and their natural sugars are slowly released into the bloodstream, which helps ensure a balanced and regular source of energy, without the blood sugar spikes associated with fatigue and weight gain. They’re also a beautiful complementary colour to the Red Fox Leicester cheese I’ve used in the recipe!

It’s really important not to stint on the quality of crème fraîche you use for making the cheese sauce. Unlike most cheese sauces, this one isn’t thickened with flour so its success relies on the crème fraîche not breaking down during the cooking process. For a really silky-smooth, cheese sauce finish, I always recommend Rodda’s crème fraîche (available from Waitrose) because it doesn’t curdle or turn into a thin liquid when heated - this is what usually happens with lesser varieties. If you can’t find Rodda’s, Longley Farm’s crème fraîche is also a good bet.

Cheesy Sweet Potato, Cauliflower & Spinach Gratin (Serves 4) 

Ingredients

280g Leicester cheese (I use Red Fox), coarsely grated

250g crème fraîche (I use Roddas)

1 dsp Dijon mustard

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 medium orange-fleshed organic sweet potatoes, unpeeled and cut into 1-2inch chunky ‘chips’

1 medium organic cauliflower, broken into largish florets

235g organic spinach, washed

2 tbsp fresh chives, finely chopped

Instructions

Fill the bottom of a steamer with boiling water from the kettle and butter a large gratin dish.

Pre-heat the oven to 190℃ / 375℉ / Gas mark 5 

Steam the sweet potatoes in the top of the steamer, covered, for 10-12 minutes. 

Whilst the sweet potatoes are steaming, make a cheese sauce by whisking the crème fraîche, Dijon mustard and three quarters of the grated cheese together in a medium-sized saucepan set over medium heat. Keep whisking everything together until the cheese has fully melted in to a silky smooth, hot cheese sauce. Don’t let it boil. Season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper then take the pan off the heat, cover and set aside. 

Using a large metal draining spoon scoop the cooked sweet potato wedges out of the top of the steamer and lay them flat in the bottom of the gratin dish. Cover and keep warm.

Add the cauliflower florets to the steamer basket and steam them, with the pan lid on, for 5-6 minutes. They need to be just cooked through, so don’t let them get too soft or soggy.

Arrange the cooked cauliflower, placing it evenly between the potato wedges in the gratin dish. 

Now pile the spinach into the steamer basket, put the lid back on and steam for 1-2 minutes until the leaves have just collapsed. Drain well then add to the sweet potatoes and cauliflower in the gratin dish spreading it out evenly. Sprinkle the chopped chives on top. 

Whilst stirring constantly, re-heat the cheese sauce to just below boiling point. Spoon over the vegetables making sure they’re all nicely coated. Finally, sprinkle over the remaining cheese and bake the gratin in a hot oven for 15 minutes. 

At the end of the cooking time switch the overhead oven grill to hot and continue to cook the gratin a little longer under the direct heat until the top is gorgeously crisp and golden. 

Serve immediately with a fresh green salad, if liked.  

Carbohydrate 43g Protein 26g - per serving

Grilled Hake in Tomato Herb Broth with Vegetable Tagliolini

Its been said that ignorance is bliss. And yes, in the context of being innocent and unaware (like a child at play), or entering that meditative space of ‘no thought’ (as a conscious adult), your bliss is unhindered by the external reality that surrounds you. I wish I could be in that state of being more often!

The enormity of the problem with agribusiness - the mass torture and slaughter of animals and the pollution and degradation of the environment - is what is, at this point in history. But thinking about it and seeing its terrible effects on social media, sickens me. When I first started to write this food blog I simply wanted to help shift the Primal/Paleo fraternity away from their avid consumption of meat by inspiring them to eat more vegetarian meals. I would even argue that the Primal/Paleo diet was not primarily meat-based but rather a preponderance of fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds…and that termites were probably our ancestors main source of animal protein.    

I didn't expect to subsequently be confronted with compelling evidence for not eating fish too. Stupid of me. Ego runs humanity and the collective ego is culturally conditioned into believing that, as ‘masters of the universe’, human beings have a divine right to subjugate all of nature to its will. Apparently unstoppable, greed and exploitation knows no bounds. Whilst painfully aware that overfishing currently threatens many species of fish and the importance of sustainability, I hadn’t bargained for what is really going on under the sea. 

It’s not that I am intrinsically opposed to eating meat or fish. It really does depend on the context. I still have to buy and prepare organic free-range chicken and pork and line-caught tuna for my cat Sushi to eat (it is a biological necessity for cats to eat meat) and, if I had the skills to skin and gut a fresh road kill, we’d probably eat that too. But ‘growing’ meat in appalling conditions on factory farms, polluting the rivers and oceans with animal excrement, cutting down acres of rain forest to grow grain for livestock to feed the privileged few whilst millions starve, to use man-made devices to harm and kill all the creatures under the sea is both heartbreaking and unnecessary. 

Already eighty-five per cent vegetarian, there’s a part of me that would like to be vegan. I just know my body wouldn't be happy with the choice. I don’t eat meat on compassionate grounds. I can’t eat grains because I’ve fully experienced their inflammatory effect in my body. I try to avoid potatoes (although I only have personal anecdotal evidence that they’re not good for me) as well as legumes (dried beans, chickpeas, lentils etc.) because they contain anti-nutrients. Instead I rely on plenty of fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds, vegetarian cheese, organic free-range eggs, raw milk from grass-fed cows and what hitherto I thought was sustainably-sourced wild or organic fish for a healthy, low-carb, protein-packed diet. However, fish will be off the menu if eating it means I’m inadvertently supporting the super-trawler industrialised version of fishing.

I’ve asked my fabulous fishmonger Terry (contact: fishinnotts@hotmail.com), who always fetches the best of ‘today’s catch’ directly from the docks and delivers it straight to my door, if he can reassure me that the fish I’m buying is responsibly and sustainably caught. Unfortunately, sustainability won’t make overfishing disappear - to solve that problem, we all need to eat less fish. Supporting the work of organisations like Greenpeace and Compassion In World Farming also helps keep food shoppers informed. Greenpeace have named Marks & Spencer as being the best UK supermarket to buy fish from. However, some fisheries do get the MSC logo for just ‘working towards’ sustainable fishing rather than actually fishing sustainably! If you’re in any doubt, don’t buy.

So now you know that eating fish is not inconsequential, I want to mindfully share with you this tasty recipe for Grilled Hake in a Tomato Herb Broth with Vegetable Tagliolini. It is colourful, it is delicious, it is low carb. It is a beautiful looking, healthy, nutritious dish - everything that Primal Plate wants to promote for a healthier you - but is that enough?

If you think it is, Grilled Hake in Tomato Herb Broth with Vegetable Tagliolini is one of the best ways I know to healthily celebrate the fact that there are still fish left in the sea for us to eat and enjoy. I hope it doesn’t prove to be my last fishy hurrah on Primal Plate’s blog. The jury’s still out.  

Grilled Hake in Tomato Herb Broth with Vegetable Tagliolini (Serves 4)

Ingredients

4 x 200g thick, sustainably sourced (MSC) hake fillets, skin-on, pin-boned & descaled

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

A little melted butter - for brushing 

100ml white wine    

200ml water

1 dsp Marigold organic vegetable bouillon powder

2 dsp Clearspring tamari soy sauce

100g unsalted butter, chilled

1 tsp arrowroot

2 medium carrots

2 medium courgettes

2 medium leeks

2 vine-ripened tomatoes, skinned, de-seeded and finely diced

1 heaped tbsp finely chopped coriander

Instructions

For the grilled hake: put the fish, skin-side down, on a large shallow dish or plate and sprinkle with sea salt. Set aside for 30 minutes. 

For the broth: put the water, wine, bouillon powder and soy sauce into a pan and boil rapidly until it has reduced by a third. Strain through a fine sieve into a clean pan and set aside. 

Rinse the salt off the fish and dry the fillets on kitchen paper. Brush each piece on both sides with melted butter and put skin-side up on a greased baking tray. Season the skin with sea salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Cover lightly with cling film and set aside.

To prepare the vegetables: use only the white part of the leek, peel the carrot, trim the courgette, then spiralise the courgette and carrot into tagliolini - alternatively, use a sharp knife or mandolin to cut the vegetables down lengthways before then slicing again with a sharp knife into thin strips.  

Preheat the grill to high. 

Meanwhile, in a small bowl or mug, combine 1 tsp. arrowroot powder and 1 dsp. water to make a thin slurry. Re-heat the broth to boiling point then add a spoonful of the hot buttery broth into the arrowroot paste and combine well. Tip the arrowroot mixture back into the saucepan whilst stirring continuously. Allow the broth to cook on a very low heat until it thickens.

Remove the cling film and grill the hake for 8 minutes on one side only.

Whilst the hake is grilling, gradually whisk 75g chilled butter, cut into small cubes, into the hot broth to make a silky smooth sauce. Keep warm.

Just before the fish is ready, melt the reserved 25g butter in a frying pan. Stir-fry the prepared vegetables until just softened but still crisp. Season to taste. 

Remove the cooked hake from the grill and allow to rest for a minute or two. Bring the broth back to just below boiling point and add the finely diced tomatoes and chopped coriander leaf. 

Serve the fish on a nest of vegetable tagliolini with the tomato herb broth spooned round.  

Notes

Don’t put the fish too close to the heat source - about 15cm (6”) away from the grill will allow the fish to cook through perfectly without scorching the skin.

Carbohydrate 13g Protein 42g per serving

Fiery Ginger Ale

I’m feeling disgruntled. A couple of months ago, sick of suffering leg cramps and night-after-night of disturbed sleep, I decided I’d better monitor my alcohol consumption. Don’t get me wrong, two or three small (less than 100ml) glasses of wine whilst preparing and eating our main meal of the day to help me ‘wind down’, didn’t seem excessive to me. In fact, I was convinced that if there was a downside to my relatively miserly alcohol intake, it was probably doing me less harm than sitting and stewing in my own stress hormones at the end of a hard day! I was deluded. Alcohol, even within the UK government’s drinking guidelines (3 units per day for women, 4 for men), is toxic to my system. A unit, by the way is 70ml (I always thought it was a small glass of wine as defined by bars and restaurants, namely 125ml!)

I’ve since discovered that the maximum amount of alcohol I can tolerate without any apparent adverse consequences is about 125-170ml of 11-12.5% table wine. Pathetic or what? I mean, how can you party? Still, as much as I might balk at the situation, it was timely that a BBC Horizon programme, broadcast on 20th May 2015, entitled ‘Is Binge Drinking Really That Bad?’ validated what I already knew. And, to give you the heads-up, binge drinking most certainly is bad! You can follow this link to check out the definition of binge drinking and the effect of your drinking habit.

But, the party still goes on - so, notwithstanding the odd glass of 11% ABV Prosecco, I now feel compelled to search out, test and/or create Primal-friendly mocktails: low-sugar, low-carb, non-alcoholic drinks - or at least alcoholic drinks with greater fluid content, which don’t get absorbed into your bloodstream so quickly, and hopefully last longer in your glass - so that I, and everyone else whose brain says “yes” but whose body is telling them “no”, can still feel like they’re part of the celebration.

Whether mixing cocktails or mocktails, a successful outcome isn’t so much about the headline ingredient - whether fruit or alcohol based - because both the taste and ‘fizz’ factor of your drink depends more on the quality of your mixer. This is tricky if you don’t want to load up on sugar and carbs, because it’s really difficult to find natural, sugar-free, low-carb ginger beer or ale, tonic water or lemonade for sale here in the UK. In my view, shop-bought, sugar-laden or artificially sweetened ‘soft’ drinks, colas, sodas and other mixers are completely unfit for human consumption!

Fever-Tree is the one exception I’ve found, which I think stands head and shoulders above the rest because it boasts the best ingredients, is all-natural and is relatively low-carb. Their Naturally Light Tonic Water and Naturally Light Ginger Beer are both sweetened with natural fruit sugar (pure fructose, not nasty high fructose corn-syrup) rather than the likes of “Ssh you know who”, whose slimline versions of these drinks contain the deadly artificial sweetener and neuro-toxin aspartame and saccharin. Remember that next time you’re out at a bar or pub!

Whilst it’s always best to get your fruit sugar (fructose) from fresh food (and to eat your carbohydrates rather than to drink them), Fever-Tree’s recipe for Naturally Light Gin & Tonic passes musters (2 units of alcohol and 6g carbohydrate per drink), so I’ve included it on my ‘allowed' list on the basis that one double G&T is my absolute limit (special note to Sarah, who’s been badgering me to lift the ban on Gin & Tonic for a long time!) Meanwhile, Fever-Tree’s Naturally Light Ginger Beer really stands up well against the flavour profile of my homemade Fiery Ginger Ale, so for sheer convenience and an enlivening ‘fizz’, go buy.

Other healthy mixers (no added sugar, zero carbs) include seltzer water, soda water, sparkling water, mineral water, club soda or just fizzy water! Basically these are all carbonated water. Some have carbon dioxide pumped into them, like my favourite San Pellegrino, to make them effervescent and others, such as Perrier, are naturally carbonated.

Our non-alcoholic, low-sugar, Fiery Ginger Ale needs a grown-up ginger ale concentrate as its base. I do so love the fantastically refreshing, spicy-heat of this cooling ginger ale (I know that sounds contradictory, but it’s true) that I could almost be persuaded to go tea-total! I’ve added fresh lemongrass to underline the citrusy aromas of fresh ginger and a pinch of chilli flakes to give extra kick to ginger’s heat. To sweeten my concentrate, I’ve used zero-carb liquid stevia in combination with raw honey (rather than using all honey or coconut palm sugar) because this effectively halves the grams of carbohydrate. Yey! only 1g carb per drink! It also minimises the potential aftertaste of stevia.

If further justification was needed, ginger is also really good for you. It’s an anti-inflammatory (that should take care of the inflammatory effects of alcohol then!) settles an upset stomach - including motion sickness, morning sickness, vomiting, nausea and loss of appetite - strengthens the immune system (brilliant treatment for colds and flu), lowers cholesterol, improves circulation, aids digestion and protects against cancer.

A brighter future for social drinkers starts here. Cheers!

Fiery Ginger Ale is perfect served in a long glass with plenty of ice - sunshine optional!

Fiery Ginger Ale (makes approx 24 fl oz = 10 to 12 drinks)

Ingredients - for the concentrate 

200g (8oz) fresh ginger, sliced

1 stalk lemongrass, cut into small pieces

½ tsp organic chilli flakes

900ml (32 fl oz) filtered water

1 tablespoon raw organic clear honey + 8 drops liquid stevia

Instructions - for the concentrate

In a medium saucepan, combine water and ginger over high heat. Once boiling, turn heat to very low, cover with the pan lid and leave to just barely simmer for one hour. 

Take off the heat and let stand for another 30 minutes. Strain mixture through a fine sieve. 

Stir in honey and liquid stevia, then cool completely. This is your ginger concentrate.

Pour it into a covered container and keep chilled. 

To Serve (makes 1 drink)

Put a handful (half a dozen) ice cubes into a highball glass (a tall, 250ml glass tumbler). Add 60ml ginger concentrate and 15ml (1tbsp) lime juice 

Fill the rest of the glass with 200ml of soda water or sparkling mineral water.  

Decorate with a sprig of fresh mint and enjoy!