Loaded Toast
I absolutely love toast; bread is the most wonderful comforting food and makes a great base for any number of flavourful and nutritious toppings for a quick and easy lunch.
The bread: If you avoid gluten good gluten free bread options are The Gluten Free Bakery , BFree or a gluten free sourdough (the sourdough fermentation process can help improve the taste, texture and nutrient availability of gluten-free bread). If you do have gluten, sourdough bread is a great option but try to get proper bakery sourdough rather than mass produced commercially made ones as the commercial ones often don’t go through the proper fermentation process which makes sourdough so good. Although sourdough bread is often made from the same flour as other types of bread, the fermentation process improves its nutrition profile, increases antioxidants and is thought to make it more digestible. It may also have a better effect on blood sugar and insulin levels than other types of bread helping to prevent energy crashes after lunch. If you don’t have any sourdough, wholemeal or seeded bread is a good option too and will still add some extra fibre.
Toppings: Think about including:
Protein (fish, meat, eggs, poultry, hummus, nut butter, crushed peas, homemade baked beans)
Healthy fats (butter, olive oil, avocado, cheese, nuts or seeds)
At least 2 vegetables (tomato, cucumber, salad, peppers, radishes, broccoli, olives etc). Really anything goes here.
Great combinations are:
Smoked salmon, avocado, spinach and tomatoes (pictured here)
Crushed peas with ham and rocket
Boiled egg and avocado mashed together (egg avo – rather than egg mayo!) with spinach
Homemade baked beans (made with peppers, chopped tomatoes, onion and whatever beans you have in the cupboard – cannellini beans work well or borlotti)