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When you watch Clodagh McKenna on ITV’s This Morning, she’s fresh off doing a meditation behind the scenes – and probably a dance too. All the crew are so used to it after six years of the Irish chef appearing on the popular daytime show that “they all know – they just walk past”. The 50-year-old explains: “I do a meditation when I wake up in the morning, then I do another longer meditation about half an hour before I go live [and] I do my dance for five minutes in my headset all around the back of the studio. The dance is to really be myself [on live TV] and be calm inside.” But how she eats is the main driver behind her energy and smiles we see on TV. “It’s a running joke, how many times I get asked, ‘How do you look so positive and happy?’” The answer – alongside dancing behind TV sets – is her diet, which “helps me with energy, it helps me with my mental health and it keeps me happy”. There “isn’t enough attention” brought to the relationship between food and mood, she says, which is why it’s the centre of her ninth cookbook, Clodagh’s Happy Cooking (“a really personal book where I share my relationship with food,” she notes). “And it’s a decision you make, to realise, ‘Oh, this really affects how I feel physically’ – when you feel light and nourished, physically, you just feel better.” “I never eat processed foods,” she says, “Now, if I do, if I have it once in a while, if I’m at somebody’s house or something, I really feel it, or the next morning, I can really feel it. I feel my energy is low. “It’s especially as I hit 50 this year – I’ve just got to put more consideration into the food I’m eating.” The chef, from Cork, adds: “To change how you feed yourself is giving yourself the best gift you can give yourself in life. I have a lot more on but my energy and my mental health is definitely way better than in my 30s, way, way, way better!” These days, McKenna eats at least three to four servings of fibre-filled pulses a week, a homemade juice every morning with “celery, fresh turmeric, ginger, flat leaf parsley, lemon and spinach – I get all of that goodness into me in the morning”, and a little granola with yoghurt for protein. “Doing all those things really, really helps me – my stress levels are lower. I can’t imagine [if I didn’t] how I would feel at my age, with my workload at the moment, running the farm.” McKenna runs a sustainable farm named Broadspear, in Hampshire, with her husband Harry Herbert, on the grounds of Highclere Castle – the main location for TV’s Downton Abbey. “It’s really about loving yourself more,” she adds, “It’s about putting you first and making sure that your engine is well oiled. It’s about looking after and feeding your body, and knowing if you do that when you’re got more energy and you’re looking after yourself, everything else around you benefits from it.” McKenna says not to try and overhaul your diet at once and instead to make small changes so they stick. Here’s her advice. “I would say, start with juicing,” she suggests. “I think that it’s quite overwhelming if you have too many things that you’re going to add into your week. So pick one thing a month [to change]. “If you don’t have a juicer, invest in a simple thing like a NutriBullet, or there are also copies – anything that will literally just blend it!” McKenna has a “brightening juice” recipe with beetroot, and a “bloat-be-gone juice”, including pineapple, ginger and mint, or even a stronger, “body revival shot”. “You’re going to do it every morning so you need to get up 15 minutes earlier, so you’re going to bed 15 minutes earlier, so just reset your clock. I go to bed incredibly early and I get up early as well,” she says. Shop-bought bread can be full of preservatives, and McKenna swears by baking her own. “Designate a time in the week where you’re very relaxed, for me, that’s Saturday morning. It could be a different day for somebody else, but find that little cosy spot – time-wise – and start making bread. “I would say start with my soda bread because it’s the easiest one to do. It’s just a shape, stir, shape and bake bread – you can’t go wrong with it. There’s no rising, there’s no proofing, there’s no extra skills that you’ve got to learn.” McKenna’s mum taught her how to make soda bread, and she says there’s something nurturing in the act of making something like bread from very basic ingredients of not much more than flour, milk and bicarbonate of soda. “I think it’s akin to going out to pick kindling for the fire. It’s that nature-gatherer feeling. It’s so basic, it’s what our mothers would have done, our grandmothers, or great-grandmothers. So there’s like a natural instinct in us somewhere to bake bread.” “The smell of the bread baking turns a house into a home in a matter of an hour – all of a sudden it’s comforting and it’s warm. I would love the whole nation to be baking bread. But I think for anybody who’s feeling down or mentally struggling or feeling sick, baking bread should be the thing you do when you’re at your worst point, because it can only make you feel better.” “Pick one recipe a week that you’re going to do – don’t try and all of a sudden, cook every single night, because you’ll just hate it,” McKenna says, suggesting a day that’s not stressful. “Maybe that’s a Monday or it could be a Thursday when you’re feeling good because it’s nearly the weekend. “Pick a simple recipe, whether it be a delicious soup, my red lentil curry – which is really easy to make – or roasting a chicken. You’re teaching yourself a new skill, and then you’ll slowly start building up your store cupboard.” On weekends, she’ll “let go” a bit – still by home cooking but, “I’ll have whatever I want, a delicious blackberry galette or I’ll make a tarte tatin, or beef bourguignon, or a delicious ragu, or chocolate beef chilli and rice, and a glass of wine. Whatever I eat, whatever I’m cooking, it’s all really good, it’s not processed, but it feels like indulgence at the weekend. Then Monday comes around and I’m kind of ready, almost craving, to get back to my pulses.” Soon, it may become second nature to mostly cook from scratch. ” I cook every night at home and I love it. I cook every lunch, usually at home as well, says McKenna. “I feel like I’ve not given myself enough love if I don’t cook.” “I love all kinds of beans and try to eat them at least twice a week. They are full of protein and I find I sleep really well after eating this,” says McKenna. “If you have pecorino cheese, which is more pungent in flavour, it really is fabulous grated over this dish, but Parmesan – which you may already have in – works well too. “Serve in warmed bowls, with lightly toasted sourdough to mop up the garlicky broth.” Ingredients: 1 tbsp olive oil, plus more to serve 1 small fennel bulb, finely chopped 1 onion, finely chopped 2 tsp finely chopped rosemary leaves 5 garlic cloves, crushed ¼ tsp chilli flakes 200-250g kale, cavolo nero or chard, coarse stems of kale or cavolo nero removed, chard stems and all leaves chopped 2 × 400g cans of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed 500ml vegetable or chicken stock Juice of 1 lemon 3 tbsp finely grated Parmesan cheese, plus more to serve Sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper Toasted sourdough bread, to serve 1. Place a flameproof casserole over a medium heat with the olive oil. Add the fennel, onion and rosemary and cook for 4-6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender. Next stir in the garlic and chilli flakes and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. 2. Begin adding handfuls of the greens, cooking and stirring until the leaves wilt. 3. Add the beans and stock, season with salt and pepper and stir to combine. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer, mashing some of the beans with a wooden spoon, until the liquid has reduced and thickened, 6-8 minutes. 4. Remove from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and the 3 tablespoons of Parmesan. Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed. 5. Divide between warmed shallow bowls and top with more Parmesan cheese and a drizzle of olive oil. Serve with toasted sourdough bread. “Beautiful, isn’t it? This recipe is based on the wonderful traditional Irish soda bread that the whole world should know how to make,” says McKenna. “I’ve added Cheddar for flavour, but leave that out for the classic recipe. This loaf is cut into wedges, so every person can tear off their own, and they make it look like a sunflower! You can use any seeds I suggest here, even just a single variety. This freezes well, too.” Makes: 1 loaf, serves 8 Ingredients: 200g plain flour, plus more to dust 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 1 tsp fine sea salt 350g wholemeal flour 125g Cheddar cheese, grated 350ml whole milk, plus more to glaze 250ml natural yoghurt, plus more to glaze For the topping, any of: Pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, caraway seeds, sunflower seeds, cumin seeds, chia seeds or mustard seeds 1. Preheat the oven to 200C fan (425F), gas mark 7. 2. Sift the white flour, bicarb and salt into a mixing bowl. Stir in the wholemeal flour and Cheddar. With clean hands, mix to combine, then make a well in the centre of the bowl. 3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk and yoghurt, then slowly pour this into the well of dry ingredients, using a fork to mix it into the flour. Make sure there are no dry patches and that the dough is completely wet. 4. Pat your hands with flour and shape the dough into a round, then place on a floured baking tray. Flour a large knife and cut a cross into the top, followed by a diagonal cross, cutting about two-thirds of the way through. You should have 8 wedges, like cake slices. 5. Mix together a small amount more of milk and yoghurt, in a rough 3:2 ratio, in the yoghurt bowl. Brush the loaf with the milk and yoghurt mixture to give a lovely golden colour to the bread once baked, then sprinkle on the seeds. It should start to look like a flower. 6. Bake for 20 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 150C fan (340F), gas mark 3½ and bake for a further 15 minutes. To test whether the loaf is cooked, tap the base with your knuckles: it should sound hollow. Leave to cool on a wire rack. It will last, wrapped in a damp tea towel, for 1 week. If you’ve never tried a beetroot-chocolate cake, then you are in for such a treat!” says McKenna. The beetroot brings a delicious moist texture and the cakes are majestically rich and deep in flavour, while remaining very light in texture. Topped with the exotic coconut icing, these are complete heaven!” Ingredients: 300g cooked beetroot, peeled and cut into chunks (or cook your own beetroot) 230g pitted dates, chopped 115g unsalted butter, melted 1 tbsp tamari 2 tsp vanilla extract 85g cacao powder For the icing: 165g full-fat cream cheese 50g coconut cream 2 tbsp maple syrup 1. Preheat the oven to 170C fan (375F), gas mark 5. 2. Blend the beetroot in a food processor with the dates, melted butter, tamari and vanilla extract until smooth. 3. Add the cacao, then the eggs (adding them at the end helps stop the cacao travelling up the sides of the machine). Blend until smooth and creamy. 4. Line a 12-hole muffin tray with paper muffin cases and transfer the mixture into the cupcake cases. These don’t rise and puff up, so fill them almost to the top. 5. Bake for 17-19 minutes. The cakes are ready when still slightly soft in the middle and will firm up as they cool. Cool on a wire rack, then transfer to the refrigerator. 6. To make the icing, whisk all the ingredients together and place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to thicken up. 7. Now spoon the icing on the cupcakes and eat. Pure bliss! ‘Clodagh’s Happy Cooking’ by Clodagh McKenna (Kyle Books, £25).
