Reducing upf's

[Mrswang]

Hi everyone I know it's not possible to go 100% upf free and I don't think I would want to as no way I could make my own bread etc I'm a terrible baker 😭 anyway what I use a lot is the jars of sauces like chilli con carne and spag bol , curry sauces etc so I'm after very simple as I'm not a confident cook ( stems from being told I couldn't cook and would poison everyone by my nan long story ) so I would appreciate any simple recipes that I can use in place of upfs I've already mastered making my own gravy I'm so proud of myself ( I know that sounds big headed of me but it's an achievement considering my anxiety around cooking) .

If you've made it this far thanks for reading and I really appreciate it .

This is a really good fail-safe curry sauce https://www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/curries/quick-and-easy-base-curry-sauce

A very easy version of baked beans https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/smoky-beans-toast

I like this recipe for pesto as it doesn’t involve toasting pine nuts https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/seed-free-pesto-sauce.html

easy veggie chili:
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/easy-vegetarian-chilli
i do find bbc good food and jamie oliver have really easy, fool-proof recipes (and tasty)

Thank you there's some good recipes there 😌 never would have thought about baked beans x

Thank you so much x

The first thing I learned to cook was pasta. The second was a straightforward mince sauce:

Chop an onion. If you're not confident doing this, you can buy frozen diced onion while you learn - it's not UPF, it's just more expensive than buying actual onions.

Peel two cloves of garlic.

Heat 1 - 2 tbsp oil in a saucepan. After about 30 seconds add the onion and stir so it doesn't burn for a couple of minutes. When it starts to look translucent and feel squashier under your wooden spoon, crush the garlic and add that.

Take your packet of mince and add that. Break it up with your spoon and stir until it is mostly brown with only a few bits of pink still showing.

Then add two tins of tomatoes, 1 tsp salt and grind black pepper over the top - about 20 twists.

You now have a mince sauce, and you can

• add a drained tin of kidney beans, a sachet of chilli con carne spice mix and a chopped chilli (optional) to make it a chilli con carne
• add 1 tsp of mixed herbs to make it a basic bolognaise sauce for pasta
• add frozen peas and sweetcorn, put it into a dish and put a pastry lid on it or mashed potato to make a pie or cottage pie

You can also leave out the tomatoes and add gravy over the top and some carrots to make a savoury mince to go with potatoes.

When you're more confident you can use the same basics to try making moussaka and lasagna.

Hi thank you I'm ok with chopping etc I'll make a note of the ingredients as I'm going food shopping tomorrow and pasta or lasagne is always on the menu in this house as it's a favourite x

Another easy recipe is a one-dish traybake - veg with a little oil on, and add your protein on the top, bake until done (go with the timings for however long the protein is going to be, but if in doubt, 180 degrees celsius for about 40 mins will do most things.

Try miniature potatoes, quartered onions, thick sliced carrots with chicken thighs on top.

Or mushrooms, peppers, aubergine and courgette with chicken thighs or white fish fillets (I usually cook the veg for half an hour first then add the fish as fish cooks quite quickly)

Or green beans, cherry tomatoes, red onion and tofu chunks.

I love a stir fry for a quick healthy meal. I buy the bags of pre chopped veg from the freezer usually a wok mix. I grate a thumb sized piece of ginger a couple of cloves of garlic and add rice vinegar, soy sauce and a drop of maple syrup at the end of cooking. I crack an egg in the rice ans use sesame oil to cook in. I also add cashew nuts and edamame beans for more protein.

Yes stir fry is a really good one as well x

The easiest thing you could do is eliminate the sauces. So yes, you can cook a curry from scratch, but if you aren’t a confident cook don’t make every meal a round of Masterchef. Cook meals based around whole foods that you don’t have to rely on a jar for.

Baked chicken thighs or salmon fillets (season them with whatever spices or a marinade that you can throw together, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic and ginger is an easy one that works for chicken and fish), a tray of roasted veg, half an avocado with soy sauce and sesame oil, bit of lime maybe, some white or brown rice, or make your own sweet potato chips (slice into chip shape, coat in olive oil, bit of salt, I often add some cumin and cinnamon but you don’t have to, bake on baking tray). All whole foods and will fill you up.

Agree with this but also, on the odd occasion that you do fancy a curry or something that requires a sauce, just swap the jars you’re buying. There are a few now that are UPF free. Most of the Lloyd Grossman sauces are fine and so are the new Heinz pasta sauces that come in a jar. There are a few others as well and you can get them on offer quite often.

https://www.aldi.co.uk/recipes/collections/slow-cooker/slow-cooker-chicken-curry
This is a really simple recipe. My dc like this and I always make extra to freeze.

Also try this site for simple recipes.
https://www.nhs.uk/healthier-families/recipes

Spaghetti Bolognese I started making my own sauce a couple of years ago and it’s delicious!!

Ingredients:
Frozen chopped white onions (I can’t cut raw I just cry way too much) - Tescos are the best as they aren’t as mushy
Tomato Puree (I use Aldi)
Beef OXO Cube
Mixed Herbs (the dried ones in the little spice jars).

Method:
Generous amount of onions fried off until starting to brown
Add in mince
Add a few shakes of Mixed Herbs
When mince starts to brown crumble oxo cube over and mix in
Wait for mince to fully cook and then use half a tube of tomato puree (or to taste)
Add either around 200ml of cold water or water from the cooking pasta and mix well until puree dissolves and then just simmer until pasta is cooked.

You can add more or less water depending on how saucy you like it and keep playing with. The longer you simmer, the thicker the sauce will become. And more or less tomato depending on taste.

Pasta sauces made with tinned tomatoe or something creamy - cream, creme.fraiche, creamed cheese - are actually very easy.

The basic i learnt as a student and that the bulk of my tomatoe based pasta dishes are now based on was:

Chopped onion, cooked in a little oil.over a low heat. Then add chopped bacon and turn the heat up a bit. Once fat starts to render, added chopped mushrooms. Then some.choped garlic and some chopped broccoli or courgettes.

Add a tin of tomato, some dried oregano, salt, pepper and a teaspoon of sugar as well as some boiling water or stock - about another can's worth.

Simmer while pasta cooks. You can add a dollop of cream.cheese, cream.or creme fraiche at the end if you want. Serve with grated parmesan.

That can be adapted in a hundred ways. Use chorizo or chicken instead of bacon. Or skip the meat entirely. Add chilli if you like some heat. Swap out the mushrooms for aubergine or add more courgettes. Use leeks instead of onions or add cavalo Nero (works especially well with chorizo and some.chilli). Experiment with a teaspoon of thyme or basil . The premise is always the same- onion, meat, veg, tomatoes and then simmer for at least 15 minutes.

Good luck!

I bought a bread maker from Facebook marketplace for £15, you literally just shove all the ingredients in and it does it for you. It takes a minute tops. It’s a really good way of reducing UPF as normally at least one of our meals a day is bread based.

There are a few UPF free pasta sauces - Heinz have a few. I've worked really hard to try and swap things. Ocado and M&S are probably the best supermarkets for this. I've also been using the Nomi UPF scanning app when I'm doing my shopping, which had been really useful. It recommends suggested swaps too. https://nomiapp.io

There is a good facebook group called reducing ultra processed foods (upf's) UK. It's not ultra strict and doesn't call any foods bad etc. I have found it helpful in my quest to reduce a lot of the upf's in my family's diet without being so strict that we only eat hay.