3 Quick High-Protein Lunches for Better Energy and Gut Health

If you want a lunch that's good for your gut, high in protein, and takes minutes to put together, these high-protein, high-fiber spreads are my go-to. Serve them on toast, spread them on wraps, or smoosh them into diversity bowls, and you'll have a healthy lunch that keeps you full and energized for hours. You might not think of a spread as a comprehensive lunch, but this lemon sardine white bean hummus is satisfying, and it's so much better than the soggy sandwiches that you find in the supermarket that are low in fiber, which is why the first ingredient we're gonna be using are white beans. We all need to eat more beans in our diet. Not only are they great for our microbes, but they're also phenomenal at keeping us satiated, satisfied. We're also gonna be using tahini, and what it is is 100% sesame, it's just ground. So you get the oils, those beautiful monounsaturated fatty acids that are anti-inflammatory, and this also has a good amount of calcium in. We want flavor in our spread, and that's why I'm using cumin. If you warm your cumin seeds and then grind them fresh, you're gonna maximize those bioactive compounds, which give you extra anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. At every opportunity, I'm always trying to introduce not only spices that have the highest antioxidant potential, but also herbs as well. Dill is gonna add a lovely fragrance. We're gonna add some lemon for flavor. If you don't have fresh lemons, don't worry about it. Just use a tad more water. I'm actually gonna do a little experiment. I'm gonna try and push all this lemon out with my hands. So you saw, I put my full energy into that. Oh, there's so much more. You gotta invest in one of these. Tiny bit of water, just to loosen it a bit. We need to season, always season. Do not be afraid of a little bit of salt. Bit of pepper, lid on. This is the fiber part of our spread. Pop this to one side. I'm gonna add a core protein. For the core protein, I'm using tinned fish. A lot of people have concerns about this because of mercury, and here is my honest advice about it. Tin is a concern because it can leach heavy metals into the flesh, and that's been demonstrated. So my top tip is to use glass jars where possible, and they're becoming a lot more readily available. Sometimes you do still have tins, and this is obviously a lot better than a processed food sandwich. For crunch and freshness, we're gonna add celery. It's gonna add more fiber, but the reason why I'm using it in this recipe is for texture. We want that satisfying crunch. In this goes. Got some extra dill. This is a really good way of using up leftover herbs that you've got in your fridge. Capers are gonna cut through the oiliness of the fish because they have that brine, that saltiness. It's why they're so popular with fish. A little bit of olive oil to bring everything together. Using the back of a fork, I'm just gonna very gently smash these sardines and bring everything together. You can see the pieces of celery that I've purposely kept whole. That's gonna give us that texture and that crunch. Core protein's done. Let's bring back our fiber-rich dip, and we're just gonna gently fold this into our sardine mixture. That's it. I don't wanna overwork it, but that's it. Grab your Tupperware, and this will keep in the fridge for at least three days. For the bread that you wanna spread your spread... Ha, ha, ha. Now you have your spread, the options for bread are multiple and so much better than just buying supermarket bread, starting with sourdough. Now, the sourdough fermentation process is a much longer than commercial bread making. Around 48 hours, they use lactic acid and wild yeasts, and what this does is it breaks down the grain even more so so you get higher availability of the nutrients within the grain. If you wanna take your bread to the next level, I would use something like rye bread. It's a much sturdier bread, and you can find options that are made with just four ingredients. But if you want top-tier bread, then you're gonna make something like the doctor's kitchen bread, which we always have in the studio. We don't have any at the moment because we ate it all. It's lowering carbohydrates, higher in healthy fats, because it's made from a mixture of seeds and psyllium husk, which binds everything together, and is a functional fiber that has been demonstrated to lower cholesterol and even improve weight control as well. But there are options that you can buy from the supermarkets these days. If I'm in a rush, I'll just spread a generous layer of this lemony sardine butterbean hummus straight into some good quality sourdough. It takes less than a minute, and it will keep me full for hours. If I've got an extra couple of minutes, I'll start with a thin layer of this spread, some wilted spinach, another layer, some sliced tomatoes, and whatever sprouts I've got to hand. I love broccoli sprouts. They're packed full of nutrition, even more so than the mature broccoli. But I'm not having fish every day, and I know a lot of you don't like to take fish to work, which is why you need to know my smashed curried chickpea recipe. It's veggie, and it's versatile. We're starting off with chickpeas. We all need tea, more legumes. Now, the trick is to smash this first. Just add a little bit of salt and use some elbow grease just to mash this down. Because if you try and do this after you've added the rest of the ingredients, it's just going to be really hard to mush together. A minute of mashing with your fork, and you've got this kind of texture. I'm going to add some red onion. Now, red onion, underrated ingredient. The sharp flavor in red onion is indicative of the sulfurous compounds that are studied for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Celery, it's going to add crunch. We're adding more fiber. It's also a source of apigenin, which is what you find in things like chamomile. To give this spread punch, we are going to be using spices. Most store-bought spreads don't have any spices, and you need spices in your diet. They're wonderful sources of these anti-inflammatory compounds. I'm using mild curry powder, which is a mixture of different warming aromatic spices, and turmeric. The golden color comes from curcuminoids. Proper Greek yogurt is full of protein and calcium. I'm going in with two tablespoons. Coriander. Just try and add as much diversity to your spread as possible. Goes. And to brighten this dish, we're going to add the juice of a lemon. Very important. You want to make sure you season. Couple of cracks of black pepper, and then just give this a good stir. This is ready. I'll pop it into some Tupperware, and it'll last three days. If I'm trying to keep my lunch super simple, I'll just add a generous layer onto rye bread, and I'm choosing rye because it's higher in protein. A bit of chopped coriander on top, and that is it. But if I've got time, and I want to take it up a notch, I'll start with a layer of the curry chickpeas, sliced roasted peppers, a few slices of smoked tofu on top, and crushed hazelnuts with some extra coriander. But if you're looking to lessen your reliance on animal-based products, you need to learn how to make this herby tofu cream cheese spread. And the champion of this recipe is tofu. Now, I know this looks like a boring white block, and it's got this reputation of being bland. It's packed with fiber and protein, and I'm convinced I can make you love it. Going to break this and pop this straight into my food processor. Tofu on its own does not have umami, and one way in which we're going to add umami is with nutritional yeast, another ingredient you should learn to love that adds cheesiness and savory notes to loads of different meals. I always have this on hand in my kitchen. Another way to pack the umami notes is miso paste. We're going to be using white miso, which is a fermented product, so it's great for gut health. I'm using garlic and onion powder. It's a quick way to add those flavors without using fresh. I'm using apple cider vinegar. You want to use one with the mother. This is unpasteurized raw, and you'll be able to see the sediment or the mother at the bottom. But we're using this for the sharpness to cut through the richness of the protein and the umami notes. Olive oil is going to loosen this mixture. A plant-based milk or regular milk if you're happy with dairy. I'm going to add some chives. Chives is what you typically find paired with cream cheese, which is why I'm using it. All right, in these go. We're going to whiz this up. You might need to stop and just scrape down your food processor a couple of times or add some extra plant milk. This is the exact texture you want. It looks like cream cheese. I'll now pop this into my Tupperware and it will last in the fridge for three days. This spread is perfect to have on its own on doctor's daily bread. Or if I've got time and I want to level it up, I'll just get some shiitake mushrooms in a hot pan with a little olive oil and salt. Cook them for a few minutes so they pick up beautiful color. Spread a generous layer of the tofu cream cheese over the toast. Pile on some of those mushrooms. Finish with some pickled onions, sesame seeds, and you have a beautiful lunch in minutes. But these spreads don't just need to be used on toast. One of my favorites is a diversity bowl. I'll throw in whatever I've got, rocket, air fried potatoes, sprouts, avocado, couple of heaps, spoonfuls of whatever spread I want, a sprinkle of mixed herbs, drizzle of olive oil, and you've got a proper lunch super quick. But if you have a little bit more time to prep your lunch in advance, I've got a simple formula for high protein lunch bowls and I'll show you those in the next video.