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Hazelnuts are popular all over the world for their delightful crunch, wonderful texture and deep, resonant nuttiness, which comes to the fore especially when they’re roasted. They’re also a very pleasing shape and size, which makes them perfect for putting in the centre of homemade chocolates. They’re brilliant in all kinds of recipes, both sweet and savoury, and no chef should be without a supply in their kitchen cupboard.

Hazelnuts are sold with or without their skins. There are many health benefits of hazelnuts, and anyone eating them for these should choose the skin-on variety to reap the benefits of the nuts’ antioxidant content, which is concentrated mainly in the skin. A study in 2015 showed that compounds found in hazelnut skins lead to a decreased risk of colon cancer. It’s also been shown in research that hazelnut oil is fantastic to rub into your skin, as it moisturises, leads to an increase in collagen production, reduces wrinkles and protects against sun damage. It’s also superb in salad dressings!

Ground hazelnuts (sometimes called hazelnut flour) contain no gluten, so they’re an invaluable ingredient for gluten-free chefs, and make really excellent biscuits, cakes and bread, adding a luscious texture as well as heart-healthy nutrition and a lip-smacking taste.

If you’d like to know more about how to use hazelnuts, here are some fantastic recipes to get you started….

What is Umami, and where can I find it?

Umami is one of the five basic tastes (as well as sweet, salty, sour and bitter). It’s characterised by a pronounced ‘savoury’ taste and is found in many different foods. Humans have receptors in the taste buds lining their tongue which respond specifically to umami tastes – these were identified in 2002, but way back in 1908 a Japanese scientist called Dr. Kikunae Ikeda, a professor of physical chemistry at the University of Tokyo, had identified umami as distinct from the other basic tastes, conducting a series of experiments to isolate the building blocks of this intense savouriness.

After extracting glutamic acid from various foods, Ikeda identified glutamate as being the source of umami; we’ve all heard of monosodium glutamate – this has acquired a bad reputation, but the upshot of several years of research has suggested it’s largely harmless and can actually be of benefit, as it reduces the need for salt – and while it can enhance appetite, it also increases satiety. However, there are plenty of more natural sources of umami, so let’s take a look at some of these….

The Top 10 Berries, and Why You Should Eat Them More Often

Sometimes when we know a food is good for us, it’s still a drag to actually get it inside us. How many times has someone told you you should be eating something that looks and tastes awful? Luckily, berries hit a wonderful sweet spot: they’re gorgeous to eat, look beautiful on the plate, and have an outstandingly brilliant effect on your health too. It’s a win-win situation!

Berries have some of the highest antioxidant readings of all food, which means they’re excellent at preventing your body ageing and degrading. Their high content of flavonoids (anti-inflammatory plant pigments) means they may reduce cognitive decline by around two and a half years, according to a Harvard study. But wait, aren’t berries full of sugar? Well, yes, but they’re natural, unrefined fruit sugars which, because they’re bound up with the fibre also found in berries, won’t dangerously spike your blood sugar levels. So grab a handful of berries today – here are some of the wisest (and tastiest) choices….

Top ten Easter recipes

We have all the recipes you need to be inspired to create a lip-smackingly delicious Easter weekend, from Easter treats such as simnel cake and healthy chocolate eggs to some vegan and gluten-free takes on traditional Easter showpiece dishes.

We have everything you could wish for to create an unforgettable foodie extravaganza this Easter, so come and have a look at our top ten recipes to make your Easter truly amazing!

Valentines Day Gift Guide

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner! Start preparing now – this is a time to show your other half the full depth of your love for them, so be romantic, and be generous!

Love is a wonderful thing – it makes us happy; gives us a purpose; makes our hearts sing with joy. It has the power to exhilarate and motivate us, and it’s also been shown many times to be excellent for our health, both our physical health and also our mental health.

So get ready for the big day now with the Healthy Supplies gift guide….

Beat the January Blues – Wellness Tips from the Healthy Supplies Team

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can sometimes feel like an overwhelming challenge. Especially in winter – when the days are often grey and gloomy – it can sometimes feel so hard to muster the energy to follow a healthy eating plan, or to drag yourself to the gym. But the path to wellness doesn’t have to consist of big, grand actions! Sometimes it’s the smaller things that buoy our spirits, energise us and help us feel happier. It’s important to consider not just our bodies but also our minds. Mental health is as important as physical health, and it’s impossible to lead a happy, healthy life if you don’t look after both body and mind.

We asked the Healthy Supplies team for their favourite wellness tips – easy ones that could be incorporated into a daily lifestyle and are designed to make you feel good. So check out some of our favourite tips!

The Best Vegan Chocolate for the Festive Period

Chocolate is one of the most commonly-given and most welcomely received gifts at Christmas, and with the boom in veganism, there’s no longer any excuse for vegans to feel left out during the Yuletide choccyfest! Dark chocolate products without animal-sourced ingredients are fairly common, although many still do use ingredients such as whey or milk powder, so anyone following a vegan diet should still pay close attention to the ingredients list!

Vegan chocolate has really come on in leaps and bounds over the last decade, with lots more chocolate manufacturers creating super-tasty products without any animal component at all. It’s better for the planet, better for our furry friends, and in many cases far better for our health too, especially when manufacturers reject refined white cane sugar in favour of natural sweeteners such as stevia, xylitol or agave syrup.

So here are the top 10 products which we’d most like to unwrap on Christmas Day….

Must-Buy Products for the Best Christmas Dinner

Christmas can be a very tough time for the main household cook. Christmas dinner is perhaps the most tricky meal of the year to co-ordinate, and is unfortunately often synonymous with dry, overcooked turkey, lifeless, mushy Brussels sprouts and various other dinner table disasters. But it needn’t be that way! With a few well-chosen purchases you can provide a sumptuous spread that’ll keep everyone smiling and full of festive cheer, and at the same time considerably lighten the burden for whoever’s dishing everything up.

So we’ve put together a rather wonderful festive list (and checked it twice) showcasing ten of our favourite Christmas products which would complement any Yuletide spread brilliantly, and leave your friends and family happy and very well-fed, regardless of whether they’ve been naughty or nice!

Top Ten Brunch Recipes

Brunch is a wonderful opportunity to catch up with friends over a leisurely late-morning spread of various wonderful and tasty dishes. Unfortunately it’s common for these to be absolutely loaded with sugar, salt and saturated fats! We all love to have a foodie blowout every now and then, but there are certain steps you can take to cut down on the ingredients that spell disaster for your health and waistline while maintaining (and even boosting) the tastiness factor!

So join us as we look at ten of our most lip-smackingly brilliant healthier brunch recipes….

Cozy Autumn Dinners

It’s early evening and you’re trudging home from work through crunchy fallen leaves in the chilly autumn air…. it’s likely that summer’s light suppers of salads and crackers just aren’t going to satisfy you now the seasons have changed! There’s a rumble in your tummy telling you what’s needed is something comforting, filling and full of flavour – robust, substantial and piping hot too!

So here are ten delicious ideas for lovely meals which tick all of those boxes, and are also nutritious, based on whole foods and without lots of processed ingredients or saturated fat. These are all tried and tested recipes which we keep coming back to – perfect, autumn fare that’s not only super-tasty but easy to make and affordable too, and will fill you and your family with excellent nutrition and a healthy glow. Why not give one or two of these a go this autumn?