Jamie Oliver – his secret retirement plan plus new healthy recipes!

Last May, Jamie Oliver turned 50 and along with it came the inevitable wake up call that he could do with losing a bit of weight, getting more sleep and generally prioritising his health. As with all his pursuits over the years, from training disadvantaged people in his restaurants to his campaign to ban unhealthy food in schools, Jamie threw himself wholeheartedly into transforming his life and now he’s back to show others how to do it. Here he tells Woman’s Day why healthy living became the subject of his new book.

Back in your Naked Chef days you taught us how to cook the fried one-pan brekkie – how many of those are you having these days, Jamie?

If I have anything that wonderfully indulgent it’s mainly on a Sunday. It’s more about balance and certainly within a day or the week there is more than enough room to have some things you truly love. There’s no need for guilt.

And what does eating healthy mean to you now?

You’ve got to find a way to fall in love with beans! It’s the holy grail. Let’s call it meat-reduced. And more oily fish, vegies, herbs.

Are you getting more sleep these days?

I have an unusual job, I’m up very early and I work fairly late. It’s a work in progress. But it was bad for a number of years, like four hours, sometimes less. Now I have the tools to fix [bad sleep] quickly. I do a version of meditating where I review the day and show gratitude for all the wonderful people in my life and the nice things I can do. I think Jools would certainly love to have a slightly easier sleep – she definitely has a racing mind. She always has a long list of jobs to do and I think there’s a little bit of neurodiversity that we’re becoming aware of as we’re [getting] older.

How is being a parent at 50?

It’s exhausting! Sports day is definitely an interesting one when you’re 50 and there are all these 27-year-olds bopping around the place. I’m five kids in – obviously you become more relaxed. But I love it.

How’s Buddy’s cooking career going?

He’s not so much into cooking, he’s into rugby. He’s very cool now! He cooks very well but passing the baton on to him is potentially not going to happen. I don’t think he wants to be a chef.

Jamie with his youngest kids, Buddy and River

Will you ever retire?

I’d like to run a restaurant. I dream of that. I want to get in a kitchen. Hopefully next to my house so I can walk to work and my vegie patch. I know that sounds romantic but that’s what I’m building now. And hopefully that’s just five years away. To feed people is such a thrill.

LEMON TAHINI CHICKEN & GRAINS

Here we’re jazzing up a handy grain packet, meaning you get big flavour, fast.

Serves 2 Total time 13 minutes 3 of your 7-a-day

A plate of food

160g tenderstem broccoli
2 x 150g free-range skinless chicken breasts
olive oil
1 x 460g jar of roasted red peppers
2 cloves of garlic
½ a bunch of basil (15g)
30g black olives, stone in
1 lemon
2 tablespoons tahini
1 x 250g packet of cooked mixed grains
1 x 400g tin of cannellini beans

1 Put a large shallow non-stick casserole pan on a high heat. Trim the broccoli, halve any thicker stalks lengthways, and dry fry while you score deeply across the chicken breasts at 1cm intervals. Spritz with olive oil, rub with sea salt and black pepper, and cook for 3 minutes on each side, or until the chicken is golden and cooked through and the broccoli is lightly charred.

2 Meanwhile, tip the peppers into a blender, juice and all, then peel and add the garlic. Add the basil, stalks and all, reserving a few nice leaves, and blitz until smooth. Squash, destone and finely chop the olives. Finely grate and reserve the lemon zest. Squeeze the juice into a bowl with the tahini, which will thicken it, then loosen with splashes of water and season to perfection.

3 Move the chicken to a board to rest with the broccoli. Pour the pepper sauce into the pan with the grains. Drain and add the beans, mix together, boil for a couple of minutes, or until reduced, then season to perfection and divide between plates. Scatter over the broccoli, slice and add the chicken, spoon over the lemon tahini sauce, then sprinkle with the olives, lemon zest and reserved basil leaves.

ENERGY 577kcal

FAT 15.4g

SAT FAT 3.3g

PROTEIN 54g

CARBS 49.9g

SUGARS 5.4g

SALT 1.1g

FIBRE 15.9g

Chopped rainbow salad

Serves 1 Total time: 11 minutes 10 of your 7-a-day

A colourful salad

80g each pomegranate seeds, yellow pepper, ripe tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, tinned chickpeas, radishes, ripe avocado,
little gem lettuce
30g dried mango
½ a bunch of mint (15g)
1 lime
extra virgin olive oil

1 Leaving the chickpeas and pomegranate seeds whole, trim, peel or deseed and finely chop all the veg and fruit, along with the dried mango and the mint leaves, then dress with the lime juice and 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Season to perfection with sea salt and black pepper, and serve. Delicious just as it is, or paired with couscous or a steaming jacket potato.

ENERGY 539kcal

FAT 26.2g

SAT FAT 4.4g

PROTEIN 12.2g

CARBS 66.6g

SUGARS 45.6g

SALT 1.2g

FIBRE 11.8g

Chickpea arrabbiata

Fast, spicy and delicious, this is the perfect midweek meal to put a smile on your face.

Serves 1 Total time: 13 minutes 2 of your 7-a-day

A plate of pasta

olive oil
1 clove of garlic
1 fresh red chilli
200g passata
½ x 400g tin of chickpeas
125g fresh lasagne sheets
30g rocket
20g Parmesan cheese
optional: extra virgin olive oil

1 Boil the kettle. Put a 28cm frying pan on a medium-high heat with ½ a tablespoon of olive oil. Peel the garlic and finely slice with the chilli, reserving a little chilli for garnish, then add to the pan and fry until lightly golden.

2 Tip in the passata, add the chickpeas and half the juice from the tin, and let it bubble for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, while you slice the lasagne sheets into 2cm strips. Roughly chop most

of the rocket, reserving

a few leaves.

3 Scatter the chopped rocket and the pasta into the pan, then pour in enough boiling kettle water to just cover the pasta – about 300ml. Let it bubble away for 4 minutes, or until the pasta has absorbed most of the water and you’ve got a nice sauce, stirring regularly. Turn the heat off and season to perfection.

4 Scatter over the reserved rocket and chilli, finely grate over the Parmesan and finish with a kiss of extra virgin olive oil, if you like.

ENERGY 411kcal

FAT 15.7g

SAT FAT 5.5g

PROTEIN 18.4g

CARBS 46.9g

SUGARS 10.4g

SALT 0.6g

FIBRE 4.4g