Moroccan food is quintessentially Mediterranean and if you are lucky enough to have a Moroccan restaurant near you, such as Pasha, in West London, you are almost guaranteed to get your “five a day” of fruit and vegetables within one meal. Moroccan food is colourful, bursting with supernutrients and very tasty.

STARTERS

At Pasha the salata barba (£4.50), a beetroot, cinnamon and honey salad, tastes hugely exotic while delivering some unusual plant nutrients including the red pigments called betacyanins (also found in bougainvillea) and betaine. Found in few other foods, these compounds may help to detoxify homocysteine in our blood, which when high, like cholesterol, can trigger heart disease. Beetroots also give us salicylic acid, a relative of aspirin, which acts as an antiinflammatory in our bodies.

MAINS

Choose from a selection of tagines (stews). The Tagine Al Bahr (£18.50) and Tagine Djaj (£14.75) contain braised seafood and chicken respectively and are low in fat and rich in filling protein. The broth in the tagines contains cinnamon and various spices, which add extra antioxidants and protective supernutrients.

S’csou (couscous) dishes are well worth trying. You can choose from braised lamb shoulder (£18), or seasonal vegetables in a ginger and cinnamon broth (£13) if you are vegetarian. Couscous is a medium GI grain, which also gives us B vitamins for healthy nerves. It is worth being aware that a 150g serving of couscous, while low in fat, gives us 340 calories so it is best not to order bread with your starters.

PUDDINGS

Moroccan puddings range from the healthy fresh fruit platter with orange blossom (£9.50), with grapes, melon, orange slices and strawberries, to the baked chocolate and orange tart with roast almond ice-cream (£6.50).

AMANDA URSELL www.amandaursell.com

Pasha, 1 Gloucester Road, London SW7 www.pasha-restaurant.co.uk, 0207-589 7969

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