As an individual, I am easily swayed. 

I watched a Netflix documentary on minimalism and then spent subsequent weeks selling half my belongings on eBay. My mechanism for getting rid of things was, if it wasn’t an affirmative ‘yes’ to either of these two questions: 

  • Does it have a function and have I used it within the last 6 months? 
  • Does it make me happy? 

it was destined for the charity shop or eBay. 

I am talking about this on my food blog because I believe there is a connection between minimalism and keto. Asking these two questions over and over again, really helped me to cut the crap out of my life, as did keto.

I am guilty of over-complicating my food sometimes: going to several shops to track down one ingredient even when I have an adequate substitute at home. The other day I ran myself ragged trying to locate fenugreek seeds on the high street when I already had fenugreek leaves and ground fenugreek at home – I think we can all relate. 

Supermarkets these days are increasingly becoming places of sensory overload: every surface is crammed with more and more stuff that’s only imperceptibly different from what’s next to it. It’s overwhelming. I only realised this when keto set me free from walking down aisle upon aisle. Now, I only go to the meat, dairy and fresh fruit and veg sections, and sometimes to the spice aisle. 

Keto also freed me from this mentality that I needed multiple sides and that I needed my meat with this and that and something else. Now I know that I can just have a meal of roast meat – the only additions being olive oil and salt – and it’s absolutely delicious. 

On that note, here is a recipe for a keto side dish as sometimes I still like the faff. But it’s important to know that you can miss it out for a simpler, less stressful life. I had these dauphinoise courgettes with roasted chicken leg.

Serves 8

Ingredients

2 tbsp. olive oil
4 small courgettes (600 g)
500 ml double cream (or 250 ml of cream and 250 ml of nut milk)
1 tsp. mixed herbs
2 garlic cloves
50 g parmigiano reggiano

Special equipment: Pie dish (24 ½ cm in diameter x 4 cm deep)

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

2. Wash and thinly slice the courgettes into 5mm slices.

3. Heat up the olive oil in a large frying pan on low-medium heat. Cook out the dried herbs for a few seconds before adding the courgettes to the pan. Saute the courgettes until they have just softened and have a little colour. You don’t want to cook them until they lose their cores.

4. At the same time, crush the garlic with the blade of a knife and add them and the cream to a large saucepan on medium heat for a few minutes, until the cream starts to thicken.

5. Remove the garlic from the cream sauce and add the sauce to the courgettes. Stir through for a minute or so, making sure every courgette slice is covered.

6. Separate the courgettes from the sauce.

7. Place the courgettes in the pie dish so that they are stacked up on top of each other. Add the cream sauce over them. Then sprinkle the grated cheese on top.

8. Bake in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until the cheese is a golden brown.