When life gets busy, cookbook author Emma Petersen knows how hard it can be to get a healthy balance with food.
After studying history at Leeds, where she started a food blog, Petersen, now 29, took a law conversion course and won a two-year training contract with a city law firm. “Those sort of courses are like gold dust, and it was always my plan to be a lawyer, earn loads of money and retire early,” she says.
But achieving that six-figure salary required sacrifices. Fitness fan Petersen, who has completed Ironman Triathlons, says: “Suddenly I had no time to cook, was living off Deliveroo, and didn’t have time to train. I started to get depressed.”
The job itself was manageable, but the truth was Petersen couldn’t let her “social media baby” go. “I burnt out because I was juggling being a lawyer with a social media influencer and ended up doing both badly. So I quit the day I qualified.”
Now, Petersen has 813,000 followers on her Instagram account, and she’s following up her Sunday Times bestselling debut cookbook (2025’s Healthyish) with her second offering: Healthyish High Protein. It’s all about hitting your daily protein and fibre targets naturally with easy meal preps and nutrient counts.
She suggests the current craze for adding protein to everyday foods isn’t always necessary, saying: “I’m not anti-protein powder but we should just cook properly. There’s protein in everything from eggs, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, lentils and tofu… to meat, fish and dairy.” Petersen adds that her recipes use “everyday ingredients in clever ways”, making for a “more natural way” to add protein to your diet.
She points out everyone benefits from more protein and fibre, whether they train or not. “Protein helps repair and rebuild muscles and cells, and fibre slows digestion and helps you feel fuller,” she explains.
Londoner Petersen, who has just moved to the countryside with her fiance Matthew and is in the process of renovating an 170-year-old cottage, shares her top tips on how to make healthy food exciting…
open image in gallery1. Max out on more
We’ve been taught that eating healthily means eating less – less carbs, less fat, less calories, less sugar. But Petersen says: “A more mentally healthy way would be to add to it to make it more balanced.
“If you have a slice of toast with a smear of butter on it, you’ll be hungry an hour later. But a slice of toast with chia jam and peanut butter gives you healthy fats and carbs.
“It’s not about taking away – it’s adding things that make it a well-rounded meal.”
2. Build your breakfast
Petersen makes her own granola every week. “My recipe for vanilla cardamom and apricot granola can be substituted with whatever store cupboard ingredients you have. No apricots? Use raisins.”
And she explains how easy it is to get your daily nutrition requirement. “The granola has seven grams of protein, and with yogurt and other bits, you’ve got a high protein breakfast.
“It also has five grams of fibre – a fifth of your daily intake – and that’s before adding fresh fruit.”
3. Get stuffed at lunch
Petersen is all about easy lunches, particularly sandwiches and pitas you can stuff with an array of fillings.
open image in galleryHer favourite filling – and a recipe that features in her latest cookbook, is “a chicken salad with yummy pickles and dill, which are all chopped together so it’s spoonable. You can make a big bowl of the filling and keep it in the fridge.
“And if you want to make your own carbs from scratch, I have a two-ingredient bagel recipe – just yogurt and self-raising flour.”
4. Make healthy food tasty
As a massive lifelong foodie, Petersen is on a mission to make healthy food taste good.
“No one’s gonna get excited about a plate of plain steamed vegetables,” she says. “But if you roast them until they’re crispy and then add seasoning, feta and something crunchy like in my cookbook, you’ll eat the whole tray!”
5. Leave room for the ‘ish’
Not everything we eat needs to be nutritionally perfect. “If you’re craving pasta – eat pasta. Don’t try and feed yourself a salad,” says Petersen. She suggests making your pasta a bit more balanced and satisfying.
”Start with what you love rather than overhauling the way that you eat, and then build it from there. Try to be healthy but leave room for the ‘ish’.”
6. Guilt’s out, happy’s in
Everything in moderation, especially moderation. Petersen believes “it’s just about finding that middle ground between food that makes you feel good, and food that makes you feel good eating it”.
She says, “Don’t feel guilty and think, ‘Oh I need to start again tomorrow.’ If you had a Mars Bar and it made you happy – success. It might not have fuelled you, but you must have enjoyable things.”
And she takes her own advice. “Hey, look, what did we do on our first night in the cottage? Did I cook from scratch? No, I got a Chinese takeaway!”
Brothy Thai chicken and rice
open image in gallery“This is what I make when I want comfort food that still feels bright and fresh,” says Petersen. “The broth is gingery and fragrant, and the rice soaks up every bit of that flavour. A simple, 30-minute high-protein meal that never fails to hit the spot.”
Serves: 2
Prep time: 10 minutes | Cook time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 tbsp Thai red curry paste
1 garlic clove, minced
2.5cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
300ml chicken stock
100ml oat or soy milk
1 tsp soy sauce (GF: tamari) or ½ tsp fish sauce
1 x 250g pouch cooked jasmine rice
¼ red onion, thinly sliced
1 red chilli, thinly sliced
Handful of fresh coriander
1 tbsp cashews, chopped
Salt and pepper
Olive oil, for cooking
Lime wedges, to serve
Method:
1. Pat the chicken thighs dry with kitchen paper/paper towel, then season with salt and pepper.
2. Heat a drizzle of oil in a deep frying pan/skillet or shallow casserole dish over medium–high heat. Add the chicken and cook for 4-5 minutes on each side until golden and cooked through. Remove from the pan and set aside.
3. Reduce the heat to medium and add a touch more oil if needed, then stir in the curry paste, garlic and ginger. Cook for 1 minute until fragrant, then pour in the stock, oat milk and soy or fish sauce. Stir to combine and let it simmer gently for 5 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, microwave the rice according to the packet instructions. Slice the chicken into strips.
5. Spoon the rice into bowls, top with the sliced chicken and ladle the fragrant broth over the top. Finish with the red onion, chilli, coriander and cashews, and serve with lime wedges for squeezing over.
Tofu doner
open image in gallery“Some nights call for a bit of comfort, and this take on a doner kebab hits all the right spots – albeit in a more healthyish way,” explains Petersen. “The thin, crisped ribbons give you that chewy, meaty texture, while the fresh salad and garlicky yogurt sauce pull it all together. Proof that the best fakeaway nights can absolutely be plant-powered.”
Serves: 2
Prep time: 15 minutes | Cook time: 15-20 minutes
Ingredients:
Baking sheet, lined
½ red onion, finely diced
2 salad tomatoes, finely diced
¼ small cucumber, finely diced
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint
2 flatbreads (GF: gluten-free flatbreads)
Salt and pepper
Lemon wedges, to serve
For the doner ‘meat’:
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp tomato puree/paste
Juice of 1 lemon
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp onion granules
½ tsp cayenne pepper
225g extra-firm smoked tofu, pressed
For the garlic sauce:
100g thick 0-5% fat yogurt (DF/VE: soy yogurt)
1 garlic clove, minced
Juice of ½ lemon
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 220C fan/240C/475F/gas mark 9.
2. To make the doner ‘meat’, whisk together the olive oil, tomato puree, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, smoked paprika, onion granules and cayenne pepper in a large bowl. Season generously with salt and pepper. Using a potato peeler or mandoline, shave the tofu into thin ribbons. Add to the bowl and toss gently to coat.
3. Spread the seasoned tofu out on the lined baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until slightly crisp and curling at the edges.
4. Meanwhile, combine the red onion, tomatoes, cucumber, parsley and mint in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
5. For the garlic sauce, stir together the yogurt, garlic and lemon juice in a small bowl. Season to taste.
6. To assemble, warm your flatbreads (optional, but recommended). Spread with garlic sauce, then layer on the salad and the crispy tofu ‘doner’. Drizzle with more sauce and add a wedge of lemon on the side, if you like.
Matcha and strawberry chia pudding
open image in gallery“I love this flavour combination for breakfast, especially as you get a subtle caffeine boost from the earthy matcha to kick-start the day,” enthuses Petersen. “If you’re anti-chia (it’s okay, I get it!), try blending the chia seeds with the milk before chilling; it gives a smoother, more pudding-like texture that might just win you over.”
Serves: 1
Prep time: 5 minutes | Chill time: 4 hours or overnight
Ingredients;
80ml milk of choice
150g fat-free thick yogurt (DF/VE: soy yogurt)
1 tbsp maple syrup, plus extra if you like it sweeter
¼ tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp matcha powder
20g chia seeds
To serve:
2-3 strawberries, hulled and finely diced granola (GF: gluten-free granola)
Method:
1. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, yogurt, maple syrup, vanilla extract and matcha powder until smooth and no lumps remain. Stir in the chia seeds and mix well.
2. Pour the mixture into an airtight jar or container, then seal and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight, until thickened.
3. When ready to serve, give the pudding a quick stir and top with fresh strawberries and a handful of granola. You can serve with an extra dollop of yogurt too, if you like.
Future you: Cool and place in an airtight container, storing in the fridge for up to 3 days.
‘Healthyish High Protein’ by Emma Petersen (Pavilion, £22).