By making some gradual and significant changes to his diet and lifestyle, Oliver says he has seen significant improvement in his health. And has chosen to share what he has learnt in his 17th cookbook, Everyday Super Food.

“My wish is that through incredible food, that book will inspire and empower you to live the healthiest, happiest, most productive life you can,” he writes.

“Food is there to be enjoyed, shared and celebrated, and healthy, nourishing food should be colourful, delicious and fun.”

Everyday Super Food contains recipes for 30 breakfasts, 30 lunches and 30 dinners, as well as ideas for healthy snacks and drinks, with nutritional information to accompany each recipe. Here, Oliver shares his recipe for energy balls made with dates, cocoa and pumpkin seeds.

My Tasty Energy Balls

Medjool dates have the double benefit of being high in both fibre and chloride, a nutrient that helps our digestion, and we get a hit of copper from the pumpkin seeds.

Me and my nutrition team have worked hard to create these super-nutritious balanced flavour-packed balls that give us the perfect snack boost to get us through the day – enjoy two balls per snack.

Recipe and images from ‘Everyday Super Food’ by Jamie Oliver, $55, published by Penguin Random House.

Ingredients

70g pumpkin seeds
20g puffed brown rice or puffed quinoa
50g whole almonds
80g Medjool dates
1cm piece of fresh turmeric or teaspoon ground turmeric
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 heaped teaspoon quality cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ tablespoon manuka honey
1 orange

Method

Blitz 40g of the pumpkin seeds into a fine dust in a food processor, then decant onto a plate.

Place the remaining pumpkin seeds and the puffed rice or quinoa in the processor with the almonds and dates (de-stone first), then blitz until finely chopped.

Peel and finely grate in the turmeric, if using fresh, or add the ground turmeric, along with the cinnamon, cocoa powder and a pinch of sea salt. Blitz again until finely ground, then add the vanilla, honey and half the orange juice. Blitz for another 1 to 2 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides a couple of times, and adding an extra squeeze of orange juice to bind, only if needed – it takes a while for the mixture to come together, so be patient and let the processor work its magic.

With wet hands, divide into 24 and roll into balls, dropping them into the pumpkin-seed dust as you go. Shake to coat, storing them in the excess dust until needed. They’ll keep happily for up to two weeks in an airtight container.

Makes 12 portions

CALORIES: 80kcal
FAT: 5.2g
SAT FAT: 0.6g
PROTEIN: 2.7g
CARBS: 6g
SUGAR: 4.2g
FIBRE: 0.5g

Recipe and images from ‘Everyday Super Food’ by Jamie Oliver, $55, published by Penguin Random House.