WW - formerly WeightWatchers - reveals its recipes for comfort food (2024)

Strict diets that leave you feeling deprived are counter-productive — resulting in a spiral of yo-yo dieting, weight gain and guilt.

‘Comfort food is extremely important to us all,’ says Julia Westgarth, head of programme at WW, ‘particularly at this time of year. You need something to cheer you up after Christmas when there are no parties, gloomy weather and possibly a dry January, too.’

This is why the myWW programme ensures you can eat comfort foods while staying on track with your health goals.

As our exclusive New Year health and wellbeing series with myWW continues, what could be more sustaining than a hearty Middle Eastern lamb stew, or an indulgent bowl of rice pudding with honey and walnuts?

WW’s success is based on the solid science of the SmartPoints system, where every food is given a value to help guide you towards eating a healthier diet.

But everyone’s different when it comes to weight loss, so what works for one person’s lifestyle and food tastes may not work for another.

That’s why the new myWW programme offers three ways to get the same health and wellbeing results, leaving you free to choose which colour plan — Green, Blue or Purple — best suits you.

Just stay within your SmartPoints Budget (a daily minimum of 30 for Green, 23 for Blue and 16 for the Purple plan) and you will lose weight. A healthy rate is ½ to 2lb a week.

Use today’s mouth-watering recipes for inspiration and you could be on your way to losing half a stone by the end of this month, while settling down after a long day to a welcome plate of something delicious, nutritious and, above all, comforting.

Banana French toast bake

Prep time 20 minutes, cook time 35 minutes

Serves 12;

• Calorie-controlled cooking spray
• 12 x 35g slices of wholemeal bread, cut into triangles
• 250ml semi-skimmed milk
• 125ml maple syrup
• 6 large eggs
• 120g medium-fat soft cheese
• 4 ripe bananas
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp salt
• 3 tbsp icing sugar, to serve
• Mixed berries, to serve

Mist a 20cm x 30cm non-stick baking dish with cooking spray. Arrange the bread triangles in the dish in a single layer, ensuring they overlap.

Put the milk, maple syrup, eggs, soft cheese, 2 of the bananas, vanilla, lemon juice, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt into a blender and blitz for 1-2 minutes. Pour the mixture over the bread slices to saturate.

Cover with clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180c/fan 160c/gas 4.

Thinly slice the remaining bananas and tuck between the bread slices. Cover with kitchen foil and bake for 25 minutes.

Remove the foil and bake for a final 10 minutes. Dust over the icing sugar and serve with the mixed berries on the side.

Rice pudding with honey & walnuts

Prep time 5 minutes, cook time 30 minutes

Serves 4

• 10g low-fat spread
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 100g pudding rice
• 550ml skimmed milk
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 1 vanilla pod, split lengthways
• 10g walnuts, chopped
• 150g 0% fat natural Greek yoghurt
• 4 tsp clear honey, to serve

Melt the spread in a large, heavy-based pan over a low-medium heat. Add the sugar and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved, then add the rice.

Stir to coat, then add the milk, half the lemon zest, the bay leaf and vanilla pod.

Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 25 minutes, stirring often, until the rice is tender and all the milk is absorbed.

Meanwhile, put the walnuts in a dry frying pan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until just browned and fragrant, then remove from the heat and roughly chop.

Stir the yoghurt into the rice pudding.

Divide between 4 bowls and serve each with 1 teaspoon of honey, a scattering of the chopped walnuts and the remaining lemon zest.

One-pot mushroom & spinach pasta

Prep time 5 minutes, cook time 25 minutes

Serves 4

• Calorie-controlled cooking spray
• 1 small onion, thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 250g mushrooms, sliced
• 1½ tsp dried thyme
• 240g wholewheat fusilli
• 900ml hot vegetable stock, made with 1 stock cube
• 100g spinach
• 80g half-fat crème fraîche
• 40g vegetarian Italian-style hard cheese, grated

Mist a large, deep pan with cooking spray and fry the onion over a medium heat for 3-4 minutes until just softened.

Add the garlic and cook for a further minute, then add the mushrooms and thyme, stirring to combine.

Season to taste.

Add the fusilli to the pan and pour over the stock.

Bring to a simmer and cook for 18-20 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure the pasta doesn’t stick together.

The pasta will be tender and the stock almost completely absorbed.

Add the spinach and stir until wilted, then stir in the crème fraîche and half the cheese.

Season to taste and serve, topped with the remaining cheese.

Prawn laksa soup

Prep time 5 minutes, cook time 15 minutes

Serves 4

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 5 spring onions, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 2cm piece fresh ginger, chopped
• 1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped
• 3 tbsp laksa paste
• 150ml reduced-fat coconut milk
• 1 litre chicken stock from 1 stock cube
• 1 courgette, sliced
• 1 red pepper, sliced
• 300g raw prawns, shelled
• 100g mangetout, halved
• 100g frozen peas
• 300g ready cooked rice noodles
• Juice of 1 lime
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• Fresh coriander, to garnish

Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan and fry the spring onions, garlic, ginger and chilli for 2 minutes.

Stir in the laksa paste and fry for a further 2 minutes, then pour in the coconut milk and the stock.

Bring to a gentle simmer, then add the courgette, pepper and prawns. Cook for 4 minutes then add the mangetout, peas and rice noodles.

Simmer for 2 minutes more. Season with the lime juice and soy and fish sauces. Ladle into bowls and serve, garnished with the coriander.

Middle Eastern lamb stew

Prep time 10 minutes, cook time 30 minutes

Serves 4

• Calorie-controlled cooking spray
• 350g lean lamb leg steak, cut into 1cm pieces
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 large carrots, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp dried chilli flakes
• 200g dry red lentils, drained and rinsed

Lightly spray a large saucepan with cooking spray and heat over a high heat. Cook the lamb, stirring, for 3 minutes or until browned. Transfer to a plate.

Now fry the onion and carrot, stirring, for 5 minutes or until softened. Add the garlic, cumin and chilli and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds.

Add the lentils and 1 litre of water and bring to the boil.

Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes or until the lentils are tender and the soup has thickened.

Add the lamb and simmer for 1 minute or until heated through. Season with salt and pepper before serving.

Griddled spring onion dip

Serves 6

Prep time 20 minutes, cook time 10 minutes

• 4 WW White Wraps
• Calorie-controlled cooking spray
• 8 spring onions, trimmed
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• Grated zest and juice of ½ lemon
• 300g 0% fat natural Greek yoghurt

Preheat the oven to 200c/fan 180c/gas 6. To make the tortilla chips, mist the wraps with cooking spray, then cut into triangles.

Arrange in single layers on two baking trays lined with baking paper, then bake for 7-8 minutes, or until golden. Season to taste, then set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, mist the spring onions with cooking spray. Put a griddle pan over a medium-high heat and griddle the spring onions for 6-7 minutes until tender.

Remove from the pan, then roughly chop and set aside to cool.

Blitz the spring onions with the garlic and lemon juice in a food processor until smooth.

Stir the spring onion mixture through the yoghurt, sprinkle over the grated zest of ½ lemon, season, and serve with the tortilla chips.

Every move counts to keep weight off

The prospect of getting fit in the New Year can be daunting, particularly if you haven’t exercised for a while.

‘Instead, try to think of sitting around less and you’ll be surprised how easy it is to gradually build more activity into your daily life,’ says Julia Westgarth, WW head of programme.

‘Get up and move about when you answer your mobile phone, walk up and downstairs during TV ad breaks or take a walk at lunch time. It all adds up.’

Activity is vital to wellbeing —it can boost your chances of losing weight and keeping it off, plus help you sleep better. It also improves your mood because of the ‘feelgood’ chemicals released in your brain when you exercise.

Research shows that combining healthy eating with a more active lifestyle can help you lose 20 per cent more weight than by diet alone.

This is why exercise is a vital part of the WW programme.

In the early stages, though, it’s helpful to focus on how to make activity part of your day. Every habit starts as a single conscious action; the more you repeat it, the more it becomes second nature.

So try the following trick if you want to turn your 6pm yoga class into a regular habit.

Set a calendar alert on your phone for 5.15pm to remind you to leave on time and make sure you turn off your computer and head for the door when the alarm goes off.

After, take time to savour feeling relaxed and satisfied at having taken care of yourself. This should inspire you to tackle the class again.

Lack of time is the most cited reason for not exercising — so it makes sense to make the most of the time you have.

High-intensity activities such as running, interval training or resistance training with weights all burn more calories than walking if you want to maximise the time you have. They will also lower blood pressure and improve your metabolism.

The WW app helps you track your exercise levels. You can also earn FitPoints to boost your SmartPoint Budget from all the activity you carry out.

Above all, though, it’s important to find something you enjoy — whether it’s walking, swimming or dance classes — as you’re more likely to stick with it.

One fitness study showed that people asked to walk a mile ‘to have fun’ with friends felt less tired and in a better mood afterwards than those doing the same walk ‘for exercise’.

And the ‘fun’ walkers consumed fewer calories from drinks and desserts at lunch afterwards.

This supports the WW philosophy that life is to be enjoyed —food and exercise included.

n If you are on medication or have any health concerns, consult your GP before starting a new exercise programme.