There's no way that a full
English breakfast could ever be healthy, or
cholesterol free. But there are a few things you can do to reduce the
overwhelming amount of fat that it would normally contain.
- Cook the bacon on a griddle or a Teflon pan with ridged bottom - that way all the fat melts and leaks away instead of ending up on your plate. Also try to use organic bacon, as it will be lower in salt.
- Grill the sausages and tomatoes and toast the bread - avoid fried bread altogether, as it's pure carbohydrate and fat with practically no nutritional value. Try to use wholemeal or granary bread - the extra fibre is good for you, and will serve to soak up some of the grease.
- Poach the egg instead of frying. Failing that, use a Teflon pan and the bare minimum of fat - preferably vegetable oil.
- Mushrooms are a real problem, because there really isn't any other satisfactory way of making them other than frying. Try using the following recipe, which uses a surprisingly small amount of oil:
- Chop a couple of handfuls of shrooms into largish chunks.
- Chop a small onion and a couple of cloves of garlic roughly.
- In a non-stick pan, heat up a teaspoon of vegetable oil. When it's good and hot, drop the onion and garlic in and fry, stirring occasionally, until the onion is glassy and just beginning to smell sweet.
- Plop in your mushrooms and stir thoroughly to make sure they are all covered in oil - this might take a couple of minutes, and is better to do steadily than vigorously.
- Lightly season the mushrooms. The salt here is the important bit - it will make the mushrooms release their juices, so in effect you're half-frying, half-poaching them. However, because of the initial thermal shock, they will be well sealed and not go all soggy.
- As for beans, most people I know can take them or leave them anyway. Most canned beans are loaded with unnecessary sugar, so if you can get organic or diabetic ones, so much the better.
It doesn't look like much, but if you follow all these instructions, you're likely to shave off as much as 1,000 calories and 25 grams of fat from your typical fry-up - not to be sneezed at.