Reduce your blood pressure risk with these dinner recipe suggestions!

Monday night dinner

Black beans are a good source of magnesium and potassium. Maintaining normal body levels of these minerals is important for muscle function and relaxing the walls of blood vessels. This lowers blood pressure. This recipe also uses spices to flavour your food instead of salt, which assists in lowering blood pressure.

 

Bean Tacos

Recipe serves 2. Ingredients:

  • 1 can black beans (rinsed)

  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil

  • 1 brown onion (diced)

  • 1 can diced tomatoes

  • 1 packet taco seasoning

  • 4 iceberg lettuce leaved (diced)

  • 1 medium tomato (diced)

  • 1 avocado (mashed)

  • 1 wholemeal wrap, halved

Preparation:

  1. Heat oil in a saucepan over a medium heat.

  2. Add onion into pan and fry until it starts to brown. Add beans and tomato into the pan and half the packet of taco seasoning. You can add more if you taste it and think it needs more.

  3. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  4. Dice lettuce and mash the avocado and season with salt and pepper.

  5. To serve, spoon some of the bean mixture, some lettuce and some avocado onto a wrap, fold and enjoy!

 

Tuesday night dinner:

Plant based meals tend to have low amounts of saturated fats as they have no meat or animal products. Choosing low fat options, like reduced fat coconut milk also decreases fat intake. Saturated fat can deposit itself in your blood vessels, making them narrower and increasing blood pressure.

 

Red Chickpea Curry

Recipe Serves 4

Ingredients:

  • 1 Tbsp vegetable oil

  • 2 tbsp Red curry paste

  • 1 medium brown onion

  • 1 cup chopped eggplant

  • 1 cup chopped zucchini

  • 1 medium carrot- diced

  • 1 cup chopped cauliflower

  • 1 tin chickpeas

  • 1 tin light coconut milk

  • 1 cup brown rice

Preparation:

  1. Cook rice as per package instructions. Heat vegetable oil in a large saucepan.

  2. Add curry paste into the pan over high heat and cook until fragrant. Add onion to pan and cook until it becomes translucent.

  3. Add in eggplant, zucchini, carrot and cauliflower and cook until vegetables are soft.

  4. Add chickpeas and coconut milk and stir through.

  5. Simmer for a further 10 minutes.

  6. Serve 1.5 cups of curry over 1 cup of brown rice in a bowl.

 
 

Wednesday night dinner

This recipe uses plenty of herbs and aromatics (garlic and onions) to flavour the sauce for the pasta. Salt in our diets is one of the largest contributors to high blood pressure. Using other flavourful ingredients to make our food taste good decreases the need to add salt and therefore assisting to lower blood pressure.

 

Spaghetti bowl

Recipe Serves 2

Ingredients:

  • 1 tbsp olive oil

  • 1 cup lean beef mince

  • 2 garlic cloves

  • 2 tsp Italian herbs

  • ½ brown onion (diced)

  • 1 cup zucchini (grated)

  • 1 cup carrot (grated)

  • 1 jar Bolognese Sauce

  • 1 cup wholemeal pasta

Preparation:

  1. In a frying pan, heat oil over high heat.

  2. Add diced onion, carrot and zucchini to the pan and cook for 5 mins or until it starts to brown.

  3. Add mince, cook, stirring and break it up until mince has browned.

  4. Add Bolognese sauce, garlic and Italian herbs. Reduce to medium heat and allow sauce to simmer for 15 minutes until sauce starts to thicken.

  5. Cook pasta in a saucepan.

  6. Place 1 cup of pasta and half the sauce into a bowl and serve.

 

Thursday night dinner

Potatoes are high in potassium and magnesium. When roasted, potatoes are a nutritious source of mineral. Potassium and magnesium balance assist in relaxation of muscles and therefore blood vessels, which lowers blood pressure. Seasoning with spices instead of salt also has a blood pressure lowering effect. Fibre in the vegetables also decreases bad cholesterol into the blood stream, limiting its ability to decrease the diameter of blood vessels and decrease blood pressure.

 

Dinner: Peri Peri Chicken Drumsticks with vegetables

Recipe serves 2

Ingredients:

  • 4 chicken drumsticks

  • 3 tbsp olive oil

  • 3 tbsp Peri Peri seasoning

  • 1 large carrot (sliced)

  • ½ medium zucchini (cut into wedges)

  • 2 white potatoes

Preparation:

  1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees.

  2. Drizzle chicken with 2 tbsp olive oil.

  3. Season with Peri Peri Seasoning.

  4. Line an oven tray with baking paper.

  5. Lay the vegetables on the baking tray and drizzle with remaining oil, toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper.

  6. Place chicken on top of the vegetables.

  7. Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

 

Friday night dinner

This recipe uses herbs and aromatics to flavour the meal instead of salt. Decreasing salt intake has a large positive impact on blood pressure. Including plant-based meals within your diet decreases the amount of saturated fat you eat, which decreases the amount of opportunity bad cholesterol has to attach itself to the inside of your blood vessels and increase your blood pressure.

 

Dinner: Vegetable Frittata

Recipe Serves 2

Ingredients:

  • 3 eggs

  • ¼ cup light milk

  • ⅓ cup light shredded cheese

  • 1 tsp olive oil

  • 2 garlic cloves

  • ½ purple onion

  • ½ tsp mixed dried herbs

  • 1 ½ cups pumpkin (cut into small cubes)

  • ½ medium zucchini (sliced into small wedges)

  • 1 cup capsicum (diced)

Preparation:

  1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

  2. Dice all veggies and put them into a large bowl with olive oil, garlic, dried herbs and salt and pepper. Toss to coat.

  3. Line a baking tray with baking paper and spread on the tray. Roast in the oven for 25 minutes. Remove and decrease oven temperature to 180 degrees.

  4. Grease and line a square oven pan.

  5. Whisk eggs, milk and salt and pepper.

  6. Place the vegetables in the lined tray, pour the egg mixture over the vegetables. Sprinkle with cheese.

  7. Bake 35-40 minutes until the centre is set.

 
 
 

*In the interest of your safety, it is important to check with your GP before beginning any nutrition program. This information is intended to provide general educational information to individuals concerning nutrition, and is not tailored to your specific situation. This information is not medical advice, nor is it a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, and treatment of any disease or condition.