The end of the day is the perfect time to sit down and relax over a good meal. Not only can supper be a sociable occasion, but in physiological terms it also enables your body to replenish its nutrient reserves to ensure that you will feel well and full of energy the next morning. The long working hours, family and other pressures that are part and parcel of modern life mean that many people don't have time to have supper until the early hours of the evening - few of us today manage to sit down to eat at 5.30pm, which was once the usual time for supper. Eating late is not a problem in itself, though; contrary to popular belief, the body's metabolic rate does not slow down overnight, so you're no more likely to put on weight if you eat later rather than earlier. The disadvantages of eating late have more to do with other physiological reactions, as well as the way in which the gut is treated. When they finally have time for supper, people who don't eat until late are often too hungry to make the best nutritional choices for their bodies. They are far more likely to grab anything that is edible from the fridge, reach for some crisps or pick up a kebab or pizza on the way home from work. Even if they manage to hold out until they are in the kitchen, they rarely have the patience and willpower to start chopping up vegetables or to make a sauce from scratch.

There are two main problems associated with eating late and inappropriately. First, if you pick at your food, eat it really quickly, or buy fast food on the way home, the foods that you have chosen will probably not be very healthy, and are more likely to contain high levels of fat and sugar and low levels of beneficial nutrients. Because they are hard for your body to digest, your gut will become irritated if you eat such foods often (especially if you eat a number of them at once and bolt them down quickly), and you will end up feeling as though you have a leaden stomach and/or will suffer from indigestion or bloating. Consuming foods that are difficult to digest late in the evening can furthermore disrupt your sleeping patterns, with the result that you will feel sluggish in the morning.

Secondly, your body will be deprived of the opportunity to restock its nutrient reserves. After all, your daily activities will have depleted its store of vitamins and minerals and will have exhausted its glycogen supplies (the major body-fuel reserve that is stored in the liver and muscles), while moving around will have used up the muscle-bound amino acids (protein 'building blocks'). If you don't replenish these reserves, you will expose your body to short-term health problems, such as a weakened immune system, a tendency to catch colds easily and lack of energy, while cancer and heart disease may rear their ugly heads in the future.

Eating well in the evening isn't difficult once you know what your body needs, as well as how to quickly combine foods that contain beneficial nutrients. Having a snack in the middle of the afternoon or eating a piece of fruit before you leave the office or collect your children from school will help to stave off feelings of hunger until supper, by which time you will still feel strong enough - both physically and mentally - to transform nutritious supper ingredients into a tasty and nourishing meal.

The most relaxing nutrient to eat in the evening is starch, which is contained in bread, rice, polenta, couscous, pasta and potatoes, among other types of food. Such starchy foods encourage your body to produce sleep-inducing hormones - perfect at the end of a stressful day - and also play an important part in replenishing your body's glycogen reserves. You should ideally serve vegetables, a salad or fruit (which provide your body with vitamins and minerals) with starchy dishes like my tomato, goat's cheese and broad bean risotto.

Delicious as they are, if you eat rice or pasta every evening, you will soon become bored with them and will start to crave different, and not necessarily nutritious, types of food. So make sure that you vary your suppers, alternating starchy meals with such protein-rich dishes as my spicy cod, cabbage leaves stuffed with spicy lamb or lentil casserole. I have kept the protein sources in all of my supper dishes lean, so you can add extra flavour with a little olive oil or butter if you want to without having to worry about your weight. Remember, too, that your evening meal doesn't have to be a large one, but could be a bowl of, say, chicken soup with dim sum or carpaccio with a little salad (buy a ready-prepared green, leafy salad and chop some tomatoes into it for a really simple side dish).

Alternatively, you could rustle up one of my lunch or breakfast dishes for supper, if you fancy it. Even if you're late home from work and don't really feel like eating, the important thing is to eat a little something in the evening - you'll feel much healthier for it the next day.

Recipes

Tomato, goat's cheese and broad bean risotto
Serves 2
Magic ingredient rice

The rice in this wheat-free, carbohydrate-rich recipe helps to induce feelings of sleepiness, making it a delicious and sustaining dish to enjoy in the evening in anticipation of a good night's sleep.

1 tbsp olive oil
50g shallots, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
350g risotto rice
1.5 litres fresh chicken or vegetable
stock, warmed
100ml dry white wine
25g butter
175g frozen broad beans, defrosted
110g creamy goat's cheese, crumbled
110g sun-dried tomatoes
50g Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place the olive oil in a large saucepan and warm it over a gentle heat. Add the shallots and garlic. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the shallots have softened and have started to become clear. Add the risotto rice and stir well to heat all of the grains. Bring the stock to boil in another saucepan and then gradually add it to the rice a cup at a time, stirring well, until the rice has absorbed each cupful and is tender, but still al dente (it shouldn't be mushy). Pour in the wine. Turn off the heat and add the butter, broad beans, goat's cheese, tomatoes and Parmesan cheese. Season to taste, using lots of freshly ground black pepper. Serve at once.

Berries with mascarpone cheese
Serves 6
Magic ingredient mascarpone

The mascarpone cheese in this dish is rich in vitamin D, a nutrient that plays an essential role in assisting calcium to build and maintain strong bones and teeth. Vitamin D in the body is mainly generated by sunlight, so this dessert will help to top up your intake if you haven't been outside lately.

450g raspberries
225g blueberries
900g strawberries, hulled and cut in half, lengthwise
225g mascarpone cheese
170ml natural yogurt
75g icing sugar

Set half of the raspberries to one side. Combine the remaining raspberries, blueberries and strawberries in a large mixing bowl. Mix the mascarpone cheese and yogurt in a small mixing bowl until smooth. In a blender, purée the reserved raspberries with the icing sugar until the berries are smooth and the sugar has dissolved. To serve, place a little raspberry sauce on to each plate and arrange a pile of berries in the centre. Top with a dollop of the mascarpone mixture.

Baby vegetables with a lime and walnut dressing
Serves 4

Magic ingredient walnut oil

This recipe is featured in the lunch section of my book, but I also think it makes a good light supper dish - either eaten on its own or as a side dish. Walnut oil contains high levels of vitamin E, which plays an important role in reducing the incidence of heart disease. For best results, steam the vegetables in a steamer which has two or three levels.

Dressing

6 tbsp walnut oil
1/2 tsp white truffle or sesame oil
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp lime juice
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Baby vegetables

225g whole baby (new) potatoes, cleaned
225g baby carrots, cleaned
110g whole baby parsnips, cleaned
225g baby courgettes, flowers attached
225g runner beans, topped and tailed
110g whole baby leeks, cleaned
110g broad beans

Make the vegetable dressing by mixing all of the dressing ingredients together (an easy way to do this is to shake them together in a screw-topped jar). Bring a large pan of water to the boil and add the potatoes to the water. When the potatoes have been boiling for 6 minutes, place a Chinese steamer over them and pop the carrots and parsnips into the bottom level, nearest the steam. After 2 more minutes, add the courgettes to the carrots and parsnips. Place the remaining vegetables in the top level of the steamer. Cook for a further 3 to 5 minutes, until all of the vegetables are cooked. Note that a colander placed over a large pan of water with a saucepan lid on top will also work as a steamer. Place the vegetables on a serving plate and drizzle the dressing over the top, to taste.

Insomnia

You may find the following nutritional tips helpful if you have trouble sleeping.

• If you have supper late, try not to eat too much, because excess food-induced indigestion can make you feel uncomfortable and far from sleepy.

• Starchy foods, such as pasta, mashed potatoes and risotto, encourage your body to produce sleep-inducing hormones, so try to base your evening meals around these ingredients.

• Drink camomile (one of the most potent floral remedies for disturbed sleeping patterns) or mint tea at night, rather than caffeine-containing drinks like tea, coffee, hot chocolate and cola-based beverages, and try not to drink such caffeine-rich drinks after midday. Because it stimulates the brain, caffeine adversely affects your ability to sleep well. The ancient Greeks used dill seeds (you will find these in health-food shops and supermarkets) to promote sleep; try infusing them in water.

• Although a little alcohol can relax you, too much will disrupt your body's sleeping patterns - you may sleep for longer but will wake up feeling far from refreshed. Excess alcohol can disrupt your sleep by causing dehydration and drops in blood-sugar level. So stick to drinking a sensible amount of alcohol, and only when your stomach is full.

• Avoid taking vitamin and mineral supplements at night (unless your doctor advises you otherwise) - some supplements stimulate brain activity and prevent you from sleeping well.

• Add a few drops of sleep-promoting herbal and floral essential oils such as basil, camomile and lavender to your bath - they will relax you wonderfully.

• Try to reduce your stress levels. Exercise often and explore other stress-relieving activities.

Noodles with red peppers, chicken and cashew nuts
Serves 4
Magic ingredient red peppers

Even though the magic ingredient is red peppers - rich in betacarotene, an antioxidant that the body converts into vitamin A, which helps to reduce the incidence of cancer, as well as promoting growth, good vision and healthy skin - combining them with the starch-rich noodles (which encourage the production of sleepy hormones) makes this a perfect healthy, soporific supper.

dash of olive oil
4 red peppers, cored, de-seeded and chopped
into quarters
8 shallots, peeled and halved
3 cloves garlic, peeled but left whole
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tsp fresh rosemary leaves, chopped
3 chicken breasts, sliced into thin strips
1 tsp olive oil
350g dried noodles
50g cashew nuts
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6. Brush a roasting tin with a little olive oil. Arrange the peppers, shallots and garlic in the tin and sprinkle with the thyme and rosemary leaves. Bake for 10 minutes. Add the chicken and bake for a further 10 minutes, basting the vegetables occasionally. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil and add the salt, olive oil and noodles. Boil for 10 minutes, or until the noodles are al dente. When the chicken is cooked and the vegetables soft and brown around the edges, remove them from the roasting tin. Drain the noodles and combine them with the chicken mixture. Stir in the cashew nuts and season with salt and pepper.

Lowering high-cholesterol levels

If your cholesterol level is high, it is vital that you watch what you eat. The following nutritional tips will help you to maintain a healthy cholesterol level.

• Eat lots of the foods that produce high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or 'good' cholesterol, such as oily fish, garlic, wholegrains, fruits and vegetables.

• Drink 2 to 3 litres of water a day. Water encourages the fibre in food to swell and stimulates the liver to produce HDL, which carries low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or 'bad' cholesterol, to the gut, from which it is excreted.

• Don't eat too many saturated animal fats. You shouldn't have to avoid them completely, just keep the quantity that you eat down and always accompany them with fibre (team cheese with wholegrain bread and water, for example). As water causes fibre to swell, the swollen fibre in turn cushions the rate and level at which your body absorbs fat.

• Ensure that your intake of antioxidant-rich foods is high. The nutrients present in prunes and other dried and fresh fruit and vegetables - including vitamin C, betacarotene, vitamin E and selenium - help to prevent LDL from being deposited in the blood vessels.

• Remember that drinking a couple of glasses of antioxidant-rich wine a day can not only encourage your body to produce HDL, but the anthrocyanins and other antioxidants that it contains can also play a part in preventing LDL from being deposited in your blood vessels.

• Include garlic in your diet; the allicin it contains inhibits the retention of LDL in the blood vessels.

Fresh fruit and yogurt layers
Serves 4
Magic ingredient yogurt

This attractive-looking dish is both easy to make and nutritious. The berries contain fibre which, in the presence of water, helps the body reduce its bad cholesterol levels and boost our supply of good high density lipoprotein. Berries also contain vitamin C, which can help prevent bad cholesterol from depositing in the blood vessels.

225g strawberries, washed and sliced
225g raspberries, washed
225g blackberries, washed
1 large pot natural Greek-style yogurt

Cover the bottom of a glass bowl with a layer of mixed fruit and then add a couple of tablespoonfuls of yogurt. Carry on building up layers of fruit and yogurt until the bowl is full, placing a single piece of fruit in the centre of the final layer of yogurt. Chill the dish in the fridge before serving.