- This is how you make
your own super healthy,
unprocessed energy bars for cycling.
And we're going to do it like a pro,
because joining us is long-time
world-tour nutritionist Nigel Mitchell.
Nigel, you're going to show us how to make
two snacks for riding, right?
Energy balls, and then the
pros favorite, rice cakes.
The recipes to which can be found
along with a whole host of others,
in our new book, the Plant-Based Cyclist.
Which is like a comprehensive guide
to successfully riding
on a plant-based diet.
And it's been written by Nigel
you'll be pleased to hear,
as opposed to one of us, basically.
Right, should we start
with the rice cakes?
- Rice cakes, great to start with,
because we have to
pre-prepare the rice cakes,
and then we take them out of the rider.
(upbeat music)
So rice cakes, as it suggests,
is basically based on rice.
- Okay.
- And what we're using here is just
a short grain pudding rice.
- Okay.
- So the rice is really good
from an energy point of view
because of it's structure.
Basically the way we digest the rice
is a really good carbohydrate provider.
Also, because there's twice as much water
than what there is rice, it
also provides fluid as well.
- Okay.
And you've got it in a water bottle.
Why have you done that?
- Well, it's a little tip that I actually
learned from the Soigneur.
Because at the races the Soigneur,
they would be making four
packs of rice cakes a day.
And they use big bags of rice,
and you've got to get the
measurements quite right.
And they found is that a bit on of rice
is exactly 500 grams, so it's 500 grams
to a liter of water.
So the simple measurement
is a bottle of rice,
two bottles of water.
- Nice.
So step one then is, we've
actually got to cook our rice.
One part rice, two parts water.
You can do it on a hob, but
we're going to use a rice cooker.
- Yeah, so rice cookers, it's
the thing that I'd recommend.
So if you've not got a rice cooker,
put it on your Christmas
list or your birthday list.
They're really good, you
can use them for everything.
Normally a pro tour team will have
at least six rice cookers.
- No.
- Yeah.
You can't survive without
a rice cooker now.
So they'll have two on the truck,
and they'll have at least one,
maybe even two on the bus.
So rice cookers are absolutely
essential piece of kit.
And you can get them as
cheap as like £15, £16,
you don't have to have super fancy one.
- Okay.
- So yeah, the rice has got to be cooked.
And the great thing with this is,
everything goes into the rice cooker.
So technically this is so easy.
(intense music)
Okay, so we put the rice and the water in,
and then we need to add the
rest of the ingredients.
And we need something that's going to help
hold the rice together.
So for the plant-based version
I'm using creamed coconut.
And this is an ideal pack
size, so this is 200 grams.
These are a standard
pack of creamed coconut.
And part of the idea
with all these recipes
is that the ingredients
should be available
in your local stores.
We do find though, that sometimes
on the continent they
can be quite expensive,
where in the UK these are
really quite inexpensive.
So 200 gram block of creamed
coconut just goes in,
we don't need to do anything
with it, it just goes in there.
- Okay.
And what's the nutritional
profile of creamed coconut like?
In my head it's quite a fatty ingredient,
but not a bad thing?
- Absolutely, that's one of
the reasons why we use coconut,
even in the non-plant based
version we put coconut oil in.
And this is because coconut is really high
in what we call MCTs,
medium chain triglycerides.
So these are shorter chains of fat
that are very easy to digest.
So they get absorbed very
quickly, and it can be used
as a fuel while you're
doing endurance exercise.
MCTs have been used for years
during endurance exercise.
So actually the creamed coconut
has a really good nutritional reason
to go in with the rice cakes as well.
- Okay.
Now are MCTs classed as
saturated fats, then?
- Yeah, so when we look at something
like the creamed coconut, the
MCTs would be a saturated fat.
And that means they don't
have the double bonds.
But that doesn't necessarily mean
that it's an unhealthy thing.
Recent research has actually
shown that coconut oil
is one of the healthier
fats that we can have.
- Okay.
If you were having saturated
fat from animal products,
it's kind of a bad thing, right?
But actually, a plant based saturated fat,
not a bad thing?
- Well there's a lot of new thinking
around all of the fats and
how the fats work in the body.
So it's not quite as simple
as just that good and bad.
A lot more of it is about how
the fats might be processed.
So are we looking at some
of the hydrogenated fats.
So things like, there are
natural saturated fats,
which is the coconut oil,
is really looked at now
as being part of a healthy diet.
So the next step is just for me
to put the creamed coconut in.
And the next ingredient
that I'm going to put in is,
we've got about 30 grams of sugar,
and this is just normal sugar,
just normal white sugar.
- Okay, and is that for
flavor, I mean for sweetness,
or is it for energy as well?
- So basically it's for both.
So what we're doing is
we're getting a nice profile
of the energy, the type of carbohydrate
that we've got within this.
So the sugar is a little bit of a faster
energy delivery to the body.
When we exercise, we're exercising out,
we're using carbohydrates all of the time,
the muscle and the brain.
But it's really important
for that sweetness as well,
because without it the rice cakes
are pretty, sort of bland.
So adding the sugar gives it
that little bit of sweetness,
but it's also a great
energy source as well.
(upbeat music)
The next energy ingredient
we're using is coconut oil.
And we use coconut oil in both
the plant based and non-plant based.
As I've said before coconut itself,
the fats and that, is a really good fat
for when we're doing endurance exercise.
- What's the difference between
creamed coconut and coconut oil?
- Well actually the creamed coconut
contains coconut oil as
well, I'm just wanting
to add a little bit extra.
So I'm adding another 20
grams of coconut oil to this.
So we're getting in total
about 80 grams worth
of coconut oil in the whole mixture.
- So this is for more energy.
- This is for more of the
coconut oil energy within this.
So this would be a really good rice cake
for doing five six hours type
of riding, type of training.
- Okay.
- So I'm just going to add that to it.
(upbeat music)
- And one final ingredient
then, so vanilla bean paste.
- Yeah, so we're using some vanilla,
this is purely for flavoring.
So this is quite a posh one I'm using,
some vanilla bean paste with it.
- That's how we roll.
(laughs)
- Again, the Soigneurs will use
different things for flavoring.
Some of them might use some
cinnamon or something like that,
so you can put different
flavorings in with it.
Again, the Soigneur's
will sometimes mix it up
a little bit to try and
keep the riders happy,
just bring some alternatives.
One of the really popular
ones is to put things
like Oreo biscuits in with the rice cakes.
The riders really like that.
- And what about, like
dried fruit or other nuts?
Could you put peanut butter on?
- Absolutely, so you can put
nut butters in with these.
It's not something that I
would normally recommend
for racing because when you
put a lot of nut butters in,
it really slows down
the digestion with it.
- So it's going to sit more
heavily on your stomach.
- It sits more heavily.
But that's not necessarily a bad thing.
If you were doing a five or six hour ride
then that can be quite
good as well nutritionally,
and it can add really good flavors to it.
- So the beauty of these then is that,
actually you can tailor the ingredients
depending on the ride
you're going to be doing.
So you've almost got a
kind of energy gel type,
- Yes.
- Fast absorbed, low residue one,
or you can something
where you've got long,
steady miles, where you can fill it full
of all sorts of funky ingredients.
- Yeah.
One of the ones that works
really nice is apricots.
So you put apricot in it,
it's almost like having jam.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, there's lots of different sorts
of things you can add to it.
But one of the things we
always do when we're at a race
is just make sure there's a
very plain and simple one.
Because a lot of the riders just want
the plain, simple rice
cakes, and some of them
want something a bit fancier.
I'm just going to put a small spoon
of the vanilla bean paste in there.
(upbeat music)
- Now it smells really good Nigel,
but it doesn't look particularly
great at the moment.
Are we going to give it
a cheeky little stir?
- Yeah, so we just give it a little stir
while it's in there, we don't
have to go too much with it.
- So it doesn't matter that
the coconuts in big plops.
- No, not really.
You can break it up a little
but if you want before hand.
But once it's cooked that's
when you really give it
a really, really, really good mix,
and that helps to bind
everything together.
- Do we need to stir it half way through?
- No, not at all.
So this is a mistake that people make
when they're cooking rice.
- So this is no risotto.
- No, this is no risotto.
What we do is, we close
the lid, we switch it on
and the rice cooker does it's magic.
And once it's cooked it switches
off, it's as easy as that.
- Okay.
And if we're doing it on a
hob, same principle applies.
Stick a lid on, low heat,
keep your fingers crossed?
- Yeah, so the way that you
cook rice on the hob there is,
you put it on medium to low heat.
And once the rice is
cooking, what you don't want
to be doing is taking
the lid off all the time
because you're releasing the steam.
So what you want to do is,
when the rice is cooking well
you can spin the lid, because the steam
will just lift the lid that little bit.
So you can spin it, and
that's when you know
the rice is cooking.
And then once the rice
has actually absorbed
all of the water, then
it won't spin anymore.
So once you're in that position
where you can lift the lid with the steam
you switch it to a lower heat and you just
let it sit there a little bit.
- Cooking hacks with Nigel.
Who knew?
- This is why I use a rice cooker,
because you just never
get it wrong with it.
But whereas you cook it on the hob,
sometimes you can get it wrong.
- Okay.
- So we've closed the lid
and we just switch it on.
So this is quite a
complicated rice cooker,
but there you go, that's it.
- That's complicated?
So you pressed it twice?
- So the simple ones
is only, you just press
the button down once and that's it.
- I think even I can manage
to press the button twice,
that does seem quite straightforward.
- And then we just leave this,
it takes about 20, 30
minutes for it to cook.
Once it's cooked it will beep,
and then it just goes on to keeping warm.
So then we just stir everything,
and then we put in the
next step of the process.
- Ah, so that's.
Right, so I was thinking you've got globs
of like coconut cream or whatever,
but actually you can stir
it at the end when it's all melted,
and then that's when we mix it up.
- Okay, yeah.
- I'll tell you what, my
stomach's rumbling already.
I can't believe we have to wait 30 minutes
and then stick it in the fridge.
- Okay.
- Can we make some energy
balls whilst we wait?
- We'll do that.
(upbeat music)
- Right then Nigel, snack
number two, energy balls.
Why balls?
- Why balls?
Well, basically we can
make them into balls
or we can make them into little fingers,
it really doesn't matter.
It's just what's going to
fit easy into the pockets,
it's easy to mold them.
- And this looks very
different to our rice cakes.
So oats, is a primary source
of carbs, or dates here?
- Well the dates, well both dates and oats
provide us with carbs.
Little bit different type of carbs
that you get in oats,
than what you do to dates.
But basically they're both
really good carbohydrate sources.
And we're mixing different carbohydrates,
we've also got some chia seeds.
So the chia seeds are there to add
all the nutrients in
their, so it's really good
in some of the micronutrients.
And it's also really good
with the healthy fats as well.
And then we use some agave nectar
to help bang it all together.
And agave nectar comes from cactus,
and again it's basically
pure carbohydrate.
So we put it all into the food processor,
we give it a good whirl,
then we take it out
and we just mold into
the shapes that we want.
- So no cooking in this instance,
we literally just wang our ingredients
in the food processor, give it a blitz,
and then squash them.
- Absolutely.
Some of the other
ingredients we can put in
with it if we want are
things like pistachio nuts
which will give us more protein,
we can add some of the vegetable protein
within that as well.
So this is a mixed vegetable protein
with pea, oat protein,
different protein sources
in there that gives some flavor,
so we can add that to it as well.
- Why would you want protein on the bike?
- So for some people,
depending on what type
of event you're doing.
So this is much more of a long
distance type of snack food.
So it would be great with
some of the auto endurance
type of events, it'd be really
good for a long sportif,
or going out for a long
ride at the weekend.
And so by adding some
of the protein in their
you're just making it
more of a complete food.
- Okay.
Whereas for someone doing a race
this might sit a bit more
heavy on your stomach,
it might take long to digest.
- You wouldn't really
use this in a road race,
or a crit or anything like that.
This is really more of your slower,
much more endurance, harder type of work.
Also, they're really good snacks to have
if you're driving and you're
traveling around as well.
- Cool, all right then.
Should we do some processing?
- Okay, so what we're going
to do for this particular one,
we've got 100 grams of
oats, we've got 250 grams
of chopped dates, we've got
50 grams of the chia seeds.
And then I put those in
and start processing it,
and depending on the
consistency and the texture
will really depend on how much
of the agave nectar I add.
It's usually about 50
grams of the agave nectar.
And again I'll say, if
I want to try the nuts,
we can add the nuts as
well, we can add things
like the cacao nibs as well,
things like this if we just
want to add some extra bits.
We just put it all in.
- Let's blend.
(upbeat music)
Now, Nigel you were telling
that you've got to be
a little bit careful about
the motor in your blender,
because it gets quite sticky, right?
- Yeah.
- So you could kind of
blow up your blender,
unless you've got.
- So look, if you haven't
got a really powerful
blender like this, then what you'd want
to do is use less mix.
So you could use something, I've even used
hand held blenders for these.
But you need to just use
less mixture with it,
because otherwise it
can burn out the motor.
These are a really powerful motor,
but most food processors
will deal with it.
But just scale down the
mix that you have there.
- Okay.
So if you've got a top of
the range carbon aero bike,
you'll probably have a
blender like this one.
- This is, this is the
Pinarello of kitchen kit.
(laughs)
- Nice.
Right then, tray for our balls.
- So we're going to put
our balls in the tray.
What I'm going to do is just
sprinkle some oats in there.
You can actually use
desiccated coconut for this.
And then what we do is,
we just put the mixture in
and we've just got to make it into balls
or finger shapes, whatever we want.
So what we're wanting with this, per ball,
we're wanting something of
about that sort of size.
That's about 30 grams, and
that's going to give us
about 20 grams worth of carbohydrates.
- Right.
- Are you going to do this?
- I'm going to do the honors, yeah.
- Right. Whoa, whoa, whoa,
it's just going to stick all over you.
So we'll just use our little finger,
we'll just put it in there, coat it,
and just make it into a little ball.
- Right.
More finesse required.
- I would have put the
oats on first, but anyway.
(upbeat music)
- Okay.
They look pretty good
Nigel, can I have one now?
- You can have one now,
but they'd be better
when they've been sat for about an hour,
or two hours in the fridge.
Because the chia seeds will
swell up with the fluid in there
so they're just a little bit easier to eat
and it's a nicer texture.
But you can have one.
- I'll have one now, and
then I'll have afterwards.
And I'll be able to let
you know the difference.
How about that?
- Yeah, absolutely.
And obviously, not stating the obvious.
Hygiene is really important,
so we really washed his hands
thoroughly before we were doing this.
And if I were making these for the people,
then I'd wear catering gloves as well.
- Right.
- Just to be super safe.
- That is really good, isn't it?
- Yeah.
- You got a lot of date
flavor coming through,
which is a very good thing.
A little bit of crunch from
the chia seeds in there.
- That's right.
- That's good, that's really good.
- Okay, so let's pop 'em in the fridge.
- Okay.
(low-key music)
- So the rice cooker's finished.
- Yeah.
- So I'm going to lift the lid.
And then I'm going to give it a stir,
make sure everything's
mixed really well in.
And I'll give it a little taste.
If it's not sweet enough,
I'll just add a little
bit more agave nectar.
- Okay.
- So the rice cooker's doing its magic.
It's all cooked really well
and I just mix it and it actually,
the texture of it becomes
a little bit like putty.
- It looks a little bit
like baby food, Nigel.
- Yeah.
- So I can see why it's
appropriate for cyclist,
professional cyclists particularly.
- Absolutely.
So they don't have to chew anything.
So you can see everything's
mixed really well in there.
That is absolutely perfect texture.
- Right.
- So I'll just give it a little taste.
Now for me, that's sweet enough.
- Okay.
- But for some of the pros,
they'd want it sweeter.
- Right.
- They're not having it,
this is how we love it.
(laughter)
Now you just get that
bit of coconut with it,
so I'll just give you.
- Yes please.
- That is actually really,
really, really good.
- Okay.
- So what we do, you're wondering what
the freezer bags were for weren't you?
- That is really good.
- So what we do is,
we put all of the mixture
into a freezer bag.
- Okay.
- We don't freeze it.
But we do that, just flatten it
and then as it cools, it sets.
So I got the idea from
using the freezer bag
from Mario Pafundi who was a
Soigneur with British Cycling
and then at Team Sky.
Because I used to wrap it in cling film
and he said, no Nige, you
can just use a freeze bag.
- Well done Mario, good hack that.
- Good Mario.
So we just put it all
into the freezer bag.
So what I'm going to do now,
is just flatten it in the bag.
So I zip it up, not right to the end
so that some of the air,
the air can come out.
- Yep.
- So we just squash it.
- And you got to squish
it together quite tightly
so that it pops together.
- No, no it's amazing
how well it compacts.
Now this bag, oh there we
are, it zipped together.
And you see.
- That's pretty cool there.
- That's pretty much it.
And in fact because it's hot,
as it cools obviously,
it expands when it's hot
so when cools there contracts
and in fact, that packs it as well.
- So how long would that last?
Because that's a really important
thing with rice isn't it?
- Yeah, so basically this will be
good for two or three days.
- In the fridge.
- In the fridge.
It doesn't freeze, if you
freeze it, it dries out.
- Okay.
- So people do try freezing
rice cakes, that never works.
What I recommend usually
for people making at home,
is doing half a mix.
- Okay.
- And then doing half a
mix will last, you know,
two or three days, a couple of days rides,
snacks and things like that
and it's ready for you.
- Okay and what happens
if you make your rice cake
and then you have to travel to an event,
for example, overnight.
So it's just in your kit bag wrapped up,
is that going to be all
right, away from a fridge?
- Yeah, yeah, so if you wrap it
and then you can put it in a cool bag
with like an ice block and
that will keep it cool.
- All right then, so our rice cakes
have come out of the fridge, whoa.
- Yeah, so like I said,
it got pretty solid,
- Yeah.
- It really set, so you can see there
that that is now like, I don't
want to use the word a brick
because it's not that solid.
But it really comes out from that sort of
sloppy, rice-y mixture, to
something that's quite solid.
So and you can see that in effect
because it were hot before,
as it's cooled down then in affect,
it's vacuum packed and shrunk wrap.
- Yeah, that's quality isn't it?
- So again, and because
everything were piping hot
when it came out then
from a bugs point of view,
there's no bugs going in there,
so from a hygiene perspective it's great.
So what I do now, is I just
slice open the polythene
and then this would get
cut into about 20 pieces.
- Okay.
- And then we'd wrap it.
And we wrap it, doing it as if we were
wrapping it for the pros.
- Okay, cool.
- And so we got the special foil there.
So it's baking foil on
one side, aluminum foil
and on the other it's parchment.
- Nice.
- So this you can buy it in this country.
You can get it in the supermarket
and it's made by Bake Foil on rolls.
- Okay.
- And I'm sure it's available
internationally as well.
- Yeah, alright.
- Okay, so just going to slice this open.
(upbeat music)
So all we need to do
is wrap the rice cakes.
- I'm going to stop you there Nigel.
- Sure.
- Do we need to eat them first?
- (laughter)
- We can't wrap it just
in case it's revolting,
so just should we have a small.
- Yeah, have a try of one Simon.
- Thanks, nice, thought you'd never ask.
- (laughs)
- Cheers.
- This should be really good.
Should always taste it anyway.
- They're really good, all right.
- Yeah.
- It's kind of un challenging in the sense
that the ingredients are really simple.
But it's just really nice and quite
- But it's quite fresh
as well in the mouth.
And it's not difficult to eat.
- Yeah it's not.
I cannot imagine, there would be many
nicer things coming out your back pocket
of your jersey mid-ride.
Especially, like you're talking earlier
about getting flat out
in a race or something.
That's super good.
- Well the whole idea with it is,
you can take it out of your pocket,
unwrap it with one hand and eat it.
Because what you're trying to
do when the guys are racing,
is reduce the risk of getting
any bugs in the mouth.
Because you got to remember
hands on the handlebars
as you're going through puddles,
you're going through all
sorts of muck and that.
So when you're wanting your race food,
you don't want it really touched by hands.
- Yeah.
- So that's the whole idea with it.
So that's why this one
here is wrap it like there
so they can just take it out,
unwrap it with one hand if they've got to.
And then eat it in the paper.
- Okay, you better show
us how to wrap it then
now I've made you give me some.
- So the Soigneur's would
probably laugh at my wrapping
because they are so professional with it.
But the whole idea is
that you're wrapping it
like a small parcel.
So we just, not that my Christmas presents
are wrapped that well.
So we just put it in there, roll it over.
You always fold over the edge like that.
- Okay.
- And the reason for that,
is that you can write on it
what it is.
- Okay.
- So for this, they'd write, rice.
- Simple.
- If it were a panini, then they'd write.
- Let me guess, panini.
- Panini.
- Yeah, okay.
- And if there's different flavors,
it might be like, jam panini.
- I like it, logic.
- There we go.
- Brilliant, thank you very much.
So how many grams of carbs are in this?
Because that's a really important thing
when you're out riding, isn't it,
to kind of keep track of your intake.
- So we try and work on
a bit, the modular system
so every bit of race
food is sort of between
about 25 grams worth of carbs.
So there's about 20 to 25
grams of carbs in that.
- So if you're only fueling on rice cakes,
you might have three of these an hour.
- Absolutely.
- Yeah.
- So I've worked with
people riding grand tours
and all that eaten in the
races has been rice cakes,
a few gels and a few energy drinks.
- Wow.
- And that's what they've
eaten in the grand tours
because the thing that we got to remember
with the rice cake is, is
that it is very low residue.
So basically all of it
gets digested and absorbed.
So it's not creating fecal mass.
- Excellent.
Now what about our energy balls.
And there, (clears throat),
slightly fewer of these.
- A few less.
- Then there were when we first made them.
And that may or may not be my fault.
- (laughs)
- But do they get wrapped
in much the same way?
- Yeah, so you wrap them
very much the same way.
These have firmed up quite nice.
They're still quite soft
so maybe a little bit more,
a bit too much agave nectar.
But when you get used to making them
you just sort of get used to the mixtures.
And so we just do, exactly the same thing.
So we just wrap that up.
And we'd write on this, balls.
- Would yeah?
(laughter)
Well I mean, I suppose
that is what they are.
Yeah, cool thanks.
And again, are we talking
20 grams of carbs in there?
- So for these it will be about 30 grams,
they're a little bit heavier.
- Really, okay.
So 20 grams in there,
30 grams in there, okay.
- But this I going to be a much slower
release type of carbohydrate.
But this isn't one where we're going
full gas as we said before.
This is a much longer,
harder sort of steady day.
- Okay, fantastic.
Nigel, that is absolutely awesome.
Not only are they two great
tasting energy bars, fuel.
They're also super easy aren't they?
- Yeah.
- Again, anyone, anyone can make those.
- Yeah, I mean the whole
idea with all of this for me
is to keep it as simple as possible.
So sometimes people make
recipes a little bit complicated
if you got up this fancy
or something like that.
Keep it really simple
so anybody can do it.
- And you're more likely
to actually then do it
and do it regularly as well.
- And everything we've made is suitable
for the whole of the family.
- Fantastic.
Cool, well there we go.
As we mentioned at the beginning,
these recipes come from our new book,
written by Nigel, Plant-Based Cyclist
and it is available now in the GCN shops.
So do make sure you go
and take a look at that.
It's not just recipes,
there's a whole load
of information in there, isn't there.
About how you fuel correctly,
and recover correctly.
Am I right?
- Absolutely.
So it's got everything you need to know
if you're wanting to
follow plant-based diet
and be the best cyclist you can be.
- That's so cool.
Right, we have more recipes
with Nigel on the channel.
So if you want to watch one,
you can through to it by
clicking on the screen now.
Otherwise, I supposed we better
go for a bike ride Nigel.
- Yeah.
- Should we do it?
- Let's get out.
