Blue Foods to Beat Blue Monday Blues

Today is officially the most depressing day of the year – how about that for a cheery thought?! Back in 2005, Dr Cliff Arnall came up with an equation (yep, even science says today is rubbish) that proves the third Monday of January (now known as Blue Monday) is the least fun day of the year.

The doc came up with his theory for a Sky Travel campaign to get us to book holidays to beat the winter blues, but we have to admit he has a point. It’s cold, the weather’s miserable, we’ve given up on our new year’s resolutions, all of the Christmas chocolate has been eaten and summer is such a long way away. But we guess the good news is that things can only get better?!

And a Blue Monday doesn’t have to be a dull day full of moping, surely? You could dress from head to toe in shades of indigo, turquoise and sky blue to really stick it to Dr Arnall. Or listen to nothing but Blue all day long (Bubblin’ is an absolute tune). Paint your face blue. Eat nothing but blue foods – yep, we like that idea a lot.

So, on that note, here’s our ideas of the blue stuff you can eat today to make Blue Monday a little brighter.

If you start your day with a cake for breakfast, it automatically can’t be all bad. Having cake for breakfast is the mark of a winner – especially when it’s healthy too, like these blueberry oat Greek yoghurt breakfast muffins from Running with Spoons.

They’re really easy to throw together, you can easily pop them in your bag if you’re in a rush and don’t have time to eat at home in the morning and they’ll keep for a few days in a sealed container – if you can resist eating them all at once.

AND blueberries are in fact a superfood, packed with antioxidants and vitamin C, so you’ll be giving your health a boost by having cake for breakfast too. If Dr Arnell had this in his life 13 years ago, things could have been very different.

Ok, so purple isn’t blue, but it’s pretty close, right? And how many purple foods do you usually eat on a daily basis? All those Purple Ones from the Quality Street tin over Christmas don’t count. And purple broccoli is pretty mind-blowing, when until very recently we’d spent a lifetime thinking broccoli had to be green. What’s next, blue carrots? *Googles*. That’s a thing too?! *Faints*.

Anyway, purple sprouting broccoli has a totally different taste to the traditional green stuff and The Veg Space has incorporated it in a really tasty risotto that uses the grain farro instead of the usual rice. You don’t have to use farro, you could use rice, quinoa, pearl barley or even couscous – whatever will make your Blue Monday brighter.

Blue cheese is pretty divisive stuff. Some can’t get enough of it, others think it tastes like feet. We’re in the first camp and think it’s pretty amazing.

Cheer up your Blue Monday by eating it on toast, melting it on a jacket spud, putting it on crackers or grating it on your ActiFry chips. We like to think of this as the sophisticated version of post-night out cheesy chips – you can thank us later. Or try The Everyday Vegetarian UK’s recipe for blue cheese pasta bake, which is the melty, cheesy, carby goodness you need on this miserable January evening.

Traditional potato cakes are Irish and usually eaten at breakfast with melted butter. However, The Veggie Desserts has essentially redefined potato cakes, using purple potatoes (they’re a thing – goodbye beige mash, hello purple cottage pie!) and white chocolate.

These aren’t your average cupcakes, thanks to their striking colouring and unique flavouring, but they’re certainly worth a try – a baking session could be just what you need to leave you feeling more Prue (Leith) than Blue on this dreary Monday.

We’re all familiar with red velvet, but what about blue velvet? It’s basically the same, but with blue food colouring instead of red. Follow Fold in the Flour’s recipe to make these for yourself and top with the classic velvet cake icing – cream cheese frosting. So good, so moreish, so blue. Worried they look mouldy? Sounds like you’ve got it spot on.

You can of course add a few drops of blue food colouring to any dish to brighten up your food on Blue Monday, but using natural ingredients will generally be much tastier. We make an exception for the blue cupcakes though. And the blue icing sculpture of Simon Webbe, Lee Ryan, Anthony Costa and Duncan James that we’re about to attempt.