What you can do with vegetables as substitutes for carbohydrate-heavy ingredients is wide and broad. As a start, cauliflower rice is the perfect introduction to grain alternatives. All you need is a food processor or even a grater to magically prepare rice-like pieces of cauliflower that can then be microwaved in a flash, pan-fried in a minute or roasted to create light, fluffy cauliflower rice with a little roasted crunch. This one ticks all the boxes – tasty, healthy as well as quick and easy. You can try out this recipe if you need a little encouragement.

Cauliflower is not the only chameleon vegetable with the ability to change its colours (or form). Zucchini pasta or noodles is another popular alternative, but you can also transform apple, beetroot, butternut pumpkin, cucumber, pear, taro root, turnip, potato and squash as a means to create an imitation pasta or noodle. Try these recipes on for size: apple noodle and prosciutto baby kale salad with roasted hazelnuts, sesame-ginger cucumber noodles with mint and edamame or beet noodles with tomatoes, fetta and bacon.

This weekend when you are browsing your local markets consider what vegetables you could easily turn into a faux carb feast.