Laura Massaro, World Number 3 and England and European Number 1 squash player tells us her favourite recipe and talks through her daily nutrition plan.
What is your favourite recipe?
At the moment, during a training week, I am pretty addicted to salmon, so I’ve been cooking that in as many different ways as I can think of!
One of my current favourites (I think it’s out of the Jamie Oliver 30 minute meal book) is this: you get some tin foil, put the green beans on the foil then layer the salmon on top of the beans. Then spread a thin teaspoonful of pesto on top of the salmon, season with salt, pepper and lemon juice and seal the foil at the top like a little parcel and put it in the oven for 20 minutes.
I normally just have that with some rice and vegetables. It’s great because the salmon stays really moist and it’s quite quick to cook, plus it doesn’t really use a lot of ingredients and is really healthy.
Do you eat differently when training to when competing?
I try and keep my diet quite consistent but it’s not always easy when you are away in a tournament because it depends on where you are in the world and what’s available.
I’ve quite often had matches where I’ve come off court really late and there’s not much around to eat at all, so then you have to just make do with what you can find. I try to stick to white meat and maybe fish with vegetables or noodles and try and keep it as healthy as I can; and as close to what I would eat at home so that my stomach is familiar with what it’s having.
What would you eat and drink during the day?
For breakfast I tend to have porridge most mornings with maybe some blueberries and honey. That’s pretty standard, I never seem to get fed up of having porridge! Click here for a great porridge idea
For lunch I try to have some sort of rice, mainly because it keeps the meal really light. Either I buy the bags of pre-cooked plain brown rice and make a rice salad with tuna and some vegetables, or I’d heat it up and add some turkey to it.
Through the day for snacks I’d have fruit and maybe the odd energy bar depending on what training I’d done really.
I drink a lot of water through the day and I have recovery drinks and hydration drinks depending on the sort of session that I’d done. If it’s a weights session then it would definitely be more of a protein based drink, and if it’s a court session it would be a carbohydrate rehydration drink. If it’s a light long session then I’d have a plain rehydration drink.
What would be your favourite treat meal?
A home cooked meal, like a chicken and mushroom pie, something like that, particularly when it’s cold, is a real treat.
If I don’t want to go completely crazy, I would go for something like a thai green curry, which has a cream base. That is a bit of a treat if you’re out in a restaurant, but it’s not totally bad!
Jessica Whittington, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
Laura Massaro photo credit: Greg Harding
