What Nadiya Hussain Really Eats In A Day

Nadiya Hussain is the funny and bubbly host of the cooking shows "Time To Eat" and "Nadiya Bakes," according to her official website. She's also a cookbook author, and the winner of Season 6 of the "Great British Bake Off." Her infectious enthusiasm for all things sweet and savory has us wondering: What does Nadiya Hussain eat at home?

Hussain recently shared with Harper's Bazaar (via YouTube) what she eats in a typical day, along with snippets of her busy life that includes testing recipes and keeping up with her kids. One revelation that surprised us right off the bat is that she's not a breakfast person. She has a strong cup of coffee — and confesses that she actually hates coffee, but drinks a cup anyway for the energy jolt. 

Late morning is when Hussain has her first meal of the day, and says her "go-to" is always bread and cheese. Specifically, she's very fond of a Welsh rarebit-like snack: sharp cheddar broiled on slices of toasted brown bread. According to a recipe on BBC Food, brown bread is made with wheat flour and sweeteners like brown sugar. Hussain also adds a thick layer of Marmite, a strongly-flavored yeast spread (via TheKitchn). We confess our mouths are watering at the thought of this salty, cheesy dish. Her bread and cheese is garnished with red onion pickled in balsamic vinegar and a drizzle of salad cream, which is similar to mayonnaise but made with cooked egg and cream (via Fuss Free Flavours). 

In the Harper's Bazaar video, Nadiya Hussain says that lunch for herself and her kids always includes eggs, and that one of her favorite dishes to make is an omelet. Hussain fills her omelets with onions, chopped cilantro, and diced chilies, and she shares another omelet ingredient that's really intriguing: crushed potato chips (or "crisps" as she calls them). She literally crushes chips in the bag and then stirs them into the beaten eggs, and says they give the omelet a frittata-like texture. Hussain serves her omelets with sliced cherry tomatoes, cheese, and pickles. "Everything I eat has always got something pickled on the side," she says, and shares that this could be anything from pickled cucumbers to onions to lime — but every meal is served with pickles. 

For dinner, Hussain's favorite and frequent meal is a simple chicken curry made with both rice and potatoes, as well as one of her favorite shortcut ingredients, crispy fried onions. She points out that one of the lengthiest parts of making a curry is caramelizing onions, which can take as much as 45 minutes. Instead, she likes to stir in a handful of store-bought fried onions and let them rehydrate in the sauce. The curry is served with a side vegetable and, of course, pickles.

Our favorite part of discovering what Nadiya Hussain eats every day is realizing that, like so many of us, she is addicted to sweets! When she tries to claim that she doesn't snack between meals, she immediately retracts it and confesses that she can't say no to sweets (i.e. candy). "I eat sweets ALL DAY. I have sweets in my pocket, I have sweets with my makeup ... under my pillow. I have sweets everywhere," she says. Her two favorite English candies are the gumdrop-like Fruit Pastilles and Percy Pig gummies. 

Candy isn't the only way that Hussain satisfies her sweet tooth. She also shares in the video her favorite sweet treat recipe for Croissant Ice Cream Pudding, which is included in her latest cookbook, "Nadiya Bakes." This is a croissant split open, spread with butter, topped with melted ice cream and chocolate chips, and then baked. You know we are dying to try this one! And yet, even though ice cream is an ingredient in this dish, Hussain says that she doesn't actually care for ice cream in its normal, frozen form. While others would put a scoop next to a slice of cake, she prefers to have her cake with clotted cream instead, which Spruce Eats says is a thickened, slightly sweet cream. Ice cream aside, we just love Nadiya Hussain's unapologetic affection for all things sugary.