What Meghan Markle actually eats in a day
The Suits star turned Duchess dishes on why people really like green juice, her insane pasta sauce hack, and the one thing she'll always choose over dessert.
Before Meghan became a Royal, she chatted about her love of acting, cooking, and a great glass of wine. Turns out, she's got some serious culinary secrets — including one secret to a "sexy, filthy" pasta sauce you'll want to try ASAP.
Her favourite dessert is wine
"French fries and vino are my vices," she says, explaining that she'll forego a gooey, chocolatey dessert for a "big, beautiful red" just about any day. Tignanello is her all-time fave (she loves it so much she named her lifestyle site, The Tig, after it), but she's also a fan of Argentinian Malbecs, French cabs and pinot noirs from Oregon. "In the summer, though, when I'm out with my friends, it's rosé all day," she laughs.
She drinks lemon with hot water to boost digestion
That whole "the camera adds 10 pounds" thing meant that Meghan often ate cleaner when she was shooting Suits. She would get picked up around 4:15 a.m., she said, and spent the rest of the day on set.
Here's what that looked like: She'd have hot water with lemon right when she woke up, then ate steel-cut oats with bananas and agave syrup for breakfast. For lunch, it was usually a salad with some kind of protein, followed up by an apple with almond butter later than afternoon. If Meghan needed another snack, she'd go for a green juice. An example of her dinner would have been pasta with courgette, lots of parmesan, and a glass of wine.
Chips are her guilty pleasure
"On hiatus, all bets are off," Meghan says. She's not exactly balling out on chilli cheese fries and super-sized milkshakes, but her diet would get a bit more relaxed when she wasn't filming. For breakfast, she would have opted for an omelette with herbs and cheese plus toast. Lunch was seafood ... and French fries. "I'm always hoping I'm having lunch with people, so we can share fries. It's its own food group for me," Meghan says. Then for dinner, she'd go for soup."I'm more peckish [at lunch], so I usually go lighter for dinner."
She sees green juice as a necessary evil
Meghan drinks green juices pretty regularly, but she doesn't consider them life-changing, like some people do. "Green juice is a food-as-medicine philosophy for me," she explains, drinking it more as a way to boost her energy, like you would a late-afternoon cup of coffee.
For her, a truly life-changing dish isn't about its health benefits; it's one that shifts the way you look at food, like the plate of pad thai she had at a tiny, six-table restaurant outside of Bangkok. "There's no Michelin star, it's not fancy," she explains. "I took a bite and said, 'Oh my God, what have I been eating all my life? This is what pad thai's supposed to taste like?'.
She loves poutine — and has a secret for how to make it perfectly
Working in Toronto — where Suits was filmed — made Meghan very familiar with an even more famous Canadian specialty: poutine, aka fries smothered in cheese curds and gravy. Many people, though, use the wrong kind of cheese. (Hint: back away from the mozzarella.)
"It's got to squeak when you bite into it," Meghan says. "Really. The cheese curds should make a squeaking noise when you bite into them or squeeze them. That's how you know you've got the right kind."
Meghan can grill a mean steak
Just before serving steaks, Meghan squirts them with lemon. "Nobody tastes the lemon, but it really brings out the steak's flavour," she says.
Meghan pasta sauce recipe is absolutely genius
A friend convinced her to slow-cook courgette for four to five hours, until it breaks down into a "filthy, sexy mush" to toss with pasta. "The sauce gets so creamy, you'd swear there's tons of butter and oil in it, but it's just zucchini, water and a little bouillon," Meghan says.
Meghan eats almonds for glowing skin
Almonds and almond butter are two of her favs. Most health-conscious celebs tout almonds or some other kind of nut as a favourite healthy snack, and they're pretty well-known at this point for their healthy fats and plant protein. But beyond keeping you full between meals, it turns out almonds are also good for your skin.
Candace Braun Davison writes, edits, and produces lifestyle content that ranges from celebrity features to roll-up-your-sleeves DIYs, all while relentlessly pursuing the noblest of causes: the quest for the world's best chocolate chip cookie.
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