12 Of Princess Diana's Favorite Foods

The late Princess Diana has solidified herself in the collective memory as a much-beloved royal figure — and one whose death is still shrouded in mystery. There's a lot we don't know about the iconic figure, as she was a famously private person who attempted to stay away from the public eye, although that wasn't always possible due to the press, which many consider to have hounded her until her death. However, not everything about the beloved Princess of Wales remains unknown. We know that she loved to dance, that she was deeply involved in charitable causes, and that she was reportedly hesitant to marry Prince Charles before the wedding, already suspecting his emotional ties to Camilla. Through sources close to the princess, we also know about some of her favorite foods, and what she liked to eat says a lot about the kind of person she was and the life she lived.

From basic, everyday staples, like salad and coffee, to more niche, unexpected faves like tomato mousse, Princess Diana had plenty of favorite dishes. Many of them skew fresh and healthy and were dishes she ate regularly, while others were heavier and richer, which she ate less frequently and reflected her more indulgent side. Let's dig into some of Princess Diana's favorite foods. Who knows? You may even consider adopting a royal diet yourself.

Tomato mousse may not top the list of most people's favorite foods, but it was apparently a dish that Princess Diana loved, according to Darren McGrady, Diana's personal chef who cooked her meals from 1993 up until the end of her life in 1997. The princess wanted to stay in shape, so she paid attention to what she was eating. She wanted to enjoy low-fat dishes (remember, this was the '90s, at the height of the low-fat craze), and one of McGrady's solutions was this tomato mousse, which features blended and strained tomatoes along with ingredients like fat-free cream cheese, fat-free sour cream, and chicken stock.

McGrady would serve this dish with a side of lobster tails, which definitely gives this dish more of a royal feel. However, the lobster tails were served on the side, so they're not necessary to make the tomato mousse itself. The plate was flavored with dill, chives, salt, and pepper, which likely yielded a floral and flavorful complement to all those fat-free dairy products. This gelatin-laden dish probably isn't for everyone, even though it's relatively simple to make at home if you're willing to put in the effort, but its light, restrained flavor profile is probably ideal on those days when you don't want to weigh yourself down with too many intensely flavored foods. Give it a try if you're looking for a way to use up those ripe tomatoes in your kitchen.

Princess Diana reportedly led a very healthy lifestyle, and she was concerned about what she ate on a daily basis. Therefore, it doesn't seem like sweets were generally a significant part of her diet. But everyone needs a sweet treat every now and then, and apparently, Diana's favorite dessert was bread and butter pudding. This dessert is a great way of using up that stale and crusty bread you'd otherwise throw out — it involves soaking old bread in milk, eggs, and butter, among other ingredients, for a carb-y and custard-y dessert that any bread or sweets lover is sure to enjoy.

Admittedly, though, Diana didn't eat this dessert on a regular basis. When she started taking better care of her health, she tended not to indulge in desserts too often. When she would enjoy this most favorite of treats, McGrady said she would only eat a small portion of it. Additionally, she only ever ate it around her sons, William and Harry. When she was on her own, she decided to skip dessert. Bread and butter pudding does tend to be a heavier dessert, so it makes sense that she would treat it as an occasional indulgence.

According to McGrady, Princess Diana suffered from bulimia, an eating disorder, at one point. During this time in her life, she wasn't exactly feeding herself in a healthy manner. However, when she was recovering from bulimia, she decided to try to eat healthier. She reportedly told McGrady, "I want you to take care of all of the fat. I'll take care of the carbs at the gym." Of course, a diet low in fat isn't necessarily a healthy one, but it's hard to deny that one of her favorite foods she followed on this diet, stuffed bell peppers, isn't.

She loved this dish so much, in fact, that McGrady reported that she would ask for it four times a week. The chef would stuff her bell peppers with a wide range of vegetarian ingredients, including rice, mushrooms, garlic, and zucchini. And, of course, any good stuffed bell pepper needs a creamy element as well — McGrady included it in the form of mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. A smoked tomato and pepper sauce would finish off the dish, making a supremely flavorful lunch or light dinner. It sounds simple and unfussy but nutrient-dense and savory, which may be why it became one of her all-time favorite dishes.

When Princess Diana spent time with her sons, she encouraged them to eat whatever they wanted, whether that was fatty chicken or oily potatoes. However, she didn't tend to eat a lot of fatty or calorie-laden foods herself. Therefore, it shouldn't come as a surprise that one of her favorite dishes was healthy salads, according to McGrady. Light, refreshing, and full of nutrients, it's no wonder Diana was such a big fan of salads.

Of course, salads aren't the only option for people who care about eating healthily, but vegetable- and whole-food-based salads do tend to offer a wide variety of health benefits. For example, eating salads regularly can be great for digestion, and lots of fruits and veggies in your diet can reduce the risk of many chronic diseases. Plus, when you're following a delicious salad recipe, you can ensure you're working toward a healthy diet and you're adding plenty of flavor to your day. Princess Diana undoubtedly enjoyed these benefits of eating salad, among others.

Princess Diana was widely considered to be ahead of her time when it came to fashion — she regularly wore show-stopping outfits that won her even more attention from the press than she already got. But fashion wasn't the only arena in which Diana was a trendsetter. She also hopped on some food trends far before they gained widespread popularity. One of these trends is fresh vegetable juice. In an exclusive interview with Mashed, chef McGrady said that the princess especially enjoyed vegetable juice.

When Diana started eating a healthier diet, she was keen on trying new things, and vegetable juice was one of them. "Of course, she studied juicing as well," McGrady told Mashed. He says that Diana was a trendsetter in this area: "She was juicing before, I think, anybody had even heard of it." At one point, Diana was especially interested in beet juice, which McGrady reluctantly made for her after suggesting that beet juice would taste better if it were combined with other ingredients, like apple juice. Ultimately, though, the plain beet juice was not her favorite, especially since her body reacted poorly to the plain veggie juice. These days, juicing is a common — and delicious — way for people to up their intake of nutrients from fresh fruits and veggies, but it sounds like Princess Diana was ahead of the curve.

To some, eggplant is a supremely unappetizing vegetable with a strange texture and a watery flavor that's not even always improved by a generous serving of sauce. But if you have a private chef cooking eggplant for you exactly to your specifications, you can bet it's going to taste good. That's how Princess Diana apparently felt, anyway, since McGrady's stuffed eggplant was one of her absolute favorite dishes. In fact, McGrady claims that she would ask him to make an extra serving for her to heat up and enjoy on weekends. He would stuff the eggplant with a variety of healthy ingredients, like zucchini, bell pepper, celery, mushrooms, tomato, and basil. And, of course, he didn't skimp on richer ingredients, like bacon and Parmesan cheese, either.

Diana apparently loved reheating this eggplant dish and eating it later, which makes sense considering McGrady's claim that it actually tastes better with age. He suggests serving it with a salad for a lighter meal or with grilled steak for something a bit more substantial.

Typically, McGrady told Delish, Princess Diana would eat a largely vegetarian diet, choosing stuffed eggplant or stuffed bell peppers over heartier, more meat-forward dishes. In fact, McGrady claims that the princess never ate red meat at all, instead opting for plates of vegetables and fish. But that doesn't mean she never ate meat at all. According to McGrady, Princess Diana didn't like to stick to a set menu — she decided what she wanted to eat day by day. Sometimes, he said, she would walk into the kitchen and request those veggie-forward dishes she was known for loving. Other times, though, she would want richer meals, like liver and onions.

Liver and onions may not be for everyone, but it can be immensely flavorful when it's done well. Princess Diana may have opted for a low-fat diet much of the time, but lots of butter and beef stock make for a supremely appetizing plate of liver and onions. This dish is typically made with beef liver, but judging by the princess' denial of beef, she may have opted for chicken liver and onions instead.

Just because Princess Diana followed an overall healthy diet doesn't mean that she didn't enjoy dishes that were slightly indulgent on the regular. One of her favorites, according to McGrady? Eggs Suzette. This dish all starts with a baked potato, which fits into Diana's low-fat diet nicely. McGrady would then scoop out much of the potato, filling the bottom with some wilted spinach. A poached egg would then fit on top of the dish, finishing it off with a flavorful protein punch. He would then pipe some of the reserved potatoes around the edge of the eggs for an interesting texture. A small amount of hollandaise sauce would bring it all together in an elegant, edible package.

Is eggs Suzette the easiest dish to make at home? Probably not. But it's definitely something you can make at home if you're interested in getting a taste of Princess Diana's diet. It makes for a lovely, light lunch, but you can also eat it for breakfast if you want to get your day off to a particularly flavorful start.

When you think of a morning breakfast beverage fit for a British princess, what's the first thing that comes to mind? If you're assuming that tea was Princess Diana's go-to every morning, you'd be wrong. In reality, Diana loved starting many of her mornings off with coffee. And like most coffee lovers out there, she liked to drink her coffee in a specific way: namely, black. This makes sense when you consider other aspects of the princess' diet. After all, she chose a lot of low-fat foods, so it's not surprising that she chose to leave out cream or milk, and she apparently chose not to sweeten her coffee with any sugar, either.

But on the days when the princess went to the gym (which was reportedly three days out of the week), she didn't want to start the day with just a cup of coffee. She had an odd request to pair with her morning beverage. She wanted her coffee served with Heinz baked beans, a pink grapefruit, and a cup of orange juice. This may sound like a strange combo to many of us (particularly those who aren't from the UK, where eating baked beans for breakfast is a common breakfast), but we can't judge her for starting off her day with what she craved. And if you're interested in drinking like a royal first thing in the morning, all you have to do is brew a simple cup of Joe — no extra ingredients required.

England is far from a tropical paradise where supremely sweet and fresh fruits are available at a moment's notice. Instead, when you think about the types of fruits that are commonly eaten in the country, your mind may go to apples, pears, and bananas. But Princess Diana's taste wasn't limited to the standards. She was a huge fan of lychee fruit, which originally hails from southern China. The outside of the fruit is pink and spicy, while the inside is white, almost translucent, and sort of fleshy, offering plenty of juiciness with every bite.

Diana reportedly loved the fruit so much that she would eat entire bowls of it to satisfy her cravings. If you want to eat like Princess Diana, this food may be the easiest way to do it, as it involves no cooking whatsoever — all you have to do is get your hands on some lychee fruit. Depending on where you live, you may be able to find it at a grocery store, or you may have to visit a specialty store to source this flavorful fruit that Diana adored.

From this list, it should be obvious that Princess Diana thoroughly enjoyed vegetarian dishes, although she sometimes enjoyed fish or other lighter meat options. That being said, everyone craves a richer, more indulgent dish from time to time, and it seems like Diana was no exception. According to Chef Carolyn Robb, who at one point served as the executive chef for Princess Diana and her family, one meat-centric dish that the princess especially enjoyed was lamb with mint. In fact, Diana loved minted lamb so much that she once wrote Robb a thank you note for her preparation of the dish.

Lamb with mint is a classic flavor combo that's hard not to love once you've tried it. Lamb can be rich and occasionally gamey, but the flavor of mint really balances it out nicely, adding a fresh, floral note to the otherwise rich, meaty dish. Serving the mint with a yogurt-y sauce gives it an especially light, refreshing touch. The next time you decide to cook some lamb, consider combining it with a minty element for a meal that's fit for a royal.

Princess Diana was interested in the health benefits of eating plenty of beets, and although her attempts at drinking plain beet juice reportedly didn't end well, it seems like she still enjoyed the ingredient when it was incorporated into other dishes, including borscht, an Eastern European soup that includes beets, onions, milk, sour cream, and chicken stock, among other ingredients. Diana said that the soup was one of her favorite dishes in an unearthed letter from 1981, which was the same year that she married Prince Charles.

The soup is intensely earthy, a flavor that comes from the beets themselves, but that flavor is balanced out by the creamy elements of the milk and sour cream. Onions and chicken stock add a layer of savoriness to the finished dish, and salt and pepper provide an extra punch of flavor that brings everything together. Borscht can be served hot or cold, depending on the weather and the preferences of the eater.