Monday, April 25, 2011

Nourishing and Cleansing Cooked Dishes

Kitchari with Cauliflower & Peas




This nourishing dish resembles risotto in texture. You can use  Olive Oil  to create  a Vegan Dish, or Ghee to follow the traditional method.

Ingredient List

Serves 4
  • 1 Tbs plus 2 tsp Olive Oil or  Ghee, divided
  • 1/2 tsp minced fresh Ginger
  • 1 tsp Cumin Seeds
  • 2 cups Cauliflower Florets
  • 1 inch square of Kombu Sea Vegetable
  • 1 Bay Leaf
  • 3 &1/2 cups of Water or Vegetable Broth
  • 1/2 cup Basmati Rice, rinsed
  • 1/3 cup Split Mung Beans
  • 3/4 tsp Turmeric
  • 1/2 cup Fresh or Frozen  Peas
  • 1/2 tsp Sea Salt, a tsp of Tamari or 2 tsp Chick Pea or other Light Miso

Method

1. Heat 2 Tbs. Olive Oil or Ghee in saucepan over medium-high heat. When Olive Oil or Ghee is hot, stir in Ginger and Cumin seeds. Fry Cumin Seeds a few seconds, then add Cauliflower, and stir-fry 4 minutes, until cauliflower is slightly browned and partially cooked. Stir in rice and beans, and fry 1 minute. Add 3 & 1/2  cups Water or Vegetable Broth and Turmeric, Kombu, and Bay Leaf  and bring to full boil over high heat.
2. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, 40 minutes.
3. Add Peas and Salt, Tamari or Miso and continue cooking 5 minutes, or until Rice and Beans are soft. Stir in remaining teaspoon of Olive Oil or Ghee, just before serving.
This is wonderful served with  a Fresh Vegetable Salad. Choose from the Marinated Vegetable Salad  or The Raw Slaw from a previous posted!

Pasta Primavera 

Whole-Wheat or Rice Pasta with Spring Vegetables


One large pot of boiling water is all it takes to make a pasta medley full of fresh spring vegetables. Blanching the vegetables in the boiling water also adds flavor to the pasta.



Ingredient List

Serves 6
  • 12 oz Whole-Wheat or Rice Pasta Shells or Farfalle 
  • 1 lb Asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen Peas
  • 2 Tbs Olive Oil
  • 1/2 tsp finely minced Garlic
  • 3 Scallions thinly sliced (1/3 cup)
  • 1 cup sliced Fresh Basil
  • 1/2 cup coarsely chopped Fresh Mint
  • 1 Tbs grated Lemon Zest 
  • 1 Tbs of Chickpea Miso or Sweet White Miso
  • 3/4  cup of Toasted Walnuts or Pumpkin Seeds

Method

1. Bring large pot of water to a boil, add 1Tbl Sea Salt or Pink Himalayan Salt 
2. Add Asparagus, and cook 4 minutes, or until crisp-tender. Remove Asparagus with slotted spoon; transfer to serving bowl.
3. Add Pasta to boiling water; cook 5 minutes. Add peas, return water to a boil, and cook 2 minutes. Drain Pasta and Peas, reserving 1/4 cup cooking water, and return Pasta and Peas to pot. Stir in reserved cooking water and Miso together, Asparagus, Garlic and Olive Oil, Scallions, Basil, Mint, and Lemon Zest. Season with Black Pepper or Red Chili Flakes if desired. Transfer to serving bowl; and sprinkle with Toasted Walnuts or Pumpkin Seeds.

Crispy Kale Chips





I bet you can't eat just one of these light, crispy snacks! The Nutritional Yeast, Tahini and Miso gives the Kale Chips a Cheesy flavor. If you are concerned about Gluten, check to make sure the brand of Nutritional Yeast you use was grown on Beets, not Barley. Also if Soy is an issue omit the Miso and double the Nutritional Yeast.

Ingredient List

Serves 4
  • 1 12-oz. bunch Curly Kale, center stems removed, each leaf torn into 4 pieces (6 cups)
  • 2 Tbs Olive Oil
  • 1 Tbs Raw Tahini
  • 1 tsp Chickpea Miso or Sweet White Miso
  • 1/4 Red Bell Pepper 
  • 1 Tbs Lemon Juice
  • 1 Pinch Pink Himalayan Salt or Sea Salt 
  • 2 Tbs Nutritional Yeast

Method

1. Blend Tahini, Miso, Red Pepper and Oil together, mix in Lemon Juice and Sea Salt
2 .Place Kale in bowl
3. Pour the Tahini mixture over Kale leaves and massage on with hands. Add nutritional yeast, and toss well.
 Turn Dehydrator on and set at 115 degrees
4. Spread kale onto dehydrator trays without overlapping. Dehydrate 2 to 4 hours, or until dry and crispy. Turn dehydrator, and cool completely before removing from trays and eating! 


Should you have any questions about these or any other recipes just post them in the comment box and I will gladly respond. I hope you are enjoying the Nourishing Cuisine, blog!

Monday, April 18, 2011

Green Energy Smoothies!

People who have introduced Green Smoothies in to their diets have reported many health benefits. Raw food eaters in particular have embraced this nutritional powerhouse to boost their already nutritious diet, and to find that missing element to achieving excellent health and vitality.
What are they? 
Green Smoothies are smoothies with greens blended through them, quite simple really. Greens are incredibly nutritious, however people struggle to eat enough of them with regard to quantity and many find them hard to digest. It has been suggested that this is due to not having enough stomach acid and not having enough jaw strength to chew them till they are a creamy consistency. Blended greens have their structure ripped apart and are effectively pre-digested. Adding fruit makes them taste great and is also a clever way of getting a lot of fruit into your diet, which most people don't have enough of in addition to enough greens.
Below I have detailed further theory behind this wonderful type of food/drink and provided some tasty recipes with photos. Enjoy!


What's the big deal about greens? 
According to Victoria Boutenko (author of Green for Life) greens are the primary food group that match human nutritional needs most completely.

Greens are loaded with amino acids, (the building blocks of protein), minerals, vitamins, fibre & chlorophyll.

Greens can be combined with any other food and enhance digestion by stimulating enzyme production. Hence the combination of greens and fruit in green smoothies is very acceptable i.e. versus the combination of fruit with other food types, and starch with protein e.g. classic SAD fair such as cheese and bread, milk and cereal (See the book by Victoria Boutenko, Green for Life for more detail).

Take a leaf out of a chimp's diet... 

Chimpanzees are the closest animal relative to humans sharing over 99% of the same genes. They eat a diet consisting of 50% fruit, 40% greens and 10% pith, bark and insects. This is all raw and whole food.

Over 50% of most SADs(standard american diet) contain cooked carbohydrates such as potatoes, bread, pasta and rice. Approximately 35% fats, oils and animal proteins and the rest fruit, vegetables and greens.

Even the average raw food diet has about 35% plant based fats and oils and a small percentage of greens.

The chronic diseases of humankind are not seen in wild chimps so why not take a leaf out of their book and see what their big secret is? No secret, lifestyle and diet are blatantly different.

A diet of 50% fruit, 40% greens and 10% or less fat is the ideal diet according to many experienced raw foodists and those with the best health. Hence green smoothies are an excellent way of getting extra greens into your diet in addition to eating a lot of salad!

To eat or blend your greens? 
Greens are biologically very hardy on a molecular level as they contain cellulose. Nutrients are stored within the plant's cells and their cell walls need to be ruptured to release them. This requires a significant amount of chewing, which humans struggle with, our jaws are not strong enough and we are very impatient. We also need strong stomach acid which many of us lack.

To get enough greens, blending them in a smoothie is ideal as it ruptures the plant cell membranes releasing nutrients very easily. Victoria Boutenko recommends a quart a day of Green Smoothie.

Any greens eaten whole are still encouraged, however they should be chewed very well!

What is the best blender you may ask....…Well, any blender works however cheaper ones will break down sooner. The popular, expensive and very effective blenders are Vitamix and Blendtec as brands. Personally I use a Vitamix which is a multi-purpose kitchen appliance that blends, food processes, crushes ice, mills grain and more...its awesome.

The Protein Myth 

As a vegetarian or vegan one of the questions you regularly get from people who know far less then you do about nutrition is 'Where do you get your protein from?" After you wait for your blood to stop boiling from being asked AGAIN, you smile and politely reply "from my food".

Seriously though, there is no danger of protein deficiency if you eat calories that contain nutrition. I know there are vegetarians and vegans out there living on jam sandwiches, and yes, they may be protein deficient, however they will also be nutrient deficient overall.

The World Health Organization states that we only need 10% of our calories from protein. T. Colin Campbell, who wrote the amazing book, "The China Study" states that we only need 5-6% of our calories from protein, with 10% recommended to ensure we do get the 5-6% we need.

Carbohydrate is what we primarily need for energy, fat is what we primarily need for our brain and endocrine system, and protein is what we need primarily for growth and repair. As adults we are not growing like we do as children, and definitely as we do as babies. Mother's milk is the perfect food for— an infant up to 6 months of age and it contains around 6% of its calories from protein — only 6%! At the most rapid period of growth our lives. Mother's milk is mostly fat and much of it is lauric acid, which is similar to the extremely healthy fatty acids in coconut water.

Many fad diets are high protein and low carbohydrate with the mistaken theory that excreting ketones in your urine is a good thing. Aside from overly taxing your kidneys, a high protein diet is reported to lead to problems such as kidney stones, osteoporosis, mood disorders and bad body odor. High protein diets do tend to cause weight loss but this is not due to ketosis, it is due to calorie deprivation and the fact that protein is more satiating than carbohydrate based food of the same volume.

It is important to eat protein at each meal if you wish to lose weight and keep your blood sugar levels even, however this does not mean a slab of meat at each sitting. Protein rich plant sources are very abundant and include green leaves! Also seed grains like quinoa and amaranth, sprouts like alfalfa and lentil, nuts and seeds like almonds and sesame, and legumes like chickpeas.

The idea that you have to combine different plant based protein sources together to make a complete protein such as beans and rice, was debunked in the 1970s! As long as a variety of protein sources are being consumed regularly, it is not necessary to consume all essential amino acids in one meal.

What are amino acids? - They are the building block of protein. We eat foods that contain protein, our digestive system breaks it down into individual amino acids, then re-assembles them into new proteins needed by the body e.g. enzymes.There are 22 amino acids and 8 are essential amino acids, meaning we must eat them because we can't manufacture them. A complete protein has all 8 essential amino acids and includes foods like meat & eggs. The problem is that most concentrated protein sources are cooked and cooking destroys 50% of the available protein. It may be complete but it is only half available once eaten. Raw plant foods are 100% available and some plants are also complete proteins like soy, quinoa and amaranth.

A big misconception is that people wanting to put on muscle need to eat more protein and some bodybuilding often involves extraordinary amounts of eating lean chicken breast or drinking protein powder shakes. Yes, we need protein for growth but, what builds muscle is weight bearing exercise and we need fuel to do this. You cannot build muscle without resistance training e.g. weight lifting. You can eat lots of chicken and it will fuel your body, but its much harder fuel to process. Exercise and complex carbohydrate intake is the best combination as it is an energy efficient fuel. Training with higher carbs (complex/whole food carbs not simple/sugary/starchy carbs) will result in excellent energy, great mood, excellent elimination through the bowel (because diet high in fibre) and great muscle tone and recovery after exercise.

Green Smoothies are a great source or protein when you are consuming a good 40% of your smoothie as greens. Greens are protein rich, with the obvious evidence being grazing animals like cattle and sheep. Not to mention apes! How muscular are these animals and they are vegan! Spinach has 30% of its calories as protein compared to cheese at 26%, milk at 23% and beef at 50%. But remember cooking destroys protein by 50%, so 100 g of cooked beef is similar to around 80 g of raw spinach for available protein content.

Popeye couldn't be wrong could he?
My Green Smoothie Recipes 

Firstly can I say that green smoothies don't taste horrible. They look green but taste like the fruit in them. Obviously if you go overboard with the greens it will taste pretty green, but generally speaking you don't taste the them much if at all.
The recipe below is approximately enough for two large glasses of green smoothie holding 2 cups, or 16 fl. oz or around 1 quart in total.

It is generally recommended to use 40% greens and 60% fruit. If you do happen to overdo the greens, try a bit of vanilla or some lemon juice to take the edge off.

Greens I use are usually a combination of Kale, Collards, Chard and Spinach. If Kale is used I usually use it with a milder green as it can be strong. I have also recently experimented with my regular salad mix when I have run out of my 'greens for green smoothies container' in the fridge. They are also great, however be mindful that the red leaves are generally more bitter.

I have also used Celery (stalks and tops), cos/romaine lettuce, carrot tops & parsley stalks. Any green can be used but be careful it is not a mustard green or rocket as the taste is dreadful!!! Experiment yourself however don't use the same one all the time. Its important to rotate your greens to respect the seasons, however it is more important to get a variety of nutrients and avoid the same plant alkaloids in greens.  Chard & Spinach contain oxalic acid and if you only eat chard or spinach in your green smoothies, you may start to have problems with too much of it in your system. One issue is It binds with calcium which will decrease absorption of this important mineral. I can tell if I have been eating too much of the same green, because I start to not want smoothies and I feel a bit queasy mid morning.

Try to buy organic greens , they won't contain pesticides and herbicides and will contain more nutrients than conventional greens. If you can only buy non-organic please wash them very thoroughly with a good quality and chemical free fruit and veggie wash. Even better, grow them yourself. Chard is so easy to grow, even someone without green thumbs can do it!

Be sure to blend thoroughly to break up all the greens, rest your blender if needed should you have a less expensive/powerful model9.

Please only use filtered water or pure spring water

Enjoy!

*Before following this or any other diet plan seek the approval of your Physician 

Monday, April 11, 2011

Spring Energy Cleanse

In my last post I talked a bit about Spring Cleansing! I thought I would follow up with a few more ideas and recipes to support your journey.


Walking Meditation:      




How many times do you set out for a stroll, brisk or slow, and you find yourself caught up up in your head.  Thinking about bills, work, or some other issue that comes up for you.
Try taking a walk in a beautiful, quiet place. Makes this walk a Meditation in Motion. Focus on your breath, each step and the beauty that surrounds you. We can find beauty in anything when we let go of our preconceptions. 
While you are on your walk find a place to sit. Make yourself comfortable and fill your lungs with fresh air, inhaling through your nostrils. Filling you up with beautiful healing golden energy.Then release the breath, and as you slowly release the breath through your mouth imagine all your worries, cares, and fears leaving your mind and body. Continue this relaxing breath for 3 minutes to 21 minutes. You will find your own comfort zone. This isn't a challenge so it should never be forced.


YOGA:
 Salutation to the Sun




The Sun Salutation is recommended for yoga practitioners of all ages and especially for those that cannot dedicate a lot of time to their yoga routine.  The reason this pose is highly appreciated is because it involves most of the muscle groups, as well as the respiratory system.



This pose is in fact a sequence of twelve yoga positions, linked by a flowing motion and accompanied by five deep, special breaths.  Each position contributes to stretching a different part of the body and a different muscle group.  It also helps expand and contract the chest to regulate breathing.
Specialists and trainers recommend this exercise for the daily routine because it can contribute to spinal and joint flexibility.


The first of the twelve poses requires a standing position with the feet together.  The palms should be in the praying position in front of the chest.  All weight should be evenly distributed.  After accomplishing these things, exhale strongly.
While inhaling push the arms up keeping the legs straight and the neck relaxed.
Exhale while bending the body forward and pressing the palms down and trying to place the fingertips in line with the toes.
Inhale while bringing a leg back and placing it on the floor.  Arch the back and lift the chin.
Bring the other leg back and try to support the weight on the hands and toes.  Keep the chin down and retain the breath, while performing this move.
Exhale while lowering the knees and forehead.  Keep the hips up and be certain the toes are curled under.
Lower the hips while inhaling and point the toes while bending back as far as possible.  The shoulder should be kept down and the legs together.
Curl the toes under while exhaling and raise the hips.  This will leave the body in a V position.  Push the heels and head down while keeping the shoulders back.
Inhale and step forward and place one leg between the hands.  Keep the chin up and rest the other knee on the floor.
Bring the other leg forward and bend down from the waist keeping the palms on the floor and exhale.
Inhale, while stretching the arms forward, then up and then back over the head and try to slowly bend back.
Return to the upright position, while exhaling and bring the arms to the sides. 
Do not strain or force any part of this flow. This is your salute to the sun, done in your way with joy, gentleness and self compassion.


RECIPES:
Gazpacho:

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

5 Ripe Tomatoes
1 tsp Sea Salt 
1/4 cup Cilantro
1/2 Red Bell Pepper
2 tsp Agave Nectar 
1/8 cup Yellow Onion
1/2 cup Water
1/4 cup Olive Oil
1/8 cup Lemon Juice
1/8 cup Lime Juice
1/8 tsp Chili Powder  or 1/4 Jalapeno Pepper
2 Cloves Garlic

Puree in a blender until smooth. Transfer to a large bowl and add:

Medium Diced:
1 large Avocado
1 seeded Cucumber

 Finely Diced:
1 cup  Celery
1/4 cup Red Onion
1/2 cup Red Bell Pepper 



*Garnish with Cilantro Leaves and or Edible Flowers




Living Marinated Vegetables:
Serves 6 to 8

Vegetables:
1 Head of Broccoli-remove florets, peel and thinly slice stems
1 head of Cauliflower-remove florets from stem 
2 Carrots-thinly slice on the diagonal
1 Red Onion-sliced in thin half moons
1 Summer Squash-sliced in half length wise then into thin half moons
1 Red Bell Pepper-cored and sliced thin length wise 

Marinade:
2/3 cup of your best Extra Virgin, First Cold Pressed Olive Oil
2 cloves of Garlic crushed and finely minced 
1/3 cup of Lemon Juice or Apple Cider Vinegar
1/4 cup of Fresh Herbs finely minced (Basil, Thyme, Rosemary, Sage. Italian Parsley)
1 tsp Sea Salt or Himalayan Pink Salt
Pinch of Chili Flakes

Preparation:
Place all cut Vegetables  in a large bowl 
Blend together all Marinade Ingredients
Pour Over Vegetables and toss well
Cover bowl and place in refrigerator for 1hour
Toss well again and place back in refrigerator for another hour
Repeat this process again and Serve or you can make this the evening before for Lunch

Raw Slaw
serves 6 to 8


1 Large Head of Green Cabbage sliced finely
2 Large Carrots Sliced on a diagonal and cut into fine Matchsticks




Place these ingredients into a large glass bowl with 1Tbl. of Sea Salt
Massage the salt into the vegetables, you will see that they begin to sweat
Cover with a plate and a weight leave for 20 minutes, then drain
You may rinse with water to remove salty flavor
 
In a separate bowl place:
1/2 Med.Head of Red Cabbage sliced finely, massage and marinated with 3 Tbl. of Umeboshi Vinegar, let it sit for 15 minutes then lightly rinse and drain


In one additional bowl place:
1 Med.Red Onion sliced finely, massage  and marinate with 1Tbl. of Umeboshi Vinegar, let sit for 15 minutes then lightly rinse and drain


I like to squeeze all the excess liquid from the vegetables in an impeccably clean tea towel
Toss all ingredients together in a large bowl with 3Tbl. of Olive Oil, 2Tbl. of Apple Cider Vinegar, 2tsp. of Agave Nectar and 2Tbl. of finely minced Italian Parsley
Garnish with Black Sesame Seeds

I hope you enjoy these ideas and recipes and that they nourish your body & soul.
Blessings to you Always!


*Before following this or any other diet plan seek the approval of your Physician