Pepper Plaque Preventer

February is Heart Month.

One healthy-heart veggie is currently cheap, cheap, cheap here in Chicago. Red peppers were a mere $0.69/lb this Saturday at one of my favorite produce marts, Fresh Farms at 2626 W Devon Ave. At those prices, I had to stock up. They’re currently being stored in my refrigerator where they should keep for a week.

Not only are sweet bell peppers a great source of vitamins C and E, provitamin A, and carotenoids, one study showed that that the antioxidants in sweet bell peppers may reduce the build-up of plaque. How? When you cook foods containing cholesterol, like dairy, eggs, meat, poultry and fish, the cholesterol in these foods can oxidize, creating harmful by-products that may lead to the build up of plaque. Adding antioxidant-rich bell peppers to the mix reduced the creation of those harmful by-products.

Of all the bell peppers, red peppers appear to have the highest levels of the phenolic antioxidants beta-carotene, capsanthin, quercetin, and luteolin. To me, they're also the tastiest.

One lazy way to add red peppers to your diet is simply to slice them up and take them to work with you as a snack.

One fun way to add them to your diet is this red pepper shrimp recipe adapted from Madhur Jaffrey’s Cookbook by Madhur Jaffrey. Serve with rice or other grain of your choice.

To make this recipe super fast, use frozen uncooked peeled and deveined shrimp. All you have to do is give the frozen shrimp a quick rinse to remove excess ice and then toss them into the pan. They'll defrost while sauteing.


Red Pepper Shrimp
Serves 4

1 ½ lb medium-sized shrimp, peeled, deveined, and rinsed
1 sweet red pepper, seeds and white pith removed, coarsely chopped
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
10 small raw cashews or 7 roasted macadamia nuts
1 T canola oil
1 teaspoon brown mustard seeds
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
salt to taste
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika

Puree the red pepper, onion, and nuts in a food processor.

Heat 1 T oil in a wok or non-stick pan over a medium-high heat. When hot, put in the mustard seeds and cover (to prevent the seeds from flying all over your kitchen). Once they start popping, remove the cover and add the garlic. Stir once and add the shrimp. Saute until shrimp turns barely pink and remove, leaving oil behind.

Reheat the pan and put in red pepper paste. Saute for 4-5 minutes until paste appears dry. Add salt to season (about 1/4 tsp), cayenne, and paprika. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed. Stir once and then return the reserved shrimp with any liquied to the pan. Lower heat and cook for another minute. Serve immediately.

Enjoy the red pepper bounty.