Cook It Up

The New York Times, hot on the heels of my lycopene post, has a good column today about how some veggies nutrients, like lycopene, become more bioavailable once veggies are cooked. You win some, you lose some nutrient-wise however you prepare your veggies so the nutritional solution is to just eat lots of veggies in different ways and it should all even out.

Today's column makes up for one earlier this week about organic baby formulas. I thought the issue the baby formula story raised was important – that just because a food product is labeled organic doesn't mean that all the ingredients are the healthiest.

What bothered me was the statement "All infant formulas contain added sugars, which babies need to digest the proteins in cow’s milk or soy." Sugars have nothing to do with the digestion of proteins. Protein digestion is facilitated by enzymes, produced by the digestive tract, specific to the digestion of protein. Infant formulas are modeled to be as close to human milk as possible and contain sugars, just as human milk does, as a source of carbohydrate energy.

So don't be using that old "I need the sugar to digest my protein" excuse to justify those extra cookies.

Supercharged Mutant

This weekend, I was in H Mart, a supersized Korean supermarket in Niles, IL, when I spotted orange cauliflowers and decided to bring one home. Orange cauliflowers are the tastier offspring of a mutant orange cauliflower found in a Canadian field 30 years ago. The mutant was smaller and less flavorful than regular cauliflower so food scientists labored to improve upon the mutation, a gene that causes the cauliflower to store more beta-carotene, to come up with an orange cauliflower as tasty as the white stuff. Because of the extra beta-carotene, orange cauliflower is much higher in provitamin A than white cauliflower.

Since the weather turned chilly yet again today, I was in the mood for soup. I started with a spicy cauliflower soup recipe in Alice Water’s The Art of Simple Cooking. The resulting soup lacked body so taking Julie’s Spinach Chickpea soup as my inspiration, I added a can of rinsed and drained chickpeas. Just what it needed. Now the soup is tastier and has more protein and fiber.

As you can see, the soup is a vibrant orange. Feel free to make it with white cauliflower. The soup will still be a light yellow from the added turmeric and carrot.

Spicy Cauliflower Chickpea Soup
Serves 4

Prep: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes

1 T olive oil
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 carrot, coarsely chopped
1 tsp chili powder
½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground coriander
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
¼ tsp turmeric
1 large head of cauliflower, color of your choice, coarsely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 ½ cups cooked or 1 15 ox can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 cups water

Optional garnishes: plain yogurt or low-fat sour cream, cilantro

Heat oil over medium heat. Add onion, carrot, and spices and sauté until onion is soft, about five minutes. Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. With immersion blender, puree until coarsely smooth. Top with optional garnish. Serve immediately.

Nutrition Info (per serving): 182 calories, 30g carbohydrates, 11g fiber, 10g protein, 5g fat, 1g saturated fat, 0mg cholesterol, 422mg sodium

High-Fiber Flamingo Protector

Did you know that lycopene, the red carotenoid found in tomatoes, watermelon, and pink grapefruit, keeps pink flamingos pink? If they didn’t eat lycopene, they’d be white flamingos. Which begs the question, do flamingos eat tomato sauce?

In humans, lycopene is an antioxidant stored in our blood plasma, skin, and organs such as our liver, lungs, colon, adrenal glands, and, for those who have one, prostate gland. Studies are still ongoing but there is some evidence that lycopene may reduce our risk of vision loss, heart disease, and some cancers.

For reasons unknown, lycopene is best absorbed when we consume processed tomato products rather than raw tomatoes. One study showed 2.5 times higher lycopene absorption after eating tomato paste as compared to eating the equivalent amount of raw tomatoes.

Since it’s been kind of chilly here the last couple of days, chili is the best way I could think of consuming my lycopene this week. I like my chili vegetarian, yet meaty. I adapted this recipe from Robin Robertson’s Vegan Planet. She likes to use kidney beans but I prefer the pinto.

To supply the vegetarian meatiness, I used Lightlife Taco/Burrito Smart Ground, found in most major supermarkets.

Flamingo-Friendly Chili
Serves 6

Prep: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 45 minutes

1 T olive oil
1 large onion, coarsely diced
1-2 T chili powder
½ tsp oregano
½ tsp cayenne pepper
28 oz can crushed tomatoes
6 oz can tomato paste
2 cups water
2 cups soy veggie crumbles
3 cups cooked or two 15 oz cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large stockpot. Sauté onions for five minutes until soft. Add spices, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, and water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Remove cover, add veggie crumbles, beans and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 30 minutes. Serve immediately.

Chili also freezes well.

Nutrition Info (per serving): 282 calories, 45g carbohydrates, 13g fiber, 21g protein, 0g fat, 0g saturated fat, 0mg cholesterol, 625mg sodium