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

Edgy Veggies in a Bowl

Broccoli raab is broccoli with attitude. Easier to prep but with an edgier taste. Both are members of the Brassicus genus, meaning both are genetically inclined to provide some powerful health-protecting antioxidants.

While I’m a huge broccoli fan, one advantage of broccoli raab (also known as rapini) is that there's less fuss and muss prior to cooking. No peeling of the stems, no teasing apart of the florets. Just chop, chop, chop, go.

This has been yet another crazy week. I needed quick and satisfying veggies so I made an old comfort stand-by – Greens and Tortellini Soup. It’s hearty enough that I serve it as an entrée.


Greens and Tortellini Soup
Serves 3 adults or 2 adults and 2 kids

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes

1 T olive oil
2-3 garlic cloves finely minced
1 lb broccoli raab chopped into approx 2” segments
6 cups vegetable stock
25-30 small tortellinis of your choice

Heat oil in large soup pot over medium high heat. Sauté garlic cloves for a minute and add chopped broccoli raab. Saute for another minute or two. Add stock and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add tortellini and simmer for another 8 minutes. Serve immediately.

Nutrition Info (per adult serving, reduce in half for kid serving): 320 calories, 36g carbohydrates, 8g fiber, 15g protein, 15g fat, 5g saturated fat, 80mg cholesterol, 654mg sodium

Notes:

• Broccoli also works well in this soup as do leafy greens. For leafy greens, like chard or spinach, add with tortellini.
  
• I use half a bag of Trader Joe’s Gorgonzola and Walnut Tortellini for this recipe.
  
• I also use a 4-quart container of Pacific Low-Sodium Vegetable Broth plus two cups of water.

Spicy Lutein

I love Indian food and I love one-pot veggie-protein entrees. Whatever reduces the number of pots on my stove is a good thing. One favorite easy entrée is Indian chicken with spinach and yogurt which I serve with brown rice. While this dish is spicy, it’s more spicy flavorful than spicy hot. It’s the kind of dish that 5 year-old Simon of Ginger Carrot fame may call spicy but not so spicy he couldn’t eat it.

For vegetarians and vegans, feel free to make the dish without the chicken and even without the yogurt and just reduce the cooking time to about 20 minutes. It still makes a tasty spinach dish that will go along well with rice and dal (Indian lentils such as this tasty version).

This recipe is adapted From Bengal to Punjab: The Cuisines of India by Smita Chandra.


Indian Chicken with Spinach and Yogurt
Serves 4

1 T canola oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1-inch stick cinnamon
3 cloves garlic crushed or 1 ½ tsp garlic paste
¾ -inch fresh ginger grated or 1 ½ tsp ginger paste
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 tsp ground coriander powder
½ tsp turmeric
¼ tsp cayenne powder
1/8 tsp cardamom powder
Pinch cloves
½ cup whole milk plain yogurt
20 ounces (2 packets) frozen spinach, defrosted and well drained
1 ½ lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs

Heat the canola oil in a large, wide saucepan over medium heat. Add the cumin seeds and cinnamon stick and stir for a couple of seconds. Add the garlic and ginger, stir for another 30 seconds or so. Add the onion and sauté until lightly brown, about five minutes. Add the coriander, turmeric, cayenne, cardamom, and cloves. Sauté for another minute and then add the yogurt, stirring constantly. Cook for another minute and then add the spinach, stirring to combine everything together for another minute. Add the chicken and mix together. Reduce the heat to low and cover the pan. Simmer the dish for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover after 40 minutes. If there is still a lot of liquid, turn the heat on high to boil some of the liquid away or skim it off. Remove the cinnamon stick and the dish is now ready to serve. The flavor of this dish improves on the second day.

Nutritional Info (per serving): 313 calories, 9g carbohydrates, 2g fiber, 38g protein, 11g fat, 3g saturated fat, 145mg cholesterol, 380mg sodium

Notes:

• Make sure you squeeze out as much of the water as you can from spinach or the dish will be too watery.
  
• Odd sized measuring spoons are useful for measuring odd amounts like 1/8 tsp and a pinch.
  
• Garlic paste can be purchased at most supermarkets. Ginger paste can be purchased at Indian speciality stores like Patel Brothers, 2610 W Devon Ave, Chicago, IL. I use the Swad brand pastes.
  
• I don’t use salt in this recipe since I don’t think it needs it but salt to taste if you feel the need.
  
• Unless a lot of fluid has accumulated, like with whole chickens, I don’t rinse chicken prior to cooking. Since the bacteria that I’m worried about will be killed during the cooking process, all I would be doing is spreading bacteria to my kitchen sink.

Veggie Sleuthing

Can you name this veggie? According to my receipt from Tai Nam Market (4925 N Broadway St, Chicago), it’s called Ya Choy. Since that meant nothing to me, I looked through a couple Vietnamese and Chinese cookbooks. No mention of it. Thank heavens for Beyond Bok Choy by Rosa Lo San Ross with its clear four-color pictures, detailed veggie descriptions, and alternative names – including of the elusive Ya Choy.

Ya Choy is also called Yau Choy, You Cai, Yu Choy, Oil Seed Rape, or its Latin name Brassica rapa, Chinensis group, making it a sister to Bok Choy. There are probably additional aliases. More may be revealed.

According to Melissa’s Produce, the greens are 20 calories per cup (cooked, I’m assuming) and are extremely high in provitamin A. I’ve e-mailed Melissa’s to find out their nutrition analysis source since there’s nothing on this veggie in the USDA food database. We’ll see how Melissa’s responds.

What does Ya Choy taste like? Like a milder version of broccoli rabe, also known as rapini (so many veggies travel under an alias). Just a little bit of mustardy kick but not bitter.

How to cook them? Below is a basic stir-fry which is a good first taste for most mystery greens. Sesame oil, crushed red pepper flakes, garlic and ginger usually work well with greens.

Mystery Greens Stir Fry
Serves 4

1 T toasted sesame oil (dark, not pale, sesame oil)
¼ - ½ tsp hot crushed red pepper flakes
2 garlic cloves minced or 1 tsp garlic puree
1 tsp minced ginger or ginger puree
1 lb Ya Choy or whatever Asian-esque leafy green you can find in the supermarket, well washed and chopped into 3” segments
Soy sauce (optional)

Heat oil in wok or skillet over a medium high heat. Add red pepper flakes; stir once. Add garlic and ginger; stir for 30 seconds. Add greens; cover wok/skillet for about three minutes until wilted. There should be enough water left on the leaves to steam the greens. Remove cover and stir until veggies are limp. Serve immediately. If you want more flavor, add more red pepper flakes or soy sauce.

Now what to eat with the greens? To accompany the Ya Choy, I made steamed brown rice and my friend Ana’s Asian Red-Simmered Slow Cooker Chicken. Yes, I’m still on a slow cooker kick.

Ana’s Asian Red-Simmered Slow Cooker Chicken
Use a 5-quart or larger oval cooker
Serves 4

1 3-4 lb chicken, rinsed and giblets removed
2 garlic cloves crushed or 1 tsp garlic puree
1 ½ tsp sugar
1 T cooking sherry
¼ c soy sauce
¼ c chicken stock or water
¼ tsp toasted sesame oil
3-4 points of star anise clove (optional)
Scallions with green tops cut into “brushes” (optional)

Place chicken in the slow cooker breast side up. Mix all of the other ingredients together, except for the scallions, and pour over the chicken. Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours. During cooking time, turn over the chicken once or twice or baste bird with liquid. Chicken is done when meat is falling off the bone.

Which is why the chicken looks a little ragged – the bird is falling apart because it’s so tender!!!

Remove chicken from cooker and place on serving platter. Cut as desired.

Pour sauce into fat separator or skim chicken fat off with a spoon. Serve with chicken and scallion brushes. Sauce is excellent over mystery greens and brown rice too.

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.