Swine Flu Vaccine Soup

Greens, Garlic, Ginger Soup

There is a lot of news these days about the dread H1N1 flu going around.  I’m not here to parse myth from fact,  but I do have a delicious soup recipe for you!  There are many immune stimulating reasons to eat this soup and I hope you find it as calming to your fears as it is nourishing to your body!

 

It is not necessary to make your own soup stock, but I did, and I threw some things in there that are good for the immune system, so I will share them with you.

Veggie Stock:

• Onion cut into quarters (I don’t peel it because the peel is rich in a flavonoid called quercitin)
• Garlic: a handful (garlic and onions both enhance the activities of our white blood cells which fight viruses)
• celery: 4-8 stalks
• carrots: 3-6
• tomatoes: 4-5 (I used Romas)
• zucchini: one cut into chunks
• Mushrooms: 8-10 big ones, cut up
• 2 bay leaves, small handful of peppercorns, fennel seed
• 6 slices of dried astragalus (an antiviral herb)
• 6 slices of dried burdock root ( a tonic)
• 6 slices of dried licorice root (an antiviral herb)
• handful of dried cleavers (an herb good for moving lymph)
• small handful of kelp

Put all the vegetables and herbs in a large stainless steel pot and cover with water.  Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer for 3-4 hours.  Strain solids out and discard.  Pour vegetable stock into jars for storage.  Freezes well.

vegetables strained out of stock

 

 

 

 

 

Vegetable Stock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that you have your stock ready, or if you are using prepared stock, it just takes a few minutes to prepare the soup.

 

 

Greens, Garlic, Ginger Soup/ Swine Flu Vaccine Soup

• 3 cups stock (veggie or chicken)
• 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh ginger
• 6 cloves fresh garlic (I have a stone that fits nicely into my hand that I use to smash garlic.  Once smashed, the skin comes off easily.)
  

  garlic stone

Bring to a boil and let the ginger and garlic simmer for 5-10 minutes in the broth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

• add 6-8 cups of chopped greens: kale, spinach, escarole, bok choy

escarole

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let the greens cook for 5 minutes or so.

• add salt and pepper to taste

greens

 

Blend in blender, food processor, or vita mix, until pureed.

Drink up!

Remember there are a few other simple things you can do to keep your immune system strong:

• Get adequate sleep
• Stay away from sugar and simple carbohydrates
• Get enough vitamin D
• Reduce your stress levels
• Laugh, love, and feel grateful everyday

I ordered my dried herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs

The Penultimate Pickle Manifesto

Zydeco Beans

Last night sitting on the back patio at a friends house, we engaged in a lively discussion of the meaning of the word “penultimate”.  It means “second to last.”  It got interesting though when you consider our negative connotation of “last.”  We don’t think of coming in last as the “ultimate” do we?  I liked the analogy that Holly brought up:  Think of climbing a mountain.  The last part is the peak, the highest part, the goal, the… ultimate.  In the Tour de France, Philip pointed out, the penultimate stage is the second to the last stage.  What does this have to do with pickles you may be asking yourself?  Those who know me well, know that I have been a bit fascinated with pickling things for quite some years now.  Before medical school I used to spend my summers canning and pickling, but in the busy years of school I have discovered the blessed “quick” pickle.  And believe me they are a blessing.  The are so easy to make.  Last christmas I made a bunch of pickles for a party and Sadie said I needed to write a “Pickle Manifesto”  for my blog.  I have been thinking about that ever since.  Writing a manifesto is just too big of an assignment for me.  That’s why I have a blog instead of a cookbook.  Also too big.  My life is very busy.  I just barely have enough time for a quick pickle and a short blog post.  Therefore, consider this my penultimate pickle manifesto, and be pleasantly surprised, but don’t hold your breath for the ultimate pickle manifesto to be written.

Do pickles have health benefits?  There are many health benefits of traditionally fermented pickles.  Fermented foods are a great way to increase the beneficial flora in our digestive systems.  The quick pickles that I have been making are not fermented however, they are bathed briefly in vinegar and spices.  I find that they are a delicious way to eat more vegetables, which has to be a good thing!  I speculate also that if pickles were eaten before meals, the vinegar would stimulate the production of digestive enzymes which primes the stomach to be able to digest the upcoming meal.

One of my favorite pickle cookbooks is by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby, Quick Pickles: Easy Recipes with Big Flavor, and lately I have been using The Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich, which is chock full of every kind of pickle recipe you could imagine.

Just to illustrate my pickle crazed state, I confess I spent yesterday in 100 degree Oregon weather canning pickled beans.  I was dripping with sweat, but happy.  Here is the recipe, adapted from The Joy of Pickling:

Zydeco Beans

3 pounds yellow wax beans trimmed to fit into a pint canning jar

6 garlic cloves, 6 fresh serrano peppers, 6 dill heads, 6 teaspoons brown mustard seeds

31/2 cups white wine vinegar

31/2 cups water

2 tablespoons sea salt or kosher

Into each of 6 clean pint jars, put a garlic clove, pepper, dill head, and teaspoon of mustard seeds.  Pack the beans vertically into the jars fitting as many as you can in each jar. 

In a saucepan, bring the vinegar, water and salt to a boil.  Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the beans, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Close the jars with two piece caps.  Process the jars for 5 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Store the cooled jars for at least 3 weeks before eating them.  Store in the refrigerator after opening.

Wax beans

Asian Three Bean Salad

edamame

I have to share this salad because it has been very popular this summer.  It is easy to make, keeps well, is very nourishing.  It has a good amount of protein because of the edamame (soy beans) and black beans.  It is high in good fiber.  It looks lovely and tastes great!  Unfortunately I have not taken any pictures of it yet, so you will have to use your imaginations.

The recipe comes form Ellie Krieger’s magazine “Eat Smart”

Asian-Style Three-Bean Salad

Ellie Krieger

1 pound fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 bag (10 oz) of frozen shelled edamame
1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed

Steam the green beans and the edamame together for 4-5 minutes.  Quickly drain and rinse them in cold water to stop them from overcooking.  Add all the beans to a bowl.

3 Tablespoons organic canola or grapeseed oil
3 Tablespoons rice vinegar
1/4 cup 100% fruit apricot preserves
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon peeled and grated fresh ginger

Whisk together and add to beans.  Let the beans marinate in the refrigerator for an hour or longer.
When ready to serve, slice a few scallions and stir them in or use as garnish on top.

All Work and No Play

I have been working too much lately.  I had a rush of catering business right during finals week.  (actually at my school we are lucky enough to get TWO weeks of final exams)  Today was my first day of summer vacation.  I just want to remind everyone of the health benefits of FUN!  The cascade of neurotransmitters and hormones that are released when we are relaxed, laughing, truly enjoying ourselves are worth so much more to our health than eating just the right combination of vitamin k, high fiber, amino acid, alkaline producing diet could ever be.  O.K.   I’m not advocating hedonism, but a little balance.   Mostly this is a reminder to myself, but if it applies to anyone else, listen up:  Make sure that playing is not something that gets overlooked or put on the back burner.  It’s important.

Another Turnip Post

Salmon and Turnips

We got turnips again this week.  I am ecstatic!  For lunch I sauteed them with some chopped ginger and scallions (coconut oil, of course), added a splash of tamari sauce and covered them for a minute to steam.  Then I added the greens in at the end and cooked them until they were wilted.  I served the turnips and greens with a piece of steamed salmon.

Noodle Alternatives

Many people are finding that they feel better when they avoid gluten, a protein found in wheat, spelt, rye, barley, kamut, triticale.  Other folks are trying to eat fewer simple carbohydrates.  And most of us are trying to find new and interesting ways to eat more vegetables.  I put myself into all three categories.  I have a few suggestions for folks like myself who need an alternative to the noodle!  First, the Spaghetti Squash.  For instructions on cooking a spaghetti squash click here. It is a little starchy, in strands like pasta, soaks up the sauce.  I think it is a very satisfying alternative to pasta.  Second, zuchini “pasta”.   Easy to make and delicious. 

zuchini pasta with basil pesto and pork tenderloin

And a third is Konnyaku, a high fiber noodle made from Konjac.  They are sometimes called Shirataki noodles and can be made partly with tofu.  You can buy them in Asian grocery stores.  The fiber in konjac, is a soluble fiber called glucomannan which has been studied in relation to Type II Diabetes and Insulin Resistance.  It has been shown to help reduce blood sugar and lower high cholesterol.  The noodles are easy to use, just open the bag, rinse, and add to soup or stir fry.  They are a filling, low calorie, gluten free option to replace our beloved noodle!

shirataki noodles

Ode To the Hakurei Turnip

This week's CSA offerings

I am crazy in love with the turnips that we get from our CSA.  They are the white things on the right, a little bigger than the radishes.  If your only experience with turnips involves the overgrown purple and white root vegetable that has been sitting in the bin at the grocery store too long, I ask you to set aside your preconceived notions of the turnip.  This week was our first vegetable pick up of the season.  We have been members of the Sauvie Island Organics CSA (Community Supported Agriculture to learn more about community supported agriculture or to find a farm near you click on the link) for about 5 years now.   They do a bang up job of raising the most delicious, nutritious, variety of vegetables that come straight from the farm to us every tuesday from May to late November.  The first year we became members it was a challenge for my family of four (two teenaged boys) to eat all the vegetables every week.  I actually (gasp) started eating vegetables for breakfast!  Instead of a vegetable side dish at dinner we would have two or three different veggies.   We all know that as confusing as nutrition advice can be, everyone agrees on one thing:  Eat More Veggies! Now, five years later we easily consume our weekly treasure chest of fresh, organic vegetables.  And can I put in a plug here for feeding kids local, organic, real vegetables as opposed to slimy, “baby” carrots and bags of prewashed salad greens?  Organic, farm fresh food actually tastes better people!  Kids will eat it!    And when vegetables are as fresh and vibrant as these are, you really don’t need to doctor them up too much when you cook them.  A little olive oil, a sqeeze of lemon and some good salt (you know how I feel about that) is the only “recipe” you need!

Is it not true however that most things in life can be improved with bacon?  And that is my favorite thing to do with the Hakurei Turnips!  Sautee up a couple of pieces of bacon which has been cut into small pieces with kitchen shears.  Add some onions or leeks if you like.  Quarter the turnips and add them to the bacon.  Let them cook for a while in the bacon fat, stirring occasionally.  After about 10 minutes or so add a splash of vinegar.  Sherry vinegar, or red wine vinegar.  (As an aside, I keep dried burdock sliced soaking in a jar of red wine vinegar and use it for salads and things like this.  The burdock adds little flavor, but I feel I am adding a wonderful herbal tonic for my liver and blood whenever I use it!)  Cover the turnips with a lid of some sort and let them steam in the vinegar for a few minutes.  Then uncover and keep cooking until they are browned and fork tender.  Depending on the size of your turnip slices you may need to steam them in a little water also to get them cooked all the way through.  But be sure to brown them up a the end of the cooking time.  Salt and pepper to taste.   And don’t forget that the greens are delicious too!  Cook them up separately or throw them in near the end of the cooking time of the turnips.  Nutrition facts for turnips can be found here.   Turnips are a cruciferous root vegetable, a member of the brassica family and share similar health benefits to cabbages, broccoli, and cauliflower.  They are low in calories (so don’t feel guilty about the bacon), high in vitamin C, and fiber.

Mother’s Day Breakfast After First Farmer’s Market

mother's day love

The days of bagels, cream cheese, lox and red onion are over.  Who needs it?  Check out what my loving husband and father of my beautiful boys whipped up for me this morning.  Greens sauteed in coconut oil, lightly garnished with black sesame and fleur de sel, poached eggs and the first local strawberries of the season.  I am loved!

Brain Food

This nourishes me on so many levels I had to share it with you!

Spring Radishes

Every January in Portland our Winter Flowering Cherry trees start to bloom and my husband exclaims that “Spring is here!”  I always have to correct him by reminding him they are called “Winter”  flowering cherry trees.  But then he goes on to say well yes, that is true, BUT…  think about it, the daffodils are up in February, and the daphne flowers, and then in March all of Portland explodes in flowering plum, cherry, magnolia.  So REALLY, those “winter” flowering cherry trees are just heralding the begining of the end of winter.

spring in a bowl

But for me the real sign of spring is new radishes!  I love their spicy crunch.  (delicious when sprinkled with really good salt)  Often eating seasonally turns out to have health benefits and I wondered what those might be for radishes.  Radishes are high in Vitamin C, folic acid, potassium, B6, and fiber.  Because they are in the family of cruciferous vegetables (Kale, Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, Turnips) they offer protection against cancer.  In the Chinese calendar, spring is associated with the Liver, and radishes contain sulphur based compounds that increase the flow of bile.  Stimulating a sluggish gallbladder and liver after a winter of eating heavier foods sounds like good medicine.  And in case anyone needs one more good reason to eat radishes, their high water and fiber content means that they are filling and satisfying for anyone looking for a snack that can support weight loss.

Eat fresh sliced radishes on a cracker (gluten free crackers from Mary’s Gone Crackers shown here) with a little chevre.