Labels: Culinary RX

If there’s a safe haven in the vegetable kingdom, it’s sweet potatoes. In fact, I bet that if every kid’s introduction to veggies were a sweet potato, it would knock down parental stress over healthy eating by at least 50 percent. I mean, what’s not to love? Sweet taste, beautiful color, and fantastic nutrition, not to mention a creamy texture that allows you to introduce chopped greens in a nonthreatening manner. Here, I’ve added kale, which has some outstanding anticancer properties, and ginger, which aids digestion, for a little zip.  Watch this video to see how quickly this nutrient dense dish comes together.



Kale with Sweet Potatoes and Pecans

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 cup peeled and finely diced
sweet potato or garnet yam
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup Magic Mineral Broth
(page 54) or water
3 cups cleaned, stemmed, and
chopped dinosaur kale, in
bite-size pieces
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons golden raisins
1/4 teaspoon maple syrup
2 tablespoons ground pecans, for garnish

Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat, then add the ginger
and sauté for 30 seconds, just until aromatic. Add the sweet potato,
cinnamon, and broth and sauté for about 1 minute. Add the kale, salt,
and raisins and sauté until the kale is a darker shade of green and the
sweet potatoes are tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the maple syrup,
then do a FASS check and add another pinch of salt if desired.
Serve garnished with the ground pecans.

Variation: The ground pecans have the same texture as a sprinkling
of finely grated cheese. If you’d like something more crunchy,
place 1/4 cup of pecans on a baking sheet and toast at 350°F for 7 to
10 minutes, until aromatic and slightly browned. Chop coarsely before
sprinkling on this beautiful dish.

Prep Time: 15 minutes • Cook Time: 10 minutes
Storage: Store in a covered container in the refrigerator for 5 days.

Per Serving: Calories: 160; Total Fat: 10.1 g (1.3 g saturated, 6.6 g monounsaturated);
Carbohydrates: 17 g; Protein: 3 g; Fiber: 3 g; Sodium: 200 mg

Culinary Rx 
Kale is like a twenty-four-hour pharmacy unto itself. It possesses a variety of phytochemicals that attack different cancers. In one large study, women who ate diets rich in kaempferol (found in kale and other green vegetables such as broccoli, leeks, and spinach) were 40 percent less likely to develop ovarian cancer. Kale has similar effects on the development of bladder and breast cancers. Kale is also rich in numerous antioxidants that promote immune system wellness.

Labels: Culinary RX

For me, the color of October will always be orange. It must have something to do with all the years spent watching "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown," or growing up on the east coast watching the leaves turn flamboyant shades of orange. October not only looks orange, it smells orange. It's the smell of roasted sweet potatoes and squash. Right now, I'm preparing soup for 80 using sweet potatoes. For years, body-builders, who strictly eat to repair muscles after workouts, have feasted daily on sweet potatoes because of the yam’s outstanding nutritional content, ease of digestion, and pleasant flavor. Chock full of beta-carotene, Vitamin A, and other body boosters, sweet potatoes are also extremely anti-inflammatory, which may protect against cancer growth. Of course, as a cook, I like sweet potatoes because they make a wonderful creamy canvass for a soup that’s been warmed up with spices including cinnamon and ginger.

Spiced Sweet Potato Soup

Serves 6

3 sweet potatoes (1 pound each), peeled and diced into 1-inch cubes

2 tablespoons unrefined virgin coconut oil, melted, or olive oil

½ teaspoon sea salt

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon allspice

⅛ teaspoon cardamom

⅛ teaspoon nutmeg

6 to 8 cups Magic Mineral Broth, or a good quality store bought vegetable stock

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place the cubed potatoes in a large mixing bowl and toss with the coconut oil until potatoes are coated. In a small bowl combine ¼ teaspoon salt, cinnamon, allspice, cardamom, and nutmeg and mix until incorporated. Sprinkle the spice mixture over the potatoes and toss again, making sure they are evenly covered with spices.

Place the spiced potatoes in one layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or in a glass baking dish. Move to the oven and roast for 40 minutes, or until tender. Fill a blender with ⅓ cup Magic Mineral Broth and one-third of the roasted potatoes. Blend until smooth, adding more liquid as needed. Transfer to a soup pot. Repeat process several times with remainder of potatoes and broth. Add the remaining ¼ teaspoon of salt and stir. Keep warm on a burner set over low-heat. Ladle into soup bowls or a favorite soup mug.

Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 55 minutes

Storage: Store refrigerated in a covered contained for 5 to 7 days. Soup can also be frozen for up to 2 months

Per Serving: Calories: 280; Total Fat: 4.8 g ( 4g saturated, 0.3 g monounsaturated); Carbohydrates: 57 g; Protein, 5 g; Fiber 9g; Sodium: 465 mg.

Cook Note:

These roasted spiced potatoes are fantastic on their own. Think about making half of a recipe of soup and save the remaining roasted sweet potatoes for a delicious side dish or quick and easy snack.

Culinary RX:

Sweet Potatoes and Yams: Those beautiful orange-yellows of yams and sweet potatoes are the tip-off that these vegetables are loaded with cancer-fighting beta-carotene and vitamin C.

Labels: Culinary RX

I’ve been playing with cinnamon and ginger in its various forms for years. From an Ayurvedic (traditional eastern Indian medicine) perspective, ginger “fires” the body’s digestive hearth, to make the stomach and colon more efficient in metabolizing food. Here I’ve combined ginger with cinnamon’s round, sweet flavor to create a modified Chai tea with some great health benefits. Cinnamon regulates blood sugar, while both ginger and cinnamon contain tumor inhibitors. This tea is a great way to wake up both your taste buds and your tummy.

Cinnamon Ginger Tea
4 cups water
4 1/2-inch slices peeled fresh ginger
1 cinnamon stick
2 teaspoons honey

Bring the water, ginger, and cinnamon stick to a boil in a saucepan, then lower the heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove and discard the ginger and cinnamon stick, stir in the honey, and serve immediately.

Prep Time: 3 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Storage: Store, covered, in the refrigerator for 5 days.
Per Serving: Calories: 13; Total Fat: 0 g (0 g saturated, 0 g monounsaturated);
Carbohydrates: 3 g; Protein: 0 g; Fiber: 0 g; Sodium: 0 mg

Culinary RX: Cinnamon: Appetite stimulant, digestion aid, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antibacterial.

One of my favorite spices for soothing the stomach, cinnamon—or more precisely one of its compounds, cinnamaldehyde—lessens inflammation associated with certain cancers. For those on steroids during chemotherapy, cinnamon also helps to keep blood sugar levels balanced, while its antioxidant and calcium/fiber combination lowers cholesterol and reduces the risk of colon cancer.

Labels: Culinary RX

The herb box outside my kitchen window looks like the enchanted basil forest. Time to make Basil Lemon Drizzle, my favorite dollop. It’s the little black dress of condiments—appropriate in almost any situation. What it really comes down to is lemon zest, basil, and lemon juice, and zingo, you have a condiment that brightens and brings out the flavor in anything you put it on top of—veggies, chicken, fish, whatever. But it isn’t just packed with flavor, it’s also loaded with cancer-fighting properties, including anti-inflammatory agents in the basil and antioxidants in the lemon.

Basil Lemon Drizzle
makes 1/2 cup

1 cup loosely packed fresh
basil leaves
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed
lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon maple syrup
(optional)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Put all of the ingredients in a food processor and process until well
blended.

Variation: For a richer drizzle that’s more like pesto, add 1/4 cup
pecans or walnuts when you process the ingredients.

Prep Time: 5 minutes • Cook Time: Not applicable
Storage: Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 7 to 10 days or in the freezer for 2 months.

Per Serving: Calories: 125; Total Fat: 14.1 g (2 g saturated, 10 g monounsaturated);
Carbohydrates: 1 g; Protein: 0 g; Fiber: 0 g; Sodium: 150 mg

Culinary RX: Basil: Digestion aid, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antibacterial, NF-kB regulator. Radiation destroys cancer cells but can also be harmful to healthy cells. Two flavonoids (chemicals that are part of a plant’s metabolism) in basil, orientin and vicenin, protect human cells from radiation damage, as well as oxygen damage (too much oxygen in the cells, also known as free radicals, can be harmful). Basil’s oils also have anti-inflammatory effects similar to those found in asparagus. If your taste buds are off, or a sore throat or irritated mouth is affecting taste, basil can have a corrective effect.

Labels: Culinary RX