White Bean and Kale Stew

I may be a little obsessed with nutrient-dense foods and repeating over and over again how greens, beans and onions are an immune-boosting power cocktail, but putting aside repetition, this soup is flavorful and sticks to the ribs.

Variations:

  • Add other vegetables (bell pepper, a turnip, maybe a cup of chopped broccoli or cauliflower) depending on what is in my refrigerator
  • Garbanzo beans or kidney beans if that was on hand
  • Add sausage (cook with the chopped onions)
  • Add leftover cooked chicken when adding the kale
  • Use other greens (spinach, swiss chard) instead of kale
Kale and White Bean Stew
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Servings
4 servings
Servings
4 servings
Kale and White Bean Stew
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Servings
4 servings
Servings
4 servings
Ingredients
Adjust servings: servings
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Instructions
  1. Heat olive oil in medium pot over medium heat. Add chopped onions and cook 5 minutes. Add carrots and celery, cook another 5 – 10 minutes until softened, add garlic and cook 2 more minutes.
  2. Add white wine and simmer 8 minutes.
  3. Add white beans, 4 cups broth, thyme sprigs, and bay leaf and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 20 minutes.
  4. Add kale and simmer 5 minutes longer. Remove thyme sprigs and bay leaf.
  5. Mix in vinegar and chopped fresh herbs. Season with salt and pepper.
Recipe Notes
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Spinach Citrus Salad

In our garden in Cochabamba lives a wonderfully enthusiastic orange tree. It produces truly an astonishing amount of fruit; we’ll harvest 200+ oranges and the tree looks still fully loaded.
The garden is also home to a grapefruit tree, more modest in its output.
With such abundance, orange and grapefruit ended up in this pretty and delicious combination.

Variations:

  • Use only orange or only grapefruit
  • Use orange and beet (roasted or steamed) slices (cut into similar shape as orange segments
  • Use peach or nectarine in place of citrus
  • Add toasted pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds or slivered almonds
Spinach and Citrus Salad
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Servings
4 servings
Servings
4 servings
Spinach and Citrus Salad
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Servings
4 servings
Servings
4 servings
Ingredients
Salad Dressing
Adjust servings: servings
Units:
Instructions
  1. Cut away all peel and pith from grapefruit and orange. Separate segments from between membranes
  2. Place spinach and chopped green onion in large bowl. Toss with 2 – 3 tablespoons salad dressing.
  3. Place tossed spinach and green onions on a platter.
  4. Arrange orange and grapefruit segments on top of spinach.
  5. Drizzle another 3 – 4 tablespoons of salad dressing over the salad
Salad Dressing
  1. Mix salt an apple cider vinegar until salt dissolves
  2. In a slow steady stream add extra-virgin olive oil, whisking
  3. Whisk in 2 tablespoons water. Add 1 – 2 tablespoons water if to strong for your taste. Adjust salt and pepper
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CMF Basic Salad Dressing

Store-bought salad dressings generally contain

  • high-fructose corn syrup
  • transfats and
  • MSG and other additives.

6 Shocking Facts About Your Salad Dressing

Homemade salad dressing is quite simple and takes only minutes to make. With practice, measuring isn’t necessary,  just whisk and go, adjusting by taste.

[su_expanding_quote_book source_author=”Sally Fallon” source_title=”Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats” full_quote=”We should avoid all bottled and commercial salad dressings, which are invariably made with cheap, low-quality oils that have been stripped of their nutrients and rendered dangerously rancid by high-temperature or solvent extraction processes. Bottles dressings are further adulterated with many ingredients including stabilizers, preservatives, artificial flavors and colors, not to mention refined sweeteners. Almost all bottled salad dressings—particularly low-fat varieties—contain neurotoxic MSG, hydrolyzed vegetable protein or similar substances. These flavor enhancers are not always listed on the labeled. Ingredients listed as “natural flavors” or “spices” may contain MSG.” short_quote=”We should avoid all bottled and commercial salad dressings, which are invariably made with cheap, low-quality oils that have been stripped of their nutrients”]

Variations:

  • Lime Vinaigrette: Use fresh squeezed lemon (or lime juice) instead of vinegar
  • Balsamic: Use balsamic vinegar instead
  • Dijon: Add 1/2 – 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (season to taste)
  • Creamy: Add 1 – 2 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt
  • Add 1 garlic clove minced (I always include garlic unless the salad has fruit in it)
  • Add 2 tablespoons onion, finely chopped
CMF Basic Dressing
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Servings
1 cup dressing
Servings
1 cup dressing
CMF Basic Dressing
Print Recipe
Servings
1 cup dressing
Servings
1 cup dressing
Ingredients
Adjust servings: cup dressing
Units:
Instructions
  1. Mix salt an apple cider vinegar until salt dissolves
  2. In a slow steady stream add extra-virgin olive oil, whisking
  3. Whisk in 2 tablespoons water. Add 1 – 2 tablespoons water if to strong for your taste. Adjust salt and pepper
Recipe Notes

[su_original_recipe]

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Sweet Potato and Poblano Pepper Salad

Oh la la the contrasts in this dish: color, texture, sweet and spicy. Now here’s a potato salad I love!

Add the black beans and it’s robust and filling enough to be a main entree.

I serve it at room temperature. You can make it a day ahead. If so (the dressing gets absorbed over night), mix 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar with 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil and toss again before serving.

It’s very popular at our summer dinner parties. I like to serve it with pork tenderloin (grilled or roasted), a quinoa pilaf and a green salad. Vegetarians/vegans can skip the pork and still have a well-balanced, delicious meal.

It also pairs well with grilled chicken.

Sweet potatoes are rich in cartenoids, orange, yellow or red-colored fat soluble compounds that protect plants from sun damage while they help them attract birds and bees for pollination. Cartenoids help protect us from free radicals, modulate our immune response, enhance cell-to-cell communication and play a major role in protecting the skin and eyes from damaging effects of ultraviolet light. Foods rich in cartenoids have been linked to a host of health-promoting and disease-fighting activities. They have been shown to decrease the risk of various cancers, including lung, colon, bladder, cervical, breast and skin.
Superfoods RX: Fourteen Foods that Will Change Your Life, Steven Pratt, MD and Kathy Matthews

 

Sweet Potato and Poblano Pepper Salad
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Servings
4 servings
Servings
4 servings
Sweet Potato and Poblano Pepper Salad
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Servings
4 servings
Servings
4 servings
Ingredients
Dressing
Salad
Adjust servings: servings
Units:
Instructions
  1. For the dressing: Mix everything (vinegar, honey, water, rosemary, onion, mustard) except extra-virgin olive oil in a small bowl. Gradually whisk in olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
  2. If organic, simply scrub the sweet potatoes. If not organic, peel sweet potatoes. Cut sweet potato into bite-size pieces and place in a pot with a steamer basket, cover and cook over medium heat for 6 - 8 minutes until sweet potatoes are tender. Run under cold water and drain.
  3. Cut poblano pepper in half, remove seeds and cut into bite size pieces. Place in a bowl, add cooled sweet potatoes, black beans (if using) and onion in large bowl and toss.
  4. Add parsley and drizzle dressing; toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
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Spinach and Pea Salad

This is a quick salad that infuses the body with a  good dosage of vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. This can be a foundation on which to add many different ingredients: add some left-over quinoa and a hardboiled egg for a satisfying meal. Use defrosted edamame or lima beans instead of the peas and add a chopped ripe avocado.

Fresh green peas in their pods
Spinach and Pea Salad
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"Spinach is associated with the lowest levels of cancer, heart disease, cataracts, and macular degeneration. The more spinach people eat, the less likely they are to develop any of those disases. Spinach contains a stunning collection of micronutrients, including lutein, beta-carotene, plant-derived omega-3 fatty acids (only a few plants vegetables contain these faty acids), antioxidents, vitamins B12, C and E, coenzyme Q10, the minerals calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese and zinc. It also has chlorophyll, which may be a potent anticancer substance." SuperFoods Rx: Fourteen Foods that Will Change Your Life, by Steven Pratt MD and Kathy Matthews
Fresh green peas in their pods
Spinach and Pea Salad
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"Spinach is associated with the lowest levels of cancer, heart disease, cataracts, and macular degeneration. The more spinach people eat, the less likely they are to develop any of those disases. Spinach contains a stunning collection of micronutrients, including lutein, beta-carotene, plant-derived omega-3 fatty acids (only a few plants vegetables contain these faty acids), antioxidents, vitamins B12, C and E, coenzyme Q10, the minerals calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese and zinc. It also has chlorophyll, which may be a potent anticancer substance." SuperFoods Rx: Fourteen Foods that Will Change Your Life, by Steven Pratt MD and Kathy Matthews
Ingredients
Salad
Adjust servings:
Units:
Instructions
  1. Place salt and pepper in a small bowl. Add vinegar and water and stir until salt is dissolved.
  2. Whisk in extra virgin olive oil.
  3. Season to your taste by adjusting salt and pepper, and also another tablespoon or two of extra virgin olive oil.
Salad
  1. Place all ingredients in salad bowl, toss and serve.
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Spinach, Grated Broccoli, and Grape Salad

With the current enthusiasm for the health benefits of kale, spinach seems to have been pushed into the background. But it is to has stood the test of time as an incredibly nutritious food. Medical research continues to demonstrate its value.

[su_expanding_quote_without_link source=”SuperFoods Rx: Fourteen Foods that Will Change your Life”full_quote=”In epidemiological studies, it’s been found that the more spinach consumed, the lower the risk of almost every type of cancer…There are a number of different flavonoid compounds in spinach working to prevent different stages of cancer development. Spinach contains two vital antioxidants—glutathione and alpha lipoic acid. The first is the primary antioxidant in all cells where its critically important job is to protect our DNA. It repairs damaged DNA, promotes healthy cell replication, boosts the immune systems and reduces chronic inflammation. Alpha lipoic acid not only boosts glutathione, it helps stabilize blood sugar…Lutein, another powerful antioxidant in spinach, works to enhance the body’s immune system, thus warding off many types of cancers.” short_quote=”In epidemiological studies, it’s been found that the more spinach consumed, the lower the risk of almost every type of cancer…There are a number of different flavonoid compounds in spinach working to prevent different stages of cancer”]
spinach broccoli grape salad
Spinach, Grated Broccoli, and Grape Salad
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spinach broccoli grape salad
Spinach, Grated Broccoli, and Grape Salad
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Ingredients
CMF Vinaigrette
Salad
Adjust servings:
Units:
Instructions
CMF Vinaigrette
  1. Place salt and pepper in a small bowl, add vinegar and water, stir until salt is dissolved
  2. Whisk in extra virgin olive oil
  3. Season to your taste by adjusting salt and pepper, and also another tablespoon or two of extra virgin olive oil
Salad
  1. Mix all ingredients in a salad bowl
  2. Drizzle vinaigrette on top and toss until combined
Recipe Notes

[su_original_recipe]

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Spinach Orange Salad

Spinach is a powerful super food, as are onions and oranges.

[su_expanding_quote_without_link source=”SuperFoods Rx: Fourteen Foods that Will Change Your Life, Steven Pratt M.D. and Kathy Matthews” full_quote=”Citrus flavonoids are found in the fruit’s tissue, juice, pulp and skin and have been shown to inhibit cancer cell growth, strengthen capillaries, act as anti-inflammatories and they are antiallergenic and antimicrobial. Flavonoid intake is inversely associated with the incidence of heart attack and stroke as well as a host of other ailments. ” short_quote=”Citrus flavonoids found in the fruit’s tissue, juice, pulp and skin and have been shown to inhibit cancer cell growth”]
Spinach Orange Salad
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Servings
4
Servings
4
Spinach Orange Salad
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Servings
4
Servings
4
Ingredients
Vinaigrette
Salad
Adjust servings:
Units:
Instructions
Dressing
  1. Whisk fresh orange juice, apple cider vinegar, orange zest and red onion in little bowl to blend.
  2. Gradually whisk in 1/2 cup of olive oil.
Salad
  1. In a large bowl, toss spinach with orange segments and half of black olives.
  2. Toss salad with enough dressing to coat lightly.
  3. Sprinkle remaining olives on top and serve.
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Zesty Green Salad Packs a Healthy Punch

Mixed Green Salad with Oranges, Dried Cranberries and Pecans is one of my favorite salads from Epicurious.com

I was tempted to skip soaking the cranberries in orange juice, but it’s worth that extra step. It take the salad from good to extraordinary. I seriously altered the salad dressing, but I always do—I like my salads to have punch.

Cranberries are high on lists of healthy foods because of their antioxidant content. This combination of cranberries, oranges, greens and nuts provides a significant healthy boost. I’ve also used spinach, and finely sliced kale instead of mixed baby greens. And any nut or seed (sunflower, pumpkin) can replace the pecans.

Mixed Green Salad with Pecans and Cranberries
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Mixed Green Salad with Pecans and Cranberries
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Ingredients
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Units:
Instructions
  1. Bring 1/2 cup orange juice to simmer in heavy small saucepan. Remove from heat. Mix in dried cranberries. Let stand until softened, about 30 minutes. Drain well; reserve juice.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk oil, vinegar, orange peel and the juice the cranberries soaked in. Mix in cranberries. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead.)
  3. Place greens in large bowl. Toss with 2/3 of dressing. Add orange segments to bowl, reserving a handful of pieces. Add pecans, reserving about 2 tablespoons. Toss with remaining dressing. Top salad reserved orange segments and pecans.
Recipe Notes

Optional: After tossing salad in the bowl, spread it on a platter, arrange reserved orange slices decoratively on top and sprinkle with pecans. The platter makes a prettier presentation.

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