Month: April 2022

Purple Cabbage Soup

Just look at those colors! This bowl was leftovers from yesterday. I garnished it with a little avocado and had it for lunch on the sunny deck (even though it was only 50 degrees today).

See the source image

Look at that vibrant purple color!

I love red cabbage! Aside from the fact that I love the color, it happens to be one of the most nutrient dense vegetables on this planet and with many medicinal properties. It is rich in sulforaphane (a sulfur compound) which is a powerful cancer and inflammation fighter. Yes, sulfur rich foods make farts smell like rotten eggs. Look at this as a minor inconvenience compared to the powerful preventative and healing properties of this absolutely amazing vegetable.

Red cabbage contains anthocyanins which give cabbage it’s vibrant color. Anthocyanins are powerful antioxidants which lower the risk of heart disease. There are studies which confirm that regular consumption of red cabbage helps lower blood pressure and the risk of heart attacks.

Red cabbage contains calcium, manganese, zinc, vitamin C and K. These nutrients are helpful in maintaining healthy bones and protecting bone cells.

While red cabbage is good to eat it is also a great source of kitchen chemistry fun. Remember good old high school chemisty 101 and using cabbage as a pH indicator? Baking soda (base) turned it blue. Vinegar (acid) turned it pink. Water (neutral) turned it purple. You can turn making this soup with a child into an amazing little chemisty lab. It is a great source of entertainment when the vinegar is added and the soup turns from purple to red – pink (depending on how much you add) and then adding the almond milk magically turns it violet. It is a great source of entertainment with teachable opportunities for children and might also encourage little Ralphie or Suzie to love eating this rediculously healthy veggie!

Ingredients

  • 1 medium head of red cabbage roughly chopped
  • 1 large or 2 small potatoes peeled and cubed
  • 1 medium onion chopped
  • 4 cloves of garlic minced
  • 3 tbsps. red wine vinegar (more or less depending on personal taste)
  • 4 cups vegetable stock
  • 1 cup unsweetened plain almond milk
  • 1 tbsp. fresh ginger minced
  • 1 tbsp. ground black pepper
  • 2 tbsps. chopped fresh dill (dried if you don’t have fresh)

Directions

  1. Saute the onions and garlic in a small amount of water until onions are translucent.
  2. Add the cabbage, potatoes, ginger and black pepper until the cabbage softens (about 10 minutes) stirring intermittently.
  3. Add the vegetable stock and simmer for approximately 30 minutes or until the potatoes are nice and soft.
  4. Turn off the heat and allow the mixture to cool somewhat. Add small amounts at a time to high speed blender and puree. Return pureed mixture to the soup pan. Add the red wine vinegar and stir on high heat for approximately 2 minutes.
  5. Stir in the almond milk and dill. Serve piping hot with Wasa crispbread, your favorite sandwich wrap or a salad.

The potatoes add to the creaminess of this soup and the starch is a natural thickener.

Depending upon how much acid or base you add this soup can turn anywhere from mauve, violet, lavender, grape or plum.

The prettiest soup I have ever made!

Cashew Cranberry Cucumber Salad with Balsamic Date Vinaigrette

Cashew Cranberry Cucumber Salad

Well today was a balmy 60 degrees in NE Ohio and upper 70’s predicted for the weekend. I’m starting to get excited about lighter more warm weather types of foods. I never really thought about a cucumber salad until my daughter-in-law made one recently using gourmet cucumbers. Boy was it delicious!

I’ve seen English seedless cucumbers in the grocery store. You know – the long thin ones wrapped in plastic. So I decided to try them for the first time. I, of course, had to ask someone why they are wrapped in plastic. The knowledgeable Heinen’s produce guy told me it’s to protect them from getting bruised seeing that the skin is so thin and fragile. It is not necessary to peel an English cucumber for this reason which means added nutrients and anti-oxidants.

Having had regular cucumbers and now the seedless variety I would definitely say seedless is the way to go for an all cucumber salad. Regular cucumbers are less expensive but have a tough waxy skin, large seeds which can be difficult to eat and not a whole lot of flavor. I think they are a nice addition to a leafy salad but not an exclusively cucumber salad. English cucumbers are more expensive but have edible skin, no seeds to deal with and a sweet flavor.

Because cucumbers are low in calories (about 45 calories in one cucumber) they are an excellent choice if you are trying to manage your weight. They are composed of 95% water so are great little hydration stations too. They also are high in soluble fiber. As soluble fiber dissolves it produces a gel that binds with cholesterol and sugar. For this reason this type of fiber helps to improve cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

A cucumber is a vegetable right? Wrong. Don’t feel bad if you are like me and thought is was. Apparently anything that contains the seeds of the plant is a fruit. So cucumbers, tomatoes and avocados are technically all fruits.

Ingredients / Directions

  • English cucumber washed and unpeeled. Use a potato peeler to make long ribbon slices.
  • Dried, unsweetened cranberries
  • Cashews
  • Dried edamame (immature soybeans)

Note: You are the author of your cucumber salad. Use whatever additions you want or have on hand at home. I think other good add-ins are thinly sliced red onions, radish, cherry tomatoes, fresh dill or cilantro.

Balsamic Date Vinaigrette: 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar, 1 tbsp. date syrup and 1 tbsp. water

Balsamic Date Vinaigrette Salad Dressing. I mean honestly you can’t get any easier then this! You can make a larger batch and keep refrigerated for up to 2 weeks. Need extra tang? Add dijon mustard and black pepper – although personally I think less is more.
See the source image
Look at these beauties!

Miso Soup with Baby Bok Choy and Shiitake Mushrooms

Miso Soup with Baby Bok Choy and Shiitake Mushrooms

Well I was up at good ‘ole Lucky’s Market over the weekend and saw some baby bok choy (Chinese White Cabbage). It is not always the easiest to find. Regular bok choy is readily available but not baby. While they are basically the same, baby bok choy leaves are small, tender, sweeter and can be eaten uncooked in a salad. I remember the first time I discovered bok choy was back in my January post Baby Bok Choy with Tahini-Ginger Sauce. That guy in the produce aisle holding the bok choy like it was a prize trophy or fish or something, admiring it, smiling and telling me how beautiful it looks. And then his words of advice “it has to be baby bok choy – not mature stalks!” Some things you never forget. That is one of them.

So I’ve been thinking about miso soup for a few weeks now. It’s been quite awhile since we had it and I really appreciate the simplicity of this soup. For those of you unfamiliar, miso is a traditional Japanese soup with the core ingredients: stock and miso paste. Miso paste is a mixture of fermented soybeans, sea salt and koji (Japanese mold). You can find it in just about any grocery store usually in the produce or tofu section. I know what you are thinking. This is a no salt website and miso paste clearly contains sea salt. Well apparently the positive effects of soybeans cancel out the hypertensive and gastric cancer effects of sodium. That being said, miso paste is the only sodium containing product that is considered green light. Here is some supporting research.

In addition to the stock and miso paste anything else you want to put in is completely up to you. Some typical add-ins are seaweed, kelp, tofu, mushrooms, scallions and bok choy. If you like you can serve miso soup with rice noodles(very thin), udon noodles (thick) or ramen noodles.

Ingredients

  • 6-7 ribs of baby bok choy (cut in pieces)
  • 3 scallions (cut in small pieces)
  • 10 shiitake mushrooms cut in pieces (remove stems)
  • 1 block extra firm and pressed tofu (cut in small cubes)
  • 6 cups vegetable or mushroom broth
  • 4 tbsp. miso paste
  • 1 tbsp. fresh grated ginger
  • 1/2 tsp. black pepper
  • Rice, udon or ramen noodles
Baby Bok Choy, Ginger, Scallions, Shiitake Mushrooms, Extra Firm Tofu, Miso Paste, Vegetable or Mushroom Broth
Cooked Rice Noodles

Directions

  1. Place broth and ginger in a pot over medium heat.
  2. Add mushrooms, bok choy, white tips of scallions and black pepper and simmer for 10 minutes. Note: I remove the shiitake stems because to me they are too tough and chewy. I save them for mushroom or veggie broth.
  3. Add the tofu and simmer for a few minutes until warm.
  4. Turn off the heat and stir in the miso paste. Note: never add miso when soup is simmering or too hot because it will kill off the gut healthy probiotics.
  5. Serve over rice noodles and garnish with cut up green scallions.
Umani is another term for savoriness and is considered one of the 5 basic tastes. In Japan it means “the essence of deliciousness” and is the perfect description of miso soup.
Miso soup with noodles is rich enough to eat alone but tonight we paired it with sushi. I wish I can take credit for making the sushi. That’s on my bucket list of things to learn.