Raw Food Made Easy!

 

Newsletter
February 2012 
Romance is in the air!  Valentine's Day, the annual celebration of love and chocolate, has arrived just in time to take some of the chill out of February.  And this month's newsletter is designed to help you fall in love...with raw food!  

Show your Valentine how much you care by preparing a homemade raw food meal with versatile cruciferous vegetables as the star of the show in a salad, an entree, and even an alcohol-free cocktail. 

Preparing this delicious menu is a loving gesture of affection and a gift of good health.  It will keep your Valentine's heart (and yours, too) in the mood for love.
In This Issue
All Hail Hearty Kale
Cruciferous Cousins
A Kale 'Mocktail'
A Cabbage of a Different Color
All Hail Hearty Kale
Stuffed MushroomsKale, long a staple of Southern cuisine, is getting a makeover!  This slightly bitter leafy green is traditionally served braised in bacon fat which essentially strips kale of its good nutrients while adding bad fat and cholesterol.  But in the world of raw food, kale is presented in all its healthy glory, with no cooking (and no processed meats) needed.   

Kale makes a great side dish--tasty and healthy--for your Valentine's Day meal.

The biggest challenge with kale is that the leaves can be tough.  But you can make kale more palatable -- and less likely to get caught between your teeth, giving you a less than appealing green smile - by simply marinating the leaves in a dressing of extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice, and salt. This breaks down the fibers, just like cooking, but without the loss of nutrients and flavors.

Here's a raw chef secret for you:  take the time to work the dressing into the kale leaves with your hands.  And the finer that you slice your kale, the easier the marinade can penetrate and soften each leaf.

Marinated kale is the secret ingredient in the Mediterranean Kale recipe in Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 People.  The pine nuts, in particular, have flavors reminiscent of meals enjoyed in romantic Italy and Greece (but you can substitute cashews or another nut if you like). Plus they add a healthy 'scoop' of protein to your meal.  Yum!

Click here to get the Mediterranean Kale recipe.

Cruciferous Cousins and Thai Cabbage Salad
The Cruelest Month

Poet T.S. Eliot calls April 'the cruelest month of the year,' but I beg to differ.  In my opinion, it's February. There's cold air outside, dry air inside, and short days limit exposure to sunshine and the healthy Vitamin D it provides.  

Fortunately, the nutrition provided by raw food, especially cruciferous vegetables, keeps our bodies strong.  And low-cal cruciferous vegetables can help you get in shape for Bikini Season...which is closer than you think!

That sounds good to me!

Cruciferous Cousins

The name 'cruciferous vegetable' may be unfamiliar, but I you have welcomed members of this plant family into your home many times, such as Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and broccoli.  They are packed with vitamins, minerals, nutrients, and even protein, and are among the group of foods known as SuperFoods.  

Plus they taste amazing and can make a great starter salad for your Valentine's Day meal.

The paterfamilias (father) of the cruciferous vegetable family is the cabbage.  Personally, I've never met a cabbage I didn't like.  Each variety has something unique to offer.  (See the sidebar story to learn more)

Cabbage may look tough, but it's really easy to work with:

***Step 1 - Peel away any wilted or damaged outer leaves.

***Step 2 - Rinse the cabbage thoroughly to remove any dirt

***Step 3 - Cut the cabbage in half from south (the stem end) to north)

***Step 4 - Lay the halves on the board flat side down and cut into quarters

***Step 5 - Remove the core from each quarter and discard.

Your cabbage is now ready to be sliced thin with your knife, run through a mandoline, or shredded with a box grater.  Easy, right!

A mound of sliced cabbage is the key ingredient in my Thai Salad recipe. This sophisticated recipe has a crunchy texture and juicy, sweet-sour flavor that is refreshing and satisfying.

Click here to get the recipes for my Thai Salad.

A Kale 'Mocktail'
Toasting with champagne on Valentine's may be traditional, but does it really promote romance?  For a lot of people I know, alcohol simply triggers an upset stomach or the need to nap.  That's not very romantic!

What is romantic is an alcohol-free 'mocktail' that energizes you and gets you ready for a night of...of whatever it is you have planned for Valentine's Day.  Unlike a real cocktail, a healthy juice drink at the start of your meal doesn't kill your appetite and it won't make you feel sluggish later in the evening when it's time to get romantic.

Kale, another member of the cruciferous veggie clan, is featured in  Energizing-Purifying Juice.  As the name suggests, this drink gives you zip and energy and is a great way to start the day.  

It's also a great way to toast romance.  To magically transform this sporty breakfast drink into a romantic beverage, get creative!  Serve it in an elegant martini glass and garnish it with a red radish...cut into the shape of a heart if you're handy with a knife

Click here to get the recipe for Energizing-Purifying Juice with kale.
I hope I've piqued your enthusiasm about all the ways that you can use cabbage in your cooking.  Of course, there's much more this versatile vegetable can do.  And if you'd like to know more, I hope you'll drop by my website - www.learnrawfood.com.  You'll find more cabbage-centric recipes along with video demonstrations that will give you a quick course in a variety of raw food preparation techniques.  

I need 8 hours of 'beauty sleep,' every night, but my website doesn't.  So whether you're up with the early-birdies and looking for ways to add cruciferous vegetables to your morning juice or standing in front of the refrigerator at midnight with the other night owls in your family looking for a healthy snack to enjoy, you'll always find something to satisfy your appetite.

Good-bye and good eats,

 

Jennifer Cornbleet
Learn Raw Food
Be Choosy

I love cabbage!  As well as being a good source of a range of essential nutrients, cabbage also offers something that can keep you slim and trim.  It has the fewest calories and least fat of any vegetable.  There are just 16 calories in a half-cup of this crunchy cruciferous veggie, less than one gram of fat, no cholesterol, 4 grams of carbohydrates, and just 6 milligrams of sodium.

What else do you get in a half-up of cabbage?  How about a gram of protein, 15 grams of vitamin C, and a delicate taste that is positively crave-able.  

And talk about variety!  There are many types of cabbages, each with a distinctive color, texture, and taste.  You can use them interchangeably in recipes to add variety along with nutrition:

***Green Cabbage - delivers a fiber boost to your system

***Red/Purple Cabbage - rich in cancer-fighting beta-carotene

***Savoy Cabbage - rich in sinigrin, a glucosinolate that has received special attention in cancer prevention research

***Napa - filled with phytochemicals that protect women's breast health

***Bok Choy (Chinese cabbage) - an important non-dairy source of calcium to fight osteoporosis

Cabbage is delicious in a variety of incarnations.  Slice it, shred it, tear it, or create a chiffonade - the word chefs use to describe cabbage leaves that have been rolled into a bundle and then thinly sliced to create slim vegetable ribbons that become supple when marinated in a dressing.
Best of the Blog
 After a brief holiday hiatus, my blog was back in January with stories including: