Category — Spotlight on…

It’s that time of year…pumpkins on the doorstep, pumpkins as centerpieces, and yes, pumpkin on the menu!

Pumpkin is often referred to as a “superfood” because it’s so incredibly nutritious. Yet I know many people who have carved a pumpkin yearly their entire lives but never actually cooked and eaten one (no, pumpkin pie from the supermarket is not quite the same).

Pumpkin is a low-calorie food that contains protein, fiber, vitamin C, potassium, and beta-carotene. It also contains powerful antioxidants known as carotenoids, which have the ability to reduce the risk of various types of cancer, heart disease, cataracts, and macular degeneration.

Choosing & Storing Pumpkins

Pumpkins come in the big carving variety (which yes, can be eaten if you scoop out the seeds and pulp, then scrap away as much of the flesh as you can while still leaving a shell for carving) and many other smaller varieties which are better for eating, such as the small, orange sugar pie pumpkins, pale beige, ribbed cheese pumpkins, flat, vibrant red French pumpkins, and round, heirloom Winter Luxury pumpkins.

You should choose pumpkins that feel solid and heavy, because they dry out and become lighter as they age. The shells should be hard with no cracks or soft spots. Pumpkins will keep for up to a month if you store them in a cool, dry place. Once you cut them, pumpkins should be wrapped in plastic, refrigerated, and used within 4 days.

This year, don’t miss out! You can enjoy your pumpkin any number of ways. Check out the recipes below, and be sure to subscribe to my monthly email newsletter and receive my new pumpkin muffin recipe in this month’s edition, coming out soon!

• Pumpkin Soup
• Pumpkin Lasagna - Real Simple
• Pumpkin Risotto – Food & Wine
  
• Quinoa and Corn Salad with Pumpkin Seeds – Whole Living
• Black Bean and Roasted Pumpkin Salad - PumpkinRecipes.org
• Creamy Pumpkin with Millet – Hangry Pants
• Primal Almond Butter Pumpkin Brownies – This Primal Life
• Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte - The Kitchn
• Pumpkin and Chicken Chowder – Country Living
  

Related posts:

Cucumbers to me are a quintessential summer food: they are sweet, cooling, and refreshing! As the summer winds down, now is the time to grab ‘em while you can, whether from your garden, the farmers’ market, or the local section of your grocery store, and enjoy.

“Cool as a cucumber” is not just a clever phrase. Cucumbers literally cool the body, because they are 95% water, making them a fabulous source of natural hydration and a natural diuretic. As I wrote in the September Truly Vibrant newsletter that went out today, even with the hot summer coming to a close, adequate hydration is very important!

Adding cucumber (with the skin on!) to your salads will do more than just add a nice crunch. It’s a wonderful way to increase your fiber intake because cucumber not only contains fiber in the skin, but it comes naturally prepackaged with the extra fluid you need when consuming more fiber.

More great ways to add some hydrating, refreshing cucumbers into your day are to put some cucumber slices into a smoothie or into your daily water.

In case you need more motivation to enjoy cucumbers…

• Cucumbers are a digestive aid: they contain erepsin, the enzyme that helps to digest protein.
• Cucumber, and particularly cucumber juice, promotes hair growth due to the high silica content. The effect is increased when the juice is added to the juice of carrot, lettuce and spinach.
• Cucumber juice is also often recommended to improve the complexion and health of the skin, again because of the silica content, plus cucumber’s high water content.
• The high mineral content of cucumbers helps to prevent splitting of finger and toenails.
• 1 cup of cucumbers contains nearly 10% of the daily recommended value of vitamin C.
• Cucumbers contain high levels of potassium and manganese, which help regulate blood pressure and help promote nutrient functions, respectively.
• Cucumbers contain ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) and caffeic acid, which prevent water retention (this is why cucumbers applied topically are often helpful for swollen eyes, burns and dermatitis!)

Buying & Storage Tips

Look for slender, firm, dark green cucumbers without any wrinkled or yellowed areas. To store, wrap cucumbers in paper towels and store in a plastic bag in your refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Here are a few cucumber recipes I’ve tried…the salad made an appearance at my house at least a few times each month this summer!

• Cucumber Tomato Avocado Salad
• Homemade Pickles
• Cucumber and Avocado Soup—still looking for feedback/advice on tweaking this one!
• Berry Lemonade Green Smoothie—Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free
• Cucumber Basil Herbal Water—Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free
  

Check out these recipes as well, and let me know if you find any new favorites!

• Cucumber Mint Soup—Whole Foods
• Cucumber and Black-Eyed Pea Salad—Eating Well
• Tomato-Cucumber Chutney—Food & Wine
• Cucumber Dill Soup—Slashfood
• Suzanne’s Perfect Cucumber Vinaigrette Salad—Modern Comfort Food

Related posts:

I have to admit, before writing this post I didn’t have a lot of knowledge or experience when it comes to eggplant. I think it’s a beautiful vegetable and, sure,  I have been known to buy one at the farmers’ market, but typically then I get home and have no idea what to do with it!

Eggplants belong to the nightshade family of vegetables (along with tomatoes, sweet peppers, and potatoes). As with most vegetables these days, they can be found nearly year-round in the grocery store, but eggplants are in season from August through October, so this is when they will be at their best!

Eggplant provides us with dietary fiber, vitamins B1, B6, potassium, copper, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, niacin, and folic acid. It also contains powerful phytonutrients, many of which are antioxidants. One such phytonutrient called nasunin is found in the skin of the eggplant. Nasunin is an antioxidant that has been shown to protect brain cell membranes from damage—it’s literally brain food! There have also been studies done which support claims that eggplant can help lower cholesterol and help manage type 2 diabetes by controlling glucose absorption and reducing associated high blood pressure.

Here’s another fun fact about eggplant: Thomas Jefferson introduced it to the U.S. in 1806!

Selecting and Storing Eggplant

Choose smooth, firm, glossy-skinned eggplants with bright green caps and stems. Regardless of color (they may be purple, white, green, pink, or even striped!), the color should be vivid, and you want to avoid any that are wrinkled, torn, bruised, or scarred or that have brown, dried caps. To test for ripeness, gently press the skin with the pad of your thumb. If it springs back, it is ripe, but if an indentation remains, it’s not. Store eggplants in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Cooking Eggplant

To prepare to cook an eggplant, rinse it and trim off the green top. If it is large with a lot of seeds, or if the flesh is dark and watery, slice it and then sprinkle salt on it and place in a colander in your sink for 30 minutes and then rinse and proceed. This “sweating” process is not always necessary, but especially if you tend to find eggplant bitter, try it, because it will extract the bitter juices. It will also make the eggplant soak up less oil (if used) in cooking.

I don’t come across eggplant recipes too often, and when I do, most are either Eggplant Parmesan or Eggplant Lasagna, so I was pleasantly surprised to find those and many, many more creative uses for eggplant when I started hunting through my favorite sources.

• Rigatoni with Sauteed Eggplant and Tomatoes—Real Simple
• Eggplant and Artichoke White Lasagna—Whole Foods
• Roasted Eggplant Spread—Heather Eats Almond Butter
• Eggplant Poppers—Gluten Free Chow
• Eggplant Lasagna with Herbed Ricotta and Asiago—Real Simple
• Persian-Italian Eggplant Stew—Herbivoracious
• Vegan Eggplant Parmesan/Lasagna—With a Side of Sneakers
• Eggplant Lentil Soup—Foodie Reflections

Do you have a favorite eggplant recipe? Please share!

I adore avocados. I love them in guacamole, in sushi, added to salad or a sandwich, or even sliced up and eaten on apple slices. I love avocados for the creamy texture and delicious flavor, but if that were not enough, their health benefits would definitely make me give avocados a try.

Just check out these avocado facts:

• The average avocado contains more potassium than an average banana! It provides 25% of your recommended daily allowance, while a banana provides just under 15%.
• Avocados are high in fiber (16 grams in 1 cup!), vitamin K, lecithin, folic acid, and oleic acid, a monounsaturated fat that may help lower cholesterol.
• In addition to containing multiple health-promoting carotenoids itself, adding avocado to your tossed salad or mixing some chopped avocado into your favorite salsa will not only add a rich, creamy flavor, but it will greatly increase your body’s ability to absorb the carotenoids that vegetables provide.
• Avocados contain a high amount of copper, which helps in red blood cell formation.

Selection and Storage

For a ripe avocado that is ready to eat right away, look for one that is quite dark on the outside—not bright green—and is slightly soft, with no dark sunken spots or cracks. If an avocado has a slight neck instead of being rounded on top, it was probably tree ripened and will have better flavor. If you choose a firmer, less ripe fruit, it can be ripened at home and will be less likely to have bruises. To let an avocado ripen at home, keep it at room temperature in a paper bag with a banana, which will emit ethylene, speeding the ripening process.

Once ripe, avocados can be kept refrigerated for up to a week. It is best to keep the avocado whole and not slice it in order to avoid browning that occurs when the flesh is exposed to air. If you are saving part of a ripe avocado, leave the pit inside the remaining portion, wrap the entire thing tightly, and store in the refrigerator. Adding an acidic ingredient, like lime or lemon juice, will also help prevent browning.

Here are some of my favorite ways to enjoy avocados:

• Guacamole
• Cucumber Tomato Avocado Salad
• Scallop and Avocado Appetizer

Here are some recipes I haven’t tried yet!

• Kale, Carrot, and Avocado Salad—Whole Foods
• Summer Corn Soup with Shrimp—Sprouted Kitchen
• Raw Chocolate Avocado Pudding—Rice of Life

Related posts:

One of the dietary theories I have been studying lately is Ayurveda. Ayurveda is about living in harmony with nature. Based on that principle, there are recommendations for what to eat, when to eat, when to sleep, etc., all based around both the seasons (of the year and each day) and your own body type. I’m finding it fascinating!

I have already been trying to eat “seasonally,” getting whatever was available at our local farmers’ markets, but I hadn’t really thought about why this was a good idea, beyond the fact that getting it in season typically ensures that it is fresher.

But John Douillard, the Ayurvedic lecturer and author that I have been studying, teaches that each harvest season of the year provides us with foods that perform specific functions. In the winter, we eat grounding, warming foods from the fall harvest such as root vegetables, soups, stews, and higher-fat and protein foods like nuts and meat. In the spring, greens and sprouts encourage cleansing after the winter. In the summer, fruits and vegetables give us energy we need to last throughout the long, hot days.

Today’s “fabulous fruits” are quintessential summer foods: cantaloupe and watermelon. Both are cooling fruits that will help hydrate a hot, tired body in the summertime. They also offer lots of nutritional benefits!

Cantaloupe

Benefits:

• Half a melon provides 100% of the daily requirement for vitamins A & C
• It’s full of potassium, and contains vitamin B6, dietary fiber, folate, and niacin (vitamin B3)
• It’s only 60 calories per cup!

Buying & Storing Tips:

• Look for melons with a smooth indentation at the top, with no bits of stem, indicating it was ripe when picked and separated cleanly from the vine. The other end should give a little bit when you press with your thumb.
• Smell the cantaloupe: it should have a sweet, slightly musky scent.
• If your melon is not quite ripe when you buy it, let it ripen on a kitchen counter for up to 2 days (put in a paper bag to speed it up).
• Refrigerate an uncut ripe melon for up to 5 days, and cut pieces for up to 3. Cover the cut surfaces of melon wedges and if possible, keep seeds intact until ready to eat because the will prevent it drying out.

Serving Ideas/Recipes:

• Minty Melon Salad—Whole Foods
• Crabmeat and Cantaloupe Salad (plus 3 other recipes!)—DoItYourself.com
• Tomato and Cantaloupe Salad—Real Simple
• Cantaloupe Sorbet—Epicurious
• One Cantaloupe, Three Soups—Seriously Soupy
  

Watermelon

Health Benefits:

• Packed with antioxidants, including lycopene, which has been found to be protective against many cancers
• Excellent source of vitamin C and a good source of vitamin A
• Very high in citrulline, an amino acid which our bodies use to make arginine, which lowers blood pressure, improves insulin sensitivity, and may even prevent erectile dysfunction naturally!

Buying & Storing Tips:

• For best flavor and nutrient content, you want your watermelon to be as ripe as possible for maximum antioxidant content.
• Look for a watermelon that is relatively smooth and neither overly shiny or overly dull.
• One side should have a yellowish or creamy tone. This is the underbelly, where the melon was sitting on the ground while ripening, and if the watermelon does not have one, it may indicate that it was picked too early.
• Although watermelon is very refreshing when stored in the refrigerator, the quantity of lycopene and beta-carotene will increase if the melon is stored at room temperature.

Serving Ideas/Recipes:

• Watermelon Agua Fresca refreshing drink recipe—Whole Foods
• Watermelon Salad—Life’s Ambrosia
• Watermelon Gazpacho–KitchenDaily
• Thai-Spiced Watermelon Soup with Crabmeat—Epicurious
• Watermelon Martinis—Bunkycooks
  

What’s your favorite way to enjoy these summer melons?  I’ll be trying at least a few of these recipes over the coming weeks as the summer winds down and will be sure to report back.

If you are interested in Ayurveda, check out these resources for more information about the principles and about how to determine your dosha, or body type!

• What’s Your Dosha
• Dr. Douillard’s LifeSpa

Related posts:

For the next several weeks I am going to highlight some of my favorite Fabulous Fruits and Vivacious Veggies. They may not be exotic, but you’ll likely learn something you didn’t already know about these delicious foods, and of course I’ll share recipes I’ve found.

Although many people think of today’s Fabulous Fruit as a vegetable, the tomato is actually a fruit in the nightshade category. Tomatoes are native to South America, but have spread over the last few centuries and adapted to virtually every country in the world. They come in a variety of sizes, from tiny currant tomatoes to fat beefsteaks, and their color can be red, pink, orange, white, yellow, deep violet black or even green zebra stripes!

Tomatoes are fun to grow in your backyard or in a container on a deck. The photo here is one of my potted tomato plants that is just now starting to flower, and will hopefully yield some fruit soon. Sitting there next to it, a lovely ripe tomato from my father’s plentiful backyard garden. I thought maybe setting the fruit there would inspire my plant to do its thing…fingers crossed!

Health Benefits

Fresh tomatoes are rich in vitamins A, K, and C, potassium, and fiber. Tomatoes also contain a phytochemical called lutein, which is found in our retinas and is necessary for good vision. A diet rich in lutein can improve vision and play a role in preventing cataracts and macular degeneration.

When it comes to tomatoes and your health, the real star these days is lycopene. It’s a carotenoid that has gotten a lot of attention lately for its antioxidant and cancer-preventing properties. As an antioxidant, it’s been shown to prevent heart disease (the polyphenols in tomatoes thin your blood naturally). It has been linked to a reduced risk of lung, stomach, prostate, breast, cervical, and other cancers. It also acts like a sunscreen—eating tomatoes cooked can quadruple the SPF in your skin! How’s that for nature taking care of us in the heat of the summer?

For an even bigger health benefit, eat your tomatoes with broccoli. Both are separately recognized for cancer-fighting capabilities, but according to a study published in Cancer Research, eating them together makes them even more successful against cancer, particularly of the prostate.

Season and Selection

Now is the perfect time of year to find local tomatoes at your farmers’ market. Like all fruits and veggies, they are most flavorful when in season, which is mid-summer to early autumn. Local, vine-ripened tomatoes are ideal for the best taste and highest nutrient content. Eat them raw in thick slices with salt sprinkled on top, in salads, or in salsas, or cook them in a sauce, a tian, or gazpacho for even higher lycopene content.

Storage

Keep tomatoes at room temperature until ripened. Once ripened, tomatoes will last for two to three days. If necessary, tomatoes can be refrigerated in a vegetable bin for approximately one week. Try to avoid refrigerating tomatoes whenever possible, because tomatoes will lose their flavor once stored below 55°F.

More Tomato Tips

• To cut a tomato without a squishy mess, be sure you are using a very sharp knife, preferably a serrated one.
• To peel tomatoes, first cut an “X” in the skin (just the skin!) on the bottom of the tomato. Bring a pot of water to a boil and put your tomatoes in for 1 minute. Take them out and put them directly into a bowl of cold water and ice to keep them from cooking. The peel will be wrinkly and easy to remove.

My Latest Favorite Tomato “Recipe”

There isn’t much to this “recipe,” but it makes a fabulous lunch, appetizer, or side dish. Take one nice big tomato per person and slice it and place it on a plate. Season with sea salt, pepper, and fresh basil, and drizzle with a bit of olive oil and a bit of balsamic vinegar. Add a small slice of mozzarella cheese to each tomato slice to make a caprese salad, or just eat the seasoned tomato. Both versions are delicious!

P.S. Check out that basil! The tomato came from Dad, but the basil came from our “garden” of pots on the deck!

Recipes from the Truly Vibrant Blog

• Vegetable Tian
• Guacamole
• Cucumber Tomato Avocado Salad

More Recipes I Haven’t Tried Yet

• Family Secret Tomato Sauce from the Animal, Vegetable, Miracle website
• Heirloom Tomato and Mozzarella Bruschetta from Life’s Ambrosia
• Savory Caprese Crepes from the Foodista Blog
• Fresh Corn, Tomato, Avocado, Black Bean Salad from Kilee’s Kitchen

Related posts:

Millet’s history can be traced back thousands of years: it was the chief grain in China before rice became popular! It continues to sustain people across the globe, including Africa, China, Russia, and India, because it’s a hardy crop that grows well under harsh or dry conditions.

I’m very new to millet myself, but I consider it a “great grain” because it’s tasty, nutritious, and gluten-free, making it an option as a side dish or in baked goods for anyone with a sensitivity or intolerance for gluten.

More characteristics that make millet great are:

• High in protein, fiber, iron, magnesium, and potassium
• Contains silica, which helps keeps bones flexible in aging process
• Soothing, especially for indigestion or morning sickness
• Anti-fungal; helps ease Candida symptoms
• Improves breath
• Warming; good to eat in cool or rainy weather
• Supports kidneys and stomach

When cooked and served in the most basic way (below), it has a flavor that is reminiscent of crumbled cornbread, and in baked goods can be used as a flour (replacing up to 30% of the flour) or whole to give an extra crunch to a muffin or bread.

Selection and Storage

Raw millet is a small, round, usually yellow grain (although there are red, white, and gray varieties). It is often found in the bulk section of health food stores or in the “natural foods” or “health foods” section of regular supermarkets. It can be stored in an airtight jar or glass container for 6-9 months.

Preparation

How to cook basic millet:

Remember, the texture of millet, like other grains, can be changed depending on whether you boil grain and liquid together, or add it to the already-boiling water. For a softer, more porridge-like consistency, boil the grain and liquid together.

Recipes I’ve Tried and Recommend

• Banana Chocolate Chip Millet Muffins
• Millet and Wheat Berry Salad

Recipes I Have Not Yet Tried — if you try any, please leave me a comment and let me know how they turn out!

• Millet Soup—Foodista.com
• Curried Millet—Institute for Integrative Nutrition
• Autumn Millet Bake—101 Cookbooks
• Tomato, Basil, and Millet Salad—Whole Foods

Millet Information Sources: Health and Beyond, Whole Foods, Wikipedia, and the Institute for Integrative Nutrition student educational materials

Related posts:

I recently tried our next “great grain,” oatmeal, for the first time.

OK, that’s not totally true…but it wasn’t long ago that I tried REAL oatmeal for the first time. I’m not talking about the instant stuff that comes in the little paper packet and you add hot water and call it breakfast. I am talking about true, honest-to-goodness oatmeal, made from steel-cut oats. And it was delicious.

Now, if the instant is all you’ve got, that’s still a better choice than most breakfast cereals, but you are missing out on some serious nutritiousness. Plus, check out that label and notice all the extras put in there. Unless you have the most plain, boring, unflavored kind, you’ve got flavoring in the form of added ingredients that you truly don’t need! Nor do you want them…because I can tell you much, much better ways to get flavor in your oatmeal.

Forms and Health Benefits of Oatmeal

Oats are milled into six basic forms that you can typically find at the grocery store: whole oat groats, steel-cut oats, Scottish oats, rolled oats, oat bran, and oat flour. Each form has a different texture when prepared, different nutritional characteristics, and different cooking time.

I recommend either steel-cut oats (pictured, on left) or old-fashioned whole rolled oats (pictured, on right). Both are fantastic for you! I tend to keep oat bran in my cupboard as well, because it’s great in certain recipes, as you will see below.

Here’s the run-down on good stuff about oats:

• They are nutrient-dense: they contain fiber, protein, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, manganese, and iron
• They have a low glycemic load, which means it has a low impact on blood sugar
• They contain more soluble fiber than any other grain, resulting in slower digestion and an extended sensation of fullness.
• Finally, remember taking oatmeal baths for chicken pox? Well, that was one way of taking advantage of the antioxidants in oatmeal, which decrease inflammation in the body.

Oatmeal Preparation

I find whole rolled oats preferable for a raw treat or for baking, and steel-cut or oat bran for cooking. Raw rolled oats can be mixed with yogurt or almond milk, with nuts and berries added, for a “cereal” that is way more nutritious and filling than anything you can buy in a brightly-colored cereal box!

Cooked steel-cut oats are my favorite. Even throughout this summer, I have been enjoying cooked oatmeal in the mornings. I either cook it and eat it warm, or, more frequently, I cook a big batch of it once during the week and then keep the extra servings in the fridge and enjoy them cold in the mornings. So there’s my tip for anyone who says they don’t have time for “real” oatmeal…make it once, and you can eat it all week!

Now I know you are wondering how I make oatmeal taste so delicious that I have become, well, nearly obsessed with it. I’ll get to that in just a second, but first, here are the basics on cooking your oats:

1. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil
2. Add 1/2 cup of steel-cut oats
3. Simmer with the lid on for 20-30 minutes (check it, you may like it more or less chewy than I do)

This will result in 1-2 servings, depending on how much you want!

“Recipes” for Oatmeal Deliciousness

These are not carefully measured recipes, but they are delicious combinations I have tried out and encourage you to try as well! The basic idea is, take any fruit or nut butter, add to oatmeal with milk (almond, soy, or regular), toss in extras like almonds, raisins, shredded coconut, protein powder, and spices/flavorings like vanilla and cinnamon, and you have a delish combo for breakfast (or lunch, or a snack, or even a dessert!)

• Peaches + milk (almond or regular) + few drops vanilla and/or vanilla protein powder + oatmeal = Peaches & Cream Oatmeal
• Strawberries + milk + few drops vanilla and/or vanilla protein powder + oatmeal = Strawberry Shortcake Oatmeal
• Maple Syrup + Cinnamon + milk + oatmeal = Brown Sugar Cinnamon Oatmeal (without using brown sugar!)
• Peanut Butter + raw cacao powder + milk + oatmeal = Peanut Butter Cup Oatmeal
• Shredded carrots + milk + cinnamon + few drops vanilla and/or vanilla protein powder = Carrot Cake Oatmeal (raisins optional but fun!)

Get creative…think banana bread oatmeal, coconut cream oatmeal, bananas foster oatmeal, blueberry pie oatmeal…so many possibilities!

Oats also feature prominently in some of my favorite baking recipes for breakfast and treats:

• Oatmeal Pancakes (rolled oats)
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough “Babies” (rolled oats)
• No Need to Count Calories Carrot Muffins (oat bran)

More Oatmeal Recipes & Ideas—from other creative people who share my love of oatmeal!
If you try any of these, please leave me a comment and let me know how they turn out!

• Peach Cobbler Custard Oatmeal—Honoring Health
• Katie’s Better-n-Kozyshack Oatmeal Pudding—Chocolate-Covered Katie (like me, Katie loves oatmeal…check out her other posts about oatmeal while you are there!)
• Warm Gingery Oatmeal—Institute for Integrative Nutrition
• Tribute to Oatmeal—Kath Eats Real Food (TONS of mouth-watering oatmeal ideas here!)
• Easy Homemade Granola—The Amateur Gourmet

Oatmeal Information Sources: Answer Fitness, Wikipedia, Institute for Integrative Nutrition Educational Materials

Related posts:

Next up in our Great Grains series is brown rice. Brown rice is by no means the superstar grain that quinoa is, but it’s absolutely a better choice than white rice. If you love quinoa, I wouldn’t suggest switching to brown rice, but if you are used to having white rice frequently, I urge you to switch to brown!

Here’s the deal: white rice is simply brown rice that has been stripped of the bran layer, leaving only the starch (read: nutrient-lacking, empty calories). Ever wonder why you feel hungry again so soon after eating a meal with lots of white rice? It’s because you didn’t eat the whole thing! Brown rice is a whole food, so it takes longer to digest than white rice. This means it will give you a more sustained energy boost, because you are eating the whole grain.

The bran layer of the rice is the portion that contains the good-for-you stuff: fiber, niacin, B6, magnesium, manganese, selenium, and vitamin E! Although the FDA requires that food suppliers “enrich” their white rice with most of these vitamins and minerals, this means more processing, more artificial quality to the food, and the nutritional value is still not as high. I’ll take the natural version any day.

One thing that is not added back in to enriched white rice is magnesium. One cup of cooked long grain brown rice contains 84 mg of magnesium, while one cup of white rice contains only 19 mg. Magnesium is important for bone strength and nerve and muscle function, and although I usually recommend getting it through green leady vegetables, avocados, and bananas, if you have the option to have the rice that contains it, why wouldn’t you?

Another plus for brown rice is that it contains the highest amount of B vitamins out of all grains, and B vitamins are important for energy, cell growth, and nerves. Brown rice is also high in fiber, low in sodium, and it’s composed of 80% complex carbohydrates. NaturalNews recently reported on Temple University research that found a compound in brown rice which lowers blood pressure and may prevent heart attacks!

Besides generating energy, here are a few more things brown rice can do for you (who knew?):

• Promote good digestion
• Quench thirst
• Alleviates diarrhea caused by spleen-pancreas deficiency
• Relieve mental depression

So now you may be thinking, “Brown rice sounds fantastic! Bring on the brown rice!” However, it’s important to remember that any rice is still a high-glycemic food, which means it raises blood sugar quickly, so it’s a good idea to consider it a side dish to be eaten with protein and vegetables, and keep your portions reasonable.

Types of Brown Rice

• Short grain brown rice: Once cooked, this is a stickier rice, because it tends to be more starchy. It’s a good choice for using in soups and creates a delicious brown rice pudding.
• Medium and long grain brown rice: These are less sticky when cooked, so they are great for rice dishes when you don’t want your rice sticking together.
• Brown Basmati Rice: Basmati comes in both brown and white, but as with other rices, the white is nearly devoid of any nutrients, so go for the brown!

Preparation: to soak or not to soak?

The reason people soak their grains is to eliminate the phytic acid, a naturally occurring organic acid in the outer layer. All grains contain phytic acid to some degree, but brown rice contains a relatively high level. When brown rice with untreated phytic acid enters the intestines, the phytic acid mixes with calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. The chemical reaction that takes place prohibits those minerals from being absorbed and utilized by the body.

So some say that eating whole grains with untreated phytic acid is counterproductive, since our body is not absorbing the good stuff. Some also believe that, because calcium and magnesium are two of the nutrients that don’t get absorbed, eating a lot of unsoaked grains will cause the body to lose bone mass and will eventually lead to overall mineral deficiency. Soaking brown rice and other grains will eliminate the consequences of phytic acid by producing beneficial enzymes, raising the amount of nutrients present, and enabling us to absorb them.

However, some believe that un-soaked grains are healthier, as it stays in the digestive system longer than soaked grains, thus providing more energy. Some also say that soaking the grains leeches the nutrients out, so even though you are better able to absorb them, there are less to absorb! There’s also the argument that unless your grains are your main source for nutrients, you don’t really need to worry about soaking them, and that especially in grains (as opposed to beans), the phytic acid level is low enough not to cause major concern.

I usually do soak my brown rice, because it’s not that hard. Some say you can just use water, others say to soak the grains at room temperature for about 12 hours in some water with 1-2 tablespoons of an acidic medium (I use lemon juice or vinegar, but you could also use whey, buttermilk, yogurt, or kefir).  When it’s time to cook, just rinse the grains to remove any acidic taste to them, and use fresh water to cook.  This post by Laura on Heavenly Homemakers gives a little more info on soaking, and her philosophy is basically the same as mine: if I do forget to soak my rice (or other grains), I don’t cancel my dinner plans…I just cook it without soaking and move on!

Cooking

How to Make Basic Brown Rice (yields 3 cups, serves 4):

1. Soak or not, as desired!
2. Rinse 1 cup of brown rice rice in a bowl of cool water and strain.
3. Place rice along with 2 cups of water or broth in a pot with a tight fitting lid.
4. Bring to a boil and reduce heat.
5. Cover and let simmer for 50 minutes. If you are not experienced with cooking rice, you’ll want to check the rice 10 minutes before the anticipated finish time so you don’t burn it.
6. Remove from heat and let stand 10 minutes.
7. Fluff with fork and serve.

Note: May also be prepared in a rice cooker with the same ratio of ingredients.

Recipes I’ve Tried and Recommend

• Brown Rice Pudding
• Crunchy Vegetable and Brown Rice Salad
• Cheesy Rice and Chicken Casserole
  

Recipes I Have Not Yet Tried — if you try any, please leave me a comment and let me know how they turn out!

• Coconut Brown Rice—Institute for Integrative Nutrition
• Brown Bismati Pilaf—Institute for Integrative Nutrition
• Tacos with Refried Beans and Spanish Rice—Let’s Be Green Together
• Ten Minute Tasty Asparagus and Brown Rice—101 Cookbooks

Brown Rice information sources: Wikipedia, VeganCoach, Institute for Integrative Nutrition Educational Materials

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For the next month or so, I’m going to feature one grain each week and share nutritional information, buying and cooking tips, and, of course, recipes. Grains are an extremely versatile food, and in the right form (whole!) they are good for you, but too many people only think of white breads and white rice when trying to add grains to a meal, so I’m going to explore and share information about grains you may think of regularly (rice, oats, wheat, etc.) as well as those you may not have heard or tried before (quinoa, millet, etc.) We’ll start with quinoa!

Quinoa

Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah) is considered a grain, but in reality it’s a seed, and it’s a great source of protein! Quinoa is an ancient food, related to leafy vegetables such as spinach and Swiss chard. It originated in the Andes Mountain region of South America, where it has been cultivated for more than 5,000 years. The Incas referred to it as “the mother grain,” or “gold,” and it’s an ideal food for endurance and energy.

Quinoa has a mild and slightly nutty flavor. It’s small and hard before cooking, but after cooking it has a fluffy texture. The outer germ surrounding the seed breaks open to form a crunchy coil while the inner grain becomes soft and translucent.

Here are some basic facts about quinoa:

• It contains all of the essential amino acids, making it a complete protein and a great meat substitute.
• It provides us with B vitamins, iron, zinc, potassium, calcium, fiber, magnesium, and vitamin E—and more of most of these than other grains.
• Since it’s not actually a grain, it’s gluten-free and considered easy to digest.
• Adding quinoa to your diet may reduce the frequency of bad headaches or migraines, because it contains magnesium (a mineral that helps relax blood vessels, preventing the constriction and rebound dilation characteristic of migraines) and riboflavin (vitamin B2), which has been shown to help reduce the frequency of attacks in migraine sufferers, most likely by improving the energy metabolism within their brain and muscle cells.

Selection and Storage

Quinoa is becoming easier and easier to find in local stores. Look for boxes of it in the same section where you’d find rice, or if you shop at a store that sells grains in bulk, check the prices there—it’s likely to be an even better deal. Quinoa is typically a tan color, but it also comes in other colored varieties. The most commonly available seems to be a red variety which has a slightly earthier flavor. Once cooked, it has a light brownish color. Try both varieties to see which one you prefer. If your quinoa comes in bulk, like most grains it is best stored in a glass air-tight container in a cool, dry, dark place.

Preparation

Quinoa should always be rinsed to remove a coating of saponin, a naturally-occurring bitter coating. Native South Americans used to scrub the quinoa and then use the soapy rinse produced by the saponin as a hair rinse! Quinoa is rinsed before it is packaged and sold, but it is best to rinse again at home before cooking with it. Place quinoa in a fine mesh sieve and rinse thoroughly with cold running water.

The basics of cooking quinoa are simple:

Preparation Tips/Notes:

• The texture of quinoa, like other grains, can be changed depending on whether you boil grain and liquid together, or add the grain to the already-boiling water. For a softer, more porridge-like consistency, boil the grain and liquid together.
• For a delicious toasted flavor, quinoa can be dry roasted for 5 minutes in saucepan before cooking in liquid. Stir continuously during the toasting to prevent burning and to toast the grains evenly.
• Instead of water, try boiling your quinoa in broth or coconut milk to enhance the flavor.
• You can also use a rice cooker to prepare quinoa, treating it just like white rice (for both cooking cycle and water amounts).
• Cooked quinoa keeps well in the refrigerator. Cook a few cups on the weekend and store in the fridge for use in various salads and dishes throughout the week!

Recipes I’ve Tried and Recommend

• Quinoa Salad with Chickpeas and Mint
• Lemony  Zucchini and Basil Quinoa Pilaf with Chicken
• Simple Quinoa Salad
• Quinoa Loaf with Mushrooms and Peas
• Garlic Gingered Stir Fry and Quinoa
• Warm Quinoa Salad with Shrimp and Asparagus
• Quinoa with Mushrooms, Kale, and Sweet Potatoes

Recipes I Have Not Yet Tried — if you try any, please leave me a comment and let me know how they turn out!

• Thai Quinoa—Institute for Integrative Nutrition
• Warm and Nutty Cinnamon Quinoa—101 Cookbooks
• Barley, Oat, and Quinoa Pancakes with Raspberry-Peach Topping—Veggie Meal Plans
• Quinoa Salad with Shrimp, Asparagus, Fresh Corn and Herb Lime Vinaigrette—Former Chef
• Spring Quinoa Pilaf—Choosing Raw
• Quinoa Garden Cakes with Lemony Yogurt—Whole Foods
• Quinoa Zucchini Waffles—The Daily Dietribe

Quinoa Information Sources: Whole Foods, Chet Day’s Health and Beyond, Wikipedia, Vegetarians in Paradise, Ezine Articles: Health Benefits of Quinoa, Institute for Integrative Nutrition student educational materials

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