English - International Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia Foundation

COOKS’ HAPPY HOUR
b y Penni Wisner
Everyone always wants to know how to eat more healthfully.
It should be simple but so many voices have so much advice
that confusion results. This spring, as fresh vegetables and
fruits reappear in the markets, is as good a time as any to recall
Michael Pollan’s seven word summation that will take you
immediately toward your goal of a healthy diet (provided that
is your goal): Eat food, not too much, mostly plants. (Thank
goodness cocoa is a plant!)
Food, by his definition, is anything your grandmother would
recognize as food. And/or anything with only five, easily
recognized ingredients on its label. There are exceptions, of
course, for instance those new, “super” yogurts with ten active
cultures when each is listed as a separate ingredient.
In 2012 I participated in several nutrition-and-demonstration
presentations for cancer groups. A registered dietician would
give the lecture while I did the fun part—made the food that
brought all those concepts and theories to tasty life.
As the lecturers made their points I looked over the vegan
buffet laid out for the participants. Eat vegetables: bowls of
them lined up ready to stuff veggie wraps. Eat plenty of leafy
greens: kale chips with coconut and nutritional yeast. Whole
soy. Organic edamame beans. Whole grains: whole-wheat
flatbread and quinoa. Nuts and seeds: yup, roasted pumpkin
and sunflower seeds. Omega-3 sources: sure, flax meal and
chia seeds. Antioxidants: check! Colorful fruit and dark
chocolate. Homemade salad dressings for those who preferred
to turn all those vegetables into a salad instead of a sandwich
stuffing. And gluten-free wrap alternatives: rice paper wraps,
nori sheets, and collard leaves. (I will describe those in more
detail later.)
For people like us WMers, a diverse and fascinating group
(don’t you think so?), our primary concern (I am making
assumptions but I hope you will agree with them) is to increase
or maintain energy levels and to, if possible, prevent or delay
recurrences. This is best done by following Pollan’s commonsense
advice. (Can you tell he’s my hero?)
Nutritionists tell us to eat five (1/2-cup) servings of vegetables
per day. To divide our plates in fourths and cover half with
vegetables, one-quarter with protein, and the remaining
quarter with whole grains. I ask you: Does this sound fun?
Delicious? Easy?
My first line of attack to solve the “eat more vegetables” case is:
Attitude. Eat your vegetables raw. Exceptions allowed: Vegetables
you cannot digest and mushrooms, which must be cooked. Raw
zucchini is sweet and crisp. Baby butternut squash is tender. Raw
beet has less “beet-iness” than cooked beets and is very crunchy.
Those who live around the Mediterranean (that hotbed of healthy
diets) eat thinly sliced, raw artichokes. Now that asparagus season
is upon us, slice it very thin and eat it raw. Unless you cannot
digest them, eat fava beans raw. You get it, right?
The second best way to deal with stacks of vegetables is
with good equipment: a very sharp chef’s knife, a hand-held
mandolin/slicer, a hand-held julienne slicer, and a spiral slicer
(Benriner is the manufacturer of the one I have but new ones are
just being released). With all, you must watch your fingertips.
Otherwise, these tools help you slice, dice, and julienne quickly
and evenly. The spiral slicer fascinates seminar members
every time because it turns carrots, cucumbers, zucchini,
beets, and radishes (to name a few) into thin, curly threads.
A little vinaigrette (homemade, remember?) and you have an
amazing salad.
Luckily, it is becoming easier and easier to eat in a healthy
manner. For example, while shopping for a cancer-survivor
retreat day, I found fresh, organic pea and radish sprouts at
Trader Joe’s. Look at sprouts as “the little engines that could,”
seeds developing their full potential––growing. Therefore,
when your onions and garlic sprout, cook those little green
shoots. On the other hand, divide and plant, do not eat,
sprouted potatoes!
For one event, I sprouted some organic dried chickpeas. All
it took was an overnight soak and then leaving the drained
chickpeas on paper towels (so they remain humid) in a covered
container for a day. (Eat the sprouts when the growing tip is
only about 1/4-inch long.) You can eat them without further
cooking or roll them in spices, herbs, and oil and bake them
until crispy for a cocktail snack. Or make hummus with them.
Sprout wheat berries the same way and cook them into cereal—
the sprouting process has the added benefit of shortening the
cooking time—or use them for grain salads, as a salad add-in,
or in breads and muffins.
Trader Joe’s also offers bags of chia seeds, the new omega-3
super star on the grocery aisle. They joined their brothers in
omega-3 land, flax seeds, which have been on shelves for
some time. Bob’s Red Mill sells flax meal but I prefer the oily
richness of freshly ground seeds to the convenience of the
meal. How to use these nutrition boosters? Since the events
were buffet lunches, the chia seeds and flax meal were there
as veggie-wrap add-ins as well as salad toppers. Or add them
to bread and muffin batters, as toppings for salads and soups.
Or just let them soak in a glass of water until it gels. A sort of
omega-3 bubble tea!
When I demonstrated using collard leaves as wraps instead
of bread, they gained an enthusiastic audience. It’s the same
idea as using grape leaves. Now that I think of it, stuffed grape
leaves are a wonderfully healthy snack to take out to watch
the sunset with your glass of wine. To make the collard wraps,
choose the biggest leaves you can. Trim the collard stems at the
base of the leaves. And then shave the stem on the underside of
the leaf to get it as thin as possible. Finally, blanch the leaves,
one by one, in a large shallow skillet of salted water for 30
Cooks' Happy Hour, cont. on page 23
22 IWMF TORCH Volume 14.2