Garden for Nutrition Index

               
Organic Health Food Recipes

This site is meant to supplement any of the many dozens of full blown recipe books available, with tips you seldom find in other recipe books on using the most nutritious crops fresh from the garden / farm. A few recipes are included, but this site consists mostly of tips on how to use the healthiest of crops which are listed here. Use them to help make substitutions in your favorite recipes.

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Breakfast smoothy:
Use soaked, possibly fermented, and cooked wheat berries,
kamut, or spelt and possibly a small amount of
cooked sweet potato with the skin for flavor.
1 hard boiled egg

Cool

Blend until smooth with:
Fruit peelings
Fennel, coriander, anise, cardamom
Soaked and cooked flax.
Walnut, pecan, and/or sunflower.

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Winter squash soup:
Cook winter squash with the skin

Cool

Blend until smooth with:
Fruit peelings
Fennel, coriander, anise, cardamom
Soaked and cooked flax or flax oil
Walnut, pecan, and/or sunflower.

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Pancakes:

Soak the whole grain berries of spelt, kamut, wheat, oat, rice, buckwheat, corn, flax, etc. for 24 hours.
Wash and drain.
Boil the berries until fully cooked.
Grind in blender with fruit.
Ferment for at least several hours with a sourdough starter.

Blend with egg yolk.
Whip and fold in egg whites.

Pour onto hot pan or griddle to cook.

The advantage of this method is that the grain is already thoroughly cooked. Most quick breads do not thoroughly cook the grain so they are difficult to digest.

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Mayonaise substitute or butter substitute:

Blend:
Winter squash
Dried fruit - ground

Squash is a good enough butter substitute by itself if you give the palette time to adjust. It is better to eat foods high in omega 3 than to add any kind of oil to the diet. The major source of cholesterol comes from when the liver converts oils and fats into cholesterol.

Yellow summer squash seeds - if yellow summer squash is allowed to ripen more fully than can be found in most grocery stores and yet not so much as to become tough, the seeds will develope a wonderfully buttery flavor.

Also see BRAINS below

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Winter Squash Drink:
When removing the seeds from winter squash, leave as much as 
possible of the loose tissue around the seeds. It is extremely
high in nutrients and very flavorful. Use a fork to tease the
seeds out of the surrounding tissue.
The cooking water from winter squash and this loose flesh 
makes a delicious sweet beverage. 
Serve cold or hot.


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Tips:

Greens:
Greens will taste much better if they are boiled.

Greens are excellant for stuffings, pies, casseroles, 
meatloaf, chili, soup, etc.

It is a great way to sneak healthy food into children's diets.
Healthy kids don't need much to make a difference and it is 
invaluable to start training the palatte and psychology early.

Adding some stewed lentils is also a great way to improve 
the flavor. Adding naturally salty fish also enhances flavor.

If greens are boiled, the cooking water will be full of calcium 
so either drink it or use it to cook something else. 
Unfortunately, the cooking water may also be full of tannins 
which may taste too strong to use any further and are slightly 
toxic.

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CHICKPEA AND PEA:
Soak for 24 hours, then bake for a very nutty flavor.

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Sunflower seeds:
Sunflowers contain a compound that acts as an emulsifier.
Blend a little with soup stock and then stir back into the pot.
It will break up oils and fats and spread them evenly, providing
consistency of flavor.

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Tartness:
Tartness is a wonderfull flavor which is very appealing 
for sauces. Good sources of tart flavor are some of the 
more wild fruits sold by One Green World and 
St. Lawrence Nursery.

Also, hibiscus.

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Okra:
If you do not want to eat okra raw, then it is often best to 
cook it whole. Do not overcook or it will become slimy.
Cutting the okra before cooking makes it especially slimy. 
Cooked whole okra is not anywhere near as slimy. 
Of course, okra can be intentionally cut open to help 
thicken soups like gumbo. The cooking water of okra is also 
very soothing to the throat since it is mucilaginous and 
high in calcium. Okra eaten raw is the least slimy of all.
But the okra must be very fresh since it does not store well.
Or, remove the seeds and only eat the pod, which is not slimy.
Unfortunately, the seeds are the most nutritious part.

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Beets:
Leave on the roots and then soak in water overnight to 
reduce bitterness.

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To cook rice: 
Soak rice for 24 hours, then drain the water.
Cook at a low boil for at least 25-30 minutes once boiling begins.
Whole rice becomes sticky when the outer shell cracks and the inside
is exposed.
Completely turn off the heat to stop cooking the rice as soon as the 
outer shell cracks and allow the rice to soak in the remaining 
hot water.
This reduction in heat will also help to prevent the starch from
being activated and becoming sticky.
Pour off extra water as soon as rice reaches desired expansion
before excess exposure of the inside of the kernals.
Use the excess water to cook other foods since it will be high 
in vitamins and minerals.
Reducing the heat too soon will prevent the rice from becoming
fully cooked. 
Under cooking rice to keep it from becoming sticky makes 
it very indigestable. 
But if you need to freeze the rice, preventing the kernals from 
expanding beyond the initial cracking point, will help to 
resist the tendency to become sticky when frozen. 
Cooking the rice to unfreeze and reheat it can complete 
the expansion process.

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Rutabaga:
Rutabaga really does not store well. It is best served 
freshly harvested and freshly cooked.

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Eggs:
The key to easily peeling hard boiled eggs is to peel them under cold water
as soon as they are finished cooking while they are still very hot.
Concentrate on peeling the inner membrane instead of the shell.

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Brains:
 
Brains are consumed by cultures all over the world.
There are many dozens of recipes available on the Internet.
But if we look at brains from a nutritional viewpoint, brains
are best used like a highly perishable type of butter substitute 
or oil (since it is so high in DHA). 
From this perspective it is better to clean brains (and eyes),
grind or cut them up, and then freeze them in a way that allows
you to break off small pieces to be used every day to thicken
soups and sauces.
Small amounts of DHA on a daily basis is the best way to meet ones
daily needs for DHA.
Make sure the animal is from a herd that has a long history of 
being raised organically to avoid mad cow disease.

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NOTE:
One of the most important points to remember about cooking
healthy, is to use low heat; just barely enough heat to 
destroy the inhibitors or sterilize if required. 
Never use high heat to cook food as this can denaturing proteins.  
And never use microwaves.

Water boils at sea level at 212 F at sea level.
Most enzyme inhibitors will be neutralized at that temperature over time.
Most bacteria will also be destroyed at that temperature. 

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Food drying:
How to Dry Foods by Deanna Delong
Gardenmaster Dehydrator - Territorial

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COOKING LINKS:

Organic Personal Chef

Chef CC's delicious collection of Organic Pesto, Marinara and Pasta gift baskets are available to order. Send Chef CC an email to find out more about these tasty treats.

AZTEC GARDENS

A guide to the pre-Hispanic plants and foods of Mexico, with ancient recipes from Mesoamerica. A great resource for the teacher, student, amateur ethno botanist, chef, or anyone interested in the plants and foods of Mexico and Mesoamerica.

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