Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and The... (51 page)

BABY SPINACH SALAD

Serves 4

6 cups baby spinach leaves

1 medium red onion, thinly sliced

1 orange, peeled and sectioned

½ cup crumbled Roquefort cheese

¾ cup
crispy pecans
chopped

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon Rapadura (see
Guide to Natural Sweeteners
)

¾ cup
orange dressing

Spinach leaves should be very small and fresh. Remove stems, wash and dry. (See
Kitchen Tips and Hints
.) Saute pecans and Rapadura in butter. Mix all ingredients together, divide between four salad plates and serve.

Conventional wisdom touts high carbohydrate diets for athletes—pasta, potatoes, breads, fruit juices and carbohydrate-rich "energy" bars. But a new study out of State University of New York raises serious questions about the appropriateness of high-carb, lowfat diets for those who engage in strenuous physical exercise. Subjects ate diets of 15%, 30% and 45% fat respectively. Those on the high fat diets had greater endurance—up to an 11% increase. No adverse changes in blood chemistry were observed in the subjects on the high fat diet, and they did not gain weight. The authors of the study conclude: "The results suggest that a low fat diet may be detrimental to performance and that a higher fat diet may result in more energy substrate availability with a lower lactate to pyruvate ratio."

In another recent study, this time in South Africa, trained cyclists on a diet of just seven percent carbohydrate were compared to those who "carb loaded" on a diet of 74% carbohydrates. The low-carb cyclists could pedal almost twice as long as their high-carb opponents

The primary nutrient in animal fats is vitamin A, needed for a host of biological processes including the assimilation of protein and minerals. Strenuous physical exercise depletes vitamin A. Does the current practice of high-carb, low-fat diets explain the prevalence of injury and burnout in modern athletes?
PPNF Health Journal

WATERCRESS SALAD

Serves 4

2 bunches watercress, stems removed

2 heads Belgium endive

1 head radicchio or ¼ head red cabbage, finely shredded

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons
crispy pine nuts

¾ cup
balsamic dressing
or
blue cheese dressing

Wash and dry watercress. (See
Kitchen Tips and Hints
.) Remove outer leaves of endive and slice at ¼-inch intervals. Mix all ingredients with dressing and divide between four plates.

MESCLUN SALAD

Serves 4

6 cups mesclun greens

¾ cup
balsamic dressing
or
walnut dressing

1 tablespoon
crispy pine nuts

¼ pound Roquefort cheese (optional)

8
round croutons
, optional

Mesclun is a mixture of tender baby lettuces and herbs, which is becoming widely available in many gourmet and health food stores across the country. It is almost always organic. Mesclun salad can be served at the beginning of the meal, as a side dish to fish or meat, or as a gourmet salad course, with cheese and croutons, coming after the main course and before dessert.

If salad is not prewashed, wash, rinse and dry. (See
Kitchen Tips and Hints
.) Mix greens with pine nuts and dressing and divide between four large plates. Garnish each plate with slice of Roquefort cheese and two croutons.

Variation:

Use
¾ cup
roasted tomato dressing
in place of walnut or balsamic dressing. Omit pine nuts.

Watercress is one of the most delicious of the dark green leafy vegetables, with a peppery, mustard-like flavor. It grows in shallow streams of clear running water. Watercress is rich in essential fatty acids, chlorophyll, carotenoids and many beneficial minerals including iron, sulphur, calcium, iodine and vanadium. Folk medicine values watercress for a variety of ailments including anemia, poor circulation, edema and inflammation. Iodine and vanadium in watercress aid in the formation of red blood corpuscles. Watercress is 20 times richer in vanadium than mother's milk. Raw watercress juice is said to have the property of removing the brown coating that tobacco smoke leaves on the lungs. SWF

LAMB's LETTUCE SALAD

Serves 4

3-4 cups lamb's lettuce leaves

2 heads Belgium endive

1 medium head radicchio, finely shredded

1 tablespoon
crispy pine nuts

¾ cup
balsamic dressing

Remove outer leaves of endive and cut at ¼-inch intervals. Toss lamb's lettuce, endive, radicchio and pine nuts with dressing. Divide between four plates. If you are serving this as a salad course between the main dish and dessert, you may wish to garnish each plate with a slice of Roquefort cheese and
round croutons
.

Lamb's lettuce, or
mache
, is the queen of salad greens. Every vegetable merchant in France carries
mache
, but it is hard to find in America. If you live in a big city, you can buy
mache
from a wholesaler or restaurant supply merchant. A few specialty markets are now carrying
mache
in smaller plastic containers. It comes with tender green leaves still attached to their dirt plugs so they stay fresh for up to two weeks. Like all dark green vegetables,
mache
is rich in carotenoids, essential fatty acids and minerals. SWF

ENDIVE SALAD

Serves 4

6-8 large heads Belgium endive

l bunch cilantro, chopped

l bunch green onions, finely chopped

½ head radicchio, finely shredded (optional)

2 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped

1 tablespoon
crispy pine nuts

¾ cup
balsamic dressing

½ cup crumbled Roquefort cheese

Remove outer leaves of endive and discard. Remove several leaves from each head and arrange around the outside of the plates, tapered ends pointing outward. Slice remaining endive at ¼-inch intervals. Mix vegetables and pine nuts with dressing and mound in the center of the endive leaves. Garnish with cheese. Serve immediately.

Variation: Endive Salad Platter

For parties, arrange endive leaves around outside of a platter. Mound salad in middle and serve crumbled Roquefort cheese on the side.

Belgium endive is a member of the chicory family, bred to produce edible leaves, rather than edible roots. Whiteness of the leaves is achieved by etiolation—that is, dirt is piled up around the plant as it grows upwards to keep the leaves from turning green. With its distinctive crispness and wonderful bitter taste, characteristic of all members of the chicory family, Belgium endive is a versatile vegetable for the gourmet cook. SWF

FENNEL SALAD

Serves 6

6-8 medium fennel bulbs plus leaves

¾ cup
lemon pepper dressing

6 ounces good quality Parmesan cheese

Remove outer leaves of fennel, slice very thinly. and cut slices into quarters. Snip 2 tablespoons fennel leaves into a bowl. Mix with the fennel slices and dressing. Arrange on six plates and top each salad with shavings of Parmesan cheese, cut with a cheese slicer.

Europeans have used radicchio for years, but this fine vegetable is only now making its way into American cuisine. A member of the chicory family, it is a good source of vitamin C and carotenes; it is also high in calcium. The vegetable is now available year round. Select heads that are firm and fresh looking. Radicchio will keep for up to two weeks in the refrigerator. SWF

RADICCHIO AND ORANGE SALAD

Serves 4

3 large heads radicchio, finely shredded

2 oranges, peeled and divided into sections

2 red onions, thinly sliced

about ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

¾ cup
orange dressing

Place onions on an oiled cookie sheet and brush with olive oil. Bake at 300 degrees for several hours until onions are dried out and browned. Mix radicchio with dressing and divide between four plates. Top with orange wedges and grilled onion slices. Serve at once.

TOMATO-CROUTON SALAD

Serves 4

4 medium ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped

sea salt

2 cups
salad croutons

¼ cup basil, finely cut up

¾ cup basic or
balsamic dressing

To peel tomatoes, see
Kitchen Tips & Hints
. Toss tomatoes with sea salt and let drain in a colander about 1 hour. Mix all ingredients and serve immediately.

Evidence is submitted indicating that a comprehensive test of the capacity of the animal organism to endure on an enzyme-free diet requires exclusion of exogenous enzymes gaining entrance through the agency of airborne bacteria, yeasts and fungi. The efficiency of these unicellular organisms as enzyme producers has been widely demonstrated in industrial processes. There are good grounds for believing that the enzyme-deficient animal organism reluctantly offers a culturing abode to bacteria, yeasts and fungi with the object of confiscating their enzymes. The evidence warrants a strong suspicion that the unnatural appropriateness of enzyme-deficient organisms for exogenous enzymes may invoke bacterial activity of intractable magnitude and engender susceptibility to infections. Due consideration should be accorded these factors in accounting for the widespread incidence of bacterial diseases. Edward Howell, MD
Food Enzymes for Health and Longevity