Gazpacho Memories

The humidity of this current summer has called for some cool creative cooking or uncooking as the case may be. I have lived off salad greens with homemade dressings, smoothies, and gazpacho.

This last batch of gazpacho took me back East to my days in Boston. The summers I spent there weren’t unbearable, but I would make gallons of gazpacho with my handy dandy handblender. Returning with bags of produce from Haymarket, I spent my weekends and every evening in the kitchen combining this amazing bounty into dinners. I would sit on my back porch sipping the cool liquid with a little jalapeno bite while my cats lounged under or chased squirrels in our canopy of trees.

So today with my hand dandy Blendtec blender I conjured up some memories with 3 Beefsteak tomatoes, 1 red pepper, ½ medium yellow onion, ½ English cucumber, juice of 1 lemon and 1 lime, ½ cup liquid from some jalapeno sweet pickles (Can use a sliver of jalapeno and a dollop of honey), ½ cup Italian parsley (stems and leaves), 8-10 small red dandelion leaves, a pinch or two of pink Himalayan salt, 1 cup or more of water. (From the veggies above, I minced by hand ½ a tomato, ¼ red pepper, ¼ of the cucumber and added those to the pureed mix)

Thanks to the dandelion leaves this version won’t be the light bright red of a traditional gazpacho, it will be brown. The dandelion leaves are internally cooling and a diuretic and a great toning medicinal for the Liver, high in Vitamins A, K and calcium and iron. The parsley is high in Vitamins C and A and folic acid and increase the antioxidant capacity of the blood.


Blendtec Home TB-621-20 1,560-Watt Total Blender, Black

SuperBerries SuperRoot SuperBean

A warning to superfood-lovers, my profiles on superfoods may seem a little sobering. I am providing the beneficial and the cautionary. Some are non-indigenous items and therefore maybe not eco-conscious or green or maintain their superfood profile once they get to our kitchens, while others are medicinal according to Chinese medicine. The medicinal aspect is why different ways of eating work for different people. Goji berries may create some intestinal issues for one person, but create noticeable improvement in energy for others.


SuperBerries
Acai, a berry like others, is packed with antioxidants, but unlike North American berries is high in essential fatty acids and fiber, higher than your average berry in trace minerals and phytonutrients. On the flip side, this berry is indigenous to the Amazon so there is processing and packaging involved and sometimes considerable sugar. With any produce, my feeling is one should consume it as close to its natural state, not processed and sugared. I would rather eat a local berry chock full of its goodness and add other ingredients high in essential fatty acids, fiber and minerals. If local berries are out of season, the powdered or liquid form of acai is the perfect choice to add to smoothies or other treats.



Goji berries have been talked about the last few years; it is second after cacao and cocoa in antioxidant levels. This tiny pinkish red dried berry is a mild tonic herb in Chinese medicine. Specifically we say it “builds blood”. Goji to some, fructus lycii or wolfberry to others, and gou qi zi to the Chinese herbalist, it is sweet in taste and neutral in temperature; energetically influences the Liver, Lung, Kidney acupuncture meridians; moistens the fluids or yin aspect of the body. Examples of what this berry can treat are sore back and legs, low grade abdominal pain, impotence, diabetes, consumption (when caused by a weakened state of the liver and kidney meridians or lack of yin fluids). It benefits essence and brighten eyes, aids dizziness, blurred or diminished visual acuity, enrich fluids/yin and moisten lung for consumptive cough. Not used for externally contracted excess heat patterns (infections) and cases of weak digestion with damp and loose stool.

In research this berry shows to reduce damage to hepatic cells in mice long term, ingestion in rats resulted in increase in serum and liver phospholipids; reduced blood pressure and labored breathing in rabbits when administered intravenously. A few things it contains: betaine, carotene, physalien, thiamine, riboflavin, vitamin C, beta sitosterol, and linoleic acid.

In the raw community goji is touted as this amazing energy source. In my opinion and experience as a Chinese herbalist if someone experiences a great energy surge ingesting gojis then some serious energy or blood or fluids need regeneration in that person. Yes, goji is beneficial, it is a lovely medicinal, and being mild it is beneficial for most everyone. I often receive samples of medicinal from herbal companies. A few years back, bringing my mail upstairs, my salivary glands were a little extra active. Odd, yes? I opened the package to find a sample of gou qi zi. Obviously I needed a little gou qi zi in my life. That walk up the stairs was a blind kinesiology experiment! In Chinese herbology we don’t even eat the berry, we decoct it in a herbal tea with other roots, rhizomes and leaves! It is used in Chinese cooking – I’ve had trout with goji and other green herbs and I now make energy bars (and smoothies) with gojis.



SuperRoot
Maca is a starchy root vegetable from Latin America – Peruvian Ginseng. You might know ginseng as the sexual tonic you can pick up behind the counter of some gas stations! Most if not all varieties of ginseng (Siberian, Chinese, Peruvian) are adaptogens and increase qi or energy. Maca, a medicinal, is a general endocrine tonic and used in my clinic to treat reproductive, fertility, and adrenal imbalances.

Maca contains the precursors for serotonin. If you suffer from sugar cravings this might be for you. The brain trying to calm your stressed body knows it needs to increase serotonin levels; sugar is the brain’s attempt to do that. Maca contains the precursors so the body can process the maca into serotonin and truly aid in adapting to stress. It is also rich in sterols for quick muscle regeneration. It repairs damage on the adrenal glands: damage from nutritional stress (caffeine), environmental stress (pollution), emotional stress, and life stress. Americans adrenals are tapped out from a lifestyle of performing at a high level for long periods therefore self-medicating to rev up and come down. When the adrenals are not performing, hormones decline causing signs of premature aging, excess body fat and impaired ability to build muscle and recover from stress, among other ailments.



Coconuts. (though it is a fruit will be discussed in the next post on nuts and seeds)



SuperBean
Cacao. The bean of the cacao fruit/pod, the food of the gods, contains the highest concentration of magnesium and antioxidants of any source – more than red wine, green tea, goji berries, or green vegetables. It is a good source of other trace minerals the majority of Americans are lacking like chromium.

Magnesium, the most powerful stress relieving mineral, relaxes muscles and builds strong bones and teeth. I usually recommend a magnesium supplement for clients who have sleep issues, palpitations from anxiety, and muscle soreness especially at night.


Antioxidants, anti-aging chemicals in whole plant foods, add a layer of protection to cells and fight free radical damage (cause of disease). Cacao is an excellent source of tryptophan, an essential amino acid converted to serotonin, think stress relief and mood elevation. It contains 1/20th of coffee’s caffeine and, unlike caffeine, does not spike blood sugar and contains no sugar. It is touted as a weight loss food and I would say because it is a high net food – adding many essentials a body needs so your body needs to take in less quantity of food.

Cocoa is the processed cacao meaning takes most of good stuff out except the flavor. Liken cocoa to white bread, devoid of all the nutrients of the wheat kernel, cacao bean. Adding dairy to cacao or cocoa cancels out the antioxidant effects, sorry!

Raw cacao is quite expensive when compared to your tin of Hershey’s cocoa powder. A little goes a long way and you can always use half cacao and half cocoa in recipes!





Next, the nuts and seeds of superfoods.