From the category archives:

Spring

The Most Powerful Spring Foods… are on the way

EARLY SPRING is an opportune time to take advantage of some of the most cleansing, beautifying and healing foods around. Here’s a detailed list from my Spring Cleanse that you can review now so you a can be on the lookout in your local farmer’s market and health food stores. Consider how you might make use of their unique cleansing and healing properties. (Pay special attention to Stinging Nettles!) 

Note: Some of my workshop and VIP clients might find this list familiar… use it as a review and a reminder of the powerful beautifying properties of these special foods.

Asparagus

  • High in Folic acid
  • Diuretic cleanser = flushes out the kidneys
  • Reduces blood pressure 
  • Reduces Water retention

Dark Leafy Greens

Green is associated with spring, the time of renewal, refreshment and vital energy. In Asian medicine, green is related to the liver, emotional stability and creativity. 

  • Very high in calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, phosphorous, zinc and vitamins A, C, E and K. 
  • High in fiber, folic acid, chlorophyll and many other micronutrients and phyto-chemicals.
  • Blood purification
  • Cancer prevention
  • Improved circulation
  • Strengthened immune system
  • Promotion of healthy intestinal flora
  • Promotion of subtle, light and flexible energy
  • Lifted spirit and elimination of depression
  • Improved liver, gall bladder and kidney function
  • Cleared congestion, especially in lungs, by reducing mucus

Broccoli, bok choy, Napa cabbage, kale, collards, watercress, mustard greens, broccoli rabe, dandelion, green cabbage, arugula, endive, chicory, lettuce, mesclun, wild greens.

Stinging Nettles

Nettles are one of the most nutritious greens on the planet. Cooked, blanched or dried they lose their sting.

The entire plant can be used. 

  • Highest levels of beauty producing silicon in any food.
  • Vitamins A, C, beta-carotene
  • Chlorophyll
  • Immune system builder.
  • High Iron content 
  • They’re unusually high in protein (40%) for a plant
  • Nutrient-dense, they make a good overall tonic for strengthening the body. 
  • Useful in treating anemia, high vitamin C content ensures that the iron is properly absorbed by the body.

Uses:

The juice of roots and leaves, mixed with honey or sugar, relieves both bronchitis and asthma. 

Weight Loss:

  • Increase the function of the thyroid gland: 
  • Increase metabolism—helps burn away fat while increasing energy.
  • Relieves mucus in the colon allowing for the release of excess waste. 
  • Mineral rich, which helps satisfy hunger. Overeating often is a search for minerals.

 Blood Purification:

  • High caliber blood purifier.
  • Diuretic properties help flush the blood and cleanse thru the action of the kidneys. 

 Other known uses:

  • Combat and relieve allergy symptoms (especially hay fever)
  • Anti-arthritis or anti-rheumatic agent,
  • Used as a pain reliever and anti-inflammatory,
  • Used as a lung tonic for ex-smokers
  • Helps skin heal from eczema, or hives
  • Bursitis,
  • Tendonitis,
  • Laryngitis,
  • Kidney stones,
  • Lowers blood sugar naturally
  • Relieves the symptoms of sciatica and PMS

EXCELLENT FOR:  toxicity, poor skin quality, weak nails loss of overall luster. 

Use Nettles Greens, as a juice, tea, or in powder forms

I love to make Nettles into a pesto, which I freeze for use the whole year. Here’s my recipe (scroll down you’ll see I post about Nettles every year – yes, I’m a nettles super-fan).

Beets and Beet Greens

(while detoxifying limit beets but use the greens- as they have a high sugar content)

  • Loaded with nutrients 
  • Blood purifier
  • Used for centuries as folk remedies for Anemia, Menstrual problems/imbalances, Kidney disorders
  • Antioxidant
  • Detoxify the liver
  • Protect against cancers of  skin, lung, colon
  • Evens the ratio of HDL: LDL (bad) cholesterol levels
  • Beet greens are loaded with iron and beta-carotene

Fennel

Fennel is great all year round and full of beneficial nutrients including

  • Vitamin C – helps protect your body from free radical damage
  • Fiber – helps to reduce cholesterol levels and remove cancer-causing toxins from your colon
  • Antimicrobial and helps immune system function
  • Potassium
  • Folate
  • Niacin
  • Calcium, magnesium, iron, and copper.

It also provides these other good-for-you benefits:

  • Reduces inflammation
  • Helps prevent cancer
  • Protects liver from damage caused by chemicals
  • Folate: Fennel is also a good source of folate, a B vitamin that helps convert the dangerous homocysteine molecule (which can increase your risk of heart attack or stroke) into a harmless compound.

Ramps

Ramps are an early spring wild onion/wild leek. They possess a powerfully pungent, spicy aroma and flavor very similar to that of garlic or shallots. Many chefs consider ramps to be the best-tasting member of the entire onion family

  • The foliage, stems, and bulbs can be used raw or cooked 
  • Member of leeks, garlic and chive family:
  • High in Vitamin C, helpful for Hypertension, and high cholesterol

Radishes

  • One of the highest veggie sources of Vitamin C 
  • Play a role in connective tissue formation. 
  • The mineral silicon and sulfur work with vitamin C to create glowing skin 
  • Also High in Folic Acid.
  • They cut and dissolve mucus in the digestive tract formed from eating starchy carbs.
  • Stimulate the liver
  • Expel and prevent gallstones
  • Increase digestive fires. 
  • Used in Russia for both hyper and hypothyroidism. 
  • Great kidney cleansers
  • Decrease water retention

Beans

A very nourishing vegetable food. 

  • High fiber= blood sugar levels don’t rise rapidly – keeps insulin from shooting up.
  • Low-fat, low-cal, dense source of fiber, protein, vitamins and minerals
  • They resonate with the paired organs of the body: brain and heart, lungs, kidneys, ovaries and testicles.

 Reduce wind by soaking them overnight before cooking.

Strawberries

(usually late spring/early summer)

  • Just 5 Strawberries can give you half the RDA of Vitamin C
  • Vitamin K rich – for healthy bones and blood clotting
  • Antioxidant
  • Curbs inflammation in eczema-asthma-arthritis
  • Helps protect the brain form age-related decline

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Asparagus. What the Cool Kids Know About Spring Seasonal Eating

Over here in the northeast, you wouldn’t know it was spring, what with all the rain and jacket weather we’ve been having, except… All the early spring foods are making their appearance. Big time.

The Mighty Asparagus

The Mighty Asparagus!

Taken from a food-grown-in-the-ground perspective, this is the time of year all of the fresh foods come “springing” forth. I’m going to let you in on some inside secrets. What all the seasonal eaters know, is that this is the season of some seriously good eats!

Right now, asparagus is fresh, sweet and delicious. This is very different from the asparagus sent around the country year-round from California. This is the asparagus local to your area, grown from soil rich with microbes, that inhabit the same places as you do. (Umm, okay – nerd alert – pumping the breaks.)

The bottom line is that this food is not only super-fresh but packed with the vitamins and minerals that your body needs this time of year, the food that mother nature intended us to eat right NOW.

Years ago, a friend of mine who worked at the Union Square Green Market in New York, started celebrating “ramps and fiddleheads!” I had absolutely no clue what he was talking about – but I was intrigued. Then a few years later I came across nettles, and my seasonal life changed. People! These foods are incredible for so many reasons.

  1. They are seasonal and they make their appearance relatively short — giving them the status of precious gem of the plant world
  2. Many of them grow wild, making them entirely more nutrient abundant
  3. They help us clear the gunk out from the winter and they hint to us which direction to take our consumption in (hint: green)

Today, I will focus only on Asparagus (so you might go out and consume it with gusto).

Portrait of Asparagus on Rainy Spring Day

Asparagus is a highly alkalizing vegetable. In fact, it is one of the most powerful alkalizers known in the vegetable world. Asparagus is believed to help with fertility and is used around the world in some form for this purpose. In each region it bursts forth from the ground and is up for about two weeks. Barbara Kingsolver writes a beautiful story around foraging for asparagus with her father in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

The “unique” smell that accompanies your urine is the quick flushing of acid waste from your blood and kidneys. This is a great alkalizing cleanse for your bladder and kidneys.

Here are a few quick ways to prepare fresh, seasonal asparagus.

To prepare, rinse and slice off the woody ends of the stems on the bias (they may be 1-2 inches only).

Simple Roasted Asparagus:

  • Slice asparagus in to bite size pieces
  • Put in a cooking dish
  • Add 1 TBS Ghee (clarified butter) or Olive Oil
  • Heat tosater oven 300˚ if using ghee, 200˚ if using olive oil
  • Add pinch of celtic sea salt to taste
  • Roast it for 10-20 minutes (this means walk away and do other things while checking back occasionally) the asparagus would be bright green.

This was so delicious, I don’t even have a photo becasue I ate it right out of the baking dish.

Simple Stir Fried Asparagus:

  • Try a stir fry with ginger, garlic and sea salt

Have either of these by themselves (I eat a whole bunch at one sitting), over millet or quinoa, or with some brown rice pasta.

You can also check this fresh, easy Asparagus Salad recipe I posted last year (it’s below the roasted asparagus recipe). Yes, I realize keep posting about Asparagus. Maybe there’s a reason.

Enjoy!

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Almost Spring-time Easy Broccoli Soup

On the east coast we’ve had a little winter Revisit. However, Spring is just around the corner! Try this super easy Broccoli soup to get your green on and warm up at the same time. As we go into Spring, we can follow mother nature and eat lots of greens. Greens have low caloric density and tons of nutrients and fiber.

Here’s a recipe form my 4 week cleanse. This is a soup you can indulge in and still shed your winter weight.

Almost Spring-time Easy Broccoli Soup

All measurements are estimates, play around and use your instincts.

You’ll need:

baking dish

high speed blender or food processor

toaster oven or oven

Ingredients:

  • 2 broccoli heads and most of the stem – washed and roughly chopped
  • 4-6 cloves of garlic – whole
  • 3 TBS olive oil
  • 1 cup of vegetable stock (or water)
  • salt to taste
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder
  • Eden Shake to taste and for garnish

Directions:

  1. Wash and roughly chop broccoli. Trim the woody part of the stem, use the rest
  2. Add broccoli florets, stems, and peeled garlic to a baking dish with water still on them
  3. Coat with olive oil
  4. Add some salt
  5. Roast in toaster oven (or oven if you prefer) on 250º for about 30 minutes– we do this on low because of the olive oil. Olive oil can become damaged in high heat and create free radicals in our bodies, so when heating be gentle and use low heat
  6. Remove from oven and transfer to blender or food processor
  7. Add in vegetable stock or water, salt to taste, and onion powder
  8. Blend until smooth.
  9. Garnish with Eden shake or parsley — or just eat as is. As much as you like.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

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Stinging Nettles: High in Protien, Great for Weight-loss, Anemia, Good Vibes

Nettles are an edible wild spring green that pack an unbelievable amount of nutrition (see below) and help with all kinds of conditions including weight-loss, anemia, mucus, allergies, etc. The season for Nettles happens over a few weeks, so NOW is the time to look for them and get ‘em while they’re here.

WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THEM?

Glad you asked. I make them into a pesto and use it everything (not just pasta)! I stir it into grits, have it with eggs and asparagus, stir it into quinoa, etc. You can combine with basil if you like or just use the Nettles. There are lots of possibilities,pine nuts, walnuts, almonds… Below is a recipe for the Nettles pesto I’ve been making and how you might add to your everyday diet. After I post this I’m going into my kitchen to make a half year’s worth to freeze. You can also read about how good it is for you below.

ADVICE: Use tongs! They sting until you blanch them.

HOW THEY’RE SO GOOD FOR YA!

Nettles are one of the most nutritious greens on the planet. Cooked or dried they lose their sting.
The entire plant can be used.

-Highest levels of beauty producing silicon in any food.
-Vitamins A, C, beta-carotene
-Chlorophyll
-Immune system builder
-High Iron content
-They’re unusually high in protein (40%) for a plant
-Nutrient-dense, they make a good overall tonic for strengthening the body
-Useful in treating anemia, high vitamin C content ensures that the iron is properly absorbed by the body.

Uses:
The juice of roots and leaves, mixed with honey or sugar, relieves both bronchitis and asthma. Greens, juice, tea, powder forms.

Weight Loss:
-Increase the function of the thyroid gland:
-Increase metabolism—helps burn away fat while increasing energy.
-Relieves mucus in the colon allowing for the release of excess waste.
-Mineral rich, which helps satisfy hunger. Overeating often is a search for minerals.

Blood Purification:
-High caliber blood purifier.
-Diuretic properties help flush the blood and cleanse thru the action of the kidneys.

Other known uses:
-Combat and relieve allergy symptoms (especially hay fever)
-Anti-arthritis or anti-rheumatic agent,
-Used as a pain reliever and anti-inflammatory,
-Used as a lung tonic for ex-smokers
-Helps skin heal from eczema, or hives
-Bursitis,
-Tendinitis,
-Laryngitis,
-Kidney stones,
-Lowers blood sugar naturally
-Relieves the symptoms of sciatica and PMS

EXCELLENT FOR:  toxicity, poor skin quality, weak nails loss of overall luster.

RECIPES

Nettles Pesto (and nettles tea!)
By now you know how incredibly healthy and nourishing nettles are . This is my favorite way (so far) to get my nettles on.

1 bunch of Nettles
½ C pine nuts
2-3 cloves garlic (chopped)
Olive oil (best to do this by sight, but start with 1/8-1/4 C)
Optional: Basil and/or mint (you don’t need these to taste great)
Salt to taste.
1.    Use tongs to handle Nettles, they will sting you until blanched!
2.    Bring a pot of filtered water to boil enough to submerge the bunch of nettles you have.
3.    Rinse the Nettles- using tongs- in a bowl with cold water and gently agitate to clean off dirt, drain, repeat 2 more times.
4.    When water is hot or boiling places nettles – using tongs- into the water and push around until the color changes – and they begin to brighten and plump – just a few seconds.
5.    Remove by pouring water into a mesh strainer or colander sitting over a bowl – so you can capture the water. Set aside this Nettles water and drink as a hot tea. Drink it plain or add some mint to it.
6.    Place nettles, garlic, pine nuts, (basil and/or mint if desired) and some oil into a food processor (or Vita mix)
7.    Add more oil for desired consistency, add salt to taste
Serve with zucchini or spaghetti squash pasta. Dip veggies into it; serve over roasted cauliflower, or with anything, really.

Zucchini “Pasta” - if you’re not into traditional pasta, try this with your pesto…

1 medium large zucchini per person.

If you have a mandolin or Benriner this will be perfect for the job, and you can hook up the julienne attachment for perfectly formed noodles.
If don’t have a mandolin, and you can either use a vegetable peeler or a knife. The peeler method will give you long flat noodles, and if using a knife, just cut the zucchini into thin slices, stack up, and cut again lengthwise into thin strips.
If eating raw, dress them with a little olive oil, or some nettles pesto.
Add fresh chopped olives or tomatoes.
You can also boil water, and add the noodles to the water to cook for about 1 minute for a slightly different texture.
Take out and immediately blanch in cold water, or cold running water, to prevent over cooking.

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Seasonal Foods: Asparagus 2 Ways

It’s asparagus season in the Northeast which means it’s time to eat and enjoy this early spring vegetable. Asparagus is a perfect  for the spring and summer seasons: It’s a diuretic and helps cleanse and strengthen the kidneys. It is rich in chlorophyll making it a terrific blood cleanser. It’s also known worldwide as a superior fertility food.

Plan on eating your asparagus soon after purchase, when it’s tastes are peak. Try these simple preparations and let me know what you think.

Roasted Asparagus

Prep Time: 3 minutes
Cooking Time: 7-9 minutes

Ingredients:
1 Bunch Fresh Asparagus
Olive Oil
pinch of salt

Directions:
1. Pre Heat Oven (or Toaster Oven) to 200 degrees
2. Wash Asparagus removing dirt
3. Bend stalk and let break naturally, discard woody stem and cut nicely to clean up the break
4. Brush or rub with Extra Virgin Olive Oil
5. Sprinkle with sea salt (I use Celtic salt for it’s high mineral content)
6. Place in a casserole dish in oven for 10-20 minutes

Fresh Asparagus Salad

For this fresh, bright, springtime recipe, you’ll want to use the asparagus raw, but slice it thin and on a diagonal. Peel the stem before you slice with a vegetable peeler to reveal the tender shoot.

Prep Time: 10 minutes if you’re feeling relaxed

Ingredients:

1 Bunch Asparagus
1-2 Fresh squeezed lemons (to taste)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Sea Salt
Freshly ground pepper

Finish with either:

Pine nuts coarsely chopped (my favorite)

or

1-2 oz wedge parmigiano-reggiano cheese

Directions:

1. Place the pieces in a bowl and toss with lemon juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste
2. When ready to serve,  add the pine nuts and toss OR use a vegetable peeler to shave the cheese over the top
3. Serve at room temperature or slightly chilled.

Tonight, I’m adding fresh peas to the mix. I’ll Keep you posted.

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