This year I wanted to expand the “Recipes” section, in which I tell you how to cook delicious and, most importantly, healthy dishes.
I invited Yulia Bogdanova, the author of the Spinach and Buckwheat blog, to share her recipes with us.
Why did I want to cooperate with Yulia? Her concept of the kitchen is close to me in spirit, the main differences of which are the use of local seasonal products and the attitude to nutrition as a way to improve your health, avoid diseases or even cure them.
Naturally, this concept was not woven out of thin air. About a year ago, Yulia decided to develop a system of healthy nutrition for herself – and after a thorough study of the issue, she settled on unprocessed plant foods as optimal for human health and the environment.
And during her recent study at a culinary school specializing in Vegetable Kitchen, Yulia learned about the vast Western practice, where a plant diet can successfully treat many diseases – from mild ailments to chronic diseases of the Western civilization, which are sometimes difficult to cope with with traditional medicines (diabetes, heart disease). vascular diseases, allergies and a number of others).
Now Julia devotes all her free time to independent study of the principles of diet therapy and is now entering a two-year nutritional program.
Let’s start the cycle of recipes from Julia with a spicy soup from red beans and parsley… This soup is not only very tasty, it can be called medicinal, as we need it for healthy and strong bones. But let Julia herself tell you more about this:
– The peculiarities of calcium assimilation became one of the first discoveries for me, – Yulia admits. – In principle, I am a fairly healthy person (I was lucky in many ways with genetics), but the lack of calcium after every three births and breastfeeding hurt me thoroughly: there were catastrophic problems with my teeth. Neither large quantities of cottage cheese nor multivitamins for pregnant and lactating women helped. It is a pity that today’s knowledge cannot be applied to the past – then I would eat dishes that are similar in the principles of combining products with this soup.
The basis of the soup is beans and parsley, both are rich sources of not only calcium, but also magnesium, which is necessary for the proper absorption of calcium. With a lack of magnesium, calcium accumulates not in bone tissues, but in soft tissues, which, among other things, manifests itself in the form of arthrosis and various deposits, such as, for example, which are called “spurs” in the common people. In addition to magnesium, vitamin D is needed for the absorption of calcium. Its equivalent in our soup is chlorophyll from green parsley and cilantro, which is actively used in Eastern and Western practice to treat many diseases. Not so critical, but important trace elements – phosphorus, vitamins A and C, which are also found in green leafy plants (with the exception of spinach and beet tops because of the oxalic acid they contain, which makes it difficult for calcium absorption).
Other plant sources of calcium and many of the trace minerals listed above are:
— algae;
– bgeneral, especially soybeans, mung bean, adzuki, black beans;
– almost everything whole grain cereals: buckwheat, millet, pearl barley, wheat, rice;
— nuts and seedssuch as almonds, hazelnuts, cashews and sesame seeds;
– greens, especially the so-called curly cabbage (kale or browncol, collards), which, unfortunately, is not for sale with us yet;
– any seedlings.
The absorption of calcium is hampered not only by the lack of the above microelements, but also by smoking, drinking large amounts of coffee and alcohol, lack of physical activity, excess protein in the diet (especially animal), salt and refined sweets.
Therefore, I offer you this tasty and warming soup on chilly autumn-winter days, healthy and easy to prepare.
Ingredients:
1 cup red beans (adzukiif you find),
4 a glass of water,
1 medium carrot
a bunch of fresh parsley,
half a bunch of cilantro (can be replaced with parsley if you don’t like cilantro),
3 cloves of garlic,
1/2 medium yellow onion
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
2 tablespoons of lemon juice,
1 tablespoon olive oil
raw sea salt to taste.
Preparation:
Soak the beans overnight in cold water, drain the water before cooking (soaking neutralizes phytic acid, which binds minerals and prevents their absorption). Cook the beans over low heat for an hour and a half, until tender, so that they remain whole and quite a bit tough in the center. While the beans are boiling, finely chop the herbs and finely chop the carrots.
Sauté the onion over low heat with a pinch of salt until transparent, then add finely chopped garlic, carrots, ground coriander and red pepper and sauté for another 1-2 minutes.
15 minutes before the beans are ready, add onions with vegetables and spices to the bean broth and continue to cook over low heat. Add greens and lemon juice 2-3 minutes until tender.
Blend the beans with a hand blender to the desired consistency (I like it when small, pleasantly hard to the tooth pieces remain). Try it, add spices to taste. Let it brew for half an hour, or even better – a couple of hours.