A Smoothie and a Sundae from a Beet, an Orange and an Apple plus Kombucha and Kefir

Friends recently told me that they love to start their day with a smoothie made with just an apple, an orange and a cooked beet. That sounded interesting! So I thought I’d experiment with that combination.

After blending these three ingredients plus a splash of kombucha, I got a gorgeous and delicious mixture that tasted fruity and also earthy like beets.

Then, I spooned some of this beet/fruit mixture into little cups and topped each serving with plain whole milk kefir (as shown in the photo below). The kefir seeped into the spaces between the beet/fruit mixture and created food art! And, with every spoonful of these little “sundaes,” I tasted two delightfully contrasting flavors — the creamy tart kefir and the sweet fruit/earthy beet flavor!

Next, I added a little more kefir and gave it a stir, and the “sundae” turned into a delicious smoothie, as shown below.

So, as you can see, with just a few healthful ingredients, you can create a refreshing drink and also a work-of-art “sundae!”

About the nutrition of each ingredient

Kefir and kombucha –
“Entry level” fermented foods to try today!
Kefir and kombucha are fermented foods and as such they provide us with probiotic bacteria. Our ancestors didn’t have refrigeration, so they fermented many foods. Modern day diets are woefully lacking in fermented foods (and fiber) and our guts are woefully lacking in bacterial diversity… We need to add fermented foods (and fiber) back to rehabilitate our microbiomes and improve our health. (See this article re Signs your probiotics are working for you.)

If you haven’t tried kefir, go for it! It’s kind of like buttermilk or drinkable yogurt. And kombucha is like a fruity sparkling juice that’s a bit on the sour side. Both are great staples to keep in your refrigerator so you can invent your own delightful concoctions anytime!

Oranges –
Don’t throw out the good stuff!
When you think about eating an orange, you probably only think about eating the orange sections, not the peel (the thin deep orange colored layer on the outside) and not the pith (the white spongy substance between the peel and the juicy orange). But both the peel and the pith are nutrient rich as you will see from this paper about orange peel and this paper about orange pith. But, don’t dump the whole orange into your blender! That would make the mix too bitter!

Oranges: Food Prep Tips to add nutrition
Peel: Before you cut your orange, use a really sharp vegetable peeler to remove some of the orange’s peel, then chop the peel into small pieces and add these to your blender.
Pith: Be sure to leave most of the pith attached to the orange segments. The pith is slightly bitter, but not as bitter as the peel. In photo at top of this page, you can see that I left some of the white pith on the cut orange. I could have left more than I did and next time, I’ll do that.
Organic: If you plan to use the peel and the pith, be sure your orange is organic.

Apples –
An apple a day. There’s truth to that!
For info on the nutrition and health benefits of apples, click here.

Beets –
Beets for better brains and better athletic performance!
For information about the nutrition of beets and their many different health benefits, see this summary. Also, you might want to “geek-out” on this article about the brain- and athletic-boosting benefits of the nitrites in beets.

Cooking beets
I like to steam fresh beets in the microwave. It’s so easy! Just cut off the tops (reserve the leafy tops and the stems to make sautéed beet greens), scrub the beets clean and then put the beets, whole or cut in half if they are big, into a microwaveable bowl, add a little water, and cover with a lid (which can be a plate). Check for doneness after about 5 minutes. When the beets are cooked to your liking (and for this recipe they do not need to be fully cooked), don a pair of kitchen gloves and grabe a sharp vegetable peeler to peel off the skins. Or just leave the skins on and blend the beets with their skins! (I peeled the skins, but next time, I will keep the skins on, for more fiber and more nutrients!)

What are you going to do with the beet greens? Eat them!
These days I microwave beet greens, and the information on that is in this updated post about beet greens.

SIGN UP NOW: As mentioned in a recent post, if you are interested to learn more about food and your microbiome, you can attend a Zoom program, free, with Will Bulsiewicz on May 8. Sign up now! See you there!

Enjoy and be healthy!
Leni

Artichokes are in season!

Two cooked beauties! Ready to enjoy!

I love artichokes! I used to steam them on the stove in a big pot and it was a big production! Today, I discovered a much easier way! Just microwave them! It fast and easy and the artichokes come out perfect!

Two raw artichoke beauties and their stems that have been trimmed of their outermost fibrous covering

• Cut the stem from the artichoke, leaving about 1/2 inch of the stem attached to the artichoke.
• Peel the stem with a sharp knife, removing about 1/8 inch of the outermost layer. Set aside.
• Break off the small leaves at the base of the artichoke, and discard these leaves.
• Starting at the bottom and working your way up, use a sharp scissors (like this one, which I love), to cut the thorns off the leaves. But don’t bother cutting the thorns from the top 1/4 of the artichoke, because in the next step you are going to cut them off.
• Using a sharp heavy knife (like a chef’s knife), cut about 1.5 inches off of the top of the artichoke.
• Now give the artichoke a good rinse, pulling the the leaves apart to flush out the debris that may be there. Then place them upside down in a bow of water and swish them around.
• Put 1/4 cup of water into a deep microwavable bowl.
• Add the artichoke to the bowl, cut side down.
• Throw the reserved trimmed stem into the bowl with the artichoke. (Sorry, photo doesn’t show the stem.)

Artichoke is placed cut side down in the water. Add the trimmed artichoke stem to the bowl, too!

• Cover the bowl with a silicone cover (like this one, shown below) or with a plate.

• In my experience, a large artichoke takes 5 – 6 minutes on high. A very large one takes 7 – 9 minutes on high. Then let it steam for about a minute before you remove the lid. (Artichokes vary in size and microwave ovens vary in wattage, so timing is relative.)
• Test artichoke for doneness: When the artichoke is cooked, you can easily insert a knife into the stem.

Cooked artichoke stems, sliced. Delicious just as they are! Cook’s treat!

How to eat an artichoke?
This short video shows how.

A few simple sauces that go great with artichokes

• Mix olive oil, lemon juice and a little butter — warm and then add Parmesan cheese.
• Bagna cauda sauce, like in this recipe.
• Preserved lemon vinaigrette, in this recipe.
• Invent your own recipe: In a bowl, wisk some of the liquid from a jar of preserved lemons, like from this jar, with some extra virgin olive oil, a little fresh lemon juice, and a sprinkle of garlic granules (or garlic powder). It’s so simple and so delicious!

Artichokes are very nutritious!
Artichokes are high in fiber and many different health-promoting phytochemicals. To learn more about the nutrients in and health-promoting benefits of artichokes, see this article.

Enjoy and be healthy!
Leni

Kimchi and Scallion Frittata

Kimchi and scallion frittata, not yet quite finished cooking

Supper tonight was so easy and so tasty. All I did was lightly sauté a whole bunch of scallions (green and white parts) and over that I poured a few eggs that had been mixed with a fork. Then I topped the uncooked eggs with some spicy kimchi. I let the frittata cook in the pan with the lid on until it was done. While it was cooking, I heated up some edamame in the pod.

What could be easier? A nice simple supper for a spring evening!

And, as you probably know, fermented foods like kimchi are so good for your health, especially because they increase gut microbiome diversity and reduce inflammation, as mentioned in this short out-take video with Will Bulsiewicz, MD, author of Fiber Fueled.

And BTW, you can attend a Zoom program with Will Bulsiewicz on May 8. Sign up now! See you there!

Be well,

Leni