The Muscles from Brussels: Getting to know the Belgium Sprout

Fish heads?  They do look more like baby cabbages I guess.

I was reading over my first few blog posts and I noticed it's full of pasta, fried okra and pizza.  I'm trying to live healthy and whole here.  It's easy to slip into old habits, I guess.  Today, this entry is 100% healthy.

I have a bad history with Brussels sprouts.  My mom says I liked them when I was little.  I don't remember that.  I do remember that my sister told me they were little, slimy fish heads at dinner one day.  I haven't really eaten them since then. I always see their little slimy lips and eyes just peering at me.  Yuck.  I know they're not really little, slimy fish heads, but it still grosses me out.

What Brussels sprouts are is cultivar of cabbage. They are named after Brussels, but the origin is unclear. They were believed to be first grown in Belgium in the late 1500s, though some believe they were enjoyed as early as the 13th century.  Brussels sprouts taste similar to cabbage, but are generally more nutritious than cabbage. 

Brussels sprouts have twice as much protein, vitamin C and folic acid than cabbage and more vitamin A, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium than cabbage.  They also have twice as many calories and 1/3 more carbs than the same serving size of cabbage, but neither has enough to really worry about (cabbage has 17 calories and 4 grams of carbs per 1/2 cup, Brussels sprouts have 28 calories and 6 grams of carbs).  Brussels sprouts and cabbage are both high in fiber.

Brussels sprouts contain sulforaphane and indole-3-carbinol, like broccoli and cabbage, if you eat them steamed or stir-fryed.  This is why people claim they have anti-cancer properties.  There is some real, randomized study data on the consumption of cruciferous vegetables and cancer risks.  The data seems to indicate that there is some decreased risk with daily servings of cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower, cabbage, bok choy, broccoli, kale and Brussels sprouts.   However, boiling or blanching the vegetables destroys the compounds. Raw is the best way to go, but a quick cooking method preserves many of these compounds.

To pick out fresh Brussels sprouts, look for the bright green ones.  The brightly colored ones with the fewest brown leaves are best.  They should be firm, compact and tightly packed.  It's best to choose sprouts that are similar in size. Avoid any with an odor.  I think the smaller ones are better because they require less prep, and taste sweeter.

This one really does look like a fish face.

I have a theory that most people don't like vegetables because they've never had them properly cooked or fresh.  It seems that whenever I try something I "hate" at a restaurant with a really good chef, I'm always shocked.  I actually like it.  People, including myself, don't like Brussels sprouts because we're used to the slimy, boiled and nasty type we were served as kids. 

Fresh Brussels sprouts taste fresh.  They don't have the bitter taste of the frozen, over-cooked variety.  Over-cooking releases the bitter, sulfur compounds, making them less healthy and less delicious.  Fresh Brussels sprouts have a sweet, almost buttery taste.

As always, the best way to try a vegetable out to see if you really like it is a plain preparation.  Here, I tried roasted Brussels sprouts.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts
About a dozen Brussels sprouts
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper

The core.

1. Clean the Brussels sprouts well and remove any outer leaves that look brown or yellow.  Cut the bottoms off and you can remove the core, if they're bigger.  See the photo on the right.  The white part in the center is the core of the sprout.  Smaller ones have a softer core that is easier to eat.  It's tough on larger sprouts, in my experience.
2. I like to cut mine into halves or quarters so I get more browning, but you can roast them whole. 
3. Toss them with a few tablespoons of olive oil and salt and pepper.
4. Arrange the sprouts on a sheet pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes until tender and barely brown.
5. Taste them, you can salt again if needed.

Even I like the simplicity of roasted Brussels sprouts, and they don't look anything like fish heads.  Well, maybe a little like a fish head.

Roasted and ready to eat.

Nutrition Facts

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Amount Per Serving (makes 2)

Calories: 165
Total fat: 14.1 g
Protein: 3.2 g
Total carbohydrate: 8.9 g

• Dietary Fiber: 3.4 g
• Sugar: 2.2 g

Artichokes: Defeat by Edible Hedgehog

Is this thing worth the trouble?

You normally wouldn't consider a hedgehog looking vegetable edible.  That's why vegetables (and hedgehogs) grew those spikes in the first place.  We're not supposed to want to eat them.  Artichokes are supposed to be worth the hassle of getting to them, but are they?


I was watching an episode of "Chopped" last week and one of the judges, kid you not, said that an improperly prepared artichoke could actually kill you.  She said if you left the choke (the furry part) in, the person who ate it would choke on it and possibly die.  That sounds about as appetizing as fugu.

Here you can see the deadly choke (the furry part in the middle)

I looked it up after I saw it, because I was freaked out.  A vegetable in the produce section at my local Kroger can kill me?  Madness!  I couldn't find any reference to death by artichoke, thank goodness.  I read that the choke is very unpleasant to eat, and it might make you cough.  Eating anything hairy would.  It's not really deadly.  The chokes of baby artichokes or Spanish and Italian artichokes are ok to eat.  

That's a relief.  I wouldn't want my inept artichoke fileting skills to kill a dear friend.  Knowing that my poorly cut artichoke would not result in immediate death, I decided to soldier on and try this beast myself.

Artichokes are low in calories and fat.  They are a good source of B vitamins and Vitamin C.  They also have Vitamin K (something to watch if you're on warfarin/coumadin).  They were once famed to be an aphrodisiac. They are reported by the Artichoke Advisory Board (there's really one of those) to be one the vegetables with the highest amounts of antioxidants.

Artichokes look different at different times of the years.  In the spring, their leaves should be tightly packed.  They should be bright green and heavy for their size.  During the fall and winter, they have a bronze color on their leaves and are less tightly packed. The advisory board says they are most delicious during fall and winter.

I would pretend to tell you how to dissemble one, but I did a horrible job.  I had more waste than artichoke.  At least I, for sure, got all the dangerous, deadly choke out.  I had it in my head that I wanted to do a dish with artichoke heart instead of a simple dipping sauce, so I went in to fully dissemble the critter.   Here are two great tutorials:

• How to get the artichoke heart.
• How to trim (for a stuffed artichoke dish or something like that).

Here's mine.

Yup,  that mess is just one.  I did a little better with the second one.

I got enough heart out of it to steam the heart to make a pizza, but not the wonderful dish I had in mind.  You just steam the hearts for about 25 minutes, until they are tender.

The pizza tasted ok, but I feel like the artichoke defeated me.  For one, I did use flour (in my defense, I used my Vita-mix to make whole wheat flour from wheat berries.  Maybe I should post about that sometime).  For two, my artichoke didn't look like any of the photographic tutorials I followed or even the can of artichoke hearts I almost bought.  I did learn a lot about artichoke anatomy.  I also learned that it can't kill me, so I'm going to try again.

I got a little artichoke heart, but not enough to feel accomplished.

Low Carb Peach Salsa

Salsa is a sneaky way to get some vegetables in your diet.

In my last post, I talked about growing okra.  Another vegetable I grow in abundance over the summer is tomatoes.  Salsa is dish that I like to make with them, because it's healthy, easily canned and helps punch up a low-carb diet.  I don't normally eat it with chips.  Most of the time I use it as a salad dressing, a topping or an ingredient.

Peach salsa makes a great, low-carb salad dressing.  If you leave out the peach, you'll have a really low carb salsa (3.7 grams per serving).   I use my Vita-mix to make salsa.  You can use a food processor or just chop the ingredients super fine.

This salsa has all sorts of fun colors and textures.

For 6 servings:

• 1 small peach
• 1 green pepper
• About 24 grape tomatoes, or about 6 oz of regular tomatoes
• 1 jalapeno pepper (I use the whole pepper, but I like it hot.  You can remove the seeds and the pith if you like.  With a whole jalepeno, it's too spicy for most people)
• A handful of fresh basil 
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp of lime juice

Optional:

• If you don't like basil, you can use cilantro

Just toss all of the ingredients in your blender or food processor and process to the chunkiness you desire.  If you don't have a blender or food processor, just chop all the ingredients to a fine consistency and mix them.

Before blending

Salsas taste best if you leave them in the fridge for at least an hour before serving.

Nutrition Facts

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Amount Per Serving (makes 6)

Calories:  21.7

Total fat: 0.1 g

Protein: 0.3 g

Total carbohydrate:  5.3 g

• Dietary Fiber: 0.6 g
• Sugar: 1.8 g

Okra: Delicious and Mucilaginous

Okra, an important part of traditional southern cuisine.

It's farmer's market season, so it's tough to buy things I don't like.  There are actually a few things I do like and they're all fresh and in season.  Okra is something I like.  Well, kind of.  I only like okra one way.  The traditional southern way: pan-fried.  It's not healthy at all, so I'm not even going to quote nutritional facts to pretend that it is.  Okra is generally low in calories and a good source of fiber and some vitamins, but deep frying it ruins almost all of that.

I've read in some, unsubstantiated, sources that since okra contains mucilage, it binds cholesterol and coats your colon enhancing colon health and lowing cholesterol better than other vegetables. I haven't found anything scientific to even halfway back that up, so I say bullocks.  Fiber, which okra does contain, of any kind is good for colon health and can help lower cholesterol.  It's not a special property of okra, it's a property of fiber.  Livestrong says eating okra may lower cholesterol.  Their reasoning is that if you eat okra, which contains no cholesterol or fat, you may be less likely to eat something that does have cholesterol.  Again, that's not a special property of okra.  We might as well say apples lower cholesterol.  We're pan frying it here, so let's not delude ourselves by saying, "At least by pan-frying okra, we're not eating all the carbs and fat in French fries."  Fried okra is not a health food.

I grow my own okra every year.  It's an easy vegetable to grow.  It withstands, even loves, hot Arkansas weather, grows easy from a seed and produces a ton.  Summer is the only time I eat fried okra, because I only eat it fresh.

Home grown okra.  This guy is too little to pick.

When you pick okra, either from the store or the bush, it needs to be bright green and pliable. If the pod doesn't have any give to it when you flex it, it's going to taste woody.  If you let okra grow too long or sit too long before prepping, the mucilage dries out and it gets fibrous.  It's not at all tasty at that point.  If you cut a piece of okra and it's black inside, it wasn't harvested soon enough and will be fibrous and woody.  The okra in the top photo is perfectly ripe.  Compare it to the photo below of over-ripe okra.  Notice that the over-ripe okra looks more fibrous and dryer than the top photo.  The good news is that you can save those black seeds and plant okra again next year, so the pod isn't a complete waste.

Bad okra.  May be ok for gumbo, but I probably wouldn't chance it.

Deep frying okra is like deep drying anything else.

Deep Fried Okra

Oil to cover about 3 inches of the bottom of a pan

1/2 cup cornmeal

1 cup flour

salt and pepper to taste

Okra, sliced thin at moment of prep

Like any breading for frying, you want to mix the cornmeal and flour together with the salt and pepper (you can kick it up with some garlic powder, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes or whatever spices you want).  I mix it all in a plastic bowl that is big enough to shake my okra around in too.  After the dry ingredients are well mixed, I toss the okra in and shake it up.  If you slice the okra right before you want to coat and fry it, it's moist enough to hold the breading and you don't have to worry about dipping it in egg or buttermilk.  Okra's mucilage is kind of sticky anyway.  Add the floured okra to hot oil and fry until you desired level of browness. I like mine well done and crunchy.

It's important not to mess with it too much in the pan or it gets mushy.  I let mine cook completely on one side, then turn it (as best as I can).  I try to only touch it once or twice during cooking.

Yum.

Nutrition Facts

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Are you kidding me? There are none.  It's deep fried okra. Just enjoy it.

Purple Hull Peas: Southern Peasant Food

Purple Hull Peas

So far, I've been discussing things I don't like.  Today, I want to talk about something I do like.  Purple hull peas are a traditional southern food.  They're one of my favorite soul foods.  I found some some today at a roadside stand.  They were freshly hulled and bagged for just $3.  I was so excited I couldn't wait to get home and cook them.  I love purple hull pea season.

Purple hull peas are a field pea, and a cousin to the black-eyed pea.  Southern rich raised these guys for livestock back in pre-civil war times, but they would throw leftovers to the slaves (or poor whites).  They became soul food.  The poor would spice them up with leftover pork scraps and make them delicious.  Most traditional southern food is about making do with what you have, and these peas are no different.

There is legend that says when Sherman's Union troops raided Confederates food supplies, they took everything except the peas and salted pork.  Those were peasant foods, and not fit for the Union troops.  Their loss.  Purple hull peas are delicious and nutritious.

Purple hull peas are an excellent source dietary fiber and a pretty decent source of protein (about 13 grams of protein and 11 grams of fiber per cup).  They also have folate.  If you're low carb, they have about 36 grams of carbs per cup (they are a pea afterall), so depending on what diet you're following they may or may not be appropriate. 

I think purple hull peas are creamier and smoother than black-eyed peas.  They have a fresher, earthier flavor than black-eyed peas, but they taste similar.  If you like black-eyed peas, you need to visit the south and try some purple hull peas.  You'll like them even better.

Traditionally, you flavor purple hull peas with salt pork or a few strips of bacon.  You can avoid the pork fat if you're vegetarian.  I always add onions to mine, but you can cut that out too.

Cooking peas (keep the lid on while they cook.  I just took it off for the photo)

There is a Purple Hull Pea Festival and World Championship Tiller Race in Arkansas, where I'm from.  I've been a few times. The tiller races are a sight.  They have a grand championship purple hull pea recipe.  I'll post it here, because I can't make up a better recipe than a championship recipe from a pea festival:

Purple Hull Peas from Emerson

5-6 cups shelled purple hull peas
6 oz. centercut smokey bacon (use a good brand)
Salt to taste

Cut bacon into inch size pieces and lightly brown in a dutch oven or deep saucepan.  Do not drain bacon grease.  Add washed peas and enough water to cover plus one inch.  Add 2 teaspoons salt.  Boil over medium heat until tender (about 45 minutes).  Taste and add more salt if needed.  Serve with hot, buttered cornbread.

Here is what I do.  As I mentioned, I add onions, omit the pork and use half water and half vegetable stock to cover the peas. I like to chop my onions big so I can pick them out. I don't like onions, but I like the flavor they impart.  If you like onions, a finer chop than you see above would be good so you can bits in your peas.  I also add pepper and a few pinches of red pepper flakes to mine.

Peasant food? No way,  these are fit for royalty.

You want to make sure the peas are tender, but don't cook them for too long.  If you cook them for too long, they turn into mush.  You want them to have about the same consistency as al dente pasta.  Don't be afraid to taste one or two to see if they've got the right bite.  Alternatively, you can smash them between your fingers to see if they're done, but why waste them?

Nutrition Facts

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Amount Per Serving (makes 5-6)

Calories: 198
Total fat: 1 g
Protein: 13 g
Total carbohydrate: 36 g

• Dietary Fiber: 11.1 g
• Sugar: 5.64 g

Squash Alfredo Corkscrews: Not Healthy, but Delicious

I am weak when it comes to pasta.

This meal proves that I'm a junk food vegetarian.  I said previously that I didn't really like acorn squash.  If I blend it up and put it over pasta, apparently I find it delicious.  I guess the problem is that it vaguely resembled something good for me before.

I've mentioned that I'm trying to cut out gluten and processed foods, but it's hard for me to do.  I work 12 hour shifts, and most of my years of cooking experience have centered around pasta.  I can throw together a pasta meal in a few minutes, and it will taste wonderful.  Trying to come up with something gluten free often takes me hours.  I'll blog later about what I think about the low glycemic pastas everyone loves (the short: I agree with Jimmy Moore, they affect my blood sugar just like regular pasta).

I had an acorn squash in the fridge that I hadn't figured out what to do with, and I was hungry.  Corkscrew this gluten free thing, I'm making a pasta dish. This dish was made with some whole wheat twists or spiralini, but I'm not pretending they are any healthier than regular pasta.  Just check the nutrition facts. 

When I sampled the plain acorn squash, I immediately thought it had the tang and texture to be a delicious Alfredo.  So, I decided to try it.

Mock Alfredo (Serves 4)
1 Acorn Squash
Olive oil, cinnamon, salt and pepper to season
2 cups broccoli florets, chopped
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons sour cream
Parmesean cheese to taste
Cooked pasta (I used about 3 cups of spiralini, but you can use whatever.  It'd be best on something the sauce can stick to like rigatoni or penne)

1. Cut the squash into quarters, sprinkle it with some olive oil, a pinch of cinnamon, salt and pepper and bake it for about an hour, until tender.
2. While baking, steam the broccoli
3. Take two of the squash quarters (see step 6) and puree them in a food processor or blender with about 1/2 cup of milk, 2 tablespoons of sour cream and a handful of Parmesan cheese.  I would add the milk last, because the amount you need really depends on how moist your squash is.  I wanted a slightly thick sauce consistency.
4. Toss the pasta and sauce together.
5. Cut the remaining squash into cubes and carefully toss the cubes and broccoli florets in with the pasta.
6. If you don't like the consistency of squash, you can puree the entire squash and use it as a sauce.  I thought the cubes made it more interesting.
7. Top with Parmesan cheese if desired.

I thought it was quite delicious.  Even if I’m delusional about the pasta being good for me, I know the meal was at least healthier than traditional Alfredo.  A way to make it extra healthy would be to add an extra cup of broccoli and only use a cup or two of pasta, so you get more broccoli than pasta.


Nutrition Facts

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Amount Per Serving (makes 4)

Calories:  391.9

Total fat: 13.6 g

Protein: 31 g

Total carbohydrate:  47.8 g

• Dietary Fiber: 16.3 g
• Sugar: 3.7 g

For comparison, Olive Garden's Fettuccine Alfredo has 1220 calories.  To be fair, their dinner portion is at least 2 portions, so it probably evens out.   Ok, I admit it.  I had two servings of this too.  Pasta is like crack.  You can't resist the urge to go back for seconds.  Though, looking at the carbs and calories, maybe I should have.

Braving Celery Root

A creature from another universe or food?

I don't normally eat things that look they've been stuck in the back of my fridge for a month.  I decided to give celery root, or celeriac, a try anyway. It's pretty nutritious and everyone says it makes a great addition to a healthy diet.  Hard to believe since it looks like something my cat could have coughed up.

Celery root is used a lot as a potato substitute. It has less than half the calories of a potato and one third of the carbs (reference). It's great for low carbers. However, nutrition wise, a cup of baked potato has about twice as much fiber, three times as much vitamin C, three times as much potassium and about the same amount of phosphorus. You're only cutting calories and carbs by substituting celeriac, not adding nutrients.  Celeriac is just less dense, with a higher water content than a potato.  That's helpful if you're trying to lose weight, but not if you're just trying to eat better. 

One cup of celeriac has 1.5 grams of protein, 9 grams of carbs, 42 calories and 1.9 grams of fiber. Vitamin C - 5.6 mg, Potassium - 268 mg, Phosphorus - 102 mg

One medium baked potato has 4.33 grams of protein, 27 grams of carbs, 161 calories and 3.8 grams of fiber. Vitamin C - 16.6 mg, Potassium - 926 mg, Phosphorus - 121 mg

Since this furry cousin of celery is a root vegetable I've always passed at the store and never thought twice about, I decided to purchase one and be brave.

Picking out a celery root is not that tough, if you can get past the hairy exterior. You want one that's firm, has no fleshy or soft spots and looks uniform in color. Like a lot of vegetables, smaller ones don't taste as woody as the large ones.

I had a problem at the checkout.  The young guy ringing up my groceries looked at it and then to me and said, "What is this?"
"It's celery root, or celeriac.  I'm not sure what it's listed under."
"Oh.  Is it supposed to look like this?"
"Well, I think so.  They all look like that."

He finally figured out how much to charge me.  Celery root is more expensive than a potato, in my experience.  The one pictured above was $3.  You can sometimes buy a whole bag of potatoes for that.

To prepare celery root, you have to wash and peel the skin. I tasted a piece raw. The raw piece had a strong celery flavor, but when I sampled a cooked piece I barely detected it. I hate raw celery (big surprise). This was actually much nicer. It has the flavor of celery but a nice, clean texture. It's more like a turnip in texture, which is so much nicer than the stringy celery plant.

I think I could like this vegetable.

For my first experience in celery root, I decided to make a very plain soup. I like my first sampling to be pretty plain.  I just used made my favorite leek soup, but used celery root instead of potatoes.

Celery Root and Leek Soup (6 servings)
2 tablespoons butter
Olive oil to coat pan
3 leeks (cleaned and chopped)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large celery root (peeled and cubed)
3 cups of chicken stock
2 cups of water (or to taste)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/2 cup whipping cream

1. Heat stock pot with butter and olive oil. When heated, add leeks and cook for a few minutes before adding garlic. Cook until translucent.
2. Add stock and celery root and simmer for about an hour. Check the celery root like you would a boiled potato. If you can pierce it with a fork, it's done.
3. Puree in a blender or use a stick blender until the desired consistency. I used my Vitamix. If the soup is too thick, which it probably will be, you can add the water (or add more stock if you want to). Season to taste.
4. Add the whipping creme and put the soup back in the stock pot. Reheat gently on low heat.

Great for a cold day.

I really liked the soup. It's said celery root tends to take the flavor of what it's cooked with, and this tasted as good as any leek soup I've ever had. Leek soup generally uses potato as a base, but leeks are such a  powerful flavor.  I always taste the texture of the potato more than the flavor. I can imagine spicing the soup up would make it even better. Also, if you really wanted a low fat soup, you could leave the whipping cream out.

Nutrition Facts

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Amount Per Serving (makes 6)

Calories: 122
Total fat: 9.5 g
Protein: 12 g
Total carbohydrate: 8.8 g

• Dietary Fiber: 1.1 g
  
• Sugar: 2.3 g

Cutting out the cream drops it to 87 calories, 5.8 grams of fat per serving. Protein drops to 1.5 grams and the carbs remain the same.