Just dropping in to let you know that over on MediterrAsian.com we’ve published a sushi hand roll recipe, and we’ve included step-by-step photos to make the rolling process easier. Sushi hand rolls are healthy and very flavorsome, so if you’ve never made them before you’ve got to give it a try.
Here’s the link.
Nuts have had a bad reputation over the years for being unhealthy. That’s mainly because they have a high fat content, and until quite recently all fats were seen as dietary enemy number one.
But the consensus of the scientific community these days is that there are good fats (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats) and bad fats (trans fats and saturated fats). Good fats help lower LDL cholesterol levels in the blood, while bad fats increase the levels of LDL cholesterol. And because nuts contain mostly good fats, they’re actually very good for your heart and arteries.
Nuts are also a rich source of other health-giving nutrients including vitamin E (which acts as a powerful antioxidant), B vitamins and potassium — and they’re a good source of protein and dietary fiber. However, nuts are also quite high in calories, so it’s best not to overindulge!
We enjoy nuts in lots of different ways. Often we’ll enjoy them as a wholesome between-meal snack, or sprinkled over cereal and dessert — but we also love using nuts in our cooking. And for inspiration all we have to do is look to Mediterranean and Asian cultures to see how nuts can be used in a wide variety of healthy and delicious ways.
Here are some Mediterranean and Asian recipes from this blog as well as our website that contain nuts:
Penne with Roasted Pear, Goat Cheese and Walnuts
Pesto Genovese
Penne Rigate alla Ricotta e Noci
Spinach, Pumpkin, Walnut, Basil & Ricotta Lasagna
Sun-dried Tomato & Walnut Pesto Pasta with Salmon & Asparagus
Honey-Lemon Chicken with Almonds
Moroccan Chicken & Olive Tagine with Almond Couscous
Mushroom, Bacon & Walnut Risotto
Thai Crab & Cashew Fried Rice
Lemongrass Chicken with Bean Thread Noodles
Peanut Chicken Noodles
Pad Thai
Tofu & Cashew Chow Mein
Mixed Greens, Cherry Tomato & Pine Nut Salad
Insalata di Riso (Italian Rice Salad)
Gado Gado
Tuna, Olive & Tomato Salad with Romesco Sauce
Roast Vegetable & Chickpea Couscous
Pancetta & Walnut Salad
Cantonese Rice Salad
Spanish Broccoli & Almond Soup
Dolmades
Chicken Satay
Romesco Sauce
Indonesian Peanut Sauce
I live in New Zealand now, but I’m still a very proud Australian — and I think about home often (sob, sob). But thanks to the Internet, I never feel too far from home. Not only can I easily communicate with my family through email, the Web also enables me to read my favorite Australian newspaper, The Sydney Morning Herald, every day.
Like many newspapers published online, SMH includes a selection of blogs based on all sorts of topics ranging from politics to sports.
One blog I really enjoy reading is called Chew On This by award winning health writer Paula Goodyer, who writes very insightful posts about food and nutrition.
Recently she wrote a post called “Ten healthy habits from the Mediterranean” where she spoke with Dr Antigone Kouris, a Melbourne based dietitian and nutrition research fellow with Monash University, who is from a Greek family.
Dr Kouris gave some very helpful tips on how to follow a traditional Mediterranean way of eating, which I’ll quickly summarize:
Then Paula finished the post by asking her readers: “Do you find it easy to include healthy Mediterranean style dishes in a busy week? Tell us how.”
For someone like me who’s super passionate about Mediterranean food and cooking, it was too irresistible a question not to answer. So even though it was quite late at night, I wrote down a list off the top of my head of all the sorts of Mediterranean meals I eat regularly. Many of these recipes Ric and I have posted on our site, MediterrAsian.com over the last four years, so I included a link. Then I went to bed.
The next day I checked the Chew On This blog, and saw that Paula had been kind enough to leave a note on my comment saying “Thanks — it’s a good site.” I don’t know whether it was this endorsement, or the list of Mediterranean meal ideas I described in my comment, but over the next few days more than a thousand people visited our site from Paula’s blog according to our server logs.
Anyway, if you’re looking for ways to include more Mediterranean foods in your own daily diet, I thought this list of meal ideas would also be of interest to you. So here it is (and I’ve linked to the recipe if we have it on our site):
Pasta served with tomato-based sauces like puttanesca (made with tomatoes, garlic, onions, anchovies and olives) or pomodoro (made with tomatoes and fresh basil), or with herb-based sauces like pesto and salsa verde.
Risotto made with salmon, tuna, prawns, scallops, chicken or beans.
Tagine (Moroccan stew) served over couscous.
Paella made with any combination of seafood, chicken, beans, and vegetables.
Ratatouille (a vegetable stew made with tomatoes, capsicum, eggplant and zucchini that goes wonderfully served on the side of grilled or baked fish, chicken or shellfish).
Tortilla de patatas (Spanish omelette made with eggs, potatoes and onions).
Chicken or falafel kebab stuffed with tabbouleh salad.
Spanakopita (Greek spinach and feta pie).
Baked fish flavored with chermoula (a Moroccan herb sauce) and served with vegetables and rice or couscous.
Lavash wraps stuffed with hummus, diced tomato and cucumber, grated carrot, shredded cos lettuce, and sliced red onion.
Hearty salads like salade Niçoise and horiatiki (better known as Greek salad) served with some crusty bread on the side.
Bruschetta topped with grilled or roasted vegetables (like tomatoes and peppers) and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil.
Toasted baguette slices spread with tapenade (Provençal olive, garlic and caper spread).
Toasted pita bread, cut into wedges and served with hummus for dipping.
Today I want to focus on a rather special vegetable — broccoli. This simple vegetable is used extensively in Asian cooking and also Mediterranean cooking. It’s a vegetable that used to make me gag when I ate it as a kid, but now I thoroughly enjoy eating (simply because I’ve learned how to cook it properly — more on that in a minute).
But what makes broccoli such a special food is that it’s a real nutrition powerhouse. It’s rich in vitamins and minerals, including potassium, folate, calcium and vitamin C (which also acts as a powerful cell-protecting antioxidant).
Broccoli also contains plenty of dietary fiber as well as two particularly health-giving phytochemicals — sulforaphane and indol-3-carbinol. Scientific research has found that sulforaphane guards against cancer by stimulating the production of protective enzymes that detoxify carcinogens (cancer causing compounds). Indol-3-carbinol has been found to reduce breast cancer risk by preventing estrogen overproduction. A Harvard study even found that a high intake of broccoli reduced bladder cancer risk in men. And broccoli is quite a good source of protein (one medium stalk contains around 5 grams) and it’s low in calories while being nice and filling, so it’s an ideal food to help you stay in shape.
Apart from its health-giving qualities, broccoli is a fantastic food because it’s so delicious and versatile. Trudy and I love adding broccoli florets to stir-fries and noodle dishes (such as Tofu and cashew chow mein), but broccoli is equally at home in a pasta dish or a Thai curry. Steamed broccoli drizzled with a little extra virgin olive oil also makes a great accompaniment to grilled fish or chicken. Raw or lightly blanched broccoli can even be added to salads or served as part of a plate of vegetable crudités. Another tasty way to enjoy broccoli is blended into warming soups such as Spanish broccoli and almond soup.
Here are some more delicious recipes that include broccoli:
Tuna & broccoli pasta with tomato red pepper sauce
Honey-lemon chicken with almonds
Lemony tuna, olive & vegetable pasta
Braised Sesame Chicken Noodles
And if you need a primer on how to cut broccoli into florets, here’s a step-by-step guide.
I eat a lot of whole grains. For breakfast, I regularly have whole grain cereal such as oatmeal, muesli or bran flakes; or toasted whole grain bread with toppings (such as natural peanut butter, sliced cheese and tomato, or baked beans). A typical weekday lunch is a sandwich, stuffed pita, or wrap made with whole grain breads. When we make pizza at home, we’ll often use a large whole wheat pita as the crust. I also love bulgur (made from whole wheat) topped with stew, or in tabbouleh salad. And if I feel like a snack, I’ll often have some air-popped popcorn (popcorn is a whole grain) or a whole grain cracker.
But I’m certainly not a fan of all whole grain foods. I’ve tried brown rice several times, in several different ways, and each time I was thoroughly disappointed — not only with the flavor, but also with the texture. In comparison, white rice is light in texture and subtle in flavor. It embraces the flavors of the foods it’s paired with, whereas I find that brown rice does just the opposite and tends to overpower the taste of other food.
So I basically gave up on brown rice a long time ago. And I’m not the only one. White rice has been far more popular than brown rice throughout Asia and the Mediterranean for many generations. And no wonder — I couldn’t imagine sitting down to plateful of brown rice sushi, or eating brown rice paella or risotto either!
But what about all those naysayers who tell you that white rice is fattening and unhealthy? What a load of nonsense. The leanest, healthiest and longest-living peoples in the world eat white rice regularly. This makes it obvious that white rice is far from a dietary villain.
Indeed, research has found that for the last 30 years rice consumption in Japan has dropped by over 50 percent. (This is because many Japanese, particularly the younger generation, are embracing a Western-style diet.) Over the same period, guess what’s happened? Obesity rates have climbed steadily.
Now I’m not saying that the answer to a leaner healthier body is to rush out and grab a large sackful of white rice. But what I’m saying is that white rice, in all its wonderful varieties (including Italian arborio, Indian basmati, Thai jasmine, Spanish calasparra, Japanese koshihikari), can fit perfectly into a varied and balanced diet.
The key is to eat rice like people from Mediterranean and Asian cultures do: in moderate portions (yes, calories do count), and mixed with slowly-digesting foods like fish, beans, poultry, plant oils, and vegetables. This not only makes the rice taste a whole lot better, it also means that it’s digested at a slow and steady rate — so you won’t get blood sugar swings and rebound hunger.
The following risotto recipe — which contains a mix of arborio rice, chickpeas, vegetables and extra virgin olive oil — is a good example of what I mean.
Roasted Garlic, Pumpkin & Red Pepper Risotto with Spinach & Chickpeas
Serves 2 to 3
PREHEAT an oven to 450F/230C. PLACE the pumpkin, red pepper and garlic cloves in a baking dish and toss with 1 tablespoon of the oil, the balsamic vinegar and rosemary until well coated. BAKE for 20 minutes. WHILE the vegetables cook, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large saucepan and cook the onion for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. ADD the rice, stir to coat the grains in oil and cook for 1 minute. ADD the wine, stock, salt, black pepper, olives and spinach, stir to combine and bring to a boil. COVER with a lid, reduce the heat to low and cook for 20 minutes without lifting the lid. REMOVE the red pepper and garlic from the baking dish. ADD the chickpeas to the baking dish with the pumpkin and return to the oven for 5 minutes. ROUGHLY chop the peppers. SQUEEZE the garlic pulp from the skins and stir into the risotto with the parmesan, lemon juice and remaining tablespoon of oil. STIR in the red pepper, pumpkin and chickpeas to combine.
Do you think that pasta is a disaster for blood sugar levels? As soon as pasta touches your lips, do you think it goes to your hips? Do you think that white pasta is virtually devoid of nutrients?
If you answered yes to any or all of the above questions, you might be surprised to learn that these are all common myths.
Do you want to know what the real deal is with pasta? Then you might want to check out an article I wrote recently for the food website, Culinate. It’s called The Pasta Myth, and I not only debunk some common pasta myths, I also show you how pasta can be a healthy (and very tasty!) addition to a balanced diet.
Here’s the beginning of the article:
In September, the unthinkable happened: Italy had its first-ever national pasta strike.
Throughout Italy, thousands of sullen-faced Italians protested the rising price of their national dish by refusing to purchase pasta that day. But even the organizers of the strike realized that Italians could never go a day without actually eating pasta, so they gave it out for free.
But while pasta has the power to evoke such a passionate response in Italy, in North America there’s an ongoing battle for the hearts and minds of pasta lovers.
Click here to read the rest of the article.
