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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

As spring in New England turns into summer, we’ve been going through a bit of a heat wave, and I’ve definitely been on a cold food kick—there is nothing better than a chilled dish waiting for you in the fridge, ready to be enjoyed as soon as you get home from work. When I’ve pondered what foods to prepare for these warm days, my mind has inevitably turned to lighter fare like salads, pasta and cold noodles.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been excited to see fresh “fiddleheads” (the tightly curled ferns that resemble the scrolled top end of a violin) appearing in the produce bins at my local supermarkets. I’ve come to think of fiddleheads as a quintessential New England ingredient—they are often associated with Maine and Vermont or our Canadian neighbors further north. However, fiddleheads are also a common ingredient in Asian cuisine. For example, they are frequently found in the Korean dish bibimbap.

With their asparagus-like flavor and firm but delicate texture, I decided that fiddleheads would be the perfect seasonal addition to some Asian-inspired soba noodles—the perfect cool dish to complement the warm weather.

(Note: Fiddleheads are in season for just a few precious weeks in the spring, so enjoy them while you can! You can also blanch fiddleheads for a few minutes in boiling water, and store them in your freezer for future use. If you can’t find fiddleheads for this recipe, substitute bite-sized pieces of fresh asparagus.)

Soba Noodles with Fiddleheads, Tofu, and Shiitake Mushrooms

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

• About 8 oz. soba noodles (basically one package—weight may vary)
• 40 fiddleheads 
• 4-5 large shiitake mushroom caps, sliced
• ½ cup firm tofu, cubed
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Shredded carrot for garnish

Dressing:

Combine the following:

• Juice of one lemon
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon caster sugar

Directions:

Cook soba noodles according to package directions, then rinse in cold water and set aside.

Clean the fiddleheads by rinsing thoroughly in cold water. Repeat several times, rubbing gently to remove the brown leaf like covering from the surface. Trim tough/brown ends if necessary.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, then add fiddleheads to blanch for 3-5 minutes. Remove fiddleheads from pot and plunge into a bowl of ice water for 1-2 minutes, then drain.

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large pan. Add minced garlic and sauté for a minute, then add the fiddleheads, sliced mushrooms and tofu, sautéing for another 2-3 minutes (Fiddleheads should be firm but tender). Remove from heat. 

Toss cold soba noodles with the lemon-sesame-soy mixture and gently stir in the fiddleheads, mushrooms and tofu. Garnish with shredded carrot if desired. Serve and enjoy—this dish can be served immediately, but is also great as a cold dish the next day.

Red meat has all kinds of health downsides and, we are not even talking about several other philosophical reasons to not eat meat. Still, steaks and ground meat have a lot of handy uses.

On top of that, eating steaks might be more fun than eating, say, beans, which means it is easier to make children eat meat than beans, which are much healthier.

Eating beans, together with some carbohydrates (like the ones in rice) can give vegetarians amino acids that are usually hard to find with a meat-free diet and is, generally speaking, a much healthier option than meat.

What might not be so obvious, is that beans can also replace meat in shape and not only in nutrients. They can be used to make Hamburgers, Steaks and even “Meatballs”, known in Italian as Polpetta.

The basic recipe would consist of just using cooked beans (you can use canned beans, although a purist cook would cook their own) and smashing them and mixing them with flour.

Because I can’t resist more complex mixtures, and to enhance both flavor and nutrition value, I cooked something equivalent to Trudy’s Ratatouille and mixed it together.

Ingredients

• 250g (9oz) of cooked beans
• 4 tablespoons of flour
• Roasted vegetables (Optional, you may need to add more flour if you use the vegetables)
• 2 spoons of olive oil

Directions

• Cook the beans, if you don’t have them cooked already
• Use the beans at room temperature
• Use the food processor, the blender or a potato masher to smash the beans
• Add the olive oil
• Put in a bowl and mix with a wooden spoon while adding the flour
• Let rest for about 5 to 10 minutes

Serving suggestions

• Make patties for hamburgers and serve with bread, just like any other burger
• Make steaks and cover with bread crumbs, cook in the oven slightly covered with oil.
• Make balls and stir fry to use as “meatballs” (Polpetta)

This recipe makes about 4 big steaks and can be stored in the refrigerator for a few days or frozen for longer periods of time.

And if you want, you can replace the beans with lentils, chickpeas or even a mix of your favorite legumes.

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.

There are certain foods that I detested eating as a child, but now thoroughly enjoy as an adult. Anchovies and olives are two foods that spring to mind — so do mushrooms. But although my appreciation for mushrooms might have been somewhat belated, I’ve been making up for my missed mushroom years and I’m now fascinated with fungi!

What enamors me most about mushrooms is their wonderful earthy flavor, delightful ‘meaty’ texture, and extraordinary versatility. I’m also enchanted by the culinary contradiction that mushrooms are such a prized food in so many cultures, yet they’re not plants (in the sense that they don’t need the sun to survive and grow), they’re actually organisms that live in or on other organisms — in other words, parasites.

Mushrooms have been revered by Mediterranean home cooks for centuries. Italians are well known for their fondness of fungi, and hunting for wild mushrooms is still a common practice in many parts of Italy. To bring out the best in fresh mushrooms, such as porcini or cremini, Italians often pair them with simple ingredients like extra virgin olive oil, garlic, parsley, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper — demonstrating, as with most things in life, that simple is best. Mushrooms are also used to enhance the flavor of many classic Italian dishes including pastas and risottos, and they make the perfect topping for pizza and bruschetta.

Spaniards too, have discovered the magic of mushrooms, and they’re enjoyed in dishes ranging from tapas (Champiñones al ajillo, or garlic mushrooms, is a popular tapas dish) to hearty stews and rice dishes.

The French make memorable meals from mushrooms teamed with eggs including mushroom-filled omelets, crepes and quiches, and eat them fresh in salads, cooked in soups and casseroles, or stuffed and baked.

Asian cooks have their own repertoire of mushroom specialties. Fresh and dried mushrooms such as shiitake, enoki and oyster are used whole or sliced in stir-fries, braises, curries and noodle dishes. They’re also enjoyed in soups such as Tom Yam Hed (Thai spicy sour Mushroom soup), and make a great addition to Laksa (Malaysian noodle soup). Sliced mushrooms are also a common addition to the delicate clear soups of Japan, and they’re often added to miso soup for flavor and texture.

Miso soup with mushrooms is a definite favorite in our household too. Sometimes we might just scatter some thinly sliced fresh mushrooms into a bowl of miso soup. Other times we might turn the miso soup into a full meal — such as in the recipe below — by adding soba noodles, grated fresh ginger, bite-size vegetable pieces, and mushrooms. We typically use dried mushrooms (reconstituted in hot water) for this noodle broth, because they have a firmer texture and more full-bodied flavor than fresh mushrooms. But thickly sliced fresh mushrooms (shiitake or button) still work really well.

Mushroom Miso Broth with Soba Noodles

Serves 2

• 7 dried shiitake mushrooms (available at Asian grocery stores)
• 5 1/2 cups dashi stock
• 1 carrot - peeled and sliced thinly on diagonal
• 1 scallion (spring onion) - sliced on diagonal
• 1/2 small eggplant (aubergine) - cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 cup roughly chopped bok choy
• 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
• 3 1/2 oz (100g) dried soba noodles
• 1 tablespoon Japanese soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon miso

SOAK the mushrooms in boiling water while you prepare the ingredients. PLACE the stock in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. ADD the carrot, ginger and soy sauce, and simmer for 2 minutes. ADD the scallion, eggplant, bok choy and noodles and simmer for 3 minutes. DRAIN the reconstituted mushrooms, squeeze the excess moisture from them, slice, and add to the broth. ADD the miso and stir to dissolve without bringing to the boil. SERVE in bowls.

Variation: Silken tofu, cut into small cubes, makes a great addition to this soup.

If this post has put you in the mood for mushrooms, here are some more mushroom recipes (and recipes that include mushrooms as a prominent ingredient) from my website:

Miso Soup with Tofu and Mushroom
Beef and Mushroom Lasagna
Ham, Mushroom and Tomato Pizza
Mushroom, Bacon and Walnut risotto
Champiñones al ajillo
Mushroom Bruschetta
Singapore Noodles
Marinated Tofu and Vegetable Stir-Fry