Super Foods

A seemingly endless number of lists of “Top 10 Super Foods” - that you should eat every day! That make you happy! That prevent cancer, that prevent wrinkles, that help you lose weight, and so on - are floating around out there. All these different lists are pretty consistent, though - very heavy on the colorful vegetables and fruits, with nuts, seeds, beans and whole grains also getting good notices.

Fish - especially salmon - frequently appears on these lists, too, praised as a source of omega-3 fats. So I mentally substitute vegan sources of omega-3s, and go from there. The Vegetarian Journal has an up-to-date, comprehensive article, “Questions and Answers About Omega-3 Fatty Acids for Vegans,” available online here. Scroll to page 22 of the issue for that article. And also check out the article directly afterward - another list, of “10 Ways to Improve Your Vegetarian Lifestyle.”

Anyway, the latest super-food list to catch my attention was a Men’s Health article on ”The 10 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating.” The list includes beets, cabbage, guava, swiss chard, cinnamon, purslane, pomegranate juice, goji berries, dried plums (aka prunes), and pumpkin seeds.

I do like beets, but the article is right, I wasn’t eating them because they can be a little bit perplexing to prepare. Men’s Health comes to the rescue, suggesting that beets be eaten “Fresh and raw, not from a jar. Heating beets actually decreases their antioxidant power. For a simple single-serving salad, wash and peel one beet, and then grate it on the widest blade of a box grater. Toss with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the juice of half a lemon.”

After grating the beets as described, my hands were redder than Sweeny Todd’s, but in general this worked out well. Of course, I couldn’t leave well enough alone, and combined this suggestion with a recipe for “Shaved Beet Salad” from Jennifer Cornbleet’s book Raw Food Made Easy for One or Two People and added a few more “super foods” to come up with …

“Top 10” Beet Salad

1 raw beet, scrubbed, peeled and sliced paper-thin on a box grater
1 cup lettuce leaves
1 TBSP walnuts
1 tangerine (leafy greens, walnuts and citrus fruits are all frequent stars on the super-food lists.)
Dressing (recipe below)

Make a dressing by mixing:

2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp. flax oil (for omega 3; you can omit this and use more olive oil if desired)
1 1/2 TBSP lemon juice
1/4 tsp.each dried tarragon and dill (substitute any herbs you like; even better if you have fresh herbs on hand)
1/4 clove garlic, minced (touted as an immune booster)
1/4 tsp. kelp powder (good source of iodine)
A splash of ume plum vinegar (omit the kelp and/or ume vinegar if you don’t have any, and season the dressing with salt and pepper to taste)

Thoroughly mix the sliced beets and dressing, and let marinate at room temperature for a half-hour or so. When ready to serve, pile the beets on a bed of lettuce, sprinkle with the walnuts, and surround with tangerine segments.

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