Yesterday was my usual cooking day. I tried a new recipe however. It is from an unknown source of a whole food cookbook. I will update the title and give credit where credit is due later…
Although Blurry - Very Delicious!
~Menu ~
Sunday November 1, 2009
Red Quinoa with Hempseeds
White Bean Black Olive Soup
Lentil Stew
White Bean Rosemary Barley Soup (Recipe Follows)
Ingredients
1 cup uncooked pearl barley
3 cups water
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup chopped yellow onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 cup chopped yellow bell pepper
2 tablespoons white wine
1 (15.5 ounce) can white beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups fresh spinach
1 pinch red pepper flakes
Directions
Bring the barley and water to a boil in a pot. Cover, reduce heat to
low, and simmer 30 minutes, or until tender.
Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat, and cook the onion
and garlic until tender. Season with rosemary. Mix the yellow bell
pepper, and wine into the pot, and cook 5 minutes. Stir in the cooked
barley, beans, and spinach. Season with red pepper flakes. Continue
cooking 10 minutes, or until spinach is wilted.
Instead of making 5 dishes this weekend, I only made 4. There was so much of the Barley Soup that there was no need for a fifth dish. I did continue to shred the beets, carrots, and zucchini for the salads. I always like this type of salad. It is almost like a “Forever Young” salad. All of the vitamins and minerals that are in these veggies. Here is some information on those veggies below!
Beets ~ Bit of History
The Beet
The beets belong to the same family as chard and spinach. Beet leaves have a bitter taste like chard, but is rich in chlorophyll. Although bitter, the greens have a higher nutritional value than its roots.
Both beet root and beet greens are very powerful cleansers and builders of the blood. Betacyanin is the phytochemical in beet that gives it its rich ‘amethyst’ color that significantly reduces homocysteine levels.
Beets are loaded with vitamins A, B1, B2, B6 and C. The greens have a higher content of iron compared to spinach. They are also an excellent source of calcium, magnesium, copper, phosphorus, sodium and iron.
While the sweet beet root has some of the minerals in its greens to a lesser degree, it is also a remarkable source of chlorine, folic acid, iodine, manganese, organic sodium, potassium, fiber and carbohydrates in the form of natural digestible sugars.
Its iron content, though not high, is of the highest and finest quality that makes excellent food that is blood building. This renders it highly effective in treating many ailments caused by our toxic environment and surrounding.
Carrots – Nutritive Information
Carrots
No other vegetable or fruit contains as much carotene as carrots, which the body converts to vitamin A. This is a truly versatile vegetable and an excellent source of vitamins B and C as well as calcium pectate, an extraordinary pectin fibre that has been found to have cholesterol-lowering properties.
The carrot is an herbaceous plant containing about 87% water, rich in mineral salts and vitamins (B,C,D,E). Raw carrots are an excellent source of vitamin A and potassium; they contain vitamin C, vitamin B6, thiamine, folic acid, and magnesium.
Cooked carrots are an excellent source of vitamin A, a good source of potassium, and contain vitamin B6, copper, folic acid, and magnesium. The high level of beta-carotene is very important and gives carrots their distinctive orange colour.
Carrots also contain, in smaller amounts, essential oils, carbohydrates and nitrogenous composites. They are well-known for their sweetening, antianaemic, healing, diuretic, remineralizing and sedative properties.
In order to assimilate the greatest quantity of the nutrients present in carrots, it is important to chew them well – they are the exception to the rule – they are more nutritious cooked than raw. -World Carrot Museum
Carrots contain elements that keep us healthy on many levels.
The 3 most important elements are Beta-carotene, Alpha Carotene, and Phytochemicals.
From those 3 elements, carrots benefit our bodies by:
- Boosting immunity (especially among older people).
- Reducing photosensitivity (beta-carotene protects the skin from sun damage).
- Improving symptoms of HIV.
- Easing alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
- Helping to heal minor wounds and injuries.
- Reducing the risk of heart disease.
- Reducing the risk of high blood pressure.
- Cleansing the liver, and when consumed regularly, can help the liver excrete fats and bile.
- Fighting bronchitis.
- Fighting infection (vitamin A keeps cell membranes healthy, making them stronger against disease-causing microorganisms)
- Improving muscle, flesh, and skin health.
- Helping fight aneamia.
- Reducing acne.
- Improving eye health.
Zucchini – Nutritional Information
Zucchini
Zucchini is represented by several named varieties (cultivars). Fruits of this member of the Italian marrow squashes grow most commonly in cylindrical shapes, but also in round and intermediate shapes. Fruit color varies from a green so dark as to be near black, to lighter shades of green both with and without stripes, all the way to tones of yellow. Many are highlighted with various degrees of speckling.
The zucchini vegetable is low in calories (approximately 15 food calories per 100 g fresh zucchini) and contains useful amounts of folate (24 mcg/100 g), potassium (280 mg/100 g) and vitamin A (384 IU [115 mcg]/100 g. 1/2 cup of zucchini also contains 19% of the recommended amount of manganese.
I wanted to add the nutritional information about these (3) vegetables since they are so important to our bodies. Especially the beets and carrots!!!