Recipe: Bread with tomato (Pan con tomate)

This is a new category of posts that I'm starting this year, as some of my friends have asked me about the recipes I use. Some will be recommendations about recipes from other websites, some will be my own, and some, like today's, will be my interpretation of a classic or well known recipe.

I would like to start this category with a very simple breakfast idea which we just ate. If you are a Spaniard, I think you can stop reading now (if you hadn't already when you saw the title), as this is a very common dish in Spain, and I'm sure you already know how to make it (or, if you are in Spain, you can just go to the corner cafeteria and ask for one, the preferred method of eating this dish while one is there). It is also very similar to an Italian bruscheta. As with everything, I'm sure mine will be slightly different from the traditional one, as I like to add herbs to everything because of their high antioxidant content in just a little pinch, plus the added flavor they provide. Well, here's the recipe I use:

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 tomato
• 1 or 2 T of olive oil
• 1 garlic clove
• Salt to taste
• Oregano to taste (I put at least a tablespoon)
• 2 pieces of toasted bread (my favorite lately is Ezequiel Sesame Sprouted Grain Burger Buns, but it is absolutely delicious on  any baguette style bread)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Cut the tomato in half, from the middle (not from top to bottom).
2. Using a cheese grater (like the one in the picture) grate the tomato until you only have the skin left. I usually do this on a large plate, which I will use later to serve it.
3. Add the olive oil, salt and oregano and mix well.
4. Cut the garlic clove in half (you can leave the skin on, it will peel off by itself) and rub the clove on the toasted bread, as if you were applying a cream to it.
5. Now you can spoon the tomato mixture onto your garlicky bread.
6. Enjoy!

This, of course, can have many variations: my husband skips the garlic, my oldest son prefers to add basil instead of oregano. You can get very creative with something so simple. And I like it for myself because it is very nutritious, as these videos from Dr. Greger remind us:

• Oregano is an excellent antioxidant as I mentioned already.
• Olive oil could serve as the fat needed for phytonutrient absorption.
• Garlic belongs to the number 1 anticancer vegetable family.
• And here's the information about tomato's lycopene (excellent nutrient to prevent prostrate cancer, for example).

Dr. Greger also reminds us that each single meal should contain foods that are high in antioxidants, so this breakfast can fit the bill so we start the day on a good foot on that respect.

I hope you like this new section and let me know if you try this pan con tomate!

Tip #31: Get acquainted with the raw foodists

Puttanesca Ravioli from Catch a Healthy Habit, Fairfield, CT

I first learned about the raw food diet when I started researching green smoothies and I read about Victoria Boutenko and how her family reversed severe ailments like diabetes by switching their diet to a raw, plant-based diet. I honestly thought that they probably were really strange people, as the whole idea not only sounded insane but also clearly very difficult.

Over the years I kept hearing more about vegan raw foodists, and how they all sounded very happy and healthy (NPR "The raw food movement"). I still was quite skeptical until I heard about a BBC show called "The truth about food" which had a segment (called "The evolution diet) in which 9 people were put in a zoo and fed only fruits, vegetables, nuts and honey. The results of their 12 day experiment  were nothing short of astounding: a 23% average drop in cholesterol, their blood pressure went from 140/83 to 122/76 and they also lost almost 10 lbs per person (although that was not the intention of the experiment). I saw a summary of the show on our TV and what surprised me the most was not even those shocking numbers, but the fact that these people, who were regular, completely normal people, said that, after the second day, they experienced a sense of total happiness, resulting on complete cooperation among themselves, which was actually not what the producers had expected (they thought it could become another awful reality TV spectacle with people fighting because they missed their burgers and fries).

I'm still not sure that doing a 100% raw food diet is feasible or convenient for me. I did try it once for 3 days, and I did like how I felt. But the point of this tip is that, by looking at the way raw foodists prepare their food I have learned immensely and I think anyone can benefit from it. They believe that when we cook our food, we lose their enzymes, and that we really were meant, as animals, to not eat cooked food. From everything I've read, this makes sense. In general, I think we should eat things that are as close as possible to their original state. And, although you also get great benefits from soups and bean stews, it is true that some forms of cooking, such as grilling or charring can cause cancer. So, I think its is a good idea to add more raw foods into our daily routine, and this is quite easy if you start by just making sure you have a big salad every day.

But I've also learned from raw foodists that you can make absolutely delicious things without the need to cook. We are lucky were we live that we have a raw food restaurant, Catch a Healthy Habit, which is absolutely wonderful. Although I have yet to taste something I didn't like, my absolute favorite is their Puttanesca ravioli. The mixture of flavors, olives, capers, tomato, is just exquisite. And here are two websites that I use regularly, particularly when we are invited to our friends houses for dinner and I like to make some type of dessert for myself:

• Ani Phyo. I really like her fresh tomato chilli with walnut taco meat and her raspberry ganache fudge cake (this is the one I make for birthdays in our house now).
• Rawmazing. The recipes here a bit more complicated but the ones I've tried have always come out great.

And one thing that has been very helpful in my case is that I have learned to substitute for things I cannot (or shouldn't) eat. For example, in order to control my blood sugar level, my nutritionists recommends that I only eat 3 servings of grains a day (about 1 1/2 cups, eg. 3 pieces of toast or just a cup and half of rice. A day. Yes, quite awful). This was really hard to do at the beginning, but now I, for example, eat a leaf of lettuce instead of corn tortilla or raw zucchini spaghetti, instead of pasta, etc. These are actually surprisingly delicious. I learned about these options through the raw food recipes.

What about you? Have you ever been to a raw food restaurant? Do you have a favorite recipe? Let me know!

Tip #27: Include cruciferous vegetables in your diet

I really believe that sometimes we make a mountain out of many things in life when we really don't have to. One of these is definitely diet. We worry whether we should become vegan or paleo or Atkins or whatever, and we get so concerned about doing it 100% that we end up failing because it's just too hard, we feel deprived of too many things. So I think a better approach is to try to add new things into our diet instead. One of the things you should definitely add and have most days is cruciferous vegetables.
My nutritionist recommends for me that I eat at least one cup a day, cooked or raw, so I've been doing that for more than a year and it is definitely not very difficult to do. From what I've read, even if you do this two or three times a week, you are already adding great benefits to your health.

Cruciferous vegetables have been called the "Super Veggies" for all the benefits they provide, such as fiber, vitamins, and other disease fighting phytochemicals. They.have the most powerful anticancer effects of all foods, both for prevention as well as for people in my situation. One great thing is that there is so many of them, including broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, arugula, bok choy, etc. In Wikipedia, they list an impressive thirty seven! It is then very easy to add to your diet without being bored by just one thing. There are days when I am running around, with no time for anything, so I just add my daily cup (this time raw) to whatever main dish I'm eating. I particularly like arugula or broccoli sprouts for this purpose. It really has been one of the easiest things to do in terms of changing my diet.

Another thing is that variety of fruits and vegetables is also as important (or more) as quantity, as we can read here, Fighting Inflammation with Food Synergy, and having such a long list of veggies in this family makes changing things often quite easy.

Here you have more information about them:

• 20 short videos from Dr. Greger, including a couple on whether you can actually have too much cruciferous vegetables (Note: with my cup a day, I don't think I'm near there, even though some days I also have kale in my smoothie).
• Cancer Alert: Go Cruciferous
• Blackberry, Broccoli Sprouts battle cancer

And here you have some recipes that I like:

• Cauliflower Risotto. This is one of my favorites ways to eat cauliflower, and if you chop it in the Vitamix (by dropping big pieces into the machine while running), it is really easy to make.
• Braised Bok Choy (at the end of article).
• Basic Low Fat Coleslaw.
• Kale chips. I came up with this recipe trying to imitate Brad's Raw Kale chips. I use a dehydrator that we were given as a gift many years ago, but I think they could be made in a regular oven as well, just in very low temperature for several hours. My kids love them. That says it all.
• Peppery Salad dressing. This dressing is based on the Kale chips recipe. It does not have any cruciferous vegetable, but I like it with arugula, cauliflower or broccoli, and thus, you combine some of the most packed with antioxidant vegetables there are.

Do you have any other great recipes that we should all know about? Let me know!

photo credit: Esteban Cavrico via photo pin cc