In the next following weeks, my Thursday's post will be addressing some superfood!
Superfood are items that are loaded with nutrition! They have really concentrated vitamins or minerals (or both), are good for you and should really be eaten as often as possible!
Therefore if you are a vegan or a non-vegan, you could all benefit from adding some of those food to your daily food intake! I will also try to suggest, in every cases, a few different ways to eat it!
This week, let's look at KALE!
yes.. that curly green leaf stuff you seed at the store and not sure what to do and why you should eat it!
Kale is part of what we call leafy greens or cruciferous vegetables.
You should buy kale when it is green (no brown leaves), and before it gets "soft". You want one that hold itself!
You can store kale in the fridge for a few days but I never keep it for more then 2! If I get a really big bunch, I put in the fridge what I know I will use and put the rest in the freezer (only the part of the leaf that you actually use, not the stem)
Benefits of kale are numerous and more and more are being found as time goes by.
One benefit is the ability to lower cholesterol level - it does so by binding the fibers in it to the bile acid you ate and eliminate it from your body. Of course if you are vegan you do not have cholesterol issues as it can only be found in animal products... so why then should you eat kale?
Well it does have other benefits:
It is know to decrease the risk of bladder, ovary, prostate, colon and breast cancer. Pretty sure you want none of those if you can help it!
It has been shown to regulate detox at genetic level.
It contains at least 45 flavonoids - therefore makes it a major contributor to avoiding chronic inflammation and oxidative stress.
On top of that, it contains enormous amount of vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C and very interesting amount of manganese and copper. On top of 14 others nutriments required for our nice human body (including iron, calcium, vitamin E and protein)!
Now how much should you have? Well ideally, 2 - 3 times a week 1- 1 1/2 cup serving... and if you can, 4 - 5 times a week 2 cups serving!
You can add kale in juices, smoothies, soups, stews... for more information on that, you can check out my cookbook here.
You can also make kale chips out of them!!!! It is so easy... and kids will LOVE it!!!! and ask for more! For once having greens in them will be easy!
In order to do kale chips, cut the leaves from the stem and into smaller pieces - put in a mixing bowl and add some olive oil - massage the kale leaves to mix the olive oil and have it soften - yes this should be done with your hands! Add some salt and if you have some nutritional yeast (for an extra B12) and put on a baking sheet. Bake in a preheated oven at 250F for 18 minutes! You may have to adjust time depending on oven but they should be crispy but not brown!
Just give it a try... yes kale has a particular taste... but if well prepared, it turns out just fine!
thanks for reading! and sharing!
love&peace,
nath
xox
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