Root Vegetable

As much as I love to cook, I also really enjoy watching other cooks go through their creative process. Recently I was at a conference at the Commonweal Retreat Center, where I was able to observe one of my favorite cooks, Claire Heart. She brought out this dish, and the first thing I noticed was that it had bok choy. Now that’s a great vegetable, but it tends to be bitter. She completely solved that problem by pairing it with yams to create a dish that tasted like a vegetarian Chinese Thanksgiving. It was a completely unique and delicious pairing. The colors blew me away as well. I went home and decided to play around with her concept, adding a little ginger for zing and digestion and a few more Asian-style flavors. Thank you, Claire!

A lot of people have only had a close-up encounter with broccoli as raw crudités or boiled until it’s gray and limp, which is unappetizing and often difficult to digest. Here, sautéing the broccoli in olive oil, infusing it with broth, and then blending releases all of its sweetness and cancer-fighting properties and helps everything go down nice and easy.

A staple of Latin cuisine, this black bean soup rocks because it’s a nutritional powerhouse. Black beans are rich in protein and dietary fiber, and recent studies link black bean consumption to reduced rates of pancreatic, breast, and prostate cancers. Cooking the beans with kombu, an easy to find dried Japanese seaweed that breaks down the bean’s sugars, eases gas and bloating while softening the bean’s exterior. As for taste, I guarantee your taste buds will say “more, please!”

I like the way nature balances her books. In summertime, everyone gets hot and loses water. So what does Mother Nature do? She produces an abundance of summer squash, which happens to be full of water, making it an ideal vegetable to combat dehydration. I think of zucchini as the perfect party guest. It’s mild and mixes well with a crowd. The key with zucchini is good prep, so that the flesh stays somewhat firm and tasty.

Thank heavens that sweet potatoes are no longer relegated just to Thanksgiving. For years bodybuilders, who follow strict eating regimens to repair their muscles after workouts, have feasted on sweet potatoes because of their outstanding nutritional content, ease of digestion, and pleasant flavor. Chock-full of beta-carotene, vitamin A, and other body boosters, sweet potatoes are also extremely anti-inflammatory, which may protect against cancer growth. As a cook, I like sweet potatoes because they make a wonderful creamy canvas for warming spices such as cinnamon and ginger. This soup is an especially great meal for people with a lingering metallic taste in their mouth due to chemotherapy. It’s delicious served with a dollop of Apricot Pear Chutney (page 175).

I was working at the Chopra Center for Wellbeing when the only living woman Indian saint stopped in. Her entourage laid down some pretty strict rules: No talking to the saint. No approaching the saint. And whatever you do, don’t touch the saint. But after eating her bowl of dahl, this little imp of a holy woman motioned me over and then … proceeded to kiss me on the forehead! The Chopra folks (and I guess the saint as well) like their dahl chunky, and I love it that way too, but it’s just as enjoyable blended and smooth. Blend the dahl a bit if you want something a little easier to swallow or digest. Small amounts of this dahl are wonderful for someone who isn’t particularly hungry, as the cumin is an appetite stimulant.

For many people, tomato soup is a familiar and beloved comfort food. In this version, the soup benefits from roasting the tomatoes in the oven to lessen their acidity and add sweetness. Just be aware that some tomatoes are juicier than others; if they’re very juicy, you may need to drain some of the juice into a bowl during the roasting process. Using the pan juices as the broth creates supercharged scrump-dilly-iciousness! Plus, the roasted tomatoes blend beautifully (and colorfully) with the carrots. This soup is equally delicious served hot, at room temperature, or chilled.

Here’s a recipe where a little culinary ad-libbing met the needs of a caregiver. My husband, Gregg, was feeling a little sick but wanted to eat, but there really wasn’t anything in the house. I saw some fennel and thought, “That’s good for the belly.” Then I found some carrots. But what to do with these limited ingredients? For years I’d made a carrot ginger soup recipe for many of my patients. Would carrot fennel soup work? I went to the fruit compartment for my trusty lemons, but only found an orange. It all went into the pot, and a little while later I put it in front of Gregg. He took one taste and started raving. A few weeks and tweaks later, I found that adding cumin, cinnamon, and allspice really brought this soup home. I named this recipe after Bella because she’s quite possibly the only dog on the planet who prefers carrots to bacon; for every four carrots that go into making this soup, one goes into Bella’s mouth. Otherwise she howls. (Sigh.)

Cauliflower is a wonderful vegetable that’s full of excellent cancer-fighting enzymes, yet it’s sorely in need of a PR campaign. That’s because most people steam cauliflower, which makes the kitchen smell like a stink bomb detonated. Either that or, like my dad, they eat cauliflower raw and tasteless as crudités (in his case, dipped in Russian dressing). The secret is to roast cauliflower. Not only does this avoid the sulfur smell, it also produces an unbelievably sweet flavor.

What’s the first thing you think of when somebody says, “Let’s get Thai food”? Most of my friends have an involuntary response: they start to sweat. Many people think that Thai food is hot, hot, hot. Well, maybe not, not, not. True, some Thai food can set off smoke detectors. But real Thai cooking emphasizes distinctive flavor combinations regardless of the heat. This soup, a takeoff on traditional Thai tom kha gai (a chicken soup), uses coconut milk, which is very soothing to the nerves. The ginger aids digestion, while the lime brightens up the overall flavor. The result is a soup guaranteed to jump-start even the most jaded taste buds.

When it comes to cooking, Italians believe in region first, country second. That’s why this recipe is my version of culinary heresy. By taking white beans—a notoriously Tuscan legume—and mixing them with saffron, which is more common to northern Italy’s Lombardi region, I’ve committed what might be considered a food felony. My defense for breaking with tradition is justified in this case: saffron is a powerful cancer-fighting spice. It’s best to soak the beans overnight before cooking them, so plan ahead.

Soft and warm, these rolls have a wonderful aroma. I have given proportions for a large batch because I find these rolls get gobbled up quickly. They also freeze well, so you can keep a batch in the freezer, defrosting, then warming a few . . . whenever.

This is classic slicing bread, great for toast in the morning, and wonderful for sandwiches. Make it the morning after a big supper when you have leftover mashed or baked potatoes.

Of all the cupcakes in this book, these are my favorite. When I baked up a dozen, I personally consumed nine out of twelve. I even ate the one I had set aside for my husband. Yup, it’s true. They’re that good.

This rich and highly nutritious cake is loaded with vitamin C and vitamin A. It’s moist and keeps well for days.

These muffins are scrumptious and chock-full of beta-carotene, phytonutrients, protein, and fiber, with no refined sugar. What better way to start your day than with a Morning Glory Muffin?

Piquant garlic and creamy cheddar make this muffin a mouthwatering appetizer or an excellent accompaniment to soup or salad.

Moist and slightly crumbly, these scones team especially well with soups made of root vegetables—potatoes, parsnips, and the like.