The Rodale Whole Foods Cookbook: With More Than 1,000 Recipes for Choosing, Cooking, & Preserving Natural Ingredients

The Rodale Whole Foods Cookbook: With More Than 1,000 Recipes for Choosing, Cooking, & Preserving Natural Ingredients

by Dara Demoelt
The Rodale Whole Foods Cookbook: With More Than 1,000 Recipes for Choosing, Cooking, & Preserving Natural Ingredients

The Rodale Whole Foods Cookbook: With More Than 1,000 Recipes for Choosing, Cooking, & Preserving Natural Ingredients

by Dara Demoelt

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Overview

Farmer's markets, groceries, and natural foods stores today offer a wealth of wholesome ingredients that even a decade ago were considered unfamiliar and exotic. From quinoa to spelt flour to agave nectar and shiitake mushrooms, natural whole foods like these have come into their own as the cornerstone of a healthy, varied diet. Packed with information for purchasing, storing, and serving the full spectrum of whole foods, The Rodale Whole Foods Cookbook by Dara Demoelt is a comprehensive kitchen resource for contemporary cooks.

Based on the classic work, this exhaustively revised edition contains nearly 1,400 recipes—more than one-third of them brand new—and updated guidelines for making the most of fresh meats, produce, and pantry essentials, soup to nuts. Here's all you need to know to make spectacular soups, stews, salads, baked goods, and more, using whole foods. You'll find dozens of casseroles (many of which can be made ahead and frozen for no-fuss weeknight meals), quick-and-easy sautés, plenty of meatless main courses, and crowd-pleasing favorites for casual get togethers. Best of all, these recipes are naturally healthful, showcasing the versatility of wholesome whole grains, natural sweeteners, seasonal fruits and vegetables, and other fresh, unprocessed foods in all their delicious variety.

Also included are valuable primers on such essential kitchen topics as making stock; putting up jams and preserves; baking yeast breads; choosing cookware; sprouting seeds; making yogurt; and canning vegetables with helpful charts and glossaries on herbs and spices, cheeses, sea vegetables, seasonal produce, roasting meat and fowl, freezing foods safely, and more.

A trusted, timeless classic thoroughly updated for the way we cook today, The Rodale Whole Foods Cookbook is sure to become an indispensable resource for health-conscious cooks.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781605292328
Publisher: Harmony/Rodale
Publication date: 12/08/2009
Sold by: Random House
Format: eBook
Pages: 720
File size: 8 MB

About the Author

This much-loved classic guide to cooking, choosing, and savoring whole foods has been comprehensively revised and updated to include more than 1,000 healthy, modern recipes plus helpful information on canning, preserving, sprouting, baking, and much, much more

Read an Excerpt

Eating for Your Health

Ask any nutritionist how to get all the important nutrients you need to stay healthy, and you will be told to eat a variety of foods. If you do not exclude any category and do not focus too heavily on any category, you will be fine.

That said, the typical American diet has lost its bearings over the years. Because of the fast pace of living that we all seem caught up in, getting variety in our diets has become a challenge. Fast food, takeout food, and convenience food have thrown our dietary balance out of whack.

Here's how to get the balance back:

* Choose whole foods over refined or processed foods whenever possible.

* Eat more whole grains. This is one of the biggest shortfalls in the American diet.

* Eat more vegetables, and eat a rainbow of colors, especially the more deeply colored vegetables. They are the highest in antioxidants and other phytochemicals. See "A Short Guide to Phytochemicals".

* Choose good carbs over bad carbs. This means choosing complex carbohydrates--such as beans, grains, or potatoes--over simple carbohydrates, which are bascially sugars.

* Consume more fiber-rich foods, especially those high in heart-healthy soluble fiber, such as oats, apples, and beans.

* Choose good fats over bad fats. This means choosing unsaturated fats, especially mono-unsaturated, over saturated fats. See "Comparative Fats".

* Try to get protein at every meal. It keeps your metabolism in good working order. The protein can be from animal or plant sources.

* Choose lean animal sources of protein, with the exception of fish because the fattier species are high in healthful omega-3 fatty acids. See "Omega- 3s in Fish" and "The Cholesterol in Shellfish".

Eating Organic

In 1990, Congress passed the Organic Foods Production Act. The act required the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to develop national standards for organically produced agricultural products. The USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service established something called the National Organic Program (NOP) whose task was to develop the standards and to establish an organic certification program. The NOP came up with a definition for organic (below) and then came up with the requirements for food labels.

The official definition: To be deemed organic, an agricultural product must be grown without the use of most conventional pesticides, petroleum-based fertilizers, or sewage sludge-based fertilizers. In the case of animals, their feed must comply with the above; in addition the animals must be raised with no growth hormones or antibiotics. The regulations also prohibit genetic engineering, ionizing radiation, and sewage sludge in production and handling. There are also specific regulations about the use of synthetic substances.

The NOP has defined three label categories that can use the term organic. Only the first two are allowed to bear the official USDA Organic seal.

100 percent organic: a single ingredient, such as raw fruits and vegetables, produced according to organic regulations; or products with multiple ingredients, each of which must have been organically produced. If any processing aids are used, those too must conform to the definition of organic. Is allowed to bear the USDA Organic seal.

Organic: must contain by weight (excluding water and salt) at least 95 percent organically produced raw or processed agricultural product. Up to 5 percent of the ingredients may include nonor-ganic ingredients in minor amounts--such as spices, flavors, colorings, oils, vitamins, and minerals. Can bear the USDA Organic seal.

Made with organic ingredients: for labeling and market information purposes, agricultural products that are multi-ingredient products containing between 70 and 95 percent organic agricultural ingredients by weight or fluid volume (excluding water and salt). May not bear the organic seal.

For products with less than 70 percent organic ingredients (by weight or fluid volume, excluding water and salt), organic labeling is limited to the information panel only.

Read the Label

The main thrust of this book is to avoid as much processed food as possible, but the reality for most of us is that this can't happen 100 percent of the time. So the next best thing is to be label-savvy and understand what information you can glean from a product's packaging.

Serving size: Before you read the nutrition numbers on the label, be sure you check the serving size. Some packaging is misleading (although the government is cracking down on this).

Total fat: By law, a food product has to have more than 0.5 gram of fat per serving before the manufacturer has to list it. So if a product says there are a total of 4 servings in the package and each serving has 0 grams of fat, it's conceivable that a serving has .44 grams. If you ate all 4 servings, you'd be getting almost 2 grams of fat. This is one reason some manufacturers alter serving sizes.

Saturated fat: Check the saturated fat; ideally it should be no more than 33 percent of the total fat.

Trans fats: These should be nonexistent or as low as possible.

Vitamins and minerals: Food manufacturers are only required to list vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron percentages on the label's nutrition panel. The absence of other nutrients listed has nothing to do with whether or not they are in the product, though many manufacturers will add that information if their product is particularly high. Also note that the percentages are based on the Daily Value, which is an average of recommended intakes with no respect to gender or age. For example, the Daily Value for calcium is 900 milligrams. If you are a woman over the age of 51, your recommended intake is much higher than that--1,200 milligrams.

Ingredients list: The ingredients are listed in descending order of weight.

Allergen alerts: Any product that contains gluten, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, dairy, crustaceans, or sulfites must clearly state the fact; in addition, there must also be an alert if the product was produced in a facility with any of these allergens present.

A SHORT GUIDE TO PHYTOCHEMICALS

In the past 10 or 15 years, there has been a sea of change in the world of nutrition in the form of phytochemical research. Phytochemicals are com£ds, found in plants, that are being studied for a whole host of health benefits, from cancer prevention to improved brain function. There is still much research to be done in order to determine exactly how these com£ds can help us, as well as how much of a substance you would have to consume to get a health benefit. This field of study is in its infancy and changes often. This table highlights a tiny fraction of what is being researched (there are thousands and thousands of phytochemicals).

PHYTOCHEMICAL WHAT IT IS/WHAT IT MAY DO SOME GOOD SOURCES ALLYL SULFIDES Com£ds being studied for anticancer potential Garlic, onion family ALPHA-LINOLENICACID (ALA) An essential fatty acid (EFA) that the body converts to omega-3 fatty acids, which are being studied for their ability to suppress inflammatory com£ds and improve cardio-vascular health Canola oil, flaxseed, walnuts,hemp seed, chia seed ANTHOCYANINS Red and blue pigments found in certain fruits and vegetables; being studied for anticancer potential Berries, plums, pomegranates, red cabbage ANTIOXIDANTS A broad category of com£ds that fight free radicals, which are cell-damaging rogue oxy-gen molecules Lots of foods fall into this category. Some prominent examples include tea and fruits. (See "Antioxidants in Food,".) BETA-CAROTENE An orange food pigment, converted by the body into vitamin A; a powerful antioxidant Carrots, sweet potatoes, dark leafy greens, winter squash BETA-GLUCAN A type of dietary soluble fiber that can lower blood cholesterol Oatmeal, barley, shiitake mushrooms CAPSAICIN The substance that gives chili peppers heat;an antioxidant that may also have antibacterial properties All chili peppers; more in the hottest varieties (see "The Heat in Chilies,".) EPIGALLOCATECHINGALLATE (EGCG) A flavonoid with powerful antioxidant attributes, found in tea Green tea, white tea FLAVONOIDS A class of phytochemicals that are powerful antioxidants Tea, fruits, wine FRUCTOOLIGOSACCHARIDES(FOS) Indigestible carbohydrate com£ds that encourage the growth of friendly bacteria in the intestinal tract; often referred to as prebiotics Bananas, onion family INDOLES A class of phytochemicals being investigated for anticancer properties Broccoli, Brussels sprouts,cabbage, turnips ISOFLAVONES A major class of phytoestrogens (see below) Soybeans, soyfoods ISOTHIOCYANATES Phytochemicals large responsible for the pun-gent taste of cruciferous vegetables (cabbage family); being studied for anticancer properties Broccoli, cabbage, mustard greens, watercress LIGNANS A type of phytoestrogen (see below) Flax meal, beans, grains LUTEIN ANDZEAXANTHIN Bright yellow and orange food pigments linked to eye health Corn, oranges, spinach,collard greens LYCOPENE A red food pigment with antioxidant power Tomatoes, watermelon, red grapefruit PHYTOESTROGENS Plant com£ds that mimic human estrogenic activity; being studied for its impact on estrogen-related cancers Beans, flaxseed, soyfoods PHYTOSTEROLS Structurally similar to cholesterol;may protect against heart disease Grains, nuts, seeds PROBIOTICS A group of beneficial bacteria that keep the human digestive system in good working order Yogurt with active cultures QUERCETIN A potent flavonoid phytochemical with possible anti- inflammatory and anti-histaminic properties Apples, red onions, tea, wine RESVERATROL A com£d being investigated for its potential to improve cardiovascular health Red and purple grape juice,red wine

Antioxidants in Food

Over a decade ago, a group of scientists developed a method of measuring the antioxidant activity of foods. Antioxidants are com£ds that are known to eliminate free radicals, which are unstable oxygen molecules implicated in a wide range of health issues, from tumor formation to wrinkling of the skin. The method measures what the researchers call Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC).

What follows is a list of 30 foods that scored well on the ORAC scale. It starts with the highest score and goes down. It includes the commonest foods and does not include foods you couldn't eat enough of to get any health benefit. For example, ground cloves and cinnamon are right at the top of the ORAC scale, but one doesn't consume enough of these spices for them to be a significant dietary source.

Acai berry

Cocoa powder, unsweetened

Baking chocolate, unsweetened

Pecans

Walnuts

Hazelnuts

Cranberries

Beans: kidney, pink, black

Pistachios

Black currants

Black plums

Lentils

Artichokes

Blueberries

Prunes

Soybeans

Blackberries

Garlic

Wine

Raspberries

Basil, fresh

Almonds

Red apples, with skin

Strawberries

Figs

Cherries

Peanuts

Broccoli rabe

Pears

Pomegranate juice

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