by Janet on February 19, 2009
One of the fruits that I grew to love this summer in Lebanon was the prickly pear — known as cactus fruit or subbair. These seed-studded fruits grow wild on my father-in-law’s property around his house. And I would love to eat these succulent fruits for breakfast. I was amazed at the markets near his house where the cactus fruit would be stacked high on display…and the peeling of this thorny, desert fruit was turned into an art form.
Prickly pear cactus has a long history in Mexico and Rick Bayless writes lovingly about the fruit (tunas) in his cookbook Mexican Kitchen, which features Crimson Prickly Pear Sauce.
Now it seems this ancient fruit Opuntia ficus indica (eaten for 9,000 years) may be the next big thing. One of the trendiest drinks in the Southwest is the Prickly Pear Margarita and the flavor is showing up in a range of new-age beverages, 
including energy drinks, juices, flavored teas (including Snapple) and functional beverages. Prickly pear is gaining popularity in the alternative medicine world and dietary supplements of the fruit in powder or pill are now stocked in health food stores and marketed online.
One prickly pear-flavored drink called Urban Detox claims the beverage can help with a hangover. Curiously, there does seem to be a study from Tulane that attempts to support this claim, however, the research was conducted with an extract from prickly pear, not with this drink. The company claims benefits from the anti-inflammatory properties of the fruit. An animal study from the University of Arizona found that the pectin isolated from the fruit helped bring down LDL cholesterol levels.
One company is beginning to market a line of prickly pear extracts for use in foods and beverages to “support healthy glucose levels.” Some preliminary research suggests that fiber-rich prickly pear fruit may help reduce blood sugar levels, but it’s too early to draw major conclusions.
Plus, you won’t be helping your blood sugar all that much if you indulge in the most popular forms of prickly pear — candy, jellies, syrups and sweet beverages. You’re better off with the whole fruit — which is widely available in the Southwest, but increasingly found in supermarkets and farmer’s markets throughout the country.
It’s overkill to put prickly pear too high on a health pedestal, but this is a nutritious fruit — high in vitamin C, fiber and phytonutrients known as flavonoids. So if you can find prickly pears near you, check them out. They have a devoted following, including Carolyn Niethammer who has assembled a collection of recipes in the Prickly Pear Cookbook. But if you’re new to prickly pear, you may find the pebble-like seeds in the fruit a little hard to get used to — but stick with the fruit instead of the pills or “functional” drinks. Although, the margarita sounds like it’s worth a try.
Tagged as:
fruits,
Lebanon,
nutrition research,
nutrition trends,
prickly pear
by Janet on February 18, 2009
During these tough economic times, people are returning to the kitchen. That’s good news. And most people (96%) believe that eating at home is healthier than eating out, according to the Food Marketing Institute’s Shopping for Health report.
But some recent headlines would have you believe that cooking at home could be hazardous to your waistline. A Cornell University study published as a letter this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests the popular cookbooks we rely on at home might be making us fat. The researchers examined how classic recipes have changed during the past 70 years, primarily focusing on the iconic Joy of Cooking. They found a nearly 40 percent increase in calories per serving for nearly every recipe reviewed, about an extra 77 calories. This was primarily due to changes in serving sizes and ingredients (extra meat instead of vegetables, more sauces, butter or sugar). Plus, families have gotten smaller, so a dish that once was eaten by 8 people is now consumed by 4.
But registered dietitian and chef Maggie Green, who served as a lead editor on the updated 2006 Joy of Cooking, is crying foul. She challenges how this study was done — only analyzing 18 recipes out of thousands. She doesn’t believe this small sampling represents the full scope of the book. Additionally, the newer edition provides more nutrition information for the reader and features more fresh ingredients over processed foods.
“I still defy anyone to cook and eat sensibly at home and become obese,” Green told me in an email. “I firmly believe home-cooking and sharing a meal with those you love would go a long way in making this world a healthier place.”
So bottom line, the problem of portion distortion is not limited to restaurant meals. Keeping an eye on portion size is important at home too. But does the YIELD identified in a recipe really determine how much you eat? Not sure folks are really looking at how many servings a recipe makes and then eat accordingly. What may help is switching to a smaller plate. The growing size of our dinner plates makes reasonable portions look puny. Studies show that we tend to eat more as our plates get larger.
With more meals eaten at home, maybe we need to help arm today’s value-conscious home cook with contemporary recipes that help maximize nutrition on a budget. But it all comes down to how much you eat, no matter what recipe you’re using.
Tagged as:
calories,
cookbooks,
Joy of Cooking,
nutrition research,
portion control,
Recipes
by Janet on February 9, 2009
I’m crazy about the humble chickpea.
This pallid orb, AKA garbanzo bean, was once relegated to a lonely container nestled in ice on a salad bar. But no more.
Now, hummus is the new salsa. And the chickpea is the new superfood.
Several recent studies suggest this pale legume deserves the limelight. Packed with fiber, protein, folate and hard-working phytonutrients, chickpeas have a lot to brag about.
Australian researchers found that a chickpea-heavy diet helped bring down blood cholesterol levels, including LDL or “bad” cholesterol. Even more recently, the same group of Aussies found that chickpeas helped with glycemic control and insulin resistance — which may be valuable in the prevention and management of diabetes. Other studies suggest chickpeas can tame your appetite (boost satiety) and could even help trim your waistline — OK, that study was with rats, but still!
Beans are a lowfat alternative to meat, so making a substitution could be beneficial. After all, beans are officially part of the “meat and beans” group in the food pyramid. And they also count as a vegetable. In fact, beans are the only food that can do double duty. They belong to both food groups. Dietary guidelines recommend 3 cups of beans per week — but most people need to triple the amount of beans they eat to achieve this level. Certainly, hummus is a good place to start.
Here’s the most perfect bowl of hummus we enjoyed this summer in Lebanon. Even though it’s easier than ever to find prepared hummus in most supermarkets today, there’s nothing like making it yourself.
Hummus Recipe
4 cloves garlic, peeled and halved
2 16-oz. cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2/3 cup tahini, well stirred
Juice of 2 lemons
1/4 cup olive oil
water (as needed)
1 teaspoon salt
Optional garnish: whole chickpeas, toasted pine nuts, chopped parsley, paprika, cumin or sumac
Combine all of the ingredients except the water and garnish in a food processor and process until smooth. Add water to thin hummus to the desired consistency (about 1/2 cup). Transfer to a bowl and drizzle with additional olive oil to keep the hummus from crusting, and add garnish. Refrigerate until ready to use. Serve with pita chips.
My Lebanese mother-in-law will boil the canned chickpeas first to soften and get rid of the thin skin on the bean (to make for a really creamy hummus), but I tend to skip this step. You also can rub the chickpeas with your fingers until the skins come off. My husband often prefers a version without tahini that’s called balila hummus (although he refers to it as hummus “unplugged”).
Even though we like the plain garlic/lemony version best, we will often experiment by adding different ingredients including canned chipotle in sauce, roasted red peppers, chopped jalapeno, olives, cilantro or pomegranate molasses. Check out this hummus recipe from Joylicious that’s simply garnished with paprika and whole chickpeas.
Tagged as:
beans,
chickpeas,
garbanzo beans,
hummus,
Lebanon,
legumes,
nutrition research,
Recipes
