The End of Dieting: How to Live for Life (24 page)

All raw vegetables
—Not only are vegetables naturally low in calories, but when you eat them raw, more of the calories stay bound to the fiber and pass through your body without absorption. Even raw carrots are a weight-loss-friendly food.

All green vegetables
—If they are the color green, go for it. Green vegetables are not just low in caloric density, they are super high in micronutrient density too.

Nonstarchy, nongreen cooked vegetables
—Include tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, cauliflower, eggplant, and red peppers in your diet.

3. Use a low-calorie salsa or hummus as a dressing or dip
.

You might find that a dressing or dip makes it easier to enjoy lots of the raw vegetables that are so healthful and such an important part of the natural human diet. Tomatoes, carrot sticks, fennel bulbs, snow pea
pods, raw peas, raw string beans, raw broccoli, raw cauliflower, even strips of kohlrabi, cabbage, and radish taste great raw with a nice dip.

Hummus is a great dip and easy to make. All you have to do is blend some cooked, boxed, or canned chickpeas with unhulled sesame seeds, scallions, and roasted garlic. Check out the
Roasted Eggplant Hummus
.

A technique I frequently use when cooking is to roast an entire bulb of garlic and squeeze out the roasted “paste” that is formed. I then mix that in a recipe along with one clove of crushed raw garlic. When you don’t use salt or oil for flavoring, roasted garlic, stewed or water-sautéed onion, lemon, and gourmet flavored vinegars add lots of flavor.

A salsa is easy to make too. Just chop some plum tomatoes with scallions, add a touch of chopped chili pepper if desired, add a tablespoon of almond butter and some soft red beans from a box, mix it all together, add some dried currants, and you have a great dip that will last for days. Check out some of my favorite
salsa recipes
.

4. Have a steamed green vegetable every night for dinner
.

Steaming a veggie is quick and easy. You only need a steamer pot with a lid or a steamer basket to place in a pot with a lid. Alternatively, you can improvise a steamer by placing in the bottom of a pot a few stalks of celery or the outer leaves of a head of lettuce or cabbage that you were going to discard. Add a small amount of water, cover, and cook for the appropriate length of time.

Don’t steam vegetables until they’re very soft. At that point, the water has turned green and you’ve washed away half of the water-soluble nutrients. The trick is to stop steaming when the vegetables have just started to become tender and still retain some firmness. Table 13 shows the steaming times I find work best. Boil water in a pot with a tight lid first, then add the vegetables, cover, and start your timer. These times assume the artichokes have been cut in half and prepped and the cabbage and broccoli stems have been sliced. Ready, set, go!

Tips for Preparing Artichokes

To cook an artichoke, slice 1 inch off the tip. Cut off about ½ inch or less of the very bottom piece of the stem to expose the fresh green bottom, keeping the remaining stem attached. Then, using a large, sharp knife, slice the artichoke in half lengthwise. Once sliced in half, you can see the fuzzy inedible choke part. Use a small, pointed knife to cut a deep half-moon-shaped incision where the heart meets the choke. Scoop out and discard
the fibrous and hairy choke from the center of each half. Place the artichoke in a steamer basket over several inches of water. Bring the water to a boil, cover, and steam for eighteen minutes. Set the artichoke aside until it’s cool enough to handle.

To eat, peel off the outer leaves one at a time. Tightly grip the outer end of the leaf, place the opposite end in your mouth, and pull through your teeth to remove the soft, pulpy, delicious portion of the leaf. You can also scrape off the edible portion with a butter knife. Then you can eat it plain or prepare a healthful dip or dressing to use as a dip. Continue until all the leaves are removed. Cut the remaining heart into pieces and enjoy!

Tip for Preparing Broccoli

Cut off the stems from the florets and cut them in quarters, lengthwise, first in half and then in half again. Steam the cut stems and florets for about thirteen minutes. Or, if you like the stems more tender, put them in the pot to steam for two minutes and then add the florets for thirteen minutes more.

5. Make bean dinner loaves and fruity desserts
.

Make a bean dinner loaf by mixing mashed cooked or canned white beans, onions, and mushrooms; add ground marjoram, nutritional yeast, and agar, and then bake. Serve it hot or cold. Check out the
Vegetable Chickpea Loaf
recipe.

Agar, a vegetarian gelatin made from seaweed, is the secret to this loaf. It’s sold in health food stores in both flake and powder forms and can be used as a thickening agent in a variety of recipes.

To make a gelatin fruit dessert, combine 1 tablespoon of agar powder and 1 cup of water. Bring the water to a boil, remove from the heat, and stir to dissolve the agar completely. Mix in the desired ingredients, such as fresh fruit and a small amount of dried fruit chopped and soaked in almond or hemp milk. Add both the dried fruit and the thickened soaking milk. Mix well and then cool until it firms up. For another simple yet elegant dessert, try the
Strawberry Panna Cotta
.

6. Enhance flavors
.

Your taste buds may be used to a lot of salt, so at first, this new eating routine may seem a little bland. This will change after a few weeks, however, and then you’ll experience and enjoy the real taste of food. Your taste muscle will continue to improve for months, as your health improves and you remain off salt and sweeteners. In the meantime, there are many ways to healthfully flavor your meals.

Roast garlic
. Roasted garlic is milder, richer, and sweeter than raw garlic. You can use it in salad dressings, dips, soups, and vegetable dishes. Roast unpeeled garlic in a 350°F oven for twenty-five minutes or until soft. When cool, remove the skins and add the paste to whatever you like. I recommend having a small glass jar of roasted garlic in the fridge at all times to mash into various dishes and dressings.

Use tomato paste
. Tomato paste consists of tomatoes that have been cooked for several hours and reduced to a thick, red concentrate before being strained. You can use it to flavor, thicken, and color soups, stews, and other vegetable dishes. Avoid using canned tomato products. Metal cans are lined with a BPA-containing resin. Since tomatoes are acidic, a significant amount of BPA (bisphenol-A) could leach into the food. BPA is a chemical linked to a number of negative health effects. Look for tomato paste packaged in glass jars. Choose chopped and strained tomatoes packaged in BPA-free cartons.

Use dried (not sun-dried) tomatoes
. Dried or dehydrated tomatoes add flavor and nutritional value to many recipes. You can add them directly to soups and stew, or soak them in water to cover for thirty to sixty minutes and then add them to salads. Include the soaking water in your recipes, as it contains some of the nutrients from the tomatoes. Salt and sulfites are added to most sun-dried tomatoes to preserve them during
the extended drying process. Sulfites are a preservative and enhance color, but some people are sensitive to them and respond with adverse reactions. Look for unsulfured and unsalted dried tomatoes that have been hot air dried, not sun dried. The faster drying time allows them to be processed without preservatives.

Soak dried fruits and currants
. Small amounts of dried fruit, such as raisins, currants, prunes, apricots, or figs, add sweetness to salads and vegetable dishes. Soak dried fruit in enough hot water to cover until soft (about thirty minutes), or soak in water or soy or hemp milk overnight. Soaking softens the fruit and improves the texture and flavor. If possible, incorporate the soaking liquid into your recipe to obtain nutrients and flavor that may have leached into the water.

Roast peppers
. Roasting peppers imparts a subtle smokiness to the peppers while bringing out their sweet flavor. Roasted peppers are great in Mexican-inspired dishes, such as vegetable fajitas, roasted red pepper dip, and chili. They’re great in salads, too. Roast peppers by placing them on a rimmed baking pan in a 375°F oven for fifty to sixty minutes, turning every twenty minutes, until the peppers are evenly browned and soft. Let them cool, and then peel them and remove the seeds.

Toast nuts and seeds
. Nuts and seeds are delicious raw, but lightly toasting them brings out their flavor and makes them crunchy. Toasted almonds, sesame seeds, and pine nuts add flavor to salads and can be sprinkled on soups or hot vegetable dishes. To toast nuts or seeds in the oven, arrange them in a single layer in a shallow baking pan in a 350°F oven for five to ten minutes, rotating them occasionally until they are very lightly browned. Sesame seeds can be toasted on the stove in an ungreased skillet just by shaking them in a hot pan for two to three minutes.

Grill or caramelize onions
. Just like garlic, onions get sweeter and mellower when they are cooked. Caramelized onions are a delicious way to enhance a wide variety of dishes. Add them to bean dishes, whole grain pita sandwiches, and bean burgers. Heat a nonstick skillet until it’s very hot, add sliced onions, and stir them constantly until they are tender and translucent or just lightly browned. Be careful not to burn them. Add a teaspoon or two of water if desired. After the onions are cooked, add a splash of balsamic vinegar to enhance their sweetness.

Season with spices and herbs
. Season your foods with spices and fresh herbs to enhance flavor without adding fat, sugar, salt, or calories. Try fresh parsley, basil, dill, and cilantro instead of the dried versions to add fresh, distinct flavors to your dishes (the general rule of thumb is that 1 teaspoon of dried equals 1 tablespoon of fresh). The mild flavor of parsley complements many dishes. Incorporate it into your recipe or sprinkle it on top. Fresh basil is a staple of Italian cooking and shines when paired with tomatoes. Dill complements cucumbers, green beans, and other vegetable dishes. Oregano is wonderful sprinkled on salads, and cilantro adds distinctive flavor to Mexican dishes like salsa and chili as well as Asian recipes and curries. Add fresh herbs at the end of cooking for optimal flavor.

Certain herbs and spices work well together, and these combinations can be identified in many of the world’s cuisines. Use Table 14 as a guide for creatively seasoning your vegetable dishes.

Use a wok without oil
. A wok is like a curved frying pan, but the curved shape changes the way the food cooks. The high sides of the wok allow foods with different cooking times to be cooked together. The hardier vegetables are put in the wok first and cooked until halfway done. They are then pushed up the sides of the wok while the more tender vegetables are added. While the last ingredients cook, the first ingredients are also cooking,
but at a slower rate so they don’t overcook. Woks also allow you to cook greater quantities so you can have leftovers the next day. With a good nonstick skillet or wok, you can stir-fry without oil. Just heat your wok before adding the food. Add a tablespoon or two of water or low-sodium broth to prevent sticking. Stir often. Add additional water by the tablespoon as needed. Covering the pan will help the vegetables cook faster. Including ingredients with a higher water content, such as pineapple and tomatoes, will also make it easier to stir-fry without oil.

Use nutritional yeast (without folic acid)
. Nutritional yeast is a deactivated yeast that provides a savory, cheesy, nutty flavor. It’s different from brewer’s yeast, which is a product of the beer-making industry. Just a tablespoon or two of nutritional yeast can enhance soups, sauces, and salad dressings. Choose a nutritional yeast that is not fortified with folic acid. Some troubling studies have connected folic acid supplementation with breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers. (See the Appendix, where this is discussed in more detail.)