Dr. Amy Doherty

So there’s this secret to cruciferous vegetables. If you roast them with any type of dressing, it’s amazing.  I have done this with brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and today it’s with a Napa cabbage.  For this specific recipe, I put a different dressing on every fourth of the Napa cabbage head because I had leftover dressings from the week and I felt like it, but you don’t have to.  Got ginger dressing hanging around, or balsamic or Italian?  Cool, use those.  I will also provide some dressing ideas.

Ingredients and directions:

Take a Napa cabbage, cut it into fourths as demonstrated above, pour a dressing over it making sure it gets into all the leafy crevices.  The more the dressing infiltrates the cabbage, the more flavorful the product.  Bake at 450 degrees Farenheit for about 10 min, or until it is warm and crispy.  Consume.

Possible homemade dressings:

1.  Italian- pour 1/3 c extra virgin olive oil (I chose a Tuscan flavored one), 2 tsps freshly ground black pepper , and 1.5 tablespoons Mediterranean spices with a pinch of salt onto the cabbage.  There are various Mediterranean/Italian spice mixes you could use, or make your own with choices such as garlic and onion powder, oregano, parsley, marjoram, basil of course, and rosemary.
2. Asian: 1/4 c toasted sesame oil, 1/4 c Mirin, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 T soy sauce, 2 T sesame seeds.
3. Asian peanut sauce: same thing as above but add 2 T peanut butter and 2 T Sriracha or 2 tsp cayenne.
4. Olive oil + balsamic + fresh ground black pepper

So I am taking a break from the whole Garbanzo bonanza on the blog, but not in real life so stay tuned.  In the mean time… Oh miso how I love thee.  So delicious, healthy and simple.  The first time I was introduced to Miso soup was my senior year in high school when my family was housing a Japanese foreign exchange student.  She explained, “Japanese people eat it, and everything Japanese people eat is healthy, so this is, too.”  I think she wasn’t far off, after researching the idea!

Miso is a fermented (read: full of probiotics), Asian soup traditionally served with tofu and nori. I keep a package around to make into quick, warm, filling soups with whatever veggies I have on hand.  Warm brothy soups in chilly months is the best, and in 340 A.D. Chinese medical practitioners touted its benefits to cure the common cold.  I am not aware of any randomized controlled trials on this, but it has worked for me in the past :-). Here is an example.

Ingredients

• 3/4 c dried, sliced shiitake mushrooms or 1 c fresh
• 2 c water
• 4 cloves diced garlic
• 2 chopped kale leaves
• 2 T miso paste
• 1 T sesame seeds (I like them roasted, put them in the oven at 375 until they are golden/your kitchen smells amazing for this option)
• 1 grated carrot

 Directions

1. Put the mushrooms and garlic in the water and boil
2. Add kale leaves, turn off heat.
3. Add miso, sesame seeds, and carrot.  Yum you are done.
4.  I like adding sesame seeds for protein and to make it filling, but tofu or any kind of seed or bean could fulfill the same purpose.  Also, if you don’t have kale, any kind of green will work!  Like celery better?  Cool, put it in instead.