Wicked (Good) White Foods

22 Feb Wicked (Good) White Foods

As a holistic nutritionist, I spend a lot of time talking about the deadly whites in our SAD diet (Standard American Diet); their impact on our health, the processing that occurs as a result of industrialization of food and how their deficiencies far out way any nutritional benefits that may remain.

I find myself constantly discussing this issue in my practice with my clients, seminar attendees as well as in my day to day life. In case you’ve been living off the grid and have no idea about the three deadly whites, they are: refined wheat, sugar & dairy. All of the things that so many North American’s are addicted to.

So now you may see the link between corporate profits, food industrialization and our health (or lack of). These legalized drugs (aka food) are available at retail outlets, grocery stores & gas stations to feed our addictions that we can get access to 24/7.

The last seminar I did got me thinking about the poor little white foods that do have some nutritional qualities, that are whole, in their natural state and compliment our diet.

I want to make sure these quality “white” foods do not get painted with the same brush and labelled as “bad, sinful or deadly”. Just like other stereotypes that are at a disadvantage because of our generalizations, I’d like to stick up for the underdogs.

The underdogs that come to the top of my mind when I think of good quality white foods are: garlic, onions, cauliflower, coconut, coconut milk, coconut oil, almonds, cashews, hemp hearts, quinoa, white fish and Celtic sea salt.

I’m sure there are plenty more once you start thinking about it, but these are the few that come to my mind as soon as I think about “good” white foods. Even though we may think they lack flare, with no colour, they make up for it in their personalities and nutritional value. They’re full of  nutrients, vitamins & minerals; each in their own special way – that may be a future blog topic.

With all this thinking & talking about white foods, it sent me on an experimental quest straight into my kitchen. I love experimenting, especially with food (in case you don’t already know that about me).

I challenged myself to make a few dishes with all white foods, merely to get them back on the “good” list of food choices. I started out with some cauliflower that ended up as a soup, along with some white fish, coated with quinoa flakes and chopped almonds. I could have used an egg to coat the fish, but I used some chia seeds that I had in my pantry instead, that also happened to be white.

Anyhow here’s how it ended up:

Coconut Curry Cauliflower Soup

•  1 head of Cauliflower (cut into florets)
•  1 can of Coconut Milk (14 oz)
•  1 Tbsp of Coconut Oil
•  2 White Cooking Onions (diced)
•  2 cloves of Garlic
•  1 Tbsp of powdered Curry (more if you want to kick it up)
•  4 cups of Water (or vegetable stock if you’d prefer)

What you do

• Heat oil over medimum heat in a large sauce pan or soup pot.
• Add diced onions and saute until tender. Once tender, add minced garlic.
• Add curry powder & incorporate into onions & garlic until soft & coated.
• Add cauliflower florets & water. Cover and simmer until cauliflower is tender. About 15 minutes on medium heat.
• Blend soup mix in batches. Either waiting until cool or covering your blender with a towel to avoid combustion.
• Return pureed mixture back to pot and add coconut milk to heat through. Make sure to use medium heat again so that coconut milk does not seperate. It’s the high heat that causes the seperation.
• Top with cilantro or parsley for garnish.

Viva a la white foods! It turns out a looking like the colour of the curry that you use, so it’s not virgin white, but we know the real deal – all nutritous white foods, in their whole, natural state are going into our bellies. Yum, yum!

 Soleful Delight

•  1 lb of Sole (you can use any fish you like, but I kept it white)
•  1/2 cup of Quinoa Flakes
•  1/4 cup of Almonds
•  1 Tbsp Hemp Seeds
•  2 Tbsp of Chia Seeds (or 2 eggs)
•  6 Tbsp of Water
•  1/4 tsp of Tumeric
•  Salt & Pepper to taste

What you do

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a cookie sheet or baking pan with parchment paper to avoid sticking & having to use any nasty non-stick sprays.
• Soak chia seeds in 4 tbsp of water for about 5 minutes. It will turn into a gel like substance.
  Combine quinoa, almonds, hemp seeds & tumeric in a magic bullet, blender or food processor. Process to a fine crumb like mixture.
• Add the additional 2 tbsp of water to the chia seed mixture and use to coat fish. You can substitute this step for coating the fish with an egg, coconut oil (if you like that flavour) or grapeseed oil if you like.
• Once the fish is coated with the liquid, dip into the crumb mixture & place on lined baking sheet.
• Bake in oven for about 15 minutes.
• Serve with chopped parsley & lemon.

Viola, another white love! Add baked sweet potato fries & a green veg to get the new style of nutritious fish & chips.  Just be careful to go light on the serving size. This ain’t your traditional newspaper wrapped fish… it’s loaded with protein instead of saturated fats. You likely won’t be able to eat to much, it’s very filling.

White on! Hee hee