You see, I have a freezer full of pureed vegetables–neatly frozen in 1 oz cubes– that my once-adventurous fressers now refuse to eat.  Never one to waste food, I’ve been looking to repurpose these colorful little cubes of wholesomeness, and have tried many different experiments to that end.

My most successful experiment to date has been the fluffy pink pancakes that resulted from adding 2 oz of thawed beet-sweet potato puree to a storebought buckwheat pancake mix.  (My kids will eat anything in a pancake form, as it turns out.)  Since the mix was not gluten-free, however, I’ve been unable to sit with them and share breakfast, which is an important part of raising good eaters.  So I turned my attention to finding a good, gluten-free buckwheat pancake recipe that the whole family could enjoy.

I love the beet-buckwheat combo for so many reasons.  For starters, buckwheat is naturally a good source of iron, which makes it a great grain for women and kids alike–gluten-free or not.  Beets are a fantastic source of folate, another female-friendly nutrient that, notably, is missing from most gluten-free flours and baked goods (whereas conventional wheat flour must be fortified with folic acid by law).  For those adults and kids who aren’t getting enough leafy greens (read: most of us), beets are a great alternative source of folate.  Beets have a natural sweetness and mild flavor to them as well, making them easy to blend into a pancake recipe.  (Because they tend to be watery, I mix them with sweet potatoes for the puree to keep it nice and creamy).  Lastly, as an Eastern European gal by ancestry, beets and buckwheat speak to my inner Ashkenazi.

Blini, for the uninitiated (or those of us who don’t get invited to fancy parties), are mini pancakes of Russian origin, traditionally made with wheat or buckwheat, topped perhaps a dollop of sour cream, and served as the base for caviar.  While bona-fide blini are made with yeast, my American-style shortcut uses a chemical leavener (baking powder) to save effort and time.  Though this recipe may seem just like a breakfast pancake by another name, these blini are decidedly in the salty/savory camp– they lack any semblence of sweetness.  If you are keen on modifying them to be more breakfasty, you could add 2 TBSP sugar to the dry ingredients.  Or just leave them as-is and top with maple syrup.

Regarding the topping: while caviar is not a staple in my pantry, Beluga lentils– the “caviar of lentils“–most certainly are.  They’re easy enough to make from scratch, but for the seriously time-pressed, note that Trader Joe’s does indeed sell pre-cooked Beluga Lentils in shelf-stable packaging.  In addition, you can add an optional dollop of sour cream, crème fraiche or plain greek yogurt to anchor the lentils in place if you wish.  A storebought horseradish cream sauce would be fabulous here as well.  Of course, you need not limit yourself to these toppings.  Savory buckwheat blini would make a fabulous, gluten-free base for a variety of toppings and spreads– smoked fish especially (think whitefish salad or herbed cream cheese with lox).

Recipe: Gluten-free Buckwheat Beet Blini with Beluga Lentil “Caviar”

Makes 24-30 blini.  Great as a party appetizer… and leftovers double as a fabulous toddler snack.

For the lentils:

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1/4 onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 cup dry beluga lentils, rinsed
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cups water
• Salt, to taste

1. Heat olive oil in a small saucepan.
2. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil for about 3 minutes
3. Add 1/4 dried beluga lentils, bay leaf and water.
4. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook for ~20 minutes (or until lentils are tender to your liking)
5. Add salt to taste.  Remove bay leaf.  Set aside.

For the blini:

• 1 cup buckwheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup beet-sweet potato puree (click here for recipe)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 1/4 cup milk (you can use a dairy-free milk substitute, such as soymilk or almond milk, if you wish)
• 2 Tbsp melted butter or margarine, plus more butter for frying
• Optional garnish: sour cream, plain greek yogurt or créme fraiche

1. Cook beluga lentils as per above.
2. While lentils are cooking, combine buckwheat flour, salt and baking soda in a medium-sized bowl
3. Add beaten egg, milk, melted butter and beet/sweet potato puree to the dry ingredients
4. Stir mixture until just combined
5. Melt just enough butter in a large, non-stick frying pan to coat the bottom.  When pan is hot, pour small amount (about 2 tablespoonfuls) of batter for each blini.  Cook 1 to 1½ minutes, turning when edges look cooked and bubbles begin to break on the surface. Continue to cook 1 to 1½ minutes or until golden brown.
6. Cool blini completely before garnishing with toppings and serving.

Related posts:

1. The Caviar of Lentils
2. Buckwheat: The groats that float my boat
3. Red Lentil Soup

It’s a particularly vexing question when one neglected to go grocery shopping over the weekend, so her fresh ingredient stock is limited to onions, baby carrots and a small handful of brussels sprouts.  A thorough inspection of the pantry yielded plenty of dry staples, though, and the back corners of the fridge were hiding the jetsam of our Thanksgiving cooking frenzy– a half jar of chestnuts, some leftover sage leaves– quickly on their way out.  Time to get creative.

I decided to compose a soup of Dried Wild Mushrooms, Lentils and Chestnuts, using roasted brussels sprouts and fried sage leaves as a garnish.  My hope was that this eclectic combination of earthy and sweet flavors would be harmonious rather than cacophonous, with crispy green garnishes offering a pop of welcome color and texture to the smooth, autumnal puree.  Since these flavors work so beautifully together in Thanksgiving stuffing, after all, why not a soup?  For seasoning, I chose thyme (a classic in stuffing, and one of my favorites), and a small hit of smoked paprika to add depth and richness of flavor in lieu of, say, bacon, which I don’t eat.  (You could use chipotle powder to similar effect if you prefer a spicier soup).  I didn’t bother using celery in my mirepoix, since I never have it around the house and doubt many of you do, either.

The results were fantastically tasty beyond my expectations.  This recipe is gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian (and easily made vegan if you use Vegetable stock).  It is elegant enough to serve to company for a fall or winter dinner party, but easy enough to make for no particular reason on a weeknight.  It’s filling enough to be a one-dish meal, thanks to the hearty body that the lentils provide… just load it up with that brussels sprout garnish to get in some greens!

Recipe: Wild Mushroom Chestnut Soup with Autumn Garnishes

Serves 4-6

1 onion, chopped
2 TBSP olive oil
1 carrot, chopped (or equivalent chopped baby carrots to yield ~ 1/2 cup chopped)
1 oz dried wild mushrooms, soaked in enough boiling water to cover them for at least 30 minutes; reserve the water for the soup
1.5 cups dry lentils
1 cup of jarred whole chestnuts
1 quart (32 ounces) vegetable stock, chicken stock or plain water
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp smoked paprika

Kosher salt & pepper to taste

Smoked paprika is the secret ingredient that brings this soup to life

Garnishes (prepare while soup is simmering):

Roasted brussels sprouts (see directions below)
Fried sage leaves (recipe follows; make LOTS of them.  You will want one in every bite of soup… they are so damn tasty.)

Directions:

1. Heat oil in soup pot or large 4 quart saucepan
2. Add chopped onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until sweating
3. Add the chopped carrots, mushrooms in their soaking water, lentils, chestnuts, stock or water, thyme, paprika, 2 generous pinches of kosher salt and freshly ground pepper (optional) to taste
4. Cover and bring soup to a boil.  When boil is reached, reduce heat and simmer, partly covered, for about 30 minutes or until lentils are soft/cooked well
5. While soup is simmering, prepare garnishes below
6. When soup is finished cooking, taste for seasoning and add additional salt/paprika as desired.  Turn off heat.
7. Using an immersion (stick) blender, puree soup in the cooking pot to desired texture.  (Alternatively, you can transfer soup to a blender and puree it in batches).
8. Serve with roasted brussels sprouts and fried sage leaves as garnishes

• To roast brussels: trim base off of desired quantity of brussels sprouts, and cut them down the middle.  Toss them in a bowl with just enough olive oil to kiss them all but not drown or drench… a good rule of thumb is 1-2 TBSP per pound.  Sprinkle with kosher salt.  Roast in 400-degree oven for 15-20 minutes, or until outside starting to caramelize but the sprouts are not dried out or mushy.
• To fry sage leaves: set aside desired quantity of fresh sage leaves.  Trim larger leaves into 2-3 segments if necessary to ensure all leaves are roughly the same size.  Heat just enough olive oil in a pan to cover the bottom.  When oil is nice and hot, toss in a handful of sage leaves (you may need to do this in batches to prevent overcrowding the pan, which will result in soggy leaves).  Fry the sage leaves, stirring constantly, for 5-10 seconds only!  (The leaves will get crispy as they cool even though they still appear green).  Remove leaves from pan with a slotted spoon or spatula and place on a paper towel to absorb the excess oil.  Sprinkle with a touch of kosher salt.

Related posts:

1. A Tearful Reunion with Mushroom “Barley” Soup
2. Pardon me, but is that Cauliflower soup in your lasagna?
3. Red Lentil Soup

First, kale is officially in season.  And soon it will be one of the only fresh veggies in season here in the Northeast.  So if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Second, packaged kale chips have started showing up in our local food co-op and health food stores… at exorbitantly expensive prices.  And this coming from a person who routinely–and not unhappily– overpays for food.  Everyone has their limit.  The righteous indignation that overpriced, healthy food evokes in me often inspires me to make a home-made version that I can then smugly blog about.

Third, my increasingly picky babies have developed a strong preference for all things crunchy–but still not too many teeth– which makes it very hard to get vegetables into them.  Since storebought ‘veggie puff’ snacks which contain green vegetables are really more corn puffs than anything else (based on the paltry Vitamin A content), I figured it would be far more nutritious to just make my own veggie snacks at home.  Kale chips have a perfect, fall-apart-into-crumbles-in-your-mouth quality that should work well for the toddling crowd.

Lacinato Kale

Lastly, I’m a nutritionist, for god’s sake.  Why don’t I eat more kale??!!?  It’s, like, the Holy Grail of health foods.  And while I view the term “superfood” with more than a healthy dose of skepticism (it’s more of a marketing term than a nutrition term)– I would be hard-pressed to come up with a food more deserving of the title.  It scores a perfect 1,000 on the ANDI scale, after all.  It’s a powerhouse of Vitamins K, A and C, and is a good source of both calcium and iron.   (Unlike spinach, kale lacks dietary compounds called oxalates, which interfere with iron absorption.  In this regard, kale is a much better source of iron than spinach is, though the latter still tends to enjoy a strong reputation for its iron content.)

If you’re looking for something different to put out for guests as you prepare to entertain this holiday season, why not make up some seasoned kale chips to in lieu of tortilla chips or potato chips?  They’re lower calorie, lower carb and far more nutritious.

Recipe: Kale Chips Three Ways

I decided to offer 3 versions of the kale chip recipe, which partly reflects the fact that I watch too much Top Chef– where anything worth cooking once is worth cooking three times, three different ways– and partly reflects the versatility of this healthy snack, one version of which is sure to please every palate in your family.  Feel free to experiment with seasonings to suit your own taste. The base recipe is the basic, salted version whose standard recipe is simple and ubiquitous, though cooking times and temperatures vary considerably.  You can use flat-leafed kale or curly kale as you wish, though I think curly works better to hold seasoning and flat may work better for babies.  Credit for the base recipe provided here belongs to Chef Jenny Gensterblum of Léman Preparatory School in Manhattan, where my husband teaches.  She is known for her fierce arsenal of healthy but kid-approved dishes, most cooked from scratch.

Version #2 is a “cheesy” flavored one that uses nutritional yeast for seasoning instead of actual cheese.  This keeps it vegan/dairy free, and also bumps up the nutritional value by heaping sprinkles of B-vitamins on top of already Vitamin A-rich kale.  Vegan, baked kale topped with nutritional yeast?  A perfect, self-righteous antidote to the seasonal overindulgence going on this time of year, but delicious enough to keep you from feeling deprived like you would with, say, a rice cake .

Version #3 has got a little bit of a smoky/garlicky kick to it, a seasoning whose credit goes to Shauna James Ahern, the self-designated “Gluten Free Girl,” who suggests sprinkling on a combo of garlic powder and smoked paprika on just-out-of-the-oven kale chips.  Don’t mind if I do, Shauna!

Basic Version

• 2 bunches of green kale (I used Lacinato, aka., Tuscan kale/Dinosaur kale.  Other varieties work fine, too)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt to taste

Directions: Preheat the oven to 500°F.  Separate kale leaves and thoroughly rinse and dry. Stack some leaves on top of each other. Cut out the tough center rib by cutting in a v-shape, or tear out the center rib with your fingers. Slice across into strips.  (Careful not to cut pieces too small, or they may burn.) Place kale in a large bowl. Toss with olive oil and a good amount of salt. Spread thinly onto one or two cookie sheets, depending on the size. Bake for 3 minutes, remove from oven briefly, toss (tongs work well for this), and bake for an additional minute or two, until starting to brown and crispy. Watch closely as kale burns rather quickly.

Dairy-free Cheesy Version: As soon as chips come out of the oven, sprinkle a generous handful of nutritional yeast on top of them.  Toss to coat.

Smoky/Garlicky Version: Combine 1/4 tsp garlic powder with 1/4 tsp smoked paprika and sprinkle atop kale chips just out of the oven.

Related posts:

1. For Those Drowning in a Sea of Potatoes and Kale, a Life Vest

I’ve been wanting to do a savory pumpkin dish for some time now, and as I eyed the beautiful curcubit specimens at our local farmer’s market, the memory of a dish I once had at an Afghan restaurant came to mind.  Warm, comforting, savory, beautifully-spiced but not spicy– it would be a perfectly seasonal vegetarian entree that would satisfy the grownup palates but produce ample leftovers to use for feeding the dentally-challenged highchair set.

Insofar as any Afghan dish can be considered “popular” in America, Borani Kadoo (alt: Kadu Bouranee) would probably be it.  From what I can tell, versions of this dish are also found in Persian (Iranian) and Pakistani cuisine, though they may simply be referred to as “kadu” (pumpkin) something and served without yogurt.  The term “borani” generally refers to a yogurt-based appetizer or dip, often served cold and with bread.  For example, there are many different types of Borani dishes in Persian cuisine, including spinach ones and eggplant ones.  And lookie there: we’ve officially exhausted my knowledge of Central Asian cuisine.

I found this recipe for Borani Kadoo and followed it pretty much to a tee (with the exception of omitting the jalapeno to make it less aggressive to baby palates).  It appears to be the most popular one floating around the web, and for good reason: it’s super simple and requires very little prep; the only real effort is actually cutting and peeling the pumpkin itself.  (If you’ve never done this before, click here to read my previous post on pumpkins to learn how to safely do it, and make sure you have a really good chef’s knife that’s up to the task.)  I used a Cheese Pumpkin, which is a beige-colored pumpkin with texture quite similar to butternut squash, which, incidentally, would be a perfectly acceptable stand-in for the pumpkin this recipe calls for.  I might also suggest a cilantro or fresh mint garnish for some visual interest and a splash of complementary herbaceous flavor to cut some of the pumpkin’s sweetness, though the sour yogurt works wonders to this effect.

Other serving suggestions: toss into an arugula salad to add some substance to a lunch meal; toss in with some pasta, ricotta cheese, grated Parmesean and fried sage leaves for a delightful one-bowl dinner; or cook it down a little softer than the recipe suggests, layer with the yogurt sauce and serve as a dip alongside pita wedges or gluten-free crackers.

To boost the nutritional value of this already nutritious, high-fiber, high Vitamin-A recipe, consider using plain 0% Greek Yogurt to make the yogurt sauce rather than plain regular yogurt.  Doing so will also cut the lactose content significantly if this is an issue for you.

Related posts:

1. The Great Pumpkin

I realized that with some better planning, I should be able to choose dishes–and make enough of them– to feed all four of us.  Especially considering that two of us only eat about 4 ounces in a sitting.

The first component of the inaugural family meal became clear to me when I passed our local Farmer’s Market and saw that purple cauliflowers had arrived.  I had been eyeing a recipe for Purple Cauliflower and White Bean puree from fellow RD Sophie Clarke’s blog, Mostly Eating, for some time, and knew that I could adapt it to my family’s tastes.  (See below for adapted recipe). My kids and husband all love roasted cauliflower… and can you think of any better way to jazz up a baby’s diet of mushy, pureed foods than to infuse it with a shock of bright purple?

A note on purple cauliflower nutrition

Purple fruits and veggies are rich in antioxidant pigments called anthocyanins

Is purple cauliflower more nutritious than its white counterpart?  It certainly appears to be, though the standard version’s nutritional credentials aren’t too shabby either.  Both are roughly equivalent on the “macronutrient” front: calories (about 25 calories per cup of raw florets), carbs (5g) and fiber (2g).  That same cup of white cauliflower has about 80% of your daily value for Vitamin C.  Vitamin C aside, the antioxidant content is almost certainly higher in a purple cauliflower, owing largely to the presence of the purple antioxidant pigments called anthocyanins– the same ones that make purple cabbage purple and blueberries blue.

While I could not find reliable information that quantifies the the nutritional differences in these two cauliflower varieties, I thought it might be informative to compare the difference between two very close relatives of cauliflower: purple cabbage versus regular (green) cabbage.  (Purple cauliflower, in fact, is believed to derive from wild cabbage plants).  Perhaps we may be able to infer something about the relative amount of phytonutrients in a purple cauliflower versus a white one?  (And if the faulty logic of this comparison pisses off any budding chemists in our midst, I hope it will spur them to undertake a proper analysis of cruciferous vegetable antioxidant activity and share the results with the rest of us).

While a 3 oz (100g, raw) serving of both red and green cabbage varieties has approximately the same number of calories (25-30) and fiber (2-2.5g), red cabbage has more antioxidant Vitamin C (about 100% of the daily value in red, versus 60% for green); 16 times more beta carotene– an precursor for antioxidant Vitamin A; and 11 times more lutein + zeaxanthin–two antioxidant carotene pigments that play a pivotal role in eye health and vision.  In other words, depending on the particular antioxidant measured–purple cabbage has anywhere from 1.6x to 16x the antioxidant content of the standard green variety.  (And these examples only account for a small percentage of the total number of antioxidants present in cabbage…)  Given these impressive stats, it seems to make sense to choose purple-colored veggies often–purple cauliflower included– to get that much more bang for your nutritional buck.

Recipe: Mashed Purple Cauliflower with White Beans

Mashed purple cauliflower with white beans: fresh for the family or frozen into single-serve portions for baby

A beautiful (and quirky), easy, delicious, family-friendly recipe for weeknight, Halloween and Thanksgiving dinners alike!  High in fiber and Vitamin C and low on the glycemic index, it’s a fabulous substitute for mashed potatoes.

Ingredients:

1 large head purple cauliflower, cut into florets

3 TBSP olive oil

Kosher salt

Dried thyme

1 14.5 oz can cannellini beans, drained* (or other small white bean, such as Navy beans).

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
2. In a large bowl, combine cauliflower florets, olive oil, a modest sprinkle of salt and a generous sprinkle of dried thyme (to taste), and toss well to coat
3. Arrange cauliflower florets on a baking dish and roast in oven for 20-30 minutes, or until florets are fork tender and just starting to brown
4. Remove cauliflower from oven and place in a food processor along with the canned white beans.  Puree until smooth.  (Alternatively, you can puree the roasted cauliflower along with the beans in a large pot using an immersion (stick) blender.)

* I use Eden Organic brand when cooking for my kids since the company does not use BPA in its can liners.

Related posts:

1. Pardon me, but is that Cauliflower soup in your lasagna?

But for the past decade or so, a team of researchers has been publishing papers about the effects of an experimental diet called the “Portfolio Diet” on blood lipid levels of people with high cholesterol.  Unlike prevailing dietary approaches that emphasize what foods to avoid, the Portfolio Diet focuses on ADDING a handful of beneficial foods to the daily diet. The portfolio of foods and nutrients  included: nuts, soy protein, plant sterol-enriched margarine, and “viscous” (soluble) fiber specifically found in foods like oats, barley, eggplant, okra and psyllium husk supplements.

Each of these foods was selected based on previous research which suggested a different and complementary cholesterol-lowering mechanism; the hypothesis was that if a portfolio of all these foods was eaten daily as part of a low saturated fat diet, it could help lower cholesterol by launching a multi-pronged attack on all the ways that cholesterol is manufactured, transported and/or recycled in the body.  The researchers wanted to compare the benefits of this Portfolio Diet compared to (1) a typical low-saturated fat diet, and (2) a typical low-saturated fat diet plus a statin drug.

Their initial findings, published in 2003, were interesting but largely impractical.  While their experimental Portfolio diet did lower cholesterol as much as people on a standard low-saturated fat diet who took a statin (as compared to the control group that just followed a typical low-saturated fat diet), there were several limitations.  First of all, the study groups were each less than 20 people, making it difficult to draw any widespread conclusions.  Secondly, the researchers provided the participants with virtually all the food for their meals to ensure compliance– a circumstance that would not be replicated in real-life settings.  Thirdly, the amount of fiber in the Portfolio Diet was so colon-blowingly-large (78g per 1,000 calories… or 140g/day on an 1,800 calorie/day diet) that most Americans (whose average fiber intake is reportedly only ~14g/day) attempting to follow it would probably spend half their day on the toilet or warming the planet irreparably through the  toxic cloud of methane gas they produced as a result.

Last month, however, the researchers published a study in JAMA with much more promising–and practicable–results.  They took a scaled-back version of their Portfolio Diet to test against the original, intensive version, to determine whether it would still provide the same cholesterol-lowering results as compared to the standard, low-saturated fat “control” diet.  Furthermore, they tested these 3 diets in a larger test group than the original study (between 80-90 people in each group), and allowed the participants to prepare their own food rather than having it provided to them–thus simulating real-life conditions much more closely.  The participants included both men and women, and the average participant was overweight (average BMI=27).  The experiment lasted 6 months.

The results?  Not only did the scaled-back version of the Portfolio Diet result in the same degree of cholesterol lowering as the intensified version… but the participants’ food records indicated that the average intake of Portfolio foods among the scaled-back group was LESS THAN HALF (41%) of the target amount!  In other words, the dieters reaped a significant benefit (LDL reductions of ~13%) from adding a relatively modest amount of Portfolio foods to their low-saturated fat diets.  In real terms, this translated into an average decrease of LDL levels from 171 mg/dL to 147 mg/dL.  Though the more closely participants adhered to the diet, the greater their reduction in LDL was.

The Nuts and Bolts of the Experimental Portfolio Diet

So what, exactly, did the participants eat, and how much?

• For starters, all groups followed a low-saturated fat diet.  In this study, it was a vegetarian diet that included eggwhites and low-fat dairy products, but no meat.  Because only animal products have cholesterol, the vegetarian diet resulted in a significant reduction of dietary cholesterol intake to below 200mg/day among ALL study groups, even the controls.

• Secondly, all groups were counseled to restrict their calories to an amount designed to maintain their current weight, such that weight gain or weight loss would not muddy the results.  In reality, this translated into intakes of about 1,800-1,900 calories per day, including the portfolio foods.  (This is an important point, since adding a minimum of ~600-700 calories worth of Portfolio foods per day to achieve target nutrient levels could result in weight gain unless something else was taken away to compensate for it!)  After 6 months, no group had lost a significant amount of weight.

• Third, the scaled-back Portfolio Dieters had nutritional counseling twice during the 6-month study period to help them adhere to the diet.  (Consider this a thinly-veiled plug to make an appointment with a registered dietitian!)

• The ACTUAL average intake of portfolio foods/nutrients per day, assuming an 1,800 calorie/day diet, was as follows:
• 11g of “viscous” fiber per day (mainly from psyllium husk fiber supplements, oats, oat bran and/or barley)
• 21g of soy protein per day
• 1.1g of plant sterols per day from an enriched margarine product
• 47g of nuts (including peanuts) per day

How do these nutrients translate into actual foods and portions?  And how many calories are associated with these portions?  Read on:

“Viscous fiber”:

• 1 cup cooked plain oatmeal has 4g fiber and 160 calories
• 1/2 cup of cooked pearled barley has 3g of fiber and 95 calories
• 1 slice oat bran bread has ~1.4g fiber and ~80 calories (varies by brand; read labels for precise info)
• Psyllium husk powder (dietary supplement): 2 TBSPs have 9-10g fiber and ~35-45 calories, depending on the brand
• Note: other good sources of “viscous” fiber include okra, eggplant, strawberries, beans.
• For gluten-free readers: pearled barley is off limits, but certified Gluten-free oats are marketed by Bob’s Red Mill and Arrowhead Mills.  Psyllium husk is naturally gluten-free, but check your product’s label to ensure it was not processed in a facility/on equipment that also processes gluten-containing ingredients.

Soy protein:

• 1/2 cup of raw, firm tofu (~4.5 oz) has 20g of protein and 180 calories
• 1 cup plain soymilk has 6g protein and 80-120 calories
• 1/2 cup shelled edamame (boiled soybeans) has ~10g protein and ~100 calories
• 1 oz of dry roasted “soy nuts” (1/4 to 1/3 cup depending on brand) has 10-11g protein and 120-140 calories
• Note: study participants also ate more processed soy products, such as meatless soy “deli slices”

Plant Sterols (from enriched margarine products):

• 1 TBSP of Smart Balance HeartRight has 1.7g of plant sterols (45 calories)
• 1 TBSP of Promise Activ has 1.0g of  plant sterols (45 calories)

Nuts:

• 47g of nuts is about 1.7 ounces, or 1/3 cup of most nut varieties (270-340 calories for dry-roasted, depending on the variety.  Read the label of your favorite nut for more precise info or check out this chart for a comparison by nut type.)

The bottom line?  While much more research is needed to validate these results and refine exact quantities of foods and nutrients needed to achieve optimal benefits from a cholesterol-lowering persepctive, the fact remains that swapping in nutritious, high-fiber, plant-based foods such as those in the Portfolio Diet for animal protein foods and refined grains in your current diet is very likely to benefit your health in many ways.   If you can’t go all the way, the study’s results nonetheless suggest that swapping in a smaller amount of these foods is still likely to produce some benefit, so give it a try!

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