I’m moving away from animal protein for a while, something I try to do regularly. I’m not going to argue for either side here, it’s just a choice I make now and then. In all honesty, if I could take more supplements, and had a good amount of time on my hands to really experiment in the kitchen and sit down with my nutrient intake program to work out a new diet, I would be vegan again, if only simply because not eating meats means that I eat a truckload more healing veggies daily.
For now, I’m just massively increasing my intake of veggies and greens, at home. I realised at some point in the last few months that I was getting lazy with the amount of veg I was eating. I was more than happy to drop $$$$ on buying some super tasty raw vegan stuff from a friend’s restaurant, but totally unwilling to put in the time to make it, or a cooked version at home. So last week I rolled up my sleeves and got into the organic vegetable box with the intention of feeding rather than juicing.
I came up with two similar but totally different recipes to share with you. I’ve used mushrooms but you don’t have to (see below).
The reasons I used mushies:
1. I am no longer on a low histamine diet – I’m on an antihistamine and anti-inflammatory rich one. Therefore I seek not to empty my histamine bucket, but my inflammation bucket – but the way I do this is by adding nutrients rather than taking them away.
2. Mushrooms are ok on many lists, including Dr. Fuhrman’s.
3. Mushrooms possess significant cancer-inhibitng properties.
4. I don’t believe that eliminating foods is a good strategy for healing. Here’s why.
Those who are still in strict elimination, who have had prior negative experiences with them, or who have had anaphylactic episodes to foods, may want to go ahead and use (home) boiled artichoke hearts or lightly cooked asparagus. Why home cooked? Because the canned/frozen stuff isn’t creamy, and I don’t eat canned anyway.
You’ll find recipes full of foods with antihistamine and anti-inflammatory properties my books Anti-Recipes and The Anti-Cookbook
CLICK HERE TO CREATE YOUR OWN PERSONALISED HEALING HISTAMINE PLAN.
Purple cabbage, as are all blue/purple foods, is high in anthocyanins. These pigments have been shown to:
Improve vision, reduce cancer cell growth, inhibit tumour formation, protect us from heart disease, can stabilise blood sugar, enhance memory, fight inflammation (especially in the lungs) [1].
This recipe features a number of other healing ingredients (but you can leave out or substitute most of them!)…
Antihistamine: turmeric, ginger, shallots, chives, arugula, thyme, basil, garlic, coriander [2].
Anti-inflammatory: turmeric, ginger, red onion, shallots, chives, arugula, thyme, basil, garlic, mushrooms, purple cabbage, almonds, cayenne, apple cider vinegar (substitute with lemon if you prefer), cucumber [3].
DAO boosting: olive oil [4].
Purple cabbage rolls w/creamy mushrooms or artichoke/asparagus
or…Nori Rolls with creamy mushrooms and greens
Ingredients:
1 head red cabbage, remove a couple of leaves and then sliced thinly
2 cups mushrooms, chopped
2 large shallots
2-4 tbsp grated turmeric
pinch of cayenne
lemon or apple cider vinegar, to taste (I used 4 tbsp)
2-4 cloves garlic
4 tbsp thyme leaves
1/4 cup chopped chives
1/2 cup basil leaves
1/4 cup olive oil
2-4 tbsp almond/sunflower or your choice of creamy butter (omit if using artichoke)
salt and pepper, to taste
Directions:
Toss the red cabbage in a little olive oil and lemon or apple cider vinegar. Put aside.
In a pan, sauté all the other ingredients but the whole cabbage leaves, 1/4 cup of olive oil, chives and almond butter.
Transfer to a blender or food processor. Pour in olive oil and almond butter and combine till smooth-ish.
Place cabbage rolls on table, fill with sliced cabbage and then top with mushroom or artichoke paste.
Sprinkle liberally with chives, drizzle with a little olive oil and acv or lemon and fold up.
If using nori…follow the recipe till here, then place chopped cucumbers, coriander and arugula on the nori and fold up. Here’s a great tutorial on folding nori. I used shiitake mushrooms for the nori recipe and then served mine with extra red cabbage and chickpeas.
You’ll find recipes full of foods with antihistamine and anti-inflammatory properties my books Anti-Recipes and The Anti-Cookbook
CLICK HERE TO CREATE YOUR OWN PERSONALISED HEALING HISTAMINE PLAN.
Please remember, even antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods can hurt us, please always exercise caution and consult a medical practitioner before adding new foods.
—————REFERENCES—————
[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1082894/
[2] The Anti-Cookbook, Yasmina Ykelenstam
[3] The Anti-Cookbook, Yasmina Ykelenstam
[4] The DAO Support Cookbook, Yasmina Ykelenstam
