April 18th 2024 class (part 1 of 3)
For the full recipe click here: https://www.ellicsr.ca/en/clinics_programs/ellicsr_kitchen/Pages/Spring_Herb_Salad.aspx
April is #cancerawarenessmonth, and in today’s cooking & nutrition demo we will be highlighting some of the latest nutrition recommendations to reduce cancer risk. We also welcome in Spring with three delicious, fresh and vibrant recipes.
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hi everyone welcome to another Elixir
kitchen Community connections thank you
so much for joining us my name is Jeremy
Capone I’m the wellness Chef for the
cancer rehab and survivorship program at
the Princess Margaret Cancer Center uh
and we have another Super exciting class
for you today joined as always I want to
introduce you to our amazing register
dietician danela finini hello danela hi
Jeremy how are you doing over there
cook well this uh since April is cancer
awareness month we thought we would
focus on um cancer prevention guidelines
from a nutrition perspective in January
and February we we dealt more with um oh
January February and March we talked
more about some symptoms you may
experience if you had cancer but right
now we want to focus on the guidelines
um and for prevention and our go Twos
for that are the American Institute for
cancer research which I affectionately
call acre um and the world cancer
research fund they are The Originators
of the guidelines that we then adopt
through Cancer Care on uh canc Cancer
Care Ontario the Canadian Cancer Society
um the American Cancer Society and so
our Focus today is going to be on upping
our fiber and whole grain intake uh
moving toward a more plant-based plant
forward diet and then a little bit more
about phytonutrients and antioxidants
and what that’s all about so the recipes
Jeremy has created for us today always
magnificent um the first one is going to
be a spring herb salad with pea the
second is butter beans and charred soup
and the third is a wonderful bar
barbecue not bar barue blueberry coconut
red lentil
pancakes so for our first
recipe this fresh and beautiful salad is
not only rich in flavor but it’s also
rich in fiber and research shows that
fiber has many Health protective
benefits so it can keep our vowels
moving so it’s good if you have either
diarrhea or constipation it feeds the
friendly bacteria in our intestine and
if that’s not enough enough fiber can
help stabilize blood sugar so that’s
good if you have um trouble with blood
sugars like type one or type two
diabetes and it’s also combined to
cholesterol so it’s good for heart
health that’s more of the soluble fiber
cancer prevention guidelines actually
tell us to have 25 grams per day for
women 38 grams per day per men but in
Canada we we seem to be measuring around
15 15 gram per day so about 50% so we
can all do better at improving our fiber
intake and so the peas and beans used in
this recipe along with the whole grain
paa is going to get us closer to that
goal and with that we’ll just head over
to the kitchen see what jerem’s up
to thank you danela awesome introduction
uh yes so we’re gonna jump right into
the first recipe um and it’s Spring
right so that was sort of our
inspiration for this using some of the
bright and fresh uh ingredients uh that
especially in Canada you know depends on
where you’re tuning in from you might
have fresh produce all year round we
don’t so this is the exciting very very
exciting time for us where we’re
starting to see a little bit more green
uh definitely you know the trees budding
um and in the grocery store some some
more local produce right um that is
definitely you know seasonal dependent
so
things like a peas and some of the fresh
beans and dandelions and some of the
greens that you know you love um you’ll
start to see depending on where you are
you probably start to see it uh closer
to end of April May depending on what it
is um but definitely an opportunity to
use some of those fresh bright
ingredients um and this is one of my
favorite dishes that I like to prep a
big batch of and keep it in the the
fridge and then I’ll just use it over
the next few days in a few different
dishes few different meals so um what I
like to do is take any fresh herbs and
with this we’re using some parsley I
have some mint in there as well you can
throw in cilantro you can throw in basil
any of those fresh leafy herbs would be
fantastic um and we’re going to give
them a really really nice chop now
usually when you buy herbs they come in
these big bunches and what do I you know
I’m going to use all this I only need a
couple tablespoons well this is a nice
way to just use it all up and then you
can you know if you need a couple
tablespoons for a soup or you know
whatever you need you can use it
throughout the few days or you can even
freeze it and I’ll show you how to do
that as well for longer uh storage
so best way to do this is by knife so
taking your mint and I have my parsley
here you know washed really well and
just wrapped it up with a little paper
towel
um and what you can do is with the mint
you’re going to want to pick it off of
the
stem because the stem is a little too
big for this with the parsley I’m going
to leave the stem in and just chop
through the parsley so what I like to do
is try to keep it together in a
bundle that way it’s easier to chop and
one way you can do this to make it a
little bit easier is if you have a
little paper towel that’s
damp keep one end of that parsly bundle
wrapped up tightly in that paper towel
so you have a half of it
exposed and then that way it doesn’t
sort of keeps it nice and tight so when
you run through it with your knife so
I’m taking my knife here I’m going to go
pretty fine on the stems because I don’t
want them to be too
thick
and slowly retreating with my fingers
keeping them out of the way by having
this paper towel on I’m able
to get through most of that mound of
parsley and get a really really nice
Chop on it now if you’re not super
comfortable that’s one way to do it I
find that with a knife again um you get
a nice cleaner cut and you get you get
less bruising of the the um the her um
if you’re not comfortable with your
knife this is where we’re going to lean
on some of the equipment okay so food
processor I know you even seen like the
food chopper you know probably all seen
the infomercial for that um you can
definitely use this so I’m going to show
you the rest of the way using that now I
still will even with a pair of scissors
just chop it into like maybe three or
four manageable Mounds it’ll just make
it a lot easier for your machine to
pulse that down and then we can go ahead
and add that in now the key here is
again I don’t want to run the motor of
the food processor for too long um
because as that motor runs it starts to
heat up and as it heats up it’ll start
to discolor your fresh herbs um and you
might get excess moisture coming out of
it which I don’t want as well so I just
wanted use the pulse function and just
break it down doesn’t have to be super
fine but just to a point where it’s
broken down and it’s not discoloring
because it’s running too much okay
so any herbs you want in
there LD on and just
P just feel take it that
now this is a great way to make like a
pesto if I slowly start to add olive oil
in
here I don’t want a pesto for this
making more of a
salad just be patient with it and didn’t
get
stuck work it
down and I’m starting to see a little
bit of moisture come out so don’t want
to go too much more maybe
talk and we’re good to go all
right so still works but if
you feel comfortable using your knife I
prefer the
outcome of chopping versus using the
processor um and I’ll show you the
difference might be a little hard to see
on the camera you can see one is a
little more glossy glistening a little
bit more in the food processor
because the blades are a little bit
thicker and the way it’s breaking it
down uh it’s causing a little more
friction so you’re getting a little bit
more moisture come out of it which is
not again not the biggest deal in the
world but just to show you the
difference there okay so nice fresh
parsley mint I’m going to throw that
into
bowl and the great thing about the the
parsley and the mint um we he a lot
about their antioxidant
anti-inflammatory properties so and it
also adds that freshness I think and and
I know we’re talking about cancer
prevention guidelines but if uh people
are listening and they’re going through
treatment and have nausea the smell of
the uh herbs um especially the parsley
and the mint may be uh comforting and
soothing that okay it’s really really
nice
just what you were describing
danella all right so nice and
loose lots of that mint lots of that par
made again you can put some of this
aside if you want to save it for other
recipes if you want to save some of it
mix it with some oil put it in the
freezer you can do that um to this we’re
going to start of add some of those
other wonderful fresh spring ingredients
so uh green onion or spring onion
sometimes you refer to as these are
great you can get these all year long
but um you’ll probably start to see um
the springtime anyways around you know
in Ontario anyways where we are you’ll
start to see them at at some of the
farmers markets some of the different
fresh varieties and I’m just going to
roughly chop this nothing too
small but when I’m going through the
white part of the
onion I’ll go a little
finer these small pieces and then when I
get to this the green
part of the onion I can go a little bit
bigger that like the big chunks big
pieces and we’re going to add all of
that
into nice
Fresh Bites
here nice old tool to have on hand is
this little bench scraper so you can
pick things up put them in all right and
then to this any
other spring produce that you would like
to add uh we’re highlighting a few
options here so we have some green peas
um I have some
edamame which are really nice um and we
have some of the snap peas as well in
here um FAA beans are great like
anything that is that you want to add to
provide a little more texture would be
fantastic but then van also we getting
some extra n nutrition from these
ingredients definitely definitely yeah
with all those three that you mentioned
you’re getting an excellent source of
fiber um which we’re highlighting in
this recipe um but we’re also getting a
good amount of plant protein so both of
those are are wonderful
additions um the edamami right is H is
like a a soybean a green soybean um an
immature soybean um so uh it actually
boasts more folate and vitamin K than
the mature soybean there’s a little
interesting
tidbit love that tidbit fantastic edamam
tidbit so you didn’t know what you were
going to expect
Today
class love these at a mom tid bits all
right so just added everything in and
then just giving it a quick little
mix um definitely regretting this bow
size go with the biggest
bow have it’s okay do a little more
clean up
afterwards and once it’s nice and
combined I am good to go so what I like
to do with this I’m making a big batch
we’re going to finish it um with some uh
yogurt and a pea but I don’t like to
dress it at this point okay so I would
store it like this so it’s nice and dry
and that way over the next like three
days I would probably go Max about three
days four days in the fridge um I can
add this to different salads I can add
this to different soups and then I will
just dress it when I need it versus if I
added the dressing now especially if
there’s an acid in the dressing it’ll
just start to break down a little bit
quicker so undressed stored in the
fridge or what what you could do as
well is take a little bit of
it mix it in a bowl
again just flavors like just the aroma
alone so fresh and then we can add some
olive oil to this and then I’ll store
this
mixture in you can use like ice cube
trays or one of our favorites the little
silicone muffin
tins um just give that a nice little
mixture and you have this almost like
pistu which is like a French pesto right
or um this is beautiful mix of the olive
oil and this will just freeze a lot
better and then you can add this to
soups you can add this to any like slow
roasted uh dishes or roast chicken or
something like that some fish it’s
wonderful beautiful topping so you know
putting in some of that prep work once
and now I’m setting myself up for future
dishes okay so put that to the side we
have our salad we’re going to finish it
off this dish with a nice little base of
yogurt we’re using some Greek yogurt so
nice thick
yogurt for
this um a plain yogurt but I guess like
you know you could use any yogurt it
just depends some have higher prot I
guess any yogurt um I would probably I
like the the choice of the Greek yogurt
because that’s adding some more protein
to the dish and we can all use some
additional protein in the diet you know
it helps with building our muscle uh
protein can also work with fiber to um
slow down our digestion make us feel
Fuller so we don’t eat over consumed
calories if we’re trying to um manage
our portion
intake what about skier skier an option
for this too absolutely yeah I love
skier yeah the Icelandic yogurt another
high protein yogurt option yeah it’s a
it’s actually more protein than the
green yogurt yeah so either will work
just go for a plain one because we’re
going to be adding you don’t want to add
like you know garlic which I’m mincing
in now to like a strawberry yogurt or
something like
that you know might not work the best so
go with a a plain and then we’re going
to impart our own flavor so I minced in
one grated in one clove of garlic and
then I’m going to take my lemon which I
washed wash it really well and I’m going
to take the zest off that lemon
and again I know Citrus really truly
isn’t season during the winter but it
just that fresh lemon zest definitely
reminds me of spring for sure and I
think it’s just again a beautiful
pairing with the herbs the
peas with the edamame
there and it’s G to give us this really
nice
base
yogurt all right so nice punch of lemon
oil
in
there the minced garlic plain
yogurt lemon
zest and then do some of the
juice as
well maybe like a couple tablespoons
this is really to taste if you like a
little more of that acidity a little
more of that lemon flavor go with a
little B
more I like your t technique in getting
the seeds from the lemon oh yeah yeah
that’s a good cxle through your F
sip um and then if you have
trouble either I guess if you you know
if you’re dealing with any like
neuropathy issues or just sometimes
these lemons these citrus can be really
hard to squeeze um you can use a fork in
the middle so putting a fork in the
middle squeezing it around the fork uh
or you can roll it to soften it up uh
the third thing is stick it in the
microwave for like 5 seconds and that
does an incredible job as softening it
makes it much much easier to squeeze the
juice out of it so few tips on how
to make the squeeze a little bit
easier all right little pinch of salt
and we’re g to go with a little bit of
olive
oil so it’s almost like we’re making
like a little dressing here
and just keeping this little
mix the olive oil adds a nice healthy
fat to to this dish as well which is
another um component of the
Mediterranean diet but the Mediterranean
diet is also uh aligns very nicely with
the cancer prevention
guidelines all right beautiful so we
have this one wonderful smells amazing
the garlic and the
lemon uh intoxicating and then we have
the fresh herbs here so this is really
it we’re going to pair this together and
I’ll show you this is one of my favorite
little dishes like a little snack to
have we have some really nice Hy pea
here um which you can toast up or you
can just have as is um and then I was
like eating this just on my own I’m just
dipping this pea into the yogurt topping
it with some of this fresh salad and
really really nice it’s almost like a
like a buet or Christini but with the
the green uh
freshness I was plating this up nicely
maybe for the table maybe for multiple
guests we’ll take a nice
scoop of that yogurt the
bottom and just spread it around the
plate
okay and
then uh use tongs or spoon I’m going
with my hands
because just me so I’m going to pile a
bunch of
the
herbs and the
peas the
edame we
I take my
pea right on the side
here serve with it do a
few this and
then just a little bit
more Touch of all the
and there beautiful you have it so good
can’t wait till you can get it to me
through the
computer yes absolutely I’ll show you
quickly how I would serve this up
to using a spoon grabbing some of the
yogurt some of the
herbs and then just like this beautiful
wonderful little bite of that freshness
again that brightness from the herbs the
lemon and then that little bit of heat
that’s going to come through with the
garlic uh just really really well
balanced so nice little there for our
first dish beautiful beautiful and I
love how you use the whole grain paa um
because cancer prevention guidelines do
recommend that we make half of our grain
intake whole grain um and so that’s
about three servings per day and just a
a note about when you’re looking at the
nutrition label um or the ingredients on
the package look for whole grain whole
wheat
pea okay that was great