Easy Vegetable Side Dishes
Steamed, boiled, or sautéed veggie side dishes are easy to make and can often be cooked in 10 minutes or less. Here’s how:
— Choose the vegetables you want to cook. You can use just about any veggie you’d like, but here are some fun options:
— Wash and prepare the vegetables. Remember to save the ends and scraps for your bone or vegetable broth!
— Decide how you want to serve them:
— Directions for cooking:
— Taste your vegetables after you’ve cooked them, and add sea salt and/ or fresh ground pepper to taste. You might also feel that they need a little more of a healthy fat or oil after cooking. Some people like to have flaxseed oil, olive oil, or some other oil at the table so that people can serve themselves according to their own tastes. Pumpkin-seed oil makes a wonderful addition to cooked vegetables and can be a fun new twist to have at the table.
— Be creative. Most vegetables go beautifully with thyme, basil, and rosemary; alternatively, you could use a mixture of turmeric, allspice, and fennel powder (¼–½ teaspoon each). If you want to add these herbs or spices, feel free to experiment—and check Chapter 6 for herbs and spices that work on health issues you want to resolve!
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Carrots and Greens Veggie Mash: A No-Starch Mashed Potatoes Alternative
Preparation time: about 20 minutes
This is comfort food at its best—hearty, warm, and deliciously healthy! This is your go-to for a no-starch alternative to mashed potatoes.
INGREDIENTS:
1 bunch carrot greens (about 2 cups chopped)
2 medium carrots
1 bunch asparagus
½ cup chopped onion
2 Tbsp. coconut oil
2 Tbsp. dried rosemary leaves
1 Tbsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. Celtic sea salt
2 tsp. lemongrass powder
1 tsp. black pepper
½ tsp. ground coriander
INSTRUCTIONS:
Bring 2 cups water to a boil in a saucepan, then add the carrots and boil for 3 minutes. Add the carrot greens and boil for 1 minute, then add the asparagus and boil for 2 minutes or until somewhat soft.
While this is boiling, put the coconut oil, onions, and all spices except the salt into a wok or skillet on medium heat. Lightly sauté until onions are translucent. Remove from heat.
Remove saucepan from heat and drain most of the water (leave 1" at the bottom of the pan), then pour the carrots and greens into the wok and put on medium heat. Toss the vegetables in the spices for 2 minutes, then remove from heat.
Using an immersion blender (or a high-speed blender or food processor with the S-blade), puree the mixture lightly if you like a somewhat chunky mash, or more if you like it smoother.
Serve over raw greens, with your favorite grains, on its own, or mixed with chicken for a delicious chicken potpie–type flavor.
Add sea salt or Herbamare herb sea salt to taste.
Celery Root Veggie Mash: A No-Starch “Just Like Mashed Potatoes” Alternative
If you’re following food-combining guidelines (see Chapter 6 for more information) or reducing starchy foods, you’ll love this “mashed potato” alternative.
INGREDIENTS:
3 celery roots, peeled and chopped into large pieces (about 6 cups chopped)
4 cups water or bone broth
1 Tbsp. dried rosemary
1 Tbsp. dried thyme
½ Tbsp. dried dill
2 tsp. sea salt
2 tsp. fresh ground pepper
Optional: ½ cup diced red onion and 1 clove minced garlic
Optional: If you’re serving this dish with meat, take about ½ cup of the meat drippings and add to the mash after draining out excess water.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Peel and chop celery root (you’re going to boil the celery root, so you can rough chop it into halves or quarters).
Optional step to add more flavor: In a skillet on the lowest heat, add 1 Tbsp. coconut oil, raw butter, ghee, or fat from the meat you’re using for the meal, and allow it to gently melt. Add all herbs, spices, and optional onions and/or garlic. Sauté gently for 3 minutes or until the onions are translucent. Add 1 cup water to the skillet, mix everything up, and put into the saucepan you’re using to boil the celery root.
Bring water or bone broth to a boil. Add all ingredients and cook until the celery root is soft when you prick it with a knife or fork. Drain all but ½ cup of water into a glass or stainless-steel bowl so that you can save this nutrient-rich liquid it for other meals (especially if you’re boiling in bone broth!).
Mash up the remaining celery root and water. You can do this with a potato masher or large fork; or to make it much easier and faster, use an immersion blender right in the pan you cooked in, or transfer the celery root and ½ cup liquid into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth, like mashed potatoes.
Season with more salt, pepper, or meat drippings to taste.
Serve with meat, vegetables, or eggs, or as a comfort-food snack.
Louise’s Healing Asparagus Puree
Servings: makes approximately 7 (2-oz.) servings
This recipe is not only delicious, it’s very healing, too! This is the recipe Louise used as part of her nutritional healing regimen when she was diagnosed with cancer, and with great results—her healthy thoughts and food resulted in dissolving the cancer naturally!
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups chopped asparagus
Optional flavorings:
1 tsp. sea salt
¼ tsp. pepper
1 tablespoon coconut oil, raw organic butter, or ghee
INSTRUCTIONS:
In a saucepan, bring 1 cup water to a boil (you can use bone broth as another option).
Chop the tough ends off the asparagus (about ½" at the bottom of the spears) and save them for a future bone or vegetable broth (see the recipe of Louise’s Favorite Bone Broth or Vegetable Broth in the Soups section).
Either boil or add a steamer basket and steam the asparagus until mushy (about 5 minutes). Drain the water (save it if you like and use to cook something else, like grains or more vegetables; or maybe add it to a bone or vegetable broth). Allow the cooked asparagus to cool, and then blend it up to the consistency of mashed potatoes. You can use a potato masher, large fork, immersion blender, regular blender, or food processor.
Serving suggestion: Louise’s practitioner suggested that she eat 3 (2-oz.) servings of this pureed asparagus each day. Louise put them in 2-oz. containers so that she could take them with her during the day, which was a great way to easily incorporate this into her routine. This puree makes a lovely veggie mash to accompany any meal or have on its own as a snack.
Preparation time: about 25 minutes
This recipe is comfort food at its best—delicious, hearty, and warms the soul. If you are experiencing the winter blues, this dish will pick you up!
INGREDIENTS:
10 small red-skinned potatoes
1 bunch watercress (2–3 cups)
¼ cup red onion, diced
2 burdock roots
2 Tbsp. ghee
1 Tbsp. coconut oil
1 Tbsp. dried rosemary
1 Tbsp. dried oregano 2 tsp. dried basil
2 tsp. herbes de Provence or Herbamare herb sea salt (you can use sea salt instead if don’t have this on hand)
1 tsp. ground coriander
INSTRUCTIONS:
In a saucepan, add ¼ cup water, 1 tsp. ghee, the herbes de Provence, and all herbs. Simmer on low until the onions become translucent. Add 4 cups water and bring to a boil.
While water is coming to a boil, scrape off the skin of the burdock root with a butter knife. It’s beneficial to leave some scraps of skin on, while removing most of it. (Burdock root, also called gobo root, looks like a stick and is best when it’s firm, like a carrot. If you can’t find it in your health-food store, you can buy organic dried burdock root at: MountainRoseHerbs.com.)
Slice up the burdock root. Once water comes to a boil, add the sliced root and reduce heat to simmer. Allow the water with burdock root to simmer for 5 minutes, then add in the potatoes, continuing to simmer on low heat.
Put the watercress into a food processor with an S-blade and pulse a few times to chop it up into small chunks/leaves. Set aside. Once the potatoes are soft (a knife, fork, or spoon should easily slice through them), add the watercress and simmer for 1 more minute.
Drain the water and transfer the ingredients into a glass or stainless-steel bowl. Add ghee and coconut oil and mix in thoroughly.
Serving suggestions: Serve on a bed of greens that have been slightly chopped in your food processor with an S-blade or cut into bite-sized pieces with a knife. One suggestion is a chopped salad of red leaf lettuce, cilantro, and chives. Drizzle some flaxseed oil over each serving of green salad and put the potatoes on top of the greens. This makes a delicious fall or winter meal that will delight your family.
These potatoes also taste delicious with Creamy Cream of Buckwheat (see recipe later in the chapter) over a bed of greens.
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups green beans, chopped up
1 yellow squash, sliced (2 cups)
½ leek, sliced thin (about 2 cups)
2 tsp. coconut oil
1 tsp. dried thyme
¼ tsp. Selina Naturally Portuguese Sea Salt (or any type of sea salt)
½ tsp. ginger powder
½ tsp. ground turmeric
⅛ tsp. ground cayenne
INSTRUCTIONS:
Using a skillet on your stovetop, set the temperature to low. Add in coconut oil, allowing it to melt. Add leeks and all herbs and spices (except the sea salt), and heat on low to allow them to release their aromas and medicinal properties.
Add in the green beans and squash and sauté together until the vegetables are soft. You may need to add more oil or some water if the pan becomes dry while you’re cooking. Simmer on low heat for 5–10 minutes or until the green beans and squash are as soft as you like.
Remove from heat and serve alone or with your favorite main dish—it goes well with any meat, poultry, or grain recipe. Try drizzling flaxseed oil, olive oil, or pumpkin-seed oil over these vegetables for a delicious treat!
Naturally Sweet and Savory Mood Booster
| Preparation time: 15 minutes | Servings: 2–4 |
If you’re low in serotonin, the happiness hormone, your body may signal you with cravings for sweets and starchy foods (bread, bagels, cookies, and the like). In order to make serotonin, your brain needs your body to deliver to it the essential amino acid tryptophan. However, because other amino acids compete to get into your brain, the only way to deliver tryptophan to it is if you have insulin in your blood. This means you need a starchy snack.
Unfortunately, most people reach for unhealthy starches, which can fuel addiction, candida, and an eventual blood-sugar crash. Instead, you can support your body with a healthy starchy snack to boost serotonin without the crash.
This dish is designed for a meal or snack that is delicious, helps boost serotonin faster than grains, and doesn’t feed candida. If you’re having a stressful day, you may want to have this with your grain meal or as a late-afternoon or evening snack.
Heather used this recipe when she was transitioning to healthy eating because it was a great bridge from the taste of packaged foods to the taste of healthier foods. Your taste buds do change as your diet changes, and this recipe can help move you in the right direction!
INGREDIENTS:
4 red-skinned potatoes, cubed
4 carrots, sliced
¼ cup onions, diced
1 tsp. thyme
1 Tbsp. curry powder
1 tsp. Herbamare herb sea salt
2 tsp. ghee
INSTRUCTIONS:
In a saucepan, melt 1 tsp. ghee. Add spices and onions and sauté for 1 minute. Add 1½ cups water and bring to a boil. Add potato and carrots and cook until all ingredients are tender. Add additional ghee at the end of cooking. Serve with cooked greens, like the Green Beans and Leeks recipe earlier in the chapter, or place over a raw spring-mix salad.
Outstanding Collards and Butternut Squash
| Preparation time: 55 minutes | Serves: 4–6 |
This recipe is so delicious that even your non-health-nut friends and family will rave about it. Naturally sweet and rich, this dish is a perfect holiday meal or side dish, and makes a great cool-weather treat.
INGREDIENTS:
1 bunch collards (about 3–4 cups chopped)
1 butternut squash
1 Tbsp. coconut oil
Herbamare herb sea salt, or regular sea salt, and pepper to taste
INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350° F.
With a sharp kitchen knife, prick the squash to create a way for heat to escape during cooking. Place squash in a Pyrex cooking dish with 1" water in it, and bake for approximately 40 minutes. You’ll know the squash is done when it feels soft and you can easily slice a knife into it.
Wash the collard leaves and then put them in your food processor and pulse a few times to chop it up a bit. You can also chop it up with a knife, into strips or bite-sized pieces.
When the squash is done, remove from the oven and put aside to cool. Once it’s cooled, put the strips of collards into a steamer basket in a pan with 2 cups water. Steam collards until they’re tender (about 5–10 minutes).
While collards are steaming, work on the squash. Slice it in half lengthwise and scoop it out with a spoon, discarding the seeds.
Transfer the steamed collards and squash to a pan with ½" water at the bottom, and set your stove to low heat. Add the coconut oil, black pepper, and Herbamare or sea salt and heat the whole dish up for 2–5 minutes.
Serve warm with other vegetables, sea vegetables, or a grain dish. Add Herbamare or sea salt to taste.
Salads are wonderful to have on hand for fast food! In her corporate days, Heather had a routine of making a salad and keeping it in a large glass bowl with a plastic airtight top. She could then grab the prepared salad from the refrigerator when she wanted it for a meal. She would also prepack a few days of salads in individual containers to take in her lunch bag during the workweek.
While salads seem like an easy health-food meal, some people do better with cooked foods, especially if digestion is compromised or the weather is cold. Many of the recipes in this book suggest adding a warm food on top of a salad. This lightly heats up the salad, making it more comforting for your body. If you’re in a hurry and have a meat, poultry, or grain dish but no vegetables, try putting the warm food on top of a bed of lettuce for a more comforting meal any time of year.
Here’s a general formula for making great salads:
— Use your favorite lettuce and rotate the types! Here are some fun options: romaine lettuce, spring mix, red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce, and endive.
— Add one to three additions to your salad: radicchio, carrots, green beans, snow peas, snap peas, green sprouts (sunflower sprouts, pea-shoot sprouts, and buckwheat sprouts are great options), microgreens, leeks, chives, parsley, cilantro, jicama, radishes, onions or shallots, yellow squash, and zucchini.
— Chop it up: Heather likes to put everything in a food processer and pulse 4–6 times so that no chopping is necessary. If you don’t have a food processor, chop things up according to the size you want for your salad. There is no right or wrong way to do this! Some people love to be artistic when slicing vegetables and putting a salad together, while others want to go fast.
— Now add dressing. You can keep it simple and drizzle your favorite healthy oil on top, like hemp-seed oil, pumpkin-seed oil, extra-virgin olive oil, flaxseed oil, or macadamia-nut oil. Then, to get a balanced sour taste for the oil, add one of the following: a splash of apple cider vinegar, 1 Tbsp. raw cultured vegetables, 1 tsp. organic mustard (made with apple cider vinegar instead of white vinegar), or a squeeze of lemon.
Or make this healthy dressing: