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I am calling the following Dr. Love's super flavonoid chutney for
now. Many spices have a rather high flavonoid content, including
thyme, fennel, and dill seeds, but parsley has far more. In fact, the
health and nutrition benefits of parsley are probably incomparable to
anything else, and my current recommendation is to eat up to 1 cup of
dried parsley flakes every day. The aim is not necessarily the
best taste, but rather to access parsley nutrition. Nicely, I
found that parsley is a great vegetable and spice, so that the flavor
can be modified to produce a tastey result. For example, I put a
full cup of fresh parsley in my spaghetti this weekend, and the result
was very pleasant. Parsley freshens and brightens the flavor of everything that it is added to.
Parsley is likely another superfood with more apigenin flavonoid than
just about anything else on the planet. The dry flakes are roughly 10:1 apigenin gram for gram. Apigenin is the
resveratrol-like flavonoid, and parsley apigenin is in the form of apin. Like resveratrol, the problem with apin and apigenin is that they are absorbed very poorly into the body, so this recipe employs familiar
biochemical tricks to make them more accessible. (Kiss in
waiting.) Parsley slows digestion and reduces gas, which might
aid absorption, but I recommend a program of probiotics, yogurt and
cheese in moderation, in order to aid that process. It might take a few weeks
or more to get the full benefits. The recipe has well over a gram
of flavonoids, especially if you add the capers. It is also very
low calorie and highly flavorful.
I had to get creative in order to treat parsley as a vegetable instead
of a spice, and this recipe is my first attempt. It is a chutney
that has many uses, and can be easily modified for even more. It
illustrates how to alter the taste of the parsley, in order to bring
out the fruity astringent character. Cooking accentuates that
aspect. Hope you like it.
Like many people, I keep a simple base tomato sauce in the
fridge. You will need this for the recipe. This is a simple
pepper-tomato-onion-basil sauce, which can be used in many different
types of recipes. Other herbs, such as garlic, marjoram, oregano,
cilantro, lemon, and hot peppers are all left out, so that their
portions can be adjusted according to the needs of a particular
recipe. (I also keep a jar of hot pepper relish, which can be
prepared according to taste and used in the chutney. If you want
instructions for the pepper relish, just ask.) There is a bottle of
base sauce in my fridge at all times. Here is my base sauce
recipe. Use medium to large vegetables.
1 tomato
2 red bell peppers
1 red onion
1 large sprig of fresh basil
2 capfuls of vinegar
Because of the preparation of the onions, this sauce keeps a long time
in the fridge. The tomato is used to capture the sulfuric acid that is
released from the onion, which makes the basil more interesting, It
also gives the sauce its most important property; it is a strong,
well-buffered acidic solution. It is necessary to work quicky to
optimize this process. Slice the vegetables in half. Dice
the basil in the food processor. Add the vinegar, tomato, and onion
into the food processor and chop to desired size. Add peppers and
chop to desired consistency. For the chutney, I recommend a fine
chop, but not diced. Quickly put in a sealed container.
Preparing the onion in this way will not make your eyes water, and it
will also capture one of best qualities of the onion very well.
Now for the chutney. The parsley is the centerpiece, but the
result will be surprising.
1/2 cup parsley flakes
2 tablespoons red vinegar
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper or more
1 large heaping tablespoon plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon flax or olive oil
1 tablespoon berry juice concentrate (I used elderberry)
for a special occasion,
1 small bottle of capers, diced
Mix ingredients well in a bowl, then mash together with a fork. Add 1
large heaping tablespoon of base sauce, and mix well. Add hot red
pepper to taste. Enjoy!
This chutney can be used for many purposes. I topped my red salmon
nachos off with nearly the whole bowl of it, and cooked it in the
microwave for a couple of minutes. The result was quite pleasant,
bringing out the fruity astringent character of the
parsley. Overnight, the chutney taste did not degrade in a
sealed container. (BTW, I think that with the raw parsley in the spaghetti sauce, overnight in the crock, it was the best spaghetti I ever made.)
The chutney is very low calorie, but it also has a very powerful
flavor, and I considered many fattening foods that I might replace with
it. Small adjustments can make a big difference. It tastes
fine without the capers, and they are very salty, so don't use them
very often unless you can find fresh raw ones without the salt.
The capers add significantly to the flavonoid content, even by
comparison to the parsley. Leave out the berry juice, and
add a heaping teaspoon of garlic paste for something you can add to
spagetti. Replace the base sauce and capers with citrus pulp for
a pleasant fruit dish. Fruit vinegars might be preferred in that
case, or you can use citrus and leave the vinegar out. Let me
know what you think, and I can provide even more substitution ideas, if
you don't have everything. The possibilities are truly endless,
and I will likely be embellishing this idea in the future.
Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/
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