How Not to Die inspires a Mexican Casserole

how-not-to-die Hello everyone! I hope you are doing well and staying true to those New Year Resolutions, right?! Well anyhow, i wanted to share with you a great book i’ve been enjoying: How Not to Die Amazon Link here from Doctor Michael Greger with Gene Stone. I have followed Dr. Greger at his website Nutrition Facts for many years and he recently published this marvel. It’s a great read that explains in a simple way many of the advantages of adding loads of fruits, veggies and whole grains to your diet. He discusses a wide range of issues which simply apply to all of us from heart disease to diabetes, different cancers, infections, liver diseases, mental disease and on an on. He even has very practical ideas on how to structure meals, add key ingredients to your diet, boost your metabolism and your exercise among others. It even includes easy recipes an fun experiments along the way. And best of all, for those of you eager to go to the original journals and papers with the medical research behind, there is a meticulous bibliography throughout the book. Thus, inspired by this book, here is a recipe of a delightful Mexican Layered Casserole. It hasn’t been approved by Dr. Greger himself, but I sure hope he would enjoy it!

Healthy Mexican Layered Casserole

This is a great recipe to make at home for friends and family alike. I am presenting this recipe in an illustration mode, i.e. without exact measurements. In my cooking classes, i always encourage my students to take the fear out of cooking and just go at it. It’s the simplest way to get yourself more at ease in the kitchen, keep those stress levels down and the flavor factor up.

Preheat the oven to 300 F. You will need about 4 to 5 cups of salsa and a large or two (previously baked) sweet potatoes. Extra points if you make your own salsa to keep it low sodium! (2 large cans of crushed lo sodium tomatoes with diced sauteed -preferably with no oil for a no-oil sautee method, click here– green and red peppers, a jalapeno or two, an onion and 2 cloves of garlic and a whole bunch of cilantro, leaves and stems chopped). First, spread about 2 cups of the salsa on the bottom of your casserole dish. Arrange a nice bed of sliced white button mushrooms just to cover the salsa just as in the first picture. Continue with a nice layer of thinly sliced zucchini and squash as illustrated below.

salsa on the bottom, then sliced shrooms

A layer of sliced zucchinni and squash

Continue the layering of ingredients with a blizzard of chopped leafy greens. These can be any combination of spinach, kale and collard greens (stems removed and finely chopped), arugula, beet greens or swiss chard (in Dr. Greger’s parlance, an antioxidant party!). If you only have one of the greens, it’s also fine but the more the merrier. Follow with a layer of sliced sweet potato (remember this should already be baked previously for faster cooking) and about a cup or two of corn kernels (frozen are fine).

Finally, you should top this with some good ole (fat free) refried beans from a can (or make your own!). A large casserole dish may need 2 cans which i usually thin with about 1/4 cup of water or more for better spreading. Once you have poured the beans, finish the casserole by adding the remaining salsa. Bake for 30 minutes or just until the squashes are soft and the whole thing is a bubbly delicious mess. Serve with chopped cilantro and green onions on top and perhaps some diced avodado.

Enjoy!

Holiday Pastel De Choclo

Here is a healthy version of a famous Chilean dish that is great to make for the holidays. Think of a Shepard’s Pie version where the crust is made out of corn (choclo) rather than mashed potatoes and with warming spices like cinammon and cumin. Although traditionally this pastel is made with chicken, this version is kept vegetarian adding your choice of white beans or chickpeas and lots of veggies. The corn crust is not vegan as it has some eggs and butter for richness, but hey, it’s a holiday celebration!. One can definitely do much worse this time of the year! If you want to keep it vegan, omit the crust or perhaps test a vegan cornbread batter on top (and tell me how it goes!). Happy Holidays!

PASTEL DE CHOCLO

Makes about 8 to 10 servings

For the stuffing:

1 and 1/4 cup low sodium vegetable stock or water (separated)
1/4 cup dry sherry wine
1 large onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely diced
2 cloves of garlic, finely diced
1 zuchinni, diced
1 yellow squash, diced
1 large can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes, preferably fire-roasted
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 tsp ground cinammon
1 tsp ground cumin
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
1 cup cooked chickpeas or white beans
1/2 cup sliced olives
2 tbsp capers, finely chopped
2 tbsp raisins
Salt and Pepper to taste

To make the stuffing:

Heat a large pan over medium heat and add 1/4 cup of vegetable stock and the sherry wine. Bring to a simmer and add the onion, bell pepper, carrots and jalapeno and steam-saute mixing with a wooden spoon from time to time until the vegetables are soft but not brown, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add zucchini, squash, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, thyme, bay leaf, spices, raisins and corn and chickpeas. Season lightly with salt and pepper, add the extra cup of vegetable stock and bring to a light simmer. Add olives and capers and cook for about 10 to 15 minutes, stirring from time to time. Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed and allow to cool. MIxture should be “soupy”.

Place stuffing on a 15X10 inch baking dish and set aside. Make sure to keep about an inch of space on the top to add the batter. Reserve any extra stuffing for another use (blended makes a great soup base!).

For the Crust

1 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 1/2 cups frozen corn, thawed
1/4 cup milk
1 whole egg plus 1 egg yolk
1/2 cup wholewheat flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp fresh thyme, finely chopped
fresh pepper to taste

To make the Crust:

Preheat oven to 350 F

Sautee the corn with the butter and thyme on a pan over medium heat, just until fragrant, about 4 minutes, and season with pepper. Allow mixture to cool. Meanwhile sift flour, baking powder and salt over a bowl and set aside. When corn mixture is room temperature cool, place milk, egg and egg yolk and corn in a blender and blend well. You may need to turn off the blender and use a spatula or wooden spoon to mix the ingredients in the blender a couple of times to allow mixture to blend well. Add wet corn mixture into bowl with the flower mixture and toss lightly with a spatula until well incorporated and no longer lumpy but avoid mixing too much to keep mixture “fluffy”. Drizzle mixture over the stuffing, it should have the consistency of a lightly thicker pancake batter. Spread as best you can with a spatula. You need not fully cover the whole dish with the batter.

Bake pastel for about 35 minutes or until crust is firm and cooked through and beginning to get golden in color. Allow to cool lightly before serving.