Yondu Recipe #3

Yondu was my favorite find at the recent plant-based food show in the Javits.

Compared to soy sauce and tamari, this has 1/3rd the level of sodium per teaspoon (about 300 mg instead of 900-1000mg), and you can use it in ways that are similar to Bragg's Liquid Aminos, but the flavor is more delicate and aromatic.


Here is one way of using it - in this case I used one teaspoon (5 ml) of Yondu in a cup of filtered water in lieu of veggie broth - in this example one cup of my "Yondu broth" was enough to make both my spinach and my stir-fried mushrooms:

Caramelizing cut-up onions:

• 5 mins dry roast no stirring, on high (ca 425F)
• add in whatever spices, chopped garlick, chilis, peppers, turmeric, or whatever you are going to use, and do 5 more mins on high (425F), while adding about 1/4 cup of the liquid in splashes while you are stirring, just enough to prevent the onions from sticking to the bottom of the pan. You keep it liquid, but you're not making soup.
• use this as a base for whatever you are doing next.

 Delicious Spinach

• Use caramelized onions as above
• Add in washed, chopped spinach
• Cook for 7 mins on medium (ca 275F).
• you can play with the spices from mild to hot. I love a spicy spinach, and depending on what dish you are making turmeric can be a beautiful addition.

Stir-fied mushrooms

• Start with dry-roasted onions as above.
• when you start stir frying, add in the mushrooms as well as the spices and stirfry on high (425F).
• The lower the heat to medium (275F) and add another 1/2 cup of your "Yondu broth" and let it cook until most of the liquid has evaporated (about 10-15 mins).
• Serve perfect mushrooms.

Otamot

Otamot tomato sauce was another discovery from the food show. This time I made whole wheat spaghetti with this Otamot sauce, which is out of this world, however, while I loved the taste, I am not their customer, for it still has oil in it and on their website they promulgate the nutritional myth that your body needs the added fat to absorb nutrients, which is baloney.

The issue that you DON'T need added fats in your diet has been dealt with squarely by Jeff Nelson of Vegsource recently.

Conclusion

Yondu is a great addition to your condiments. It is very flexible in daily use. I love the aroma! Lots of flavor for little sodium, in line with Bragg's Liquid Aminos.

Otamot is a great tasting and very nutritious tomato-based sauce, but unfortunately has some oil in it, so I do not recommend it on a #WFPB diet.

The bottom line is added oils are a direct attack on your endothelium and you want to avoid them whenever you can. You want to be moderate in your use of fatty fruit like nuts, avocados and coconut. Normal food has all the fat you ever need. If you are following Dr. Esselstyn's Plant Perfect diet, you want to avoid nuts, avocados and coconut as much as possible.

#WFPB and the KISS Principle with the Esselstyns

One of the most helpful things of attending this year's Plantstock conference was a presentation by mother and daughter Esselstyn, Anne Crile Esselstyn now a spry 82 years old, and daughter Jane, who is an RN. Together, they made comic duo that grabbed your attention, and presented a stand-up comedy routine that was still quite serious and drove across one big point: Keep It Simple, Stupid, or as it is known in polite company: the KISS principle.

Eating leafy greens 6 times a day sounds like not feasible, until you learn from mother Esselstyn how to become an expert stripper, as she has taught all her children and grand-children: an expert kale stripper, that is.

Obviously, you wast the kale and then, in one fell swoop, you strip the leaves from the stems into some kind of a colander. You boil it for 5-7 minutes, to your desired level of tenderness, and you can serve a "fist-size" plate of boiled kale at any time of the day. You can season it with balsamic vinegar, or even with one of the delectable infused balsamics from Bema and Pa's which were omnipresent at Plantstock. My favorite of the moment is the habanero-infused variety.

Another simple idea is to make a sort of a roti with collard green leaves, you can pack it with rice, some green beans, okra, or other veggie, some mushrooms, some kimchi, roll it up, and that's an easy meal you can carry with you anywhere.

In general:

• Breakfast is oatmeal (a lot of people seem to prefer steel-cut, as do I), with whatever fruit tickles your fancy.
• Lunch is a giant, meal salad with lots of greens and peppers, tomatoes and whatever else tickles your fancy, add some chia seeds, some ground flax seeds (make it fresh, flax meal loses a lot of its nutritional value quickly), wheat germ, etc. Oil free dressings are easy, Jane's go-to is 3/2/1: 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, 2 tablespoons of mustard, and one tablespoon of maple syrup - and obviously, you can add your favorite herbs and spices to that. Plus you add a good amount of some cooked whole grain, be it quinoa, or kamut, or teff, millet, or whatever is your own favorite.
• Dinner is the time you let your imagination run wild.
• In between, for snacks, you can eat fruit or your little plates of leafy greens with balsamic.

This is really how simple it is. So, even though the Esselstyn clan has produced many wonderful cookbooks that can give us all inspiration, it is important to realize, that the basics are as simple as this. A child can do it. On a lot of levels, that is the most important thing to realize, for otherwise the changeover can seem daunting. Once you commit to the changeover get rid of all the junk food in your pantry, in particular any oil. Endothelial health is extremely important and all added oil produces a paralysis of the arteries, as reported here by Dr. Michael Greger on NutritionFacts: Olive Oil and Artery Function. Or, as Dr. Ostfeld at Montefiore likes to say, added oils are like having Mike Tyson for a sparring match with your arteries for a punching bag.