Ask a Dietitian

As seen on BCTV Noon News January 6th 2004

This winter, as you set new goals for health and longevity, look to your vegetables for inspiration and motivation. With all the fresh vegetables of the summer long gone this may seem like quite a feat, however, there are still several vegetables available all year round that pack a whole lot of nutritional punch, not to mention flavour. By adding more vegetables to your diet you will not only get more fibre, vitamins and minerals, but also antioxidants that will help you fight cancer and heart disease. Aim for 9 servings of vegetables and fruit each day for cancer prevention.

Squash Soup – Use your favourite squash, mine is butternut. Bake the squash until soft and scoop out the flesh into a blender, add 2 cooked, pealed and cored apples, 2-4 cups vegetable stock (depending on how thick you like it) and curry powder and blend.

Salads – use various types of greens such as mustard greens, arugula, watercress, spinach, butter lettuce or kale and toss with fruit, nuts and even cheese. Try sun-dried cranberries with mandarin orange wedges and candied pecans or pomegranate seeds with pumpkin seeds and organic greens. Another delicious combination is pear or apple with stilton or blue cheese and walnuts.

Baked Root Vegetables – Toss baby red and white beets, carrots, onion, mushrooms, sweet potato, parsnips and turnips with olive oil and herbs and bake until soft throughout. 15 minutes before the end of cooking add zucchini and peppers.

Sweet Potato Fries – Instead of making traditional potato French Fries, cut sweet potato into thin fingers, toss in olive oil and sea salt and bake until golden, soft in the centre and crispy on the outside.

Grilled Vegetable Towers – This one is a bit more time consuming. If you have an indoor grill you won’t have to go outside to BBQ pieces of bell peppers, zucchini and eggplant. Once seasoned and grilled, layer the vegetable pieces on top of each other and in the middle add a slice of goat cheese.

Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash. You can find this recipe and more at www.saveonfoods.com in the cookbook – healthy recipes.