Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

It is like a top chef challenge. Recipes?

I love all this stuff:

* Beets - lI eat them roasted, in salads, I puree them and add to pasta dough, slice them thin and make a gratin with equally thin sliced potatoes

* Cabbage - can't get enough, whether in cole slaw, corned beef, potée, or kimchi. Or any other incarnation.

* Swiss chard - excellent stuff. Wilted on a hot skillet with olive oil, garlic, toasted pine nuts. Or chopped up finely, mixed with a little ricotta as a ravioli filling. Use the beet pasta dough to wrap them.

* Cinnamon - I use it to infuse hot apple cider, and also mixed with granulated sugar to sprinkle on pancakes.

* Pomegranate juice - awesome. I mix it with cold green tea for a great alternative to Gatorade-style garbage.

* Prunes (dried plums) - soaked in armagnac and filled with foie gras :)

* Pumpkin seeds - very tasty lightly salted and toasted as a garnish for pumkin/squash based, and many other soups

* Sardines - awesome in a whole grain bread sandwich with watercress and raita (Indian cucumber and coriander based yogurt)

* Turmeric - I LOVE turmeric! I use it to flavor pasta doughs, and mix it in to panko and flour breading for chicken cutlets. It's also great when sautéeing potatoes, peas, carrots, onion and cauliflower, with a little garam massala and your choice of hot chili pepper

* Frozen blueberries - smoothies!

* Canned pumpkin - pumpkin pie, pumpkin ravioli filling.... I prefer to purée my own fresh though, rather than using the canned stuff, so I tend to only eat pumpkin in season.

That sounds divine.

My guess would be yes, although dried ground is already supposed to awesome for you. I've used fresh, it's amazing stuff. They are rhizomes, like ginger. The ones I used where smaller, they have a leathery dark brown skin. The inside is a deep amber color, and the juices are a rich ayellow, that will stain your hands (and clothes!) for days. I have a cookbook by a young French chef called William Le Deuil, in which there are many recipes calling for fresh turmeric. He mainly uses it in emulsified sauces. I highly recommend it, if you can read, or have someone translate, French.

I find that whenever I use turmeric in a dish the end result is slightly bitter. Is this because I need to buy new, fresh turmeric or is it just the nature of the spice?

Are frozen blueberries healthier than fresh ones?

The argument for frozen blueberries as I've heard it made is that they are frozen very soon after picking and so retain higher levels of nutrients than commercial fresh blueberries that spend quite a few days traveling and then sitting on a supermarket shelf before you buy them. Just-picked fresh blueberries are ideal, of course, but when people recommend frozen blueberries, they are assuming that most of us do not have easy access (and certainly not year-round access) to a field where we can pick our own.

Haven't had pumpkin seeds in ages, never cook with tumeric but I certainly can. Just recently tried swiss chard. The others are staples in my diet. Does this mean I'll get to spend a couple extra years in the nursing home?

Cool! I eat all of these regularly except for blueberries (super expensive, sorry...), sardines (I prefer other fish), and pomegranate juice (again, expensive!). :) I heart mah veggies, mmmmm. And pumpkin = awesome in almost EVERYTHING baking-related!! I wonder what the opinion is for kabocha, pumpkin's delicious Asian cousin, which is far tastier as a main dish and (I believe) higher in a good number of nutritionals.

Breakfast: oat bran + ground flaxseed + organic pumpkin from Trader Joe's + fat free milk + cinnamon and sugar = YUUUUUMMM and it coincidentally happens to contain two of those! ;) hehe

Oh wow... many of these are among my most favorite foods... the only ones I don't consume frequently are the pumpkin seeds (though they used to be a borderline obsession of mine) and the pomegranate juice.

I'm guessing frozen, dried or canned are specified simply because they're available year-round. Of course, dried fruits, are also concentrated, which may be an extra benefit. Besides frozen blueberries, I always have dried blueberries on hand. Great with nuts, in chicken salad, or in lieu of raisins in baked goods.

Turmeric does have a bitter edge, especially if used with a heavy hand. I'd try finding it fresher, and using less of it. It's being studied for arthritis, psoriasis and anti-Alzheimer's properties (seems to prevent plaques).

Incidentally, chard is a subspecies of the beet plant, which may be why both foods made the list. In fact, swiss chard and beet greens taste virtually identical, and chard has a root that looks almost exactly like a beet. I'd argue that beet greens may be slightly better for you than the traditional white and green chard, simply because they are more colorful (red and green). I find beets really easy to prep. Trim tops to about an inch long, trim longest portion of root, wash well, simmer whole until tender, peel.

And canned pumpkin puree is one of those rare and blessed foods that is pretty much indistinguishable from fresh. That's why it's ALWAYS in my pantry. MMMmmmm... punkin bread...

How about sardines pan seared with cinnamon dusted pumpkin seed/ pine nut crust, wilted chard with crispy pancetta, roasted cauliflower seasoned with tumeric and browned butter and a glass of pom/blueberry juice....maybe thinly sliced-grilled beets with vanilla scoop for dessert...? Perhaps a prune or two at 4 AM when the belly starts aching.

Good thing I caught this... They left off Marshmallow. whew close one.

Beets taste like dirt.

i say skip the juice and go straight to the fruit. you can do without the extra sugar.

I just found this website not so long ago.
I find all of you so very refreshing and funny.
Doesn't appear to be a food snob amongst this group.
To Shnauzer_mom -- I'm with you with the vodka and pomegranate.

My humble opinion...we are works in progress and sometimes we digress.
The 11 are a good jumping off point.
Bon Sante!