Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss (37 page)

Soups and stews are critical components of this eating style. When vegetables are simmered in a soup, all the nutrients are retained in the liquid. Many of my soup recipes use fresh vegetable juices, especially carrot juice. These juices provide a very tasty antioxidant-rich base. If you don’t have a juicer, consider purchasing one. If you are short on time, bottled carrot juice and other vegetable juices can be purchased at most health-food stores.

To create “cream” soups, blend in raw cashews or cashew butter. This provides a creamy texture and rich flavor.

A big advantage of homemade soups is that they make wonderful leftovers. Soups generally keep well for up to four days in the refrigerator but should be frozen if longer storage is desired.

Should you occasionally choose to use a prepared soup, keep in mind that your overall daily sodium intake ideally should remain under 1,000 mg. Natural whole foods provide about 400 to 700 mg of sodium per day, which allows for a leeway of about 300 mg. Be sure to read labels. You will be amazed at how much sodium canned soups and other processed foods contain. Try to select no-salt-added options.

Salad dressings usually start with oil and vinegar: the oil provides the fat, and the vinegar provides the acidity. My salad dressings use whole foods such as raw almonds and cashews, other raw nuts and seeds, avocado, and tahini as the fat sources. Use a food processor or high-powered blender to blend nuts or seeds with other healthy ingredients to create smooth, creamy dressings.

Delicious smoothies are made by blending a mixture of fruits and raw leafy greens. Blending raw vegetables with fruits is an efficient way to increase your nutrient absorption. The cell walls of the foods are efficiently crushed, making it easier for your body to absorb the beneficial phytochemicals contained within. A powerful blender such as a Vita-Mix is very helpful for making smoothies and fruit sorbets.

It is advisable to soak most dried beans or legumes overnight before cooking.

Replace the soaking water with two to three cups of fresh water for each cup of beans when cooking them. Most beans require about one and a half to two hours of cooking to become soft. Lentils and split peas require only one hour and need not be soaked prior to cooking.

Make sure beans are thoroughly cooked, as they are more difficult to digest when undercooked. Keep in mind that it is important to chew them thoroughly. As you get in the habit of eating beans regularly, you will digest them better.

A basic cooking technique used in some of our recipes is water sautéing. This is used instead of cooking with oil. Water sautéing is simple and good for stir-fries, sauces, and many other dishes. To water sauté, heat a skillet on high heat until water sputters when dropped in the pan. Use small amounts (two to three tablespoons) of water in the hot skillet, wok, or pan, covering the pan occasionally and adding more water as necessary until the vegetables are tender. If stir-frying a vegetable dish, other alternatives to oil include no-salt vegetable broth, coconut water, wine, or fruit juice.