With its focus on appreciating autumn’s bountiful harvest, Thanksgiving is the perfect holiday to rethink unhealthy food traditions. This year, we’re doing just that by offering our first-ever menu of rave-worthy, ready-to-eat Thanksgiving dishes. We’ll deliver 8 healthy sides right to your doorstep so you can skip the cooking and forgo the gluten and refined sugar, and spend more time enjoying the people for whom you’re thankful.
Our founder, Neka Pasquale, shared some simple ways that you can give traditional dishes a healthy, delicious makeover.
Make a low-glycemic homemade cranberry sauce. Use fresh or frozen cranberries, cook in fresh apple juice, and sweeten with coconut nectar or stevia.- Try a gluten-free stuffing. Instead of a heavy bread stuffing, use gluten-free and fiber-rich wild rice. Mix with with plenty of veggies and flavor with poultry seasoning.
- Instead of a white flour-based crust for your pumpkin pie, make a raw crust from pecans, dates, coconut sugar, and sea salt. Nuts keep you full and are gluten- and grain-free.
- Sub out the carbs. You can fool the potato lovers by simply swapping the potato with cauliflower for a creamy side dish that won’t raise your blood sugar level the way mashed potatoes do. Try Neka’s recipe for Cauliflower Mash with Kale and Garlic, It is a savory dish with powerful anti-inflammatory properties.
Cauliflower Mash with Kale and Garlic
Both cabbage and kale are regarded as cancer-fighting foods, and both garlic and coconut boost the immune system, which makes this simple, tasty dish a healthful choice.
4 cups (32 fl oz / 1 l) filtered water
1 small head cauliflower, cut into florets
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 small clove garlic
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ cup (1 ½ oz / 45 g) finely shredded kale
In a saucepan, bring the water to a boil over high heat. Add the cauliflower, reduce the heat to low, and cook until soft, 6-8 minutes. Remove from the heat and drain the cauliflower, reserving the cooking water.
In a food processor, combine the warm cauliflower, oil, garlic, and salt, and puree until smooth, adding a bit of the cooking water if needed for a good consistency.
Transfer the puree to a bowl, add the kale, and stir until the kale is wilted from the heat of the cauliflower.
Makes 2-3 servings.
From The Urban Remedy Cookbook
