Cruciferous vegetables have many health benefits of their own (especially: a lot of anticancer benefits). But, it can be hard to include them in every day’s menu, so this is just one more way that’ll broaden your options! It’s delicious mixed into pasta, or served as a dip, or even on toast.

You will need

• 4 cups small broccoli florets
• 1 cup fresh basil leaves
• ½ cup pine nuts
• ¼ bulb garlic
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp black pepper, coarse ground
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• ½ tsp MSG or 1 tsp low-sodium salt

Method

(we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)

1) Steam the broccoli for 3–5 minutes. Allow to cool.

2) Blend the pine nuts, garlic, lemon juice, and nutritional yeast.

3) Add the broccoli, basil, olive oil, black pepper, red pepper, and MSG or salt, and blend in the food processor again until well-combined.

4) Serve:

Enjoy!

Want to learn more?

For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:

• Broccoli vs Cauliflower – Which is Healthier?
• Level-Up Your Fiber Intake! (Without Difficulty Or Discomfort)
• Herbs for (Evidence-Based) Health & Healing ← Basil features here! It’s easy to think that medicinal herbs have to be some kind of arcane obscurity, but it’s often not so.
• Our Top 5 Spices: How Much Is Enough For Benefits? ← Black pepper, red pepper, and garlic all feature here
• All About Olive Oil: Is “Extra Virgin” Worth It?
• Monosodium Glutamate: Sinless Flavor-Enhancer Or Terrible Health Risk?

Take care!

Fiber, protein, and polyphenols! What more could one ask for? Well, great taste and warm healthy goodness, which these deliver:

You will need

For the sweet potatoes:

• 2 medium sweet potatoes, cubed (we recommend leaving the skin on, but you can peel them if you really want to)
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• ½ tsp MSG or 1 tsp low-sodium salt

For the black beans:

• 2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed (or 2 cups black beans that you cooked yourself)
• ¼ bulb garlic, minced
• 1 fresh jalapeño finely chopped (or ¼ cup jalapeños from a jar, finely chopped) ← adjust quantities per your preference and per the quality of the pepper(s) you’re using; we can’t judge that from here without tasting them, so we give a good basic starting suggestion.
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp red chili flakes
• ½ tsp MSG or 1 tsp low-sodium salt

For serving:

• 8 small corn tortillas, or your preference if substituting
• 1 avocado, pitted, peeled, cubed, and tossed in lime juice ← we’re mentioning this here because you want to do this as soon as you cut it, to avoid oxidation
• Any other salad you’d like to include; fresh parsley is also a good option when it comes to greenery, or cilantro if you don’t have the soap gene
• Tomato salsa (quantity and spice level per your preference)

Method

(we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)

1) Preheat the oven to 400°F / 200°C.

2) Toss the sweet potato cubes in a large bowl with the rest of the ingredients from the sweet potato section above, ensuring they are evenly coated.

3) Bake them in the oven, on a baking tray lined with baking paper, for about 30 minutes or until tender inside and crispy at the edges. Turn them over halfway through.

4) While that’s happening, mix the black beans in a bowl with the other ingredients from the black bean section above, and heat them gently. You could do this in a saucepan, but honestly, while it’s not glamorous, the microwave is actually better for this. Note: many people find the microwave cooks food unevenly, but there are two reasons for this and they’re both easily fixable:

• instead of using high power for x minutes, use medium power for 2x minutes; this will produce better results
• instead of putting the food just in a bowl, jug, or similar, use a wide bowl or similar container, and then inside that, place a small empty microwave-safe glass jar or similar upturned in the middle, and then add the food around it, so that the food is arranged in a donut shape rather than a wide cylinder shape. This means there is no “middle bit” to go underheated while the edges are heated excessively; instead, it will heat through evenly.

If you really don’t want to do that though, use a saucepan on a very low heat, add a small amount of liquid (or tomato salsa), and stir constantly.

5) Heat the tortillas in a dry skillet for about 30 seconds each on each side, when ready to serve.

6) Assemble the tacos; you can do this how you like but a good order of operations is: tortilla, leafy salad (if using), potato, beans, non-leafy salad including avocado, salsa or other topping per your preference.

Enjoy!

Want to learn more?

For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:

• White Potato vs Sweet Potato – Which is Healthier?
• Kidney Beans or Black Beans – Which is Healthier?
• Coconut vs Avocado – Which is Healthier?
• Glutathione: More Than An Antioxidant
• Our Top 5 Spices: How Much Is Enough For Benefits? ← we hit 4/5 today!

Take care!