THE CHINA STUDY QUICK & EASY COOKBOOK (3 page)

Nutritional Value

Index

About the Author

About the Editor

When we published
The China Study
hardcover edition at the beginning of 2005, neither my dad nor I had high expectations. We had a hard time getting the manuscript published, having been told that the book needed to be at least 50 percent recipes and menu plans. It was even suggested that we come up with a different diet for each of the different disease conditions we discuss in order to create something more catchy and enticing for the readers. In the end, we were fortunate to find an independently thinking partner in BenBella Books, a publisher in Texas, far from the big publishing houses who seemed confined to formulas and supposedly sure things.

Looking back at that difficult start ten years ago, it is with enormous gratitude that I introduce the third China Study cookbook. I am grateful for all the readers who have shared their stories and comments about how
The China Study
has contributed to their own personal health and healing. It turns out that people want intelligent, science-based information to improve their lives; not just to live longer but to improve their health and happiness in the near term as well. This is what a healthy diet and lifestyle can do. Making the best choices for food, drink, and physical activity collectively is far more powerful than anything else you might consider for long-term health.

Now, as a practicing family physician, I spend many patient encounters working to help people take control of their health, partly by communicating the scientific rationale for a whole food, plant-based diet. And as the director of the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies, I continue to encourage scientific understanding of the optimal diet. But while the science is thought provoking and convincing, the practical application of a whole food, plant-based diet is equally important. When we wrote
The China Study
, we wanted to fully elaborate on the scientific and socioeconomic factors surrounding optimal nutrition and did not feel we could do justice to the practical information in the same book. We resisted those early attempts to include recipes and menu plans, knowing that other people could cover these aspects of dietary practice far better than we could.

Chef Del is just such a person. Del is one of a small handful of chefs in America who has moved beyond oils and processed foods to offer health-promoting recipes that remain tasty, convenient, and easy. He has intimate personal experience with poor health while consuming a vegan diet rich in processed foods, and he successfully overcame his personal challenges to regain his health by shifting to a more whole food, plant-based diet. He has been cooking healthy food for people day after day for many years as part of wellness programs and created the wonderful recipe collections found in
Better Than Vegan
and
Forks Over Knives: The Cookbook
.

Chef Del’s recipes in this third China Study cookbook are particularly useful for highlighting
the ease and convenience of eating an optimal diet. Very few people have the time and desire to cook food all day. We need something fast that doesn’t sacrifice taste or health. In our toxic food environment comprised of grocery stores that greet you with walls of sugar cereal and giant bins of candy, food that is fast, tasty, and healthy almost seems to be a highly elusive, nearly mystical goal. But with the book you now hold in your hands, it is entirely achievable.

Once you appreciate the power of a whole food, plant-based diet, it is easy to think of chefs who pave the way toward healthier eating as true healers. Given his impressive resume, Chef Del has been a master healer for many years now, and it is my hope that his recipes in this book will pave the way to new health for you and your family. There is perhaps no more powerful “how-to” diet book than a good cookbook like this one. Enjoy, be well, and good luck!

When I was a kid, my mother, a divorced working parent, always managed to get dinner on the table. Working a full-time job meant that she was out of the house by 7:00 a.m. and did not get home until almost 6:00 p.m. every night. To put dinner on the table at a decent hour, she had to have a plan. Sometimes that plan meant that she would make quick, easy-to-prepare meals like hamburgers or Polish sausage with peppers and onions. Often she would be preparing two meals at once—a quick and easy dish for that night and something more complicated, like a turkey roast, for the next few nights. She was a master at taking one dish and using it in a variety of ways so that we were not eating leftovers all the time. For example, that roasted turkey would be eaten freshly cooked with sautéed vegetables and rice, and then the next night the leftovers would be used to make turkey à la king. Unbaked meatloaf was often divided in two: part of it would be baked as meatloaf and the rest made into spaghetti and meatballs. Between all these amazing meals, I thought my mom had magic powers, and I wanted to have those same powers. So I started cooking and doing what Mom did.

When I opened my commercial kitchen at Wellness Forum Foods with my business partner Pam Popper in 2006 to serve as the home of my plant-based meal delivery service, catering kitchen, and manufacturing hub for the wide variety of products sold at the Wellness Forum, I used the same principles to make my menu interesting. Our Maple-Ginger Baked Tofu is used to make three or four different kinds of wraps as well as our Zen Bowl and occasionally even sloppy joes. My favorite oven-fried tofu recipe is sold as is, with barbecue sauce, and then often added to several specials we make on a regular basis, such as Tofu Cacciatore, Tofu Creole, and enchiladas.

This philosophy of multi-purposing recipes is in part what motivated me to write this cookbook. As I work to take charge of my own health, I want whole, low-fat, plant-based food on my dinner table. While I enjoy creating (and eating) more elaborate recipes, I also come home at night and want a healthy dinner in a hurry. And though times are changing, I still can’t call up any of my local restaurants and get an oil-free stir-fry delivered to my house.

My basic plan for feeding myself is simple. On Saturdays I determine what I want to eat the following week. Sometimes I keep a running list of dishes I want to try or foods that I am craving. I also look at my calendar to see how many meals I will need for the week. There’s no point in cooking for twenty-one meals when I will only be available for fourteen of them. I also usually leave the weekends open for eating out or enjoying leftovers.

So, after all my considerations, I decide what I want to make and how I will use it. Almost everything I make gets used in at least two different dishes. For example, peanut sauce goes on Thai pizza and in a rice and veggie wrap. Brown
rice is a staple used in many dishes from breakfast to a late-night snack. Once I have the weekly menu finalized, I check to make sure that I have everything I need in my pantry. Keeping my pantry fully stocked means I don’t have to make unexpected and unplanned trips to the store. If I am missing a particular ingredient, I add it to my shopping list to make one convenient trip.

Finally, with my menu planned and my ingredients ready, I look at the recipes to see how much I’ll cook ahead of time and what will get finished during the week. For example, stir-fry sauce gets prepared on Sunday but won’t be used in a stir-fry until the night I plan to eat it. This is a good way of making meal preparations easy throughout the week, so I recommend that you try similar methods if, like me, you want to eat healthfully without sacrificing time or variety.

To adopt my “cook once, eat all week” strategy in your kitchen, I suggest that you make a similar plan to the one I mentioned above. Take a look at the recipes in this cookbook. They are a combination of dishes that are easy to prepare and that can be used in many ways. These are the recipes that keep me on track as I pursue my plant-based healthy lifestyle, while also allowing me to enjoy delicious food that isn’t a challenge to prepare.

You can prepare most of them in less than thirty minutes. Many basic recipes are also used in multiple dishes throughout the book, and once you have familiarized yourself with them and tried a few out, you may even have a few ideas of your own about how to use some of these recipes in
your
favorite dishes.

Once you decide upon the recipes you’d like to cook, you can start mapping out your menu for the week. Create a shopping list and double-check your pantry to make sure you have everything you need to prepare the dishes you have chosen. This way, you’ll only go to the store once and not three or four times—which I have done when I was not prepared. For your convenience, all of the sample menu plans I’ve provided include a shopping list of additional food items for each week, and there is also a general pantry list to help you stock all of the ingredients you need to make the recipes in this book.

Everything you need to eat healthfully without spending all day, every day in the kitchen is here in your grasp. I hope you’ll find that cooking this way makes life easier—and makes healthy eating fun.

This menu plan is for the household of one or two that doesn’t mind leftovers. It is perfect in the summer when basil is fresh from the garden and corn is fresh from the field.

Most of these recipes make four servings. Keep fresh mixed greens on hand for salads and have your favorite toppings ready to add to your salad throughout the week. For this menu, you will need the recipes listed below, as well as the items in the additional ingredients list. See the pantry list on
p. 21
for items you should always have on hand.

MAKE IT EASY:
Make your salad in a large bowl at the beginning of the week and add your salad dressing to serve.