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BRAGG LIVE FOOD PRODUCTS

February 21, 2009

Soups and Vitamin Broths

Filed under: Bragg Book Excerpts — Tags: , — admin @ 8:49 PM

Excerpt from Bragg Veg­e­tar­ian Health Recipes — Chap­ter 5
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Some nutri­tion­ists look with respect on the tales of the “magic potions” of the Dark Ages: soups brewed with wild herbs and greens of the for­est. Most agree now that the “mag­i­cal broth” had prac­ti­cal and mir­a­cle cura­tive prop­er­ties, rather than super­nat­ural charms.

Through­out his­tory, Europe and Asia suf­fered from food short­ages. Rather than roam the for­est hunt­ing for game and eat­ing wild berries and herbs, Euro­peans crowded into small com­mu­ni­ties and con­cen­trated efforts on wars and muni­tions instead of food. Death, rather than life, was para­mount. Is it any won­der that the magi­cian with his vitamin-rich herb pot, and the old crone with her love potions brewed from for­est reme­dies, could seem­ingly work mir­a­cles? Of all the rich­ness of nature’s gifts to human­ity, the liv­ing, grow­ing foods that nur­ture our bod­ies are mir­a­cles in them­selves! The cus­tom of hav­ing the soup pot on the back of the stove (into which all water left from cook­ing veg­eta­bles, as well as odds and ends of the veg­eta­bles them­selves, were tossed) is a healthy prac­tice in nutri­tional cook­ery. Far too many peo­ple destroy their foods. First, they take car­rots, scrape all the vitamin-rich skin off; toss them in large quan­ti­ties of boil­ing water; boil the life out of them; and throw all the water, into which the vit­a­mins and min­er­als have escaped, down the drain­pipe. Mil­lions feed their sink nature’s rich­est gifts and keep the dead, life­less remain­der to eat!

Save those beet tops, extra spinach leaves, green let­tuce leaves that you think are too dark to serve on the table, tomato skins, skin from any veg­etable you feel you absolutely must peel – all the lit­tle odds and ends and left­overs that you would nor­mally throw away – toss them into the soup pot. I call it my “vit­a­min pot.” Above all, save the pre­cious liq­uids that remain in a pot after cook­ing. You will find no more deli­cious soup in the world than the rich soup made of pot liq­uids and mix­tures of veg­eta­bles that you would ordi­nar­ily dis­card. That, above all, is your basic soup recipe.

This Blog is moderated. It is created to be informative, inspiring and uplifting. Our positive philosophy at Bragg is to communicate with love and respect. As Paul and Patricia Bragg teach, in expressing your thoughts and opinions to others, ask yourself: "Is it good, is it kind, is it necessary?" All comments that do not fit this philosophy will not be posted.

February 9, 2009

Flavor the Soul of Food That Excites Your Appetite and Meals

Filed under: Bragg Book Excerpts — Tags: — admin @ 8:40 PM

Excerpt from Bragg Veg­e­tar­ian Health Recipes — Chap­ter 1
Click book title for more information

Ordi­nar­ily, cook­books have a stereo­typed sequence. First come the tables of mea­sure­ment, then the soups, sal­ads, etc. To my mind, no recipe Book — Can start with­out fla­vor as a basis – and espe­cially no health food recipe book. In cook­ing for health, the plea­sure of well-savored fla­vor is almost as impor­tant as nutri­tional qual­ity, as it makes meal­time more enjoy­able, which also helps with diges­tion. Good cook­ing is the com­bi­na­tion of two great fields of human expe­ri­ence: sci­ence and art. The sci­ence of food tells us what good nutri­tion is. The art of prepar­ing food requires learn­ing the art of fla­vor. Using herbs such as Bragg Sprin­kle (24 herbs & spices) and Bragg Kelp Sea­son­ing, gar­lic and 100% whole, fresh, organ­i­cally grown foods are always the best.

Stock: the Foun­da­tion of Fla­vor
Fla­vor can only be as good as the stock from which it is based. Good stock, prop­erly used, is the dif­fer­ence between excel­lent and mediocre cook­ing. When the stock (or con­sommé) is excel­lent, the cre­ation of fine fla­vor is easy. When food lacks fla­vor, meals can taste flat and dull. In for­eign lands, men­tion of stock in a cook­book would be super­flu­ous. How­ever, in our cul­ture it is a little-known and sel­dom prac­ticed prin­ci­ple of the basic art of cooking.

There are sev­eral rea­sons for this: unless a great deal can be pre­pared at a time, the cook­ing of stock is time– con­sum­ing. You can make three quarts at one time, freeze some in ice cube trays, and trans­fer to freezer bags to use as-needed for small amounts. Place remain­ing stock in jars and refrig­er­ate. Put a date on all stored food items! A stain­less steel pressure-cooker is a great time-saver in the prepa­ra­tion of stock. The cook­ing time can be divided by ten.

This Blog is moderated. It is created to be informative, inspiring and uplifting. Our positive philosophy at Bragg is to communicate with love and respect. As Paul and Patricia Bragg teach, in expressing your thoughts and opinions to others, ask yourself: "Is it good, is it kind, is it necessary?" All comments that do not fit this philosophy will not be posted.

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