Note I’ve referenced plant foods which, of course, eliminates my beloved animal foods (including beef, poultry, and fish). My studies on this are still on-going, but for now it seems that ingested beef winds up creating an environment in your body that welcomes the creation of cancer cells. Chicken seems to be even worse, and fish — as most of us should already know — has higher levels of mercury and other nasty pollutants than we really should be eating… as lovely as shrimp, scallops, lobster, flounder, and all my favorites can be.

 

So I’m at the starting line of a whole new way of cooking and I got a whiff of what’s possible just the other day when I came across a Portobella Mushroom /Roasted Red Pepper dish. I found the recipe in a book called “Eat To Live”, and then — not unlike me — I misread it and wound up making my own variation, which turned out to be great. I was stunned to find how much I liked it, and even more stunned that I’d made it without any oil, butter, salt, sugar, or other tricks I’ve used throughout the years to add levels of flavor. It turns out nature provides many levels on its own: all you need to know is where to find them (even still, there are some minimally pre-processed ingredients here).

 

With that in mind, here’s the “Ah Ha” recipe. Please remember I’ve been off salts and other additives (mainly eating veggies juices and salads) for 3 weeks, so the tastiness of this dish for me is likely to be different for you. If you’re not working to prevent yet another breast cancer, you might find this to be a nice starting point for something more to your taste. On the other hand, you might find you like it as is.

 

 

4 large Portobella mushrooms, stem removed

1/2 large red onion, sliced thin

 

3/4 c. tahini (unsalted sesame seed butter)

2 medium roasted red peppers, seeds removed (home made or from a jar)

1/2 c. water

1 medjool date, seeded and chopped small

1 clove garlic

1 tsp. Bragg Liquid Aminos (or low sodium soy sauce)

1 tsp. lemon juice

 

2 c. watercress

2 slices whole wheat pita bread (optional)

 

Preheat oven to 375°. Place mushrooms upside down on an oven pan, then fill with slices of red onion (about two slices of onion each). Bake until the onion is soft (about 30 minutes). 

 

Meanwhile, put the tahini, red peppers, water, date, garlic, liquid aminos (or soy sauce) and lemon juice in a blender and blend for about 1-1/2 minutes (really blend it well). It’s color will be similar to Russian Dressing.

 

When the mushrooms and onions are done, remove from the oven. If you want to serve as a sandwich, cut the whole wheat pita bread in half and place about 1/4 c. watercress in the bottoms. Cut up the mushrooms and place inside the bread with the onions, then drizzle with the sauce. If you want to serve this as an appetizer, don’t use the bread at all. Instead, place the mushroom and onions on 4 plates, drizzle with the sauce, and top with about 1/4 c. watercress (it’s actually quite pretty).