Title: Ten-Minute Super-Quick Mediterranean Diet for Beginners
Authoir: Oliver Sanders
Quote: "The Mediterranean diet shines in its approahc to snackng."
"Mediterranean" has been used recently to describe a diet based on fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, and ocean fish, as found in countries around the Mediterranean or in places like California that enjoy a similar climate. At least close biological relatives of favorite Mediterranean foods will grow in California and in many of our southern and central States. Gardeners and locavores were therefore delighted when doctors started studying what allows so many people in the Mediterranean to eat so well and live so long.
Is it only the diet? Probably not. Certainly most of us seem to be better off without the wine people in the Mediterranean countries drink daily. Traditionally people in the Mediterranean countries got a fair amount of healthy natural exercise, walking to most of the places they go, rowing, swimming, gardening, dancing. They get a good deal of sunshine and spend a good deal of time out in it. Traditionally they raised their own locally grown, unsprayed food. The Mediterranean countries are home to Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim communities in which most people traditionally lived by the rules of one faith or another, which involved regular prayer and meditation and a mandate that, as much as in them lies, they live at peace with all. These cultures are sociologically notable for having a strong sense of family, a sense that life is good and happiness is found in family love and work. Economic inequities, though extreme, were palliated by a belief that God put people in different economic brackets for a reason--people whose family businesses were not well paid weren't expected to be rich, so much as to live frugally and work, eat, love, and worship well Before antibiotics were invented, diseases sometimes reached plague proportions in these countries, but food-borne pathogens were at least reduced by heavy use of alcohol, garlic, and rosemary in food preparation and preservation.
Rules for a "Mediterranean"-influenced diet are not strict, but emphasize lots of plant-derived foods and ffrugal amounts of vegetable oils in cookign. Basically, have a big vegetable garden and use it as a primary food source. If you don't have a garden, be very nice to someone who does. And don't live near a public road or railroad, because the health benefits of all those plant-based foods depend on their not being sprayed with chemicals used in place of mowing and trimming verges.
The most popular "Mediterranean" recipes came from Italy but French, Spanish, Portuguese, Moroccan, and Middle Eastern recipes use many of the same ingredients:
* Lots of grains--a good variety--wheat, rice, barley, and today often corn (maize), buckwheat, quinoa, amaranth
* Lots of leafy green vegetables, raw or cooked, often topped with oil, nuts, or fish. Arugula, basil, celery, chicory, dill, endive, escarole, fennel, lettuces, mache, mustad, oregano, parsley, radicchio, rosemary, sage, sorrel, spinach, thyme, watercress, and more.
* Asparagus
* Artichokes
* Beans and all the "pulses"--peas, lentils, garbanzos, fava beans.
* Cabbage and all the cruciferous vegetables, broccoli, cauliflower, rabe, Brussels sprouts
* Celery
* Cucumbers
* Carrots
* Capers
* Eggplant (melanzane, aubergine)
* Garlic, leeks, onions
* Lotus root
* Mallows (the vegetable, not the candy inspired by its texture)
* Mushrooms
* Olives and their oil
* Pickles of all kinds. These cultures invented vinegar.
* Potatoes were introduced fairly recently, but are sometimes raised and eaten in Mediterranean countries.
* Radishes'
* Sesame seed
* /Squashes
* Tomatoes aren't native to the Mediterranean region but, when introduced a few centuries ago, they were a huge success. Today it's hard to think of Italian food without thinking of tomato sauce.
* Turnips
* Tree nuts, especially almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios, walnuts
* Peanuts grow further south, but people in the Mediterranean countries sometimes buy and use them.
* Avocado--not native, but sometimes used
* All citrus fruits
* Carob
* Dates
* Figs
* Grapes
* Melons
* Pears thrive in the Mediterranean climate. Apples usually do better in colder climates but people in Mediterranean countries eat them when they can. Authentic Mediterranean recipes feature pears.
* Peaches, apricots, plums
* Pineapple usually grows further south, but seems to be welcome wherever it's been shipped
* Pomegranates
* Raspberries and other bramble berry species
* Strawberries aren't native to the Mediterranean countries. Nor are blueberries. They are sometimes available in Mediterranean countries and eaten raw or in mixed-berry recipes.
* Sumac (the dried berries, usually ground up, used as a sweet-sour seasoning)
* Tamarind fruit
* Fish and shellfish
* Milk and milk products from cows, goats, and sometimes sheep
* Eggs and poultry
* Meat, but it's used sparingly; small farms didn't kill even a rooster every day
* Coffee
Recipe books, or even heating up the kitchen to cook, are optional for much of this food. Washed, and arranged attractively on the table, it's feast.
This short book does not have room for a complete collection of what even one person can do with the classic Mediterranean foods when a special occasion, and/or the need to use up less than perfect vegetables, does inspire a Mediterranean cook to invent a fancy elaborate recipe. And it does include some recipes that call for American ingredients not normally found in Mediterranean gardens or recipe books, though bananas, tortillas, and watermelon fit into the general idea of a "Mwditrranean diet" of home-grown or locally grown produce as a primary food source.And, while presenting Americanized recipes, the author uses tediously European measurements and what may be Chinese Pidgin wording. "KCal/serve"? When Americans use "serve" as a noun we are talking about tennis; food comes in servings.
However, if you're new to this way of eating and don't want to recreate authentic ethnic cuisine or adapt its flavors for restrticted diets, but just to learn a few efficient ways of using garden-type food, this small, cheap e-book may be your idea of a real bargain. This is a first book of plant-based, not vegan but fibre-rich, nutritious cooking. If you have a reliable source of unpoisoned plant-based foods and minimal time to cook, buy this book.
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