America on the Move in Tennessee

Sweet Sensation

Almost everyone craves sweets. Rather than depending on processed sugar, adding more naturally sweet flavor to your daily diet reduces cravings for sweets. Certain vegetables have a deep, sweet flavor when cooked--like corn, carrots, onions, beets, winter squash (butternut, buttercup, delicata, hubbard and kabocha), sweet potatoes and yams. There are other, less popular vegetables that are semi-sweet--like turnips, parsnips and rutabagas. Then there are vegetables that don't taste sweet, but their effect on the body is similar to sweet vegetables. These include red radishes, daikon radish, green cabbage, red cabbage and burdock. They sooth the internal organs of the body and energize the mind. And because many of these vegetables are root vegetables, they are enrgetically grounding, helping to balance out the spaciness people often feel after eating other kinds of sweet food.

A simple way to cook these vegetables is to follow the recipe below that is called Sweet Sensation. It has few ingredients and preparation time is minimal.

Sweet Sensation
- Use one, two, three, four or five of the sweet vegetables mentioned above.
- Chop the hardest ones, like carrots and beets, into smaller pieces.
- Softer vegetables, like onions and cabbage, can be cut into larger chunks.
- Use a medium-sized pot and add enough water to barely cover the vegetables. You may want to check the water level while cooking and add more water if needed. Remember, vegetables on the bottom will get cooked more than the ones on the top. Cook until desired softness. The softer the vegetables get, the sweeter they become.
- You may also add any of the following ingredients: spices, salt, seaweed. You can add tofu or a can of beans for extra protein.
- When cooked to your satisfaction, empty the ingredients into a large bowl, flavor as desired and eat. The leftover cooking water makes a delicious, sweet sauce, and is a healing and soothing tonic to drink by itself.

Institute for Integrative Nutrition

http://www.integrativenutrition.com