more of us are sick than not.

Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer are so commonplace, we've given them the warm fuzzy name of lifestyle diseases.

Let's kick the unhealthy habits to the curb and turn the tide on disease as we go back to the cutting board today on Christina Cooks.

(upbeat music) ♪ (announcer) Underwriting for Christina Cooks is provided by Suzanne's Specialties, offering a full line of alternative vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzanne's Specialties, sweetness the way Mother Nature intended.

Additional funding is also provided by Old Yankee Cutting Boards, designed for durability and custom crafted by hand with Yankee pride and craftsmanship.

♪ Jonathan's Spoons, individually handcrafted from cherry wood, each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

♪ Additional funding is also provided by: Hi, I'm Christina Pirello, and this is Christina Cooks, where each week we take fresh, seasonal ingredients and whip them into amazing dishes.

Will it all be plant-based?

Sure.

Will they all be delicious?

You bet.

Mother Nature really guides us.

Now, we're gonna make pizza, so I'm gonna take a step before I talk to you a little bit about it.

So we're gonna take some warm water, about a half cup.

So let's take that half cup of water, more or less.

Now, if your water's too hot, it'll kill your yeast.

If your water's too cold, your yeast won't work.

So then we'll add to it a tablespoon of coconut sugar because you need something sweet.

A lot of people use honey but I don't.

You need a little bit of sweet to activate the yeast.

Okay, we'll stir that around.

And then we're gonna sprinkle the yeast on top.

And I'm gonna use a whole packet, 'cause this is gonna make two pizzas.

And what'll happen is this'll start to bubble, but it needs a couple minutes to do that.

So we're gonna let that do that.

Now, in America, we live on junk food.

We adore junk food.

We don't wanna make it.

We wanna order out pizza.

We want some delivery guy to drop it at our door and that's really not your best choice, right?

When you see how easy it is to make foods that satisfy your cravings for cupcakes, brownies, fried food, you'll never order it again, right?

Remember that in this country-- as I measure whole wheat pastry flour-- in this country, 88 percent of us-- that's a lot-- are not metabolically fit enough to fight off disease.

Think about that for a second while I measure 'cause it's hard to measure and talk.

Have you ever noticed that?

So we're gonna take a cup and a half of whole wheat flour, like a bread flour.

You don't need pastry for this.

In fact, that won't make a good pizza.

And then we're gonna take a half cup of semolina flour and that goes in, and semolina's gonna make your crust crispy.

Some salt-- you have to season this.

This is where you're seasoning your crust.

Then we'll add some extra virgin olive oil.

About two tablespoons.

And you can eyeball it or you can measure it, but what I have found is when I just do it this way, what I get is the more oil I have, the crispier my crust.

So we're gonna start to mix that and I'm still waiting for my yeast.

So before I add the water to this, I'm gonna put up my topping.

This is a non-tomato pizza, it's a white pizza.

So we're gonna take some extra virgin olive oil into a skillet.

You can be generous here, because we're gonna be cooking.

And then we're gonna turn on the heat and before the skillet gets hot, we're gonna add some chopped onion and some finely minced garlic.

Okay, and we're gonna let those start to sort of do their thing.

Now we're gonna move this around and they're gonna start to sweat before we add anything else.

And while that's happening, we're gonna take some shiitake mushrooms-- maybe three-- and quickly slice them thinly.

Now you wanna slice 'em thinly because you want them to cook pretty quickly, because they're not gonna be 100 percent cooked.

This gonna go in the oven, so you wanna sort of partially cook them, maybe 50 percent.

And if you don't cook them a little bit, mushrooms can be very rubbery on your pizza.

Little bit of salt.

Give that a stir.

And they'll start to sort of release their liquid, but to help it along we're gonna take some dried porcinis, and this is gonna give the pizza a really nice mushroomy, earthy flavor.

And porcinis usually need to be chopped a little bit so that they don't have big chunks on your pizza.

So we're just gonna chop that a little bit.

Don't get crazy.

You know, whatever, just a little bit.

And then... right on top.

And then, we'll take a little of the soaking liquid, pour that on.

Little bit more salt.

And we're gonna let these sort of braise in this liquid and become really sort of flavorful before they go into the oven.

Then, I'm gonna clean my cutting board and go back to my crust, 'cause now it's time to add the water and the yeast.

You can see the yeast has bubbled, so it's beautiful.

This is perfectly ready to go.

That goes in.

And now we start to mix, and you're gonna slowly add water to get a crust that gathers together.

When you're using a whole grain flour like whole wheat, try not to touch it until you have all your liquid in there, because what happens is the oil from your skin can make your dough tough.

So you slowly mix this in until you have a dough that just gathers, but it's not quite coherent just yet, right?

You don't have this, like, ball of dough.

So now, you're gonna take a piece of parchment paper.

And you don't have to use parchment, but I'm sort of OCD neat at home, so I use this.

And take some semolina flour, and you're gonna turn your dough out onto this parchment.

Gather it together and you're gonna knead it.

Now you're gonna knead it for nine to ten minutes.

So you gotta get a little bit of a workout here.

But you just keep kneading and you can see how quickly it starts to come together.

Don't add a lot of flour and don't wash your hands.

Just keep kneading until your dough is smooth.

Then you're gonna take that dough and you're gonna lightly oil it and put it into an oiled bowl with a piece of plastic over it.

And after about 90 minutes, what you get is that, right?

The dough, the gases form as it's rising and stays trapped.

Now you take this, take the plastic off, and now you have dough enough for two pizzas, which you can plainly see.

So now you're gonna do what's called punching it down.

And all you do is deflate it.

And we're gonna take half this dough, after we pull it together.

Your dough should feel very elastic at this point and not stick to you at all.

If it's sticking to you, ehh, it's too wet.

So we're gonna cut it in half, save this for another pizza, the other half.

Right?

Okay.

Now we're gonna take parchment... and we're gonna roll this pizza out.

First, you wanna flatten it.

Some people like to just stretch their pizza by hand.

You can also do that, it's up to you.

If my husband was here, he'd say, "Hon, you don't roll a pizza.

You stretch a pizza."

So I'm just gonna stretch it, but I like to bake it on parchment and the reason I like to do that is while it's baking, when it's about 90 percent done, I usually pull it off the pizza pan and right onto to the rack to make it nice and crispy.

So you wanna get your pizza mostly round.

And then you take a pizza tray.

Pizza trays should be perforated like this.

I really like when they are because then the pizza gets crispy.

Now we're gonna take our topping.

And spread it over the top of the pizza dough.

So it smells really earthy and mushroomy.

And before it goes into the oven, you have options here.

I love options when you're cooking.

You can cook your olives or you can add your olives now.

Either way is fine.

They're gonna cook either way.

So I do it differently every time I make pizza, there's never one way to do it.

And this is gonna go in the oven at 485 to 500 for 5 to 10 minutes until the crust is really, really crispy.

♪ So once your pizza comes out of the oven and is slightly cooled, I discovered this trick in Puglia.

I never really knew that you did this with pizza.

So they bake it off with their toppings and then they add raw cherry tomatoes and fresh arugula before they serve it and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

♪ Better than any takeout pizza you'll ever get.

♪ -Can a vegetable be a fruit?

-A fruit can be a vegetable.

What?

It can be both?

What happens if you swallow the seeds?

(unintelligible).

-I don't get it.

-I am so confused.

♪ We must get a million letters, e-mails, and phone calls to the office about various things that people are confused about when they try to change to a path of healthy eating.

So I thought rather than answer all those e-mails-- which I try to do--I thought I'd bring some people on who actually have questions and see if we can't clear a few things up.

So I'm here today with Steve Levy who's a former NBC anchor, sportscaster, talk show host, everything but weather girl-- maybe, I don't know.

-And, uh-- -I knew a couple.

(Christina) Of course you-- I'm sure you did.

-I'm sorry.

-Professionally.

(Christina) Of course--any other way?

So, what would like to talk about today?

-Okay, here's my question.

-Okay.

If a train leaves Chicago-- that's a different show, okay, wait a minute, I got it.

(Christina) That's a math problem I can't do.

(Steve) Okay.

-I read a book called-- -You read a book?

-I'm kidding.

-It had no pictures actually -which took a while.

-Okay, good, good.

good.

It's called The Carnivore's Dilemma.

-Yes.

-And he says, "If you pick up a package and it's got more than five ingredients, put the package down."

So I pick up some of these vegan things.

-There's a lot of ingredients.

-Lot of ingredients.

(Steve) And you've always told me about soy protein isolate.

-I'm confused.

-So, it's really easy to get confused now, and there's kind of like two sides to the coin with some of these processed vegan foods.

So Michael Pollan is quite right when he says, "If you look at an ingredient panel and you don't know whether you should brush your teeth with it or eat it, you probably shouldn't buy it."

Right, if you don't know if your grandmother would know what to do with it, you don't buy it.

If you can't go to the garden, pick the ingredients and brew it all, and get the result-- like, I always say to my students, "If you can't go to the garden and pick the ingredients you can to make a corn chip, then you probably shouldn't eat it."

Right, it's that kind of thing, or brew a soda.

So, when it comes to processed vegan food, the positive side is it's less saturated fat that people are eating, and therefore, less animal farming that is hard on the planet.

The downside to our health-- and it's a downside but it's not the worst thing is that it's so highly processed.

You're eating processed foods.

So for me, I think the best thing to do is avoid a lot of those faux foods, faux burgers, faux sausages.

They're nice transition foods or they're nice foods to bring to a party if you don't wanna be the weirdo that brought tofu cubes and broth.

They're good for that, but if they're in your pantry every day or every week, that means they're part of your diet and the digestion system works really hard to manage those.

So I kind of minimize those and the way that we eat.

-Good?

-Yes.

(Christina) So, sum it all up, eat real food.

♪ Did you know that only 19 percent of Americans eat vegetables more than once a day?

And of them, 80 percent eat them as fried potatoes.

That's-- uh, how do I say this-- pathetic, okay?

So here's a way to get that craving for starchy potatoes, sweeter vegetables that actually is good for you.

So, we're gonna take a parsnip.

This is a parsnip.

And we're gonna do what's called the roll cut, meaning you're gonna roll the vegetable to get the size pieces that you want.

And you want them to be kind of uniform.

And these are gonna roast in the oven, so you need a little bit of size to them so that they hold their shape and become tender.

And when it gets big at the top of the parsnip, you just do this.

And then you take each piece, right, so that they all are the same.

Okay.

These are gonna go into the dish and now we're gonna dress these really simply.

A little olive oil, extra virgin olive oil.

Please use good oil when you're cooking.

Please use good extra virgin olive oil.

Skip the cheap t-shirts and invest in oil.

Balsamic vinegar, which should be thick like a syrup like this and not the one that's too watery.

Some salt.

And then we're gonna toss these so that all of the seasonings are, you know, evenly distributed.

And then this is gonna go into the oven at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour if you cook them uncovered.

Covered, they can cook for 30 minutes, take the cover off, and then they cook for another 10 minutes.

♪ So, in order to serve these, I like to take some bitter greens like watercress or arugula or escarole because it helps you digest and actually makes the sweet taste sweeter.

So I'm gonna stir those on top while the vegetables are still somewhat warm.

And then to really liven things up, my favorite kitchen trick in the world-- freeze a lemon and then just come in here and grate right through the skin, right through the pith, right into the flesh of the lemon to get a really nice, sharp but sweet lemony flavor.

This is so nice.

Then... give it another stir.

And you take this casserole dish right to table to have a side dish that will satisfy even the greatest potato lover.

♪ So there's food and then there's food.

There's food that keeps us well and then there's what I call therapeutic food.

And these mushrooms right here on this board are the trifecta of wellness.

Let's start here with maitake.

These are maitake mushrooms.

They look like dried flower petals in their dried form, but in their fresh form they're called hen-of-the-woods and they look like this and they're amazing.

They're actually being studied by the NIH because they're showing the ability to fight cancer almost as good as some drugs.

So this is an amazing mushroom if you're trying to fight cancer.

Shiitake mushrooms have been used for thousands of years to lower cholesterol, reduce blood pressure, and clean plaque from the veins or arteries.

These are gold for your heart health.

And then there's reishi.

We don't eat reishi.

(thudding) Reishi is soaked and then cut into big chunks and brewed into a tea that's anti-inflammatory for your joints.

So each of these mushrooms added to your diet and you've got one well body.

♪ So now we're gonna work on a dessert.

People love brownies and cupcakes and that kind of thing so I wanted to make a healthier version of a cupcake that has the texture of a brownie.

So kind of fudgy and dense, and I tried a bunch of ways to do it and I found an ingredient was the only thing that worked.

So, question.

What's America's favorite fruit?

I'll give you a second to look it up.

Guys?

(in unison) Bananas.

(Christina) Christina's least favorite fruit?

(in unison) Bananas!

(Christina) Yeah, that.

Thanks, oh, thanks.

Thanks, just thanks.

So the star of this recipe, whether I like it or not, is actually a very ripe banana.

So you're gonna peel it, and then you're gonna get it into a bowl and you're gonna start to mash it.

And I mean, who eats these things anyway?

Who eats bananas?

Oh, clearly somebody does.

Okay, so, now we have our banana mashed in the bowl and we're gonna add to it some other ingredients to pull this batter together and make a fudgy cupcake.

I'm gonna add a lot of ingredients so you don't really taste that much banana.

Now, if you like bananas, you're ahead of the game.

But I'm actually not ahead of the game.

So we're gonna add some coconut sugar, six tablespoons.

Six or seven.

Right, if you really like banana, go with six.

If you don't like banana, go with seven.

If you lose count, go with eight.

Okay, I think that was six.

So we're gonna go with seven.

Then we're gonna add some vanilla extract.

Use really good vanilla and about two teaspoons.

That'll help hide the banana too.

Some salt.

Can't believe I just said that.

Some cinnamon.

Now don't get carried away with cinnamon, because you know, it will overtake your recipe.

Some cocoa powder.

Really good unsweetened cocoa powder.

About two tablespoons.

And then we're gonna go in and start to mix this to create a sort of nice, creamy base that we'll build the rest of the cupcake on.

And you just whip this until you get all the sort of banana bits broken down because you don't wanna-- well, I don't want to bite down on, you know, a chunk of banana in my cupcake.

It's really just for the texture, although you will get the flavor.

Now, we're gonna add to this some... sprouted whole wheat flour.

About a cup and a half.

And then we have to leaven them.

And you can do this in any order you want.

You can add your flour, then your baking powder and soda.

You can add your baking powder and soda first.

As long as it all ends up in the bowl.

So we're gonna do half a teaspoon of baking soda and a whole teaspoon of baking powder, and that's gonna help them to rise.

And now we're gonna start to mix again.

And once it starts to come together as a batter, then we're gonna slowly start to add water.

As I often say, a lot of people like to bake with all of the non-dairy milks that are out there, oat and almond or whatever, and you can use those, but I have found that I get a really nice finished product and a savings in calories when it comes to desserts if I just use water.

It doesn't affect the texture.

It's all good.

You wanna mix this until you have a nice sort of thick but spoonable batter, which you'll see what that means in a minute.

So you wanna add your water slowly and you wanna mix just till it's come together, and when you're about, I'm gonna say 80 percent there, we're gonna add about a half cup-- I use Stevia-sweetened dark chocolate chips which is going to give you a nice little fudgy bite in the middle of your brownie.

Cupcake, brownie thing.

Okay, now it's mixed.

Now once your batter's mixed, stop mixing.

I know we like to mix.

It's really wonderful to mix, but let's not, okay?

Then we're gonna take a tablespoon.

Just a straight up soup spoon.

You don't need to measure here.

And we're gonna fill the cups.

You should get about a dozen out of a batch.

And because there's not eggs, you don't have to worry so much about, you know, only filling your cupcake halfway.

So we're gonna fill these, and these are gonna go in the oven for about 20 to 22 minutes at 350.

And they're gonna rise, but they're gonna stay very, very dense.

And once they cool, we'll frost them.

So that's our batter in our cupcake tray.

So that's gonna go off and bake.

Wow, that's some strong banana.

Okay, oh, they're really yummy.

All right, now we're gonna frost 'em.

And the frosting's really easy and also helps, but they have to be completely cooled before you can frost them.

So we're gonna take some vegan cream cheese and some whipped brown rice syrup.

Equal portions.

And the whipped brown rice syrup is actually kind of like a marshmallow fluff kind of texture.

Very interesting, but delicious, and it's only brown rice syrup.

There's nothing else in there.

We'll take a little bit of vegan butter, which is gonna give us that butter cream texture.

Some vanilla.

And then, we're gonna whip this together with a whisk.

You don't need a hand mixer, just use a whisk.

You're about to eat dessert.

You may as well work for it just a little bit.

We're gonna take it, with any luck, and spoon it into... ...one of these little groovy things that helps you to pipe frosting.

And the frosting will look great piped, but I gotta tell you, they're way more work than they're worth.

So you can do this.

Now you're gonna take this little squirt bottle and you're just gonna squeeze it down.

This is really like a shortcut to frosting.

And you just frost your cupcakes.

I'm not a big frosting person so there's not a lot, but we'll try to get as much as we can on these two.

Okay.

Then you're gonna take these and you're gonna garnish them with a few chocolate chips.

And you have a cupcake that tastes like a brownie that tastes like a cupcake that tastes like a brownie.

So what're you waiting for?

Let's get back to the cutting board and I'll see you next time on Christina Cooks.

♪ ♪ (announcer) Underwriting for Christina Cooks is provided by Suzanne's Specialties, offering a full line of alternative vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzanne's Specialties, sweetness the way Mother Nature intended.

Additional funding is also provided by Old Yankee Cutting Boards, designed for durability and custom crafted by hand with Yankee pride and craftsmanship.

♪ Jonathan's Spoons, individually handcrafted from cherry wood, each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

♪ Additional funding is also provided by: ♪ You can find today's recipes and learn more by visiting our website at: And by following Christina on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

The companion cookbook, "Back to the Cutting Board," takes you on a journey to re-engage with the soul of cooking.

With more than 100 plant-based recipes, finding the joy in cooking has never been simpler.

To order your copy for $20 plus handling, call: Add Christina's iconic book, "Cooking the Whole Foods Way," with 500 delicious plant-based recipes.

To order both books for $39.95 plus handling, call: ♪ (bright music)