Cranky in the morning?

Impatient with everyone?

Hate waiting in line or, yikes, sitting in traffic?

Easily irritated?

Is it just modern life or...

It's your liver, baby.

Let's get Back to the Cutting Board and fix that little gland right up today on Christina Cooks.

(theme 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'll take fresh, seasonal ingredients and whip them into amazing dishes.

Will it all be plant based?

Yeah.

Will it all be delicious?

Yeah.

So let's get started.

So we're going to talk about your patience level today.

Are you the impatient sort?

Are you the person nobody can talk to before you've had your coffee?

Are you the guy who can't sit in traffic?

Do you think you live your life surrounded by, you know, idiots?

If you do, it's your liver.

Okay, they may not be too bright, but if your liver's good, you won't mind them.

So in Chinese medicine we say that the liver, which is a really hard-working gland, does many things.

It produces bile, secretes hormones, metabolizes your macronutrients, fat, protein, and carbs.

It works hard.

If it becomes irritated, you become irritated, right?

You become one of the hundred million, or 30% of the American population, that has fatty liver disease.

So think about the people that you know and think about who's patient and who's not.

You can probably count the ones who are patient on one hand and have fingers left over.

We all need to take better care of our livers.

So the first soup that we're gonna make, the first dish we're gonna make, is a soup designed to relax what we call the middle organs, spleen, pancreas, stomach, and liver.

So we're gonna help to settle things down.

So the soup is sweet, you become "sweeter."

Get it?

Okay.

We're gonna start by preparing a leek.

Now, leeks have a lot of sand in their many, many layers, so you need to open them up under the water in the sink and rinse all of that out.

Otherwise, it won't hurt you, but it's a weird mouthfeel in soup to have grit.

So then you want to take off just the root, just the very bottom.

And then on a slight angle, you're gonna work up the leek and slice it into thin, oblong pieces so that it sautés quickly, right?

We don't want this soup to cook forever, but we want it to relax the middle organs and get your body ready to digest food.

That's what soup does.

You want to work all the way up into the green.

I know, I know, a lot of chefs don't use the green part of the leek, but in my world, this is where the chlorophyll is, this is where the vitamin C is.

This is why you eat leeks.

And does it taste more leeky?

Yes, but that's why you use leeks.

So when you get to the part that's kind of, you know, a little bit dry at the edges, you get rid of that.

Now we're gonna take some extra-virgin olive oil.

You're gonna add about a tablespoon to a pot.

Now, you're not gonna hear a sizzle here, guys, because olive oil you want to add your first ingredient, which in our case is leeks, and then turn on the heat, right?

This way when you eat this lovely sweet soup, at the end of it you'll get a nice finish of olive oil.

You won't get that if you heat the oil first.

You can use high heat to cook olive oil, don't panic, but you'll lose your flavor if you overcook it.

We'll add just a pinch of salt, which'll help the leeks to wilt, and we're just gonna let them sweat, we're not gonna sauté them, until they sweat just a little bit.

Remember when you're cooking, clean your cutting board and your knife in between every single veggie so that the leeks taste like leeks, the squash like squash, your cutting board doesn't look like a mess, and you're not overwhelmed, and then there goes your liver.

So, the next is butternut squash.

Don't peel it, doesn't need to be peeled, and butternut squash, you probably won't use the whole thing unless you're making a huge pot of soup or roasted veg.

But you want to make sure you take all the seeds out so that when you store it in the fridge it doesn't go sour.

Now to handle a squash, you split it so that you have a flat area so you don't get hurt.

And what I like to do is cut it in half again so that my knife can handle the chopping, right?

This way I don't have squash flying all over.

So, once you cut it into these spears, we're gonna cut these spears in half again.

Squash is hard, this is a little bit of an upper-body workout.

You may as well earn your soup.

Now I hear my leeks.

So we're just gonna go over here and stir them.

Lower the heat ever-so-slightly so that they continue to sweat.

And then you'll be fine, it'll taste sweet.

But this is a soup that's nice and rich, so I like a little bit of olive oil.

So now all of this goes in.

All of our squash.

And then you take a tiny pinch of salt.

We're gonna season it with miso, so you're not seasoning it yet.

Now you stir.

And you just want to stir until the squash is shiny with oil, maybe 20 seconds, I don't know, 15 seconds.

As soon as each squash looks shiny, you're done.

Then we're gonna add, you can use whatever plant milk you like.

I like oat milk 'cause it's a little bit rich, but you can almond or soy or rice, whatever.

And you're gonna add the oat milk or the other milk, just to cover the veggies, right?

And you kind of make sure they're nice and even.

And then you take water for the rest of your liquid.

Now, can you use all oat milk?

You can, but it's a little cloyingly rich.

So I like a mixture, but try it both ways.

You can also do this with just water.

You don't have to use the oat milk at all.

I just like that little bit of boost of richness so that when I puree this it tastes like a bisque.

So then you're gonna cover it and cook it for about 30 minutes.

And after 30 minutes, it's gonna look like this.

You're gonna lower your heat as low as you can get it, and try to take the boil down to just a simmer, okay?

Once it's down, then we're gonna take a little of the hot broth and we're gonna puree miso.

Now what's miso?

Well, miso comes to us from Japan.

As you can see, it's got like a peanut butter texture.

It's soy beans and salt and a grain mixed together.

And what that does is create a fermented salt, it's aged, so it's filled with live enzymes and live bacteria.

So it's important that you don't boil the miso for hours.

So once your soup is cooked, then you add the miso.

And you just put a little bit of hot liquid into a container, a little cup, you can use a strainer, and you dissolve the miso.

No magic here.

You just don't want somebody biting down on a big, salty lump.

It would be like biting into a bouillon.

Not exactly great.

So once your miso is dissolved, it's gonna go back into our soup.

And you're gonna give it a slight stir.

Now the squash should be soft, the leeks are tender, and now it's time for the fun part.

We're gonna actually puree this soup into a nice, creamy bisque.

Matt, I need you over here, come here.

We're gonna--they're gonna watch us puree this soup into creamy wonderfulness.

And you just puree, you can use a stick blender, you can use a food processor.

And what you're gonna get is a nice, creamy texture.

Now, it's not gonna be a pure orange because we used leeks, right?

So it's gonna have a little bit of a tinge of green to it.

If you want a pure bright orange soup, then use onions, no big deal.

But you see how that texture is just yummy?

Smell good to you, Matt?

-Mm-hm.

-Okay.

Now you take your blender and set that where it won't torture everything else.

Now we stir into it some organic corn.

And that goes in just to give the soup some texture.

Can you puree it all together?

Yeah, go ahead.

But I like that little bit of texture that you get by adding the corn.

You let the miso cook for about a minute, and while it cooks you take some fresh parsley.

You always want to garnish a soup.

You can get rid of the stems if you want to, but you always want to garnish a soup with something fresh, right?

It's been cooking for 30 minutes.

You want your body to feel happy once you've eaten it, right?

So now you're gonna take-- ladle some into a bowl.

You got corn and squash.

And all of this is gonna help to make your liver a happier camper, and thereby you.

So there's our lovely squash and corn chowder.

I hope you love it.

♪ -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.

(Christina) So many times I get emails, phone calls, even letters about people being confused about something about healthy living.

And while I don't know everything, I know a lot.

So I thought I'd invite some people onto the show who have questions and see if I might be able to help them as they try to make their way toward a healthier life.

So today I'm with Denise Moser.

She's a singer-songwriter and a custom songwriter, and loves to cook.

So, how can I help you, honey?

-I have a baking question.

-Okay.

So I've learned to love baking, which is fairly new to me.

-It's great, isn't it?

-It is great.

And part of why I do it is because I have a history of being a pretty intense sugar addict.

-Ugh, who doesn't?

-So, my rule, pretty much, is that if it's sweet I need to make it myself or--or you need to make it.

(laughter) -That's a good rule.

-So, so, um, I--I--in your book, I noticed you talking about baking with oil, and I've only used like a vegan butter substitute.

-Mm-hm.

-I'm pretty much a cookie baker.

I need to be brave and branch out more, but I've mostly been doing cookies.

And I'm wondering when you might choose to use oil and what the difference in the outcome would be -with those two things.

-That's an easy one.

So, with cookies, I use-- sometimes I use oil and sometimes I use vegan butter.

So I know this is weird.

But if I want a crispier cookie, I use oil.

If I want a cakier, soft cookie, I use vegan butter.

In cakes, I only use oil because that gives me that nice tender crumb that you're used to.

You know, when you see the commercials when you were a kid about, you know, they put the fork in and the cake kind of bounces back, you want that nice crumb.

That--oil gives you that.

I find that vegan butters make the cakes heavy and dense.

So I use both in cookies depending on the texture, and only oil in cakes, and pie crusts too, only oil.

(Denise) So what's the difference between oil versus like an extra minute in the oven with the vegan butter?

(Christina) Well, an extra minute in the oven with vegan butter is gonna give you a cookie that's a hockey puck.

Oil's gonna give you a crispy, like a snappy cookie.

-Okay.

-Cool?

-Yeah.

-Great.

(Denise) I have a related cookie question.

-Okay.

-Um, which is, so I've finally gotten my cookies to a place where they're a little crunchy on the outside, they're moist on the inside, I really like them.

I try to not be an addict when they're warm out of the oven, but it's really hard.

But then I put them away, I let them cool, I put them away, and in the morning my crunch is gone.

(Christina) Okay, that's because there's nothing in them like an egg that's keeping them crunchy.

So what stops that is you put a piece of parchment paper between each layer of cookies, and you end up with crunchy cookies as long as you want them.

(Denise) And what are you putting them in?

A sealed container that has a tight lid.

-Okay.

-Cool.

-Thank you.

-Sounds good.

(Christina) Okay.

♪ So for this next recipe, we're gonna make a dish that's sweet and savory to help to nourish the liver and help it to discharge toxins and metabolize better.

So we're gonna take shallots.

Shallots are a little bit sweeter than onions.

Most people don't use them because they're a little challenging to peel.

But it's worth the effort 'cause they're really, really sweet, and that sweetness is really gonna help you along when it comes to the way your liver manages all the challenges we give it.

So they're gonna go into the bottom of the pan, right?

There's no oil, there's no liquid, nothing, right?

The next thing that's gonna go in is Brussels sprouts.

And Brussels sprouts are high on a stalk and they give us this light sort of energy and help the body to come upward, right?

When you eat Brussels sprouts, you can trim the bottom off like this, or you can cut a little cross in the bottom like this, or you can do neither, it doesn't matter.

Take the Brussels sprouts, put them in the pan, right?

Make it easy.

And the next thing to go in is dried cherries.

These are cherries in their dried form, and the anthocyanins, say that fast, anthocyanins are anti-inflammatory and help to settle the liver down.

But they have sugar in them 'cause they're dried.

So what we did was soak them.

And now we're just gonna take them out of that liquid and put them right on top.

And then we add a little bit of fresh corn.

Because corn, think about corn.

Corn just makes you happy, right?

Yes, it's nutrient dense and it's a whole grain, but when you think about corn, you don't think, "I'm bummed."

So then we add a little bit of soy sauce.

Try to use organic.

You may use tamari as well.

It's a little saltier, so be careful with it.

And then enough water to coat the bottom of the pan.

And then this is gonna cook, covered, for about 30 minutes.

We're gonna put this up to cook.

And then after about, mm, 25, 30 minutes, it will look like this.

Look at the beautiful green of those Brussels sprouts.

They are perfect.

Now if you like your Brussels sprouts super soft, then you have to cook it longer.

So what we're gonna do now, see, there's still some liquid, what we're gonna do is take some arrowroot, or you may use kuzu.

Arrowroot is similar to cornstarch in that you dissolve it in cold water and it helps to thicken.

So it's gonna turn this excess liquid that we want, because of the flavor, into a lovely glaze.

So you're gonna pour it right on top, give this a little stir until it's clear, and you have a side dish that will leave you one of the happiest campers ever.

♪ So people always email and tell me they're so confused about what to do for their little aches and pains.

They buy creams, they take pills, they use potions, and your aches and pains always seem to come back, and it's because you're not drawing the inflammation out.

Well, the greatest anti-inflammatory of all time lives in your refrigerator.

Yep, simple green cabbage.

Try to always buy your cabbage like this with the big outer leaves on there, because you're gonna take these off before you use your cabbage, and you're gonna keep these in the fridge in a plastic bag.

And let's say you come home from the gym and you have an achy elbow because you banged it at the gym.

You take an ice cold cabbage leaf and you cup it around your elbow, and you keep changing the leaves, that's why you need a couple, so that they stay ice cold.

And it pulls the ache out.

If you have an achy knee... And you see how cabbage-- Mother Nature's so smart.

She made it fit right on your knee like that.

You can use it for mastitis for a nursing mother.

It cools that inflammation.

If a baby has a low-grade fever that you know doesn't require a doctor, you cup the fever-- the fevered head in the little cabbage leaf.

You can use it for adults with a low-grade fever.

Put it on the wrist points.

And you just keep changing the leaves.

And you can keep these in the fridge and use them up to about 10 times.

Then you have to discard them.

So, that's cabbage topically.

Imagine what it could do for you if, I don't know, you ate it.

The anti-inflammatory effects take effect in the body.

So cabbage is usually large, and we don't really know quite how to approach it.

So, you can slice it off this way.

You can take the cabbage, plant your knife directly in the center.

And then turn the cabbage halfway around.

And turn it and split it in half.

And the easiest way to use cabbage is to shred it for like a salad or a coleslaw.

So what you want to do is do what's called breaking the cabbage's back, which sounds horrible, but it's a really easy way to describe this.

You take the cabbage, you cut out the core.

The core can be bitter, so compost that.

And then you take the cabbage and you pull it apart like this.

And then you take it, hear it crunch?

You're breaking it.

And what this does is allow you to have sort of a better grip for shredding it.

And then you just take your knife, run it along as thick or thin as you like, turn it if you don't want the pieces to be so long, and then you just shred like this.

No food processor required.

And you have cabbage that's beautifully cut for coleslaw or salad, and you get the great anti-inflammatory effects.

♪ When we think of our liver, you really want to think about bitter taste and how the liver breaks down fat.

And this dish does it all.

So, we're gonna take some red onion.

Red onion, you can use white onion if you like or yellow onion, but for me red onion is sweeter.

It's also richer in magnesium and potassium, so you get a little extra mineral hit.

So we're just gonna slice this into thin half-moon pieces.

Keep your fingers out of the way.

And then this is gonna go right into our skillet.

And into the skillet, after the onions go in, we'll add some extra-virgin olive oil.

And go light here because we will be making a dressing that has some fat in it, so you don't want your dish to be oily.

That kind of defeats the purpose.

So we're gonna let those sweat while we prepare the shiitake mushrooms.

These are shiitake mushrooms.

Shiitake mushrooms grow on oak logs, they don't grow in dirt so you don't have to wash them, and they contain, under the cap, these spores.

And those spores can reduce blood pressure, lower your cholesterol numbers, wax your car-- no, I'm kidding-- take plaque from your veins and arteries, and in this case, help the body to break down fat.

The better the liver can process and break down fat, the better you feel.

So they're gonna go right on top of the onions, and this whole thing is just gonna sweat.

We'll do one more.

You can hear it starting to pop a little bit.

So now we're gonna season this up.

We're gonna take some white wine, just a little bit.

And if you don't want to use white wine, use water.

I like the richness that white wine gives me when it kind of deglazes, but if you don't want to use it, don't use it.

Then we're gonna give it a little hit of salt so that the mushrooms will bleed their liquid into the pan and not stick.

And then we'll move them around just a little bit to kind of get them cooking.

And the next thing that goes in is hot chili flakes, these are red pepper flakes.

If you want to leave the hot out, leave it out, but, in this dish, stimulates circulation, helps the liver do its job.

Everything has a purpose.

But go to your taste.

If you don't like hot, maybe just do that much.

But my crew, we love hot, yes?

(cheering) Yeah, there you go, so we're going hot.

Okay, so we're gonna stir that in and we're gonna let these just sort of simmer in the wine while we get the dressing ready.

So, the dressing contains sesame tahini.

Now, you could do this with peanut butter, but tahini has a purpose here.

Number one, it's thinner and less fatty.

You want to buy tahini that pours like this.

If it's thick like peanut butter, it might be old and it might not be a great quality.

So you store it upside down and then you toss the jar this way and it should be liquidy, okay?

Then we're gonna add a little brown rice syrup, which is a complex sweetener made from fermented brown rice that tastes like butterscotch, really, it's lovely.

That's just gonna take the edge off the heat in the pan.

A little red wine vinegar, just a touch.

Helps to break down the fattiness of the tahini.

A little balsamic vinegar to boost the sweet.

Make sure you buy balsamic vinegar that has a cork in the top.

That's the good stuff.

A little salt.

To taste.

And then the juice of half a lemon.

Just squeeze that in.

You can use all those cool little gadgets to catch the seeds, or you can catch the seeds in your hand and not have another thing to clean.

Up to you.

Then you're gonna take a whisk and mix this.

Try not to add any liquid.

You want this to be sort of a creamy sauce.

And once that comes together, set it aside.

Check your mushrooms.

See how beautiful they are?

They're just simmering.

They're starting to get a little bit golden, but they're not sticking.

Thank you, white wine.

Now we take escarole.

Escarole's a bitter green loved and adored by every Italian on the planet.

So most people tell you to tip this off.

Don't do it till you pull the leaves off.

You want to wash escarole very well 'cause it's sandy.

And then we'll just pull part of the leaves off, we're making a smallish salad.

Now you tip this bottom brown part off.

Don't do it too early or your greens'll go bad faster.

Then you're gonna cut this into bite-size pieces, just like this.

Add it on top of our shiitake mushrooms.

Another touch of salt so the greens wilt.

And then you stir them just a little bit.

And now in goes your dressing.

It's a nice, creamy, thick, almost like a paste, right?

You want this, because the liquid from the greens will help it to break down.

And now you just stir quickly, there's lemon juice in here, we're gonna stir quickly.

As soon as your leaves wilt, you're ready to go.

You can tell the dish is hot enough if it smells hot.

Of course if it smells so hot you can't catch your breath, maybe it's a little too hot.

So now we're just gonna take and turn our salad into a serving bowl.

And you want to do this, you don't want the greens to overcook, so get it out of the pan.

And there we have it.

A delicious shiitake escarole salad.

Smells so delicious.

I can't think of anybody's liver who won't like this one.

So what do you say?

Time to get Back to the Cutting Board and cook.

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 ChristinaCooks.com 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 800-266-5815.

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 800-266-5815.

♪