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Prosciutto Wrapped Persimmons

A working lunch in the health conscious world seems to be a big faux pas. It’s important to practice mindful eating, taking time to enjoy your food so that your body properly absorbs all the nourishment. Work and food can play well together though when you’re in the right company. I spent the afternoon with my supremely talented friend learning how to achieve brand cohesion through photography. We didn’t have time for a complex meal so I kept our lunch simple.

Prosciutto, persimmons and olives. I wanted to highlight how easy three ingredients can come together to create a complete meal. Prosciutto for protein, persimmons for carbs and olives for fat and carbs. It was just the right amount of fuel to get us through the afternoon and we also shared some plantain chips as a crunchy treat.

The sweetness of the persimmons pairs wonderfully with the salty prosciutto. When you combine two delicate foods, you’re rewarded with all senses responding.

Prosciutto is a delicate meat, taking 2 months to 2 years to produce. Typically from a pig or wild boar, it’s a dry-cured ham that is thinly sliced and served uncooked. I used the fuyu or non-astringent variety of persimmons. They are much sweeter than others regardless of ripeness.

We enjoyed our colorful lunch while editing through photos and it was easy to savor each bite. The food and the photographs were our art. I learned how to capture our story on camera with my friend Brandi’s guidance. She has a well-trained artistic eye. Her photography is stunning and everything she touches shimmers. Go follow her on Instagram. You’ll be inspired to live a more beautiful life.

Prosciutto Wrapped Persimmons

2015-01-12 08:11:57

Serves 2

Juicy persimmons wrapped in salty prosciutto for a quick snack.

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Prep Time

10 min

Prep Time

10 min

Ingredients

8 slices prosciutto
2 persimmons - sliced

Instructions

Wrap 2 slices of persimmon with 1 slice of prosciutto. You can use a toothpick to secure or eat with your fingers.

By Brittany

Sparkle Kitchen https://sparklekitchen.com/

Dairy-free, Export, Gluten-free, Grain-free, No sugar, Nut-Free, Paleo, Raw

Chopped Greek Salad

My grandmother is Greek and Polish. Her Greek side always dominated in the family though. So you’d think I would have grown up eating delicious Mediterranean food, but sadly she wasn’t gifted with the domestic goddess gene. She could make three good dishes, moussaka, baklava and Greek salad. At major family gatherings we only entrusted her with the salad. She added a colorful variety of chopped vegetables and a yummy lemon olive oil dressing. I always looked forward to it.

In Greece, a salad is served with every meal. The trendy Mediterranean diet rises above the rest of the fads. It actually recommends eating real, whole foods and healthy fats at every meal. All of your foods are working for you.

Colorful foods used throughout Mediterranean cooking combats the aging process. More color equals more antioxidants. We’re exposed to free radical damage every moment of our lives, the air we breath and even sunlight generates free radicals. These wreak havoc on our bodies, damaging the fragile fats in each cell leading to less resiliency. Free radicals speed up the aging process. That’s where antioxidants swoop in to save the day. Antioxidants neutralize free radicals, stopping harm in it’s tracks.

Antioxidants are best received from food. Plants contain hundreds of compounds which work in unknown ways. The science needed to discover them doesn’t exist yet, so it’s impossible to bottle them in supplement form. We simply don’t have the formula to recreate all that a plant feeds us. Antioxidants are made up of hundreds of elements and supplements only contain one to ten of these isolated components. Just one fruit of vegetable can contain more than 150 compounds. A famous study, the CARET study, showed that antioxidant supplements actually cause more harm in the body, offering little benefit. Dr. Michael R. Eades puts it perfectly, “It’s almost always better to pop the plant than to pop the pill.”

The recipe is as simple as it gets. With an abundance of antioxidants and healthy fat, you could eat a variation of it every day for a nutrition boost. Throw some fish on top and you have a complete meal.

Makes 6 servings.

2 cups zucchini – chopped
1 cup carrots – chopped
2 cups tomatoes – seeded and chopped
1 1/2 cups avocado – chopped
1 cup cucumber – seeded and chopped
1/2 cup Kalamata olives
1/4 cup feta – crumbled (optional)

Dressing
juice of 1 lemon – about 1/4 cup
1 tsp coarse sea salt
2 cloves garlic – minced
3 tbsp olive oil

►In a large bowl, whisk together lemon, garlic, sea salt and then drizzle in olive oil.
►Toss zucchini, carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, avocado and olives together with the dressing in the bowl. Add in feta just before serving.

Resources:

Risk factors for lung cancer and for intervention effects in CARET, the Beta-Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8901853

Protein Power Life Plan, Drs. Michael R. and Mary Dan Eades, http://www.proteinpower.com/books.htm

Dairy-free, Egg Free, Gluten-free, Grain-free, How-To, No sugar, Nut-Free, Paleo, Salad, Sauce, Side Dish, Vegetarian

Roasted Heirloom Tomato Salsa

Pick up a tomato and bite right into it. If the juices drip down to your elbows then you know you have a good one. I once passed a road side farm stand in Arkansas that read, “elbow licking good!” I pulled over and bought two bags.

Now that I’m in Brooklyn, I’m tasting the bounty of the Northeast. And I must say the tomatoes up here are just as flavor-packed as the Southern ones. The colorful heirloom variety are my favorite and I tend to get overzealous when I see beautiful produce. That’s why I came home with over three pounds of tomatoes.

Typically I just buy things based on their aesthetics and find out how to prepare them later. This time though I actually had a plan. My husband has been dreaming of homemade salsa and I wanted to try a new variation. I also wanted to prolong the shelf life by roasting the vegetables first. This recipe is heavy on the garlic so feel free to tone it down if it’s not your thing.

Tomatoes contain carotenoids: alpha- and beta-carotene, lutein, and lycopene. These act as antioxidants to help protect your cells. In order to be properly absorbed in the body though they must be consumed with fat in your diet. Add some good olive oil to whatever meal you’re enjoying with the salsa. In my attempt to minimize chip intake, I reach for zucchini and pepper slices to satisfy crunch cravings then drizzle olive oil on top of the salsa.

Makes about 2 cups.

1 lb variety of heirloom tomatoes – cut in half
1 tsp salt, plus more to taste
1 medium jalapeño pepper – sliced in half
4 medium cloves garlic – peeled
1 medium red onion – peeled and quartered
1/3 cup loosely chopped fresh cilantro
2 tsp freshly squeezed lime juice or 1/2 a lime

►Preheat broiler. Line a large rimmed backing sheet with aluminum foil. Place all tomatoes skin side down on the pan. Sprinkle salt over the tomatoes. Add the jalapeño, garlic and onion to the pan and place in broiler for 20-30 minutes, or until the vegetables begin to blacken. Remove from the oven and let cool for ten minutes.

►Remove the stem and seeds from the jalapeño. Place tomatoes, jalapeño, garlic and onion in a food processor. Process for 1 minute until all is finely chopped. Add in the cilantro and lime juice, pulsing a few times to combine.

►Store in a glass jar for up to one week.