Yes, the B stands for bacon, but it’s not real bacon (it looks like it though, doesn’t it!?) It’s sneaky, equally addictive bacon made from portobello mushrooms and some fancy spice work.
Now that we have that out of the way, hello! I was thinking about BLT sandwiches last week, and really just how great they are. Salty, crisp bacon, creamy mayo, tart/sweet tomato, fresh lettuce –a classic combo of greatness.
When I think of comfort food, I think of tomatoes. I am a quarter Lebanese by blood and about 2/3 Lebanese when it comes to food obsessions. Although we are third generation Canadian, my sisters and I grew up embracing all things tomato, parsley, mint and lemon. For a special treat, my Mom would make stuffed grapevine leaves (we would help roll) baked in a tomato sauce, served with a classic tabouli salad. If it was just the four of us and our Mom for the night, she would often make the very most epic ratatouille with chick peas, finished with a healthy squeeze of lemon and some parsley for dinner. When we were sick, naturally, we got tomato soup.
Perhaps this is why I gravitate towards tomatoes when planning menus for clients who are unwell. It doesn’t hurt that tomatoes are also one of the richest sources of the antioxidant, lycopene, which is well known for its cancer fighting and preventing abilities. The lycopene is actually more abundant in cooked tomatoes than in raw, so a slow-simmered tomato soup is especially healing.
Potatoes are my favourite food, hands down. So how happy was I (also surprised) to learn that potatoes are actually valuable cancer crushers? They are chock full of potassium, a mineral that some natural cancer-fighting protocols have been designed around, and vitamin B6, which helps break down protein and supports red blood cell health. That’s right, potatoes are good for you.
The problem with potatoes is how easily they can be led down the garden path. You will almost always find them peeled (goodbye fiber), fried (potato chips, French fries), or drowning in cream or mayo -potato salad being a good example of this. The word ‘salad’ used almost as loosely as when it is used for macaroni salad. Salad? Really? Let’s make the salad part of this potato salad as present as the potato part.
