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Transcript
Welcome to The Sensitive Kitchen. Where home cooks are inspired to Cook to Enable Those You Love to Flourish.
I’m Cindy Sullivan, registered dietitian, passionate nutrition educator, and accomplished home cook. Whether you’re changing how you cook for food sensitivities, allergies, intolerances, or just trying to eat healthier on a budget, you’re in the right place. Most episodes, I will share favorite recipes as well as modification tips, and nutrition benefits. Occasionally I’ll have a guest or special episode like modifying holiday favorites.
My favorite foods? They’re raspberries and homemade chocolate chip cookies. My latest cooking project was long fermented sourdough bread.
Summer picnics and celebrations are kicking off. What are you bringing? Today Iwant to talk about Summer Tortellini Salad.
Whether it’s a picnic, a barbecue, bridal shower, an outdoor concert. These are all places I bring Summer Tortellini Salad. The Marinated Sundried Tomatoes. We talked about in episode 028 really elevate this dish and save you from last minute chopping. The salad is easy to make a head; just add the cashews right before serving.
The Marinated Sundried Tomatoes are the stars of the show. Since the salad does not rely on fresh produce, I suppose I could make it year round, but it always comes out in the summer for our summer events. Paired with my favorite gaspacho is the ultimate summer picnic. The Marinated Sundried Tomatoes must be prepared a day in advance. So plan ahead.
Let’s talk about the ingredients:
First of all, the Marinated Sundried Tomatoes. And like I said, I talked about those in episode 28 and those need to be made at least one day ahead.
Tortellini. I use frozen sometimes as I’ve had trouble, sometimes cooking the dried.
Marinated artichoke hearts
cashews,
and a very simple dressing made from lemon, oil, salt and garlic.
In terms of substitutions for allergies,
There is gluten-free tortellini at most major grocery stores in the refrigerator section. I have not found any yet in the frozen foods, which is usually where I buy mine.
Now dairy-free and egg-free tortellini are available from Kite Hill. They make my favorite vegan cream cheese, but beware their tortellini is pricey. So if you’re making it for a crowd, you might want to make a little bit that’s dairy-free egg-free and the rest just regular. Or if you’re feeling really adventurous and have some extra time on your hands, you can make your own. Now I have not done this yet, but there’s a recipe that I looked at online that looks wonderful. I will put it in the resources at foodsensitivitykitchen.com/episode 029 if you want to try and make your own homemade vegan tortellini.
In terms of cashews, if you can’t eat cashews for this recipe, I probably would tried pine nuts as I think their flavor profile would go best with these ingredients. Now I warn you. I haven’t tried them. And to be honest, I probably would skip this recipe instead of substituting for the cashews. The cashews, the little bit of sweetness that goes with the cashews are really integral to this recipe.
Marinated artichokes hearts. There aren’t very many allergens here, but look for a different brand if you find one in your grocery store.
In terms of preparation, as I mentioned, your Marinated Sundried Tomatoes need to be made at least one day in advance, but you can make them a couple weeks in advance – if they last that long! You may have to hide them in your refrigerator.
So for preparation – prepare the dressing so that it’s ready. And really it’s just squeezing the lemon, mincing a little clove of garlic, adding some oil and a little bit of salt.
While your water comes to a boil to cook the tortellini, slice the artichoke hearts and about three slices each lengthwise so they’re smaller pieces. So you can maybe get a piece of tortellini on your fork, as well as an artichoke heart.
Cook the tortellini until done. Drain it and place it in a large bowl. Toss with the dressing while the tortellini is still hot. This will not only keep it from sticking together, but it’ll allow a little bit of that dressing to penetrate into the pasta.
Add about half a recipe of homemade marinated sun dried tomatoes. You want to add enough so that you get a piece of Marinated Sundried Tomato in most bites. Stir in the sliced artichoke hearts. The salad can be prepared to this point up to two days ahead, maybe even a little more. The salad has more flavor at room temperature. So take it out a little while before serving and stir in the cashews just before serving.
If you’re going to make it and serve it right away, it needs to stand for about an hour. And I usually throw it in the refrigerator for that.
For our nutrition tidbit today, let’s talk a little bit about cashews. They’re rich in protein, healthy fats and antioxidants, such as polyphenols. Cashews actually offer health benefits. I thought today I’d give you three interesting facts about cashews and then talk a little bit about them.
First one is they are an excellent source of copper. One of the very best vegetarian sources of copper are cashews.
My second interesting tidbit is that antioxidants, both flavonoids and polyphenols are found in cashews. They’re not as significantly affected when they’re roasted or fried. So use whatever cashews, whatever form you desire.
And my third interesting fact is that fewer calories may be extracted by our bodies than would be expected when you calculate how much fat carbohydrate and protein are in cashews. In other words, the calories that are listed on the label might be a little bit high for how much the body actually takes out of the cashews. So that’s good news.
According to the USDA, one ounce of unroasted unsalted cashews provide you with about 160 calories, five grams of protein, 12 grams of fat, which are mostly unsaturated, nine grams of carbohydrates, which is higher than most nuts and a gram of fiber.
In terms of vitamins and minerals – In that one ounce of cashews, you’re going to get two thirds of the daily value of copper, 20% of magnesium and manganese, 15% of your daily value for zinc, 13% for phosphorus, 11% for iron 10% of both selenium, a mineral you need, and the B vitamin thiamine, 8% of your daily value for vitamin K and 7% for vitamin B6. This is a nutrient dense food.
As I mentioned, cashews are excellent vegetarian sources of copper providing more of the mineral than most other non-meat sources, because most copper in our diet comes from meat sources. For those of you who eat it, in fact, eating a quarter cup of cashews every day gives you about 98% of your recommended daily intake of copper.
An interesting thing is it’s possible that nuts, including cashews may help with weight loss. They contain fiber and protein and fat. All of which may help you feel hungry less rapidly. In other words, fiber, protein, and fat all help you stay full longer. And as I mentioned earlier, at least one study showed that the calories absorbed from cashews actually may be less than that160 per one ounce of cashews.
In terms of storage, if you purchase them in bulk, you want to put your cashews in an airtight container and you want to keep them away from significant sources of heat. Room temperature is acceptable for short term storage, but on a long-term basis, you want to throw your cashews either in the fridge or as I do, in my freezer in a freezer bag.
I hope you have a wonderful summer. I am so looking forward to sharing some of my top tomato recipes with you coming up and other ways to use produce, because I know a lot of you have planted gardens or going to farmer’s markets. And it’s just a time in the summertime when produce just fresh produce explodes, and I have way more recipes and I can share it will take me a couple months for me to share a couple of years for me to share all my recipes for fresh produce like corn tomato salad or ratatouille or eggplant, tomato caper ragout or sauce. Yum, Yum, yum. Some of you are beginning to get fresh tomatoes in season, or you will soon. For those of us in Michigan, we have to wait a few more months, but we’re still looking forward to it.
I hope your summer is going wonderfully. It’s off to a great start. Keep Cooking to Enable Those You love to Flourish. I hope to hear from you soon, !
Leave me a review and as always the recipe for summer tortellini salad, as well as that homemade sundried tomatoes in that salad can be found at foodsensitivitykitchen.com/episode029. Have a great day. Bye bye.
Resources
To make your own gluten free, dairy free, egg free tortellini, try this recipe https://biancazapatka.com/en/homemade-vegan-pasta/
References
Health Benefits of Cashews – Nourish by Web MD https://www.webmd.com/diet/health-benefits-cashews#1
Healthline Are Cashews Good for You? Nutrition, Benefits, and Downsides Written by Alina Petre, MS, RD (NL) on June 10, 2020 — Medically reviewed by Kathy W. Warwick, R.D., CDE
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6356908/
Metabolizable Energy from Cashew Nuts is Less than that Predicted by Atwater Factors David J. Baer* and Janet A. Novotny Nutrients. 2019 Jan; 11(1): 33. Published online 2018 Dec 24. doi: 10.3390/nu11010033
https://fdc.nal.usda.gov Food Data Central
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jfq/2017/9038257/ Hadeel Ali Ghazzawi, Khalid Al-Ismail, “A Comprehensive Study on the Effect of Roasting and Frying on Fatty Acids Profiles and Antioxidant Capacity of Almonds, Pine, Cashew, and Pistachio”, Journal of Food Quality, vol. 2017, Article ID 9038257, 8 pages, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/9038257
https://nuts.com/healthy-eating/benefits-of-cashews Benefits of Cashews
