Looking to expand your cooking skills?

This week we’re exploring a method for making gluten-free, vegan steamed rice noodle rolls (Cheung Fun) at home!

🍽️ Yogurt to Limit Type 2 Diabetes?

🍽️ 5 Reasons to drink Kombucha

🍽️ Whole Grain Risotto Rice with Vegetables

Healthy News Dose

Yogurt to Limit Type 2 Diabetes?

I was surprised to see the FDA announcement in March of this year to allow yogurt makers to claim that yogurt products may reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes!

Obviously, not all yogurts are created equal—some highly-processed yogurts with added sugars are worse for you when compared to natural yogurts made without added sugars.

Surprisingly, this line of thinking was not considered relevant by the FDA, as summarized by Dr. Marion Nestle: “According to the FDA’s review of the studies, the amount of sugar in the yogurt made no difference to the results.”

I’m going to ignore the FDA’s scandalous interpretation of the data here, and stick with the advice for readers that yogurts without added sugars are objectively better for your health compared to yogurts with high levels of added sugars, especially in the context of Type 2 diabetes risk factors.

If you want to really take back control, and pack more probiotics into your life, homemade yogurt is the way to go!

You can join me on us on the yogurt journey here and get your own yogurt-making kit here!

Doctor Explains 5 Health Benefits of Drinking Home-Brewed Kombucha!

Dr. Lindsay Marie, is spilling the tea for us on Kombucha. And I gotta say, kombucha lives up to the hype! This fizzy fermented drink has some serious perks for your body, such as;

✅ Gut health for days - Kombucha's probiotics repopulate your gut microbiome, strengthen your core, and amp up immunity.

✅ Detoxify your bod - Antioxidants like DSL cleanse your system and help your liver detox. Bye bye toxins!

✅ Get buzzed by natural energy - A touch of caffeine plus B-vitamins gives you sustained energy and mental clarity without the crash.

✅ A heart-healthy sip - Studies show kombucha improves cholesterol, blood pressure, and reduces atherosclerotic plaques. Cheers to heart health!

✅ Blood sugar helper - Kombucha slows carb digestion and may improve insulin sensitivity. Great news for diabetic peeps!

So drink up and get your health on with kombucha! This fizzy elixir packs a probiotic punch.

Just make sure it's homemade as you’d be surprised about the horrors of store-bought kombucha, more on that here!

The Cooking Corner

Whole Grain Risotto Rice with Vegetables

If you can’t find a whole grain rice for this dish that is also a starchy, short-grain rice, regular risotto rice (like Arborio, Baldo, or Carnaroli rice) will work great here.

This dish isn’t technically a risotto--the recipe I’ve provided is dairy-free and of course gluten-free, but the active cooking process reminds me of making risotto. Add whatever vegetables you have sitting around in your fridge!

Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons olive oil

• ½ white onion, cut large dice

• 1 cleaned leek, white and light green sections cut into half-inch sections

• ¼ red bell pepper, cut large dice

• 2 Tablespoons water, for deglazing your pan

• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt, or more to taste

• A few grinds of fresh black pepper, or more to taste

• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced

• 1 ripe tomato, cut large dice (optional)

• 1 cup whole grain rice that is also short grain rice, or regular risotto rice

• 3 cups vegetable stock

• A squeeze of fresh lemon juice, for serving

Instructions:

1. Heat the olive oil in a medium-sized sauté pan, and increase the heat to high.

2. When the oil is hot, right before it begins smoking, add the diced onion, leek, and red bell pepper, and cook the vegetables over high heat for a few minutes to encourage the vegetables to brown.

3. When the vegetables are browned, add 2 Tablespoons of water to the pan, and scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to make sure you gather all the browned bits.

4. Add some Kosher salt, freshly-ground black pepper, along with the minced garlic and diced tomato.

5. Reduce the heat to medium-low, and continue to cook the vegetables on medium-low heat until they are beyond tender, and the tomato has broken down and softened completely, or roughly 30 minutes.

6. Heat the vegetable stock in a separate soup pot on the stove until it reaches a simmer, and then turn off the heat under the pot with the stock.

7. Add the rice to the cooked vegetables, along with one cup of the warm vegetable stock.

8. Cook the rice and vegetables while stirring until the stock has been completely absorbed by the rice, or roughly ten minutes.

9. Add another cup of vegetable stock, and cook while stirring for another ten minutes.

10. Add the final cup of vegetable stock, and cook until the liquid has been fully absorbed by the rice and the rice grains are completely tender.

11. If the rice requires more time to continue cooking, feel free to add a bit more water until your rice is tender.

12. Taste your rice, and add more Kosher salt or freshly-ground black pepper, if desired.

13. Serve hot, as a side dish or main entrée. I like to add a tiny squeeze of fresh lemon juice at the end.

Chef’s Word of the Week:

Have you ever seen a restaurant that includes a “quenelle” of something on the menu description for a given dish?

What the heck is a “quenelle”, anyways?

Simply put, a quenelle is a smooth, football-shaped scoop of anything spreadable that is served as part of a dish.

The “quenelle” shape can be made from products such as ice cream, butter, or a prepared mousse.

If you are making an ice cream quenelle, the ice cream should be slightly softened, smooth, and easily spreadable. You will often see cooks form an ice cream quenelle using two spoons, transferring the ice cream back and forth between spoons until you arrive at the perfect shape. You then rub the outside of the metal spoon with your hand to warm up the metal and encourage the ice cream quenelle to release from the inside of the spoon onto the plate or serving dish.

The purpose of the quenelle shape is mostly aesthetic, as it looks quite pretty. But it also shows off the skills of the chefs working in the kitchen.

Pro Tip: If you want to stop your ice cream quenelles from sliding around on the plate as you bring it to the table, try adding a small pile of some type of sweet crumble on the plate underneath where the quenelle will be placed, like a small pile of crushed chocolate cookies.

Upgrade your plate…

With Homemade Gluten-Free Vegan Cheung Fun Rice Noodle Rolls with Dipping Sauce!

I acquired a bamboo steamer a while back, and recently used it to try to make rice noodles at home for the first time. You can find recipes online, which generally include some water, a bit of rice flour, along with a smaller quantity of corn starch.

You mix the ingredients together until you arrive at a pancake batter-like consistency, and then add some batter to a well-oiled, metal-rimmed dish that fits in your bamboo steamer. I added sesame seeds on top of the batter here, because they taste good and look pretty!

Steam the rice noodle batter for about four minutes, and then carefully remove the metal dish from the steamer and separate the rice noodle sheet from the metal dish.

Roll up the rice noodle sheet, and serve with a quick sauce made from lime juice, peanut butter, tamari, sesame oil, sugar, and ground togarashi spice mix.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s newsletter!

Cooked something delicious recently? Share it in our official Facebook group!

Andy G

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