I love the holiday season and one of my favorite recipes this time of year is cranberry sauce. In my quest to remove refined sugar from my diet, however, I needed to rethink my traditional cranberry sauce recipe. This recipe uses no processed sugar and, instead, uses maple syrup (Grade B), which is full of magnesium, potassium, calcium and zinc. It has tons of antioxidants, boots your immune health and acts as an anti-inflammatory in the body.
 
If you don’t have maple syrup in your pantry, I suggest you get some. It has a very long shelf life and, if kept in a glass bottle, can last even longer.  Many people ask me what the difference is between Grade A and Grade B syrup.  Grade B is produced later in the season and has a darker color, a thicker viscosity, a more robust maple flavor, and more minerals.
 
I like this recipe because you can still taste a hint of the bitterness of the cranberries, yet its not overwhelming because it is cooked with the warm sweet flavors of cloves. The fresh orange and lime juice medley really complement the dish and allow the flavors to shine.
 
Note: You cannot replace syrup with honey in this recipe. When honey is heated (above boiling point) it becomes toxic to your body.

Sweet Masala
 by Divya Alter, from What to Eat for How You Feel: The New Ayurvedic Kitchen (Rizzoli, 2017)

​Ingredients:

• 1Tbs fennel seeds
• 1Tbs coriander seed
• 1Tbs rose petals
• 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon chips
• ¾ teaspoon cardamom seeds
• ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract powder

 
Instructions:
 
Grind all ingredients to fine powder. Store in airtight container, in a dark and dry place.
 ​

​Clean Eating Starts with Clean Food!
 
Consider this scenario:

You are at a party and see a fresh fruit plate; you make a beeline toward the fruit. When you reach for the bright red strawberry, do you think about whether the food was washed, how it was washed, or where it was grown?

​Check out one of my favorite websites https://www.ewg.org/ where you will find information on the “Dirty Dozen”, an up-to-date list of produce that contains higher concentrations of pesticides. While on the website, please check out the “Clean Fifteen”, a list of produce that has fewer pesticides and lower total concentrations of pesticide residues.
 
Facts:

• An annual report by the Environmental Working Group found that nearly 70% of samples of 48 types of conventionally grown produce were contaminated with pesticide residue. 
• More than 98% of samples of strawberries, spinach, peaches, nectarines, cherries and apples tested positive for residue of at least one pesticide.
• A single sample of strawberries showed 20 different pesticides.
• Spinach samples had, on average, 1.8 times as much pesticide residue by weight than any other crop.

 
Though studies have shown that washing our produce can reduce the pesticide residue, it will not eliminate them altogether. We must choose our fruits and vegetables wisely and clean our food thoroughly before we ingest it. Clean food always makes for healthier bodies!

​Chef Ryann