Salad Days

Many of society’s most devastating diseases—cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s, to name a few—share a common denominator: faulty angiogenesis, the body’s growth of new capillary blood vessels.

At a recent Ted Talk, William Li presented a new way to think about treating cancer and other diseases: anti-angiogenesis, preventing the growth of blood vessels that feed a tumor. The crucial first (and best) step: Eating cancer-fighting foods that cut off the supply lines and beat cancer at its own game.

As a kid meal-time math was pretty simple: Chili con carne = bueno; chili con frijoles = malo.

As with most foods I didn’t like, it was the texture of the kidney beans that turned me off. This year, however, I discovered that the home-cooked kidney beans are actually quite good. And since they are one of the cheapest of the dried beans, I’ve been looking for ways to incorporate them into different dishes.

Here’s is a quick and tasty summer salad that has several good things going for it: You can whip it up in advance of when you need it. It packs well for picnics. And you can stretch it to feed extra guests just by adding a bit of rice.

Corn & Kidney Bean Salad
Serves 4

Dressing:
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sugar
black pepper to taste
Salad:
3 cups cooked kidney beans (or 2 cans rinsed and drained)
2 cups corn (frozen works fine)
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/4 cup onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup parsley, minced
avocado, diced (optional)

Whisk the dressing ingredients together. Combine the salad ingredients in a bowl and toss with the dressing. Top with avocado chunks if desired.

Corn, Kidney Bean & Rice Salad

Stretch the above salad by adding 2 cups of cooked rice (2/3 c rice cooked in 1 1/3 c water) and an extra tablespoon or so of lime juice. Serve it over a bed of torn lettuce.

There’s something about summer that just screams mixed drinks - margaritas, daiquiris, and (best of all) piña coladas. I had some leftover coconut milk from making the Indian Cauliflower & Kidney Bean Soup earlier this week, so I whipped a batch of what I call “green-ya coladas” for breakfast.

Not quite your mamma’s cocktail, but just right for getting your morning off to a tropical start.

Green-Ya-Colada
Yield: 24 ounces, serves 1 or 2

1/2 cup soy milk
1/4 cup coconut milk
4 ounces spinach
1 banana
1/4 pineapple, peeled and cored
1 tbsp flax seed

Put everything in a high powered blend and blend until smooth.