Superfast ways to incorporate Superfoods into you diet

January 13, 1:33 PMChicago Food ExaminerRebecca Wheeler

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Healthy start: oatmeal and berries/Photo by fnkymnky

I’m hoping that the last post left you wondering how you might get more Superfoods into your diet. Instead of trying to tackle complicated recipes with long ingredient lists, I think you have a much better chance of getting these foods into your daily diet regularly with a few simple tweaks. Here are my favorite ways to boost your diet to Super-status:

Berries: try keeping frozen wild blueberries in the freezer to throw into cereal (they defrost in cold milk in about 2 minutes), oatmeal and smoothies (recipe here). Their smaller size means more antioxidants: they have a higher skin to fruit ratio than a regular blueberry and the skin has much of the good stuff.

Beans: Canned beans are a great pantry staple and a great way to, well, keep the digestive system running smoothly. They fill you up without adding lots of calories. The darker the bean, the higher the antioxidants. Try mixing rinsed black beans with salsa to perk up your morning scrambled eggs, throw some into a salad, or make a quick black beans soup for a filling but healthy lunch (recipe below-leftovers freeze great.)

If you want to feel really righteous about your diet, fit a few Superfoods salads into your week: mix a couple hefty handfuls of baby spinach with a sprinkle of your favorite nuts (walnuts and almonds are great), sunflower seeds, some fresh berries or orange segments and a quick vinaigrette made with extra virgin olive oil, your favorite vinegar, salt and pepper.

For a filling vegetarian lunch wrap a sweet potato in foil and bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour or until tender when pierced with a knife (super quick version-just microwave until tender). Top with some lightly sautéed baby spinach and garlic and a dollop of ricotta cheese seasoned with salt and pepper.

Roast a pint of cherry or grape tomatoes (drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper) in a small Pyrex baking dish at 425 degrees until browned and some have popped. They make a great bed for sautéed or grilled fish or chicken, especially with a squirt of lemon and or some chopped capers thrown in. Roasted grape tomatoes are also wonderful in pasta, used as a bruschetta topping, or thrown in a salad.

Black Bean Soup
Serves 4

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 yellow or green bell pepper, diced
1 jalapeno or Serrano pepper, minced (seed the pepper to make the soup less spicy)
1 teaspoon freshly ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder (I like chipotle or ancho or a combination of both)
Kosher salt to taste
1 can black beans, undrained
1 14 ounce can whole tomatoes
Chicken stock (1-2 cups)
Chicken andouille sausage, sliced crosswise in 1/4 inch slices and browned (optional)
Cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
1 lime, cut in 4 wedges

Heat a medium saucepan and add the olive oil. Sauté the onion and peppers until they are tender. Add the garlic and sauté a minute more, or until the garlic is fragrant. Add the spices and combine well. Add the black beans. Using your hands, crush the tomatoes and add along with their juices. Add enough chicken stock to reach the soup consistency you like. Add salt to taste and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Puree some of the soup using an immersion blender or by ladling some of the soup into a standard blender and pureeing (be careful that the hot steam does not force the lid off and splatter you with hot soup! Cover blender carefully with a towel instead).  Serve with andouille sausage on top of soup, with a garnish of cilantro leaves and a wedge of lime.