Hero Foods

"Hero Foods" are foods that provide rich amounts of key nutrients, specifically the nutrients that can be challenging for vegetarians to get enough of (like calcium, protein, iron, Vitamin B12 and zinc). These Hero Foods are excellently healthy and great for everyone to enjoy, so we thought we'd share them with you.

From The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook, here's their list of Hero Foods:

Do you already cook with many of these 'hero' ingredients? 

Are there any that you are excited to work into your repertoire? 

Fava Fundip

Fava Beans are and excellent source of fiber and folate. Folate is necessary for the production and health of new cells and is needed to make DNA and RNA. Kids will love to help you shell the fava beans (at least for a little while ;) )

Fava Fundip:

• 1 lb unshelled fava beans (this equates to 1 cup of shelled beans)
• 3 tbl veggie stock
• 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp chives, chopped fine
• salt and pepper to taste

Preparing your fava beans:
Fresh favas need to be husked. Shell the bean by pulling on the stem of the pod and "unzip" them on both sides. This will remove the outer shell and expose the bean. The beans have a waxy coating that needs to be removed. Remove by dropping beans into boiling water for 1 minute, then quickly plunging into ice water to stop the cooking process. Now remove the waxy outer coating.

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.

CAUTION: Do not eat raw fava beans. The risk of eating raw fava beans is small, but some have a reaction.