Healthiest Foods: Walnuts

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   If you’re going to go nuts over one nut, make it the walnut. It has more antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids than any other nut, says Courtney Burke, a certified nutrition consultant and healthy eating specialist at Whole Foods in Palm Beach Gardens. “Just one serving [one ounce or 14 shelled halves] of walnuts contains 90 percent of the recommended daily value of omega-3s,” she says.

Benefits

  • Omega-3 fatty acids: These polyunsaturated fatty acids promote and maintain good health, prevent heart disease and attack, and reduce the risk of stroke.
  • Vitamin E: According to the Mayo Clinic, vitamin E may help stop development of plaques in arteries, a common cause of coronary artery disease.

Eat it Because

   Omega-3 fatty acids support heart health, but a study in the journal Neurology also found they may protect against premature aging of the brain and middle-age memory problems.

 

Try This: Cool Ranch Collard Wrap, from Veggie Love Food Truck

Ingredients

  • 2 celery stalks, diced
  • 2 green onions, diced
  • 2 carrots, shredded
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 bunch parsley
  • 1 bunch dill
  • 1 cup walnuts, soaked for 6 hours then drained
  • 1 tsp. celery seed
  • 1/2 tsp. salt for walnuts, 1 tsp. salt for cashew cream sauce
  • Black pepper
  • 1 cup cashews, soaked for 8 hours then drained
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup water
  • Juice from half a lemon
  • 1 tbsp. nutritional yeast
  • Collard leaves
  • Sliced cucumbers
  • Sprouts, of your choosing

Method

  1. Place walnuts, garlic, parsley and dill in a food processor and pulse until blended well. Season with salt, celery seed and a few pinches of pepper.
  2. Combine walnut/herb mix in a bowl with chopped/shredded vegetables.
  3. For the cashew cream sauce, add cashews, water, lemon, salt and nutritional yeast to blender and blend very well, until smooth and creamy. If it is very thick, add more water. Taste and modify salt and lemon juice to liking. Blend until able to pour.
  4. Mix half of your cashew cream sauce with walnut/herb/vegetable mixture. Stir well.
  5. Prepare your collard leaves by either blanching them or cutting the main stem out and crunching the veins to make for a pliable, bendable leaf.
  6. Make a line of walnut filling, sliced cucumbers, cashew cream sauce and sprouts. Fold up like a burrito.

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