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© The Future of Health Now 2012 1

Chad Sarno Transcript

Ann Wixon: Hello, and thank you for joining us. I'm Ann Wixon, your host for The Future of Health Now. The purpose of our series is to give you privileged access to useful and helpful conversations with many of the world's most respected doctors, scientists, and entrepreneurs, helping you to achieve the best health possible. Today, we have the honor of speaking with Mr. Chad Sarno, a master chef. Mr. Sarno has been bringing his approach to healthy cuisine to some of the world's premiere plant-based restaurants, resorts, film sets, and healing centers, globally, for well over a decade. In 2005, Mr. Sarno partnered with a boutique international lifestyle company, based in Central Europe, as executive chef and concept developer to launch the acclaimed SAF restaurant brand--an exciting fine dining, green gastronomy concept, highlighting health supportive cuisine, and organic wine bars--and successfully launched six restaurants in Istanbul, Munich, and London. In 2009, Chad joined Whole Foods Market to create, coordinate, and launch a company-wide healthy eating initiative, called Health Starts Here. He is currently supporting the rollout Senior Culinary Educator and Research & Development Chef for Whole Food Market’s Health Starts Here Program. In addition, Chad is director and founder of Vital Creations, which is also rawchef.com, specializing in restaurant and spa consultation, culinary education, retail research and development, and working--with chefs and restaurateurs alike--to increase their health supportive and health promoting menu offerings. Today, he's going to help you improve your health, without sacrificing taste, or your bank account. When we think healthy, we all tend to think expensive. But in fact, it's possible to eat healthy for $10 a day, or even create four meals under $20, for a family of four. Mr. Sarno will share those secrets and recipes with us now. Welcome, Mr. Sarno! Chad Sarno: Well, thank you for having me, Ann. It's a pleasure. Ann Wixon: Absolutely! It's very exciting. You're a very busy guy! Chad Sarno: Yeah, that was a long bio there, as far as ... Ann Wixon: [laughs] Very impressive! Chad Sarno: Yeah, things are keeping me busy these days, that's for sure. Ann Wixon: That's for sure. Well, what is Health Starts Here? That's with Whole Foods Market. Chad Sarno: Yeah, I mean, if we back up a little bit, if we just look at--and I know there's a lot of other experts on The Future Now that have discussed this, but it's, if we look at--we're in dire need as a country to help our healthcare crisis. In terms of, it's based around the standard American diet, which is around 70% processed foods, 10 to 15% fresh fruits and vegetables, and then the remaining, animal products. To actually jump to that call, Whole Foods started this program called Health Starts Here. I joined


Whole Foods a couple years ago, to coordinate the rollout of this program. What Whole Foods Market is, just like any large company, they have a mission statement. Theirs is broken up into core values, we call it. It's what everything is built on, it's what the culture is, it's the direction of the company, and everything goes back to our core values. It's the most important foundation of everything we do as a company. The seventh core value that was just added was, it's promoting the health of our stakeholders through healthy eating education. It's one of those things that, people just assumed--I've gotten the question, "Why is it a core value? Isn't that the purpose of Whole Foods Market?" Yes, it was, but over the years, the company--based on customer demand--has evolved to appeal to more of a foodie culture. A good way to look at this new core value is, it's almost going back to our roots as a company, and going back to the reason why the company started in the first place. That's the way that leadership likes to put it. We started this initiative called Health Starts Here, which is a translation of that new seventh core value, and we've been rolling it out internally with our team members for a little over a year now, doing a number of health and wellness programs to really, really encourage team members to start cooking more, and to start looking at their diets, and knowing their personal numbers, and actually, just embracing wellness more. We launched, this past January, 2011, we just launched the public Health Starts Here program, after it has been rolling out for a year internally. What it is, is Health Starts Here is a simple, mindful approach to healthy eating that's really rooted in four simple ways to build a better, delicious meal. The easiest way to look at that is: We're not focused on diet, we're just focused on teaching people to reconfigure the plate. Because, at the end of the day, everybody can stand to eat more vegetables. I mean, if you just look at the standard American diet statistics, everybody can use a little bit more vegetables in their diet. It's rooted in four basic principles, which is: Whole food, plant-strong, nutrient-dense, and healthy fats--which I can get into in a little bit more in the conversation, and refer back to our four pillars handout. But it's basically our push to really represent, in everything we do with the products that we sell, and the education that we offer to our customers. Ann Wixon: Health Starts Here is for all Whole Foods employees, but it sounds like you're also--based on the success that you've had over the past year--you're going to make it available to ... us. Chad Sarno: Yeah, it's actually--I mean, if you look at Whole Foods as a business structure, anyways, we've been selling the healthiest food for over 30 years. You know, the company just turned 30 this past year, and it was built on health food. I mean, the whole mission, drive, and purpose of the company was to help people, at the end of the day, in offering them healthier foods. It's a company initiative that was intended fully to roll out to the public. Really, taking it the step further, and just adding the key educational component to it. If you look at some of the older store models, they had something called an "info desk"--similar to customer service--to where you can walk up to the info desk, and you can ask, you can walk up with kale and say, "How do I cook this? What is it? What are the health benefits of it? Can you tell me a couple ways that I can incorporate it into my diet?" That kind of got lost over the years, and just sort of dissolved that area. We're kind of going back to that. We have in place--we're rolling out--we have healthy eating specialists in every store. They're not nutritionists or dietitians--some of them may be--but the main focus of their role is to help guide customers to the healthiest options we actually sell, and almost be a cooking coach, walking around with them. "How do you cook quinoa? What's quinoa all about?" Which it's an ancient grain that's high in protein. "How do you cook it?" It's really just a cooking coach, a health cooking coach, that can walk around the store with you, and answer any questions, and do store tours, and they do store demos, and it's just really pushing the foundation of our program of offering this


education. Ann Wixon: Today, I think you're going to be our cooking and kitchen coach. I mean, we're really lucky to have you all to ourselves today. [laughs] Chad Sarno: [laughs] Ann Wixon: Whenever someone says, "healthy food," I know, I sometimes think, well, "expensive, and maybe a little boring tasting." What's the truth about eating healthy? Chad Sarno: It's one of those things, I think those are really the two largest misperceptions of eating healthy. First of all, I mean, healthy food can easily be--this plan that we're pushing it's really, when we talk about rooted in those four pillars--which I'll get to a bit again--it's really all about eating whole food. I mean, the expensive part of healthy food is the processed food, believe it or not. It's buying the boxed, packaged food--the organic versions of what you would normally buy at any other store. I think that's been a misperception of folks, when they walk in through the golden doors of Whole Foods. Because it's Whole Foods, most people think, "Oh, it's automatically healthy, because I'm getting it at Whole Foods Market." That's not exactly true. That's why we've started this program to help guide shoppers, to not only the healthiest options we sell, but the most affordable, as well, and in the bulk department, in the produce department, and so forth. It can easily be affordable. I'll give you some great recipes, and sort of tips, of how to make it easier during the work week for your family. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: In terms of boring, I mean, it's far from that. I'm a self-trained chef, and I've worked with a lot of classically trained chefs in the past, and that is a huge misperception, is it has to taste poorly for it to be healthy. I think, it's all about building flavors. But at the end of the day, you have to meet people where they're at. You can't just meet somebody with a green juice, and say, "Hey, start eating healthy." Ann Wixon: That's true! Chad Sarno: You have to start meeting them where they're at. "So, what do you like? Do you like pizza? You like lasagna?" Well, great! I'll take your favorites, and I'll just make them healthier. You're not going to jeopardize the taste, and you're going to feel good at the end of the meal. I think that's the most important piece to get across to most folks, is it's not only affordable to eat this way, but it can be just as delicious--if not more--than what you're used to. If you look at, let's talk about variety, for example. If you look at, the standard American diet, I was saying, is about 70% processed food. In terms of the variety of fruits and vegetables--and this is a statistic--within the standard American diet, the average American only eats about 19 different fruits and vegetables in their lifetime. A lot of people think, immediately, when they start to embrace a plant-based diet, they immediately think of what they can't have. Of course, if you look at, "All I eat is 19 fruits and vegetables, and you're going to take away all my processed foods, and all my meats, and all my saturated fats, and so forth," then of course you're going to have a limited diet, and it's going to be boring. But, if you look at it, the other side of the coin is, all it is, is opening you up to a vast opportunity to explore new flavors, and explore new vegetables, and grains. I mean, for example, there's--most people don't include any beans into their diet. The ones that they do are loaded with sugar and ketchup, the traditional baked beans.


Ann Wixon: Yes. Right. Chad Sarno: Whereas there's over 800 varieties of beans that are amazing. There's like 30 varieties of lentils, and kale there's like 12, and I mean, it just goes on. It's really opening people up, and what I like to say: It's more of celebration of food, rather than a deprivation. It's far from boring, and again, we'll get into a couple of the techniques to really highlight how you can actually start emphasizing and working on building flavors. Ann Wixon: Well, okay, as my kitchen coach ... Chad Sarno: [laughs] Ann Wixon: Let's pretend we're standing in my kitchen, and I don't own a thing yet. I mean, I've got dishes, and all that stuff. But this is where I start, I always get a little confused. Because whenever I watch TV, there are tons of commercials for the latest kitchen gadget. And, what do we really need to have in our kitchen, in order to create these delicious meals? Chad Sarno: Yeah, I think the bottom line of--because it doesn't have to be expensive at the end of the day--and a lot of people think you have to get all this fancy equipment to actually start eating healthy. It's really affordable, once you start. The most important piece of equipment that I always say in the kitchen, is a knife, is a good knife, and getting yourself a quality knife. Because you're going to end up using it. Rather than, yes, it may take a little bit more investment in time, but if you look at the investment that you make in your health--compare it to the investment that you're going to make in medical bills if you continue the way that you're going. It's a good way to look at it, and it's a good way to scale to kind of compare it to, is it's either an investment now or later. It is an investment in time. Rather than opening up a bag, and throwing it in the oven for your full meal, you're going to have to get, a good knife and a cutting board, and you're going to start chopping a little bit. There is a little bit of chopping involved, of course, because you're using more plant-based foods. But so, a knife is a good one. There's a couple different styles of knives that I like. Depending on what you're used to--if you're raised in kitchens, or you're familiar with the German knife, or the French knife, it's traditionally a heavier knife, such as Henkel, or Wusthof. Those are typically a heavier knife. Then the other knives are a little bit lighter. If you look at Max, or Global, those are a very common knife that are more Japanese-influenced, rather than German or French. They're a little bit lighter, the blade is a little bit thinner, so you can slice much thinner, as well. But it's first choosing a knife that you're comfortable, in terms of the weight. Then, it's all about just practicing and getting used to working with a knife. Most people actually cut themselves with a dull knife, rather than a sharp knife, so ... Ann Wixon: A dull knife is a very dangerous thing. Chad Sarno: Oh, completely. Then the next one is obviously a cutting board, and then, cookware. I mean, cookware is an important one for a lot of people. I think that that's--yes, you can use a cheap pan, but I would stay away from aluminum, first of all, and a lot of cheap pans are aluminum. But cast iron, I mean, cast iron lasts forever. I mean, I grew up in New Hampshire, so we have antique row up north, and I would just go to all these antique shops, and get all the cast iron--probably about 50 years old, these pans. But I mean, it's amazing, they last forever. If they're seasoned properly, you really have to use minimal oil--if any--while cooking. So, cast iron is probably one of my favorites out there. In terms of actual equipment--if I were to put next to a knife the most important piece of


equipment-- I feel, is a blender. Because with the blender, you can create all different kinds of cream sauces, dressings, sauces, marinades, smoothies. That's what's going to make it really easy for folks to adopt a healthier diet, is to work with the essential components within the kitchen. Not only with equipment, but the essential, actual food-based components, actually make their meals much easier to prepare. Ann Wixon: Well, and for those who do watch the Food Network, that is the one thing consistently in every kitchen, is a blender, and it always gets used. Chad Sarno: Yeah, and it could be a cheap blender. It could be a $30, Wal-Mart blender, if people are into that. But I approach, if you can afford it, and you can actually make the investment--it is an investment in your health, and that's a good way to look at it--in a high-speed blender. The best out there is a Vitamix. It's a high-speed blender, and I mean, it is amazing what you can do with a Vitamix, which we'll describe when I'm talking about the recipes. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Bake ware, obviously. Then you get into the other additional items, if you want them. First of all, you can get a steamer. I mean, steaming is one of the healthiest forms of cooking. You can either get a steamer basket, you can get a collapsible steamer--which are about five bucks--or you can get a bamboo steamer--you go into any Chinese market, and you can get a bamboo steamer. Then, a juicer. If you're into juicing, and a lot of people, that's a great first step for folks, is to start juicing. And you know, it's an optional thing. Ann Wixon: You're going to share a really good juicing recipe with us a little later, I think. Chad Sarno: Yeah. Ann Wixon: Good! Chad Sarno: I have a smoothie recipe that we'll talk about in a little while. Ann Wixon: Okay, great. Chad Sarno: Those are really the basics. Then you can start building on from there. It's all about, just kind of getting out there, educating yourself on the different options. I have a great handout that is available to you, that's basically the suggested cookwares list--that's everything from small wares, to some recommended blenders, and juicers, and knives. That's a good way to get started. Ann Wixon. Okay. Perfect! I also, in my kitchen, I have a pantry full of stuff. It's a little overwhelming going through all of it, or even replacing all of it. What are some simple tips for getting started? Chad Sarno: Some simple tips in getting started? I think, let's look at that four pillars handout now. Ann Wixon: Right. Chad Sarno: Now, the four pillars, it goes back to, again, this is the core of our program. This is everything that we do, from the programs that we're developing, to every recipe, to all of our education, to the store tours. Everything comes back to these four pillars of our program. Let's start with the first one: whole food. Now, this in an obvious one. And we're not saying this because it's the name of the company, but it was built on--our company was built on--providing the healthiest food available. Let's look at the category of whole food. A lot of people really don't


know what a whole food is. The way that we're describing it is the easiest way possible. First of all, if it's a single ingredient, that's a good step. For example, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, grains--if people are choosing to eat seafood or meat, whatever. Those are all single ingredients, so that's a good way to describe it. Ann Wixon: So nothing has been added to it. Chad Sarno: Nothing has been added. Another way to describe it, what we say is, we say, "minimally processed foods." The way that we describe that to our prepared foods folks, and also our customers, is: If your grandmother wouldn't recognize it 100 years ago, then it doesn't fit within this program, so ... [laughs] Ann Wixon: [laughs] Okay. Nothing has been taken away from it, either. Chad Sarno: Exactly. It's not extruded, and it's not extracted, and it's not isolated in any way. It's, you don't need a chemistry set to produce it. For example, tofu and tempeh, I still consider a whole food, because you can make it in your kitchen, it's minimally processed. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Then the next one is plant-strong. Now, plant-strong, now we're not pushing a vegan diet, as a company. We're not pushing a vegetarian diet. We're telling people, we're just offering the simple tools that can be adopted into any diet. Plant-strong is, it's all about reconfiguring the plate, that's the best way to look at it. You have that little diagram of, let's look at those old cafeteria plates, right? Ann Wixon: Uh-huh. Chad Sarno: With the larger section, and the two small sections. Now, a lot of people have animal products being the center of the plate. A good way to start, for most people, is to just reconfigure it. Make plants the main event. That's what we're pushing, is, everybody can stand to eat more plants. When I talk of plants, it's dry plants and fresh plants. Beans fall into that category. Grains fall into that category. Nuts and seeds fall into that category. Lots of fresh, frozen, dry vegetables fall into that category. It's all about including more plants, no matter what you eat. The next one is healthy fats. Healthy fats is--this is one that also falls within our whole food category--is, if you're going to choose to do fat, of course fat is very healthy for us if it's in the right form. The best way to look at it is, if you're going to choose to eat fats, eat them in their whole plant form. Minimize extracted oils and processed fats, and just include whole food fats, such as: nuts, seeds, avocados, olives, coconut, and so forth. The fourth pillar--and also falls into the whole food, plant-strong category--is nutrient-dense. When we talk about nutrient-dense, we're talking about micronutrients. For example, if you're choosing ... Ann Wixon: But what are micronutrients? Chad Sarno: Let's look at both of them. Okay, the difference between nutrients is, there's macronutrients, and there's micronutrients. Macronutrients are what we're most familiar with; so, the proteins, fats, and carbs. Okay, those are the most common macronutrients, okay? And those are calorie dense, as well. Micronutrients, on the other hand, are calorie free. It's phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals. Everything that is a micronutrient, what we have in the store is, we have a food scoring system called ANDI--which is Aggregate Nutrient Density Index. It's a food scoring system that compares the micronutrients per calorie. For example, a great example is, if you're shopping for greens.


Most of a typical salad is made of iceberg lettuce. On the ANDI scale, which is 0 to 1,000--and you can find this in every Whole Foods Market--the ANDI scale from 0 to 1,000, iceberg lettuce falls at about 120, 123, something like that. Whereas, if you want to just bump up your nutrient level, your micronutrients, your vitamins and minerals level, phytochemicals, then go for the darker greens. For example: kale, or collards, or bok choi--those are 1,000. The way that we put it is, make every bite count. If you're going to choose to eat something, just emphasize micronutrients as much as you can. That, again, falls into the eating more plants side of things. We feel, at Whole Foods, that these four pillars are an easy way to not only shift and reconfigure your plate, but they're an amazing, easy guideline to shopping, as well, and making it easy. Again, I'll back this up with a lot of teaching models and charts in a little bit, around how to actually work with the different flavors and components. Ann Wixon: Well, and you know, I just have to share that I did interview John Mackey, who's the President and CEO of Whole Foods. I thought, "Plant based diet ... Well, all right, I'll just try it." Really, it wasn't a huge change in what I put on my plate. I just put a few more vegetables, and a little less meat, honestly, and honestly, within about a week or so, I started losing weight. I thought, "Wow! Not only do I have a little bit more energy, and I feel like I'm happier--which I thought was interesting--but I'm naturally losing weight. This is why I find this so exciting. I can't wait till we get to the recipe part. Chad Sarno: Yeah, so the four pillars really sums up everything. It's a great guideline for developing recipes, and all that. So many people that are just going by these simple principles, we are seeing--we are doing the 28-day challenges with customers in a lot of our stores, where we're challenging customers to go on this 28-day program. Whether it's eliminating processed food, whether it's eliminating dairy, whether it's eliminating meat, whether it's, choosing just dark greens, whether it's doing more exercise, and incorporating some of these. We're helping them track the results, and we're having support groups, and supper clubs, and daily trainings, and emails going out from a healthy eating specialist to get customers involved. We have seen unbelievable results, and it's just incredible, and just like you said, it's all about just incorporating more plants, you know. And it's the easiest thing. You can buy every nutrition book out there, you can listen to every nutrition focused doctor out there, and at the end of the day, they say the same thing: It's all about incorporating more plants. You know, Mom was right. Ann Wixon: When you say, "extraordinary results," it's, I'm sure that cholesterol levels are lowering, and all that other stuff. But probably the first thing you notice is, people are just naturally slimming down, pain free--which I think is really important. Chad Sarno: Yeah, exactly. You know, we've seen this internally. We have these things called the total health immersion programs--that I coordinate--that, it's a health and wellness program that we offer to our team members. We work with three amazing doctors that sit on our medical advisory board behind our program, and team members have to apply for the program. We've determined what determines a high risk, as a team member, with our doctors' help, with cholesterol numbers, BMI numbers, blood pressure, and so forth. Team members apply--it's a voluntary thing--they can apply for it, and the company pays 100% for them to go to these programs. Ann Wixon: Which is extraordinary. Chad Sarno: If they're accepted, they get the choice of three different programs and three different, amazing doctors, in three different parts of the country. The company pays for a week--it's basically a weeklong holiday that's focused on health. Then, also, pays for airfare and everything. A lot of people think, "Oh, it's just for overweight people." Completely misperception.


Ann Wixon: Right. Chad Sarno: Because, I know so many slim, thin people that have incredibly high cholesterol. It's amazing when you go there, people have this misperception where they're going. Then they get there, and half of the room is just, so slim, you know? Ann Wixon: Yes. Chad Sarno: It's more than just weight. It's all about, just overall health, and your blood, and just overall well-being. During these programs, what has been amazing, and as we've had--up to date, by the end of March [2011], because we're in the middle of a round now--by the end of March, we'll have had 900 team members that have gone through this program that we launched about two years ago. Ann Wixon: Wow, that's great! Chad Sarno: It has been, it's a huge investment in the company, and it's an investment, at the end of the day, in team members' health and wellness, and creating that wellness culture. During, there's dozens of team members that have lost over 100 pounds, reversed diabetes, gotten off all their medications. I mean, it is unbelievable the results that we're seeing from team members. Ann Wixon: Some of the recipes you're going to be sharing with us, just in a little bit, are the same recipes that these folks are making themselves. Chad Sarno: Exactly. Ann Wixon: Perfect, yes. Chad Sarno: Exactly. Ann Wixon: That's exciting. Chad Sarno: Yes, and we're catering those, and everything. It's incredible to actually see that just the average team member who is skeptical going into it, when they make these small changes of just adopting these four pillars into their life, how much they've actually shifted in their life in terms of their overall health. They’re being representatives and ambassadors for our program on the store and regional level, which is very exciting. Ann Wixon: All right, so let's just go quickly through, remind everybody what the four pillars were. Chad Sarno: Yeah, so the four pillars, again, those four principles, so: whole foods, unprocessed foods--as much as possible. plant strong--reconfiguring the plate, emphasize plants. healthy fats--If you're going to choose these fats, eat them in their whole food form, such as nuts, seeds, avocados, so forth. nutrient dense--choosing foods that have more micronutrients per calorie. Ann Wixon: Okay, perfect. Sometimes, it does feel like it's a little difficult, and maybe expensive, to serve healthy meals for a family, especially a family on a budget. Is it, with the four pillars? Chad Sarno: If you look at, what we're pushing is the bulk department. When the company started, bulk sales were a big part of the business. Now, they're extremely low compared to 25, 30 years ago, when the company started. We're really pushing bulk, and getting people back in the kitchen, and I think that it just comes down to--which again, we're going to talk about in a bit--it just comes down to getting people back in the kitchen, to work with just the basics of cooking. Just, how to boil beans, how to cook grains. For example, I mean, I eat incredibly affordable,


because my diet is basically beans, grains, and greens. Ann Wixon: Mm-hmm, okay. Chad Sarno: You couldn't get any cheaper than that. It's all about, how you source seasonal products. If you're buying produce, source it when it's in season, and it's going to be cheaper. Canning and preparing ahead of time, when tomatoes are in season. Obviously, a kitchen garden, or a small garden at your house is--it's a lot of work--but that's another option. Ann Wixon: Sure. Chad Sarno: But it's finding products, and seeking them. Whole Foods Market is, we've done a lot of work in building budget brands. Our 365 brand is comparable to anything out there, and we have so many that fall within this category of being one of these pillars, that it's incredibly easy to shop. Ann Wixon: Okay, so let's take the mystery out of cooking healthy, because I think for a lot of people, they really would like to cook healthy, but there seems to be this mystique around it--like it's difficult, or there's just a secret they don't know. If you could walk us through some cooking basics, that would be really great. Chad Sarno: Yeah, I'm happy to, that's great. I have a number of handouts, and we're just going to kind of go over each one, one by one. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: First one I'd like to talk about is: A Quick Glance Guide on Grains and Beans. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Now this is something that, again, most people are not familiar with how to cook beans. Yes, you can buy them in a can if you're stretched for time. I mean, an easy way and an easy dish is just to--and we'll talk about this later, too--is that, to buy no salt added or low sodium canned beans, strain them, rinse them, and you're ready to go. But even to reduce the cost a little bit even more--even though those are incredibly affordable--buy dry beans and cook them yourself. What I do is, I like to cook a big batch in the beginning of the week. A big thing around affordability, as well, is around batch cooking. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: When I say batch cooking, it's not just thinking in the moment. Think tomorrow, think three days from now, think two nights from now. It is shifting our minds a little bit of the way that we actually approach mealtimes. For example, if I'm going to make rice--let's just take brown rice--I'm going to make brown rice one night, I'll make double what I need. Because the next day, I'll have a steam fried rice dish with some vegetables and tofu, or whatnot, with some leftover rice. Ann Wixon: Mm-hmm. Chad Sarno: For beans, if I'm going to cook beans, I'm going to make much more than I'm going to use that night, because one day, maybe the next--and beans will last a week, cooked--one day, I'll blend them into a pate, and I'll use them for a spread for sandwiches. Another day, I can--if they're white beans--I can use them for a white sauce, which I'll describe in a little bit. Ann Wixon: Great! Chad Sarno: Or I could put them in a soup, I could throw them in a soup. Throw them in a salad. I


mean, they're such versatility around batch cooking, it's all about thinking ahead of time. On this chart I put together, it basically lists, obviously, the rices, all sorts of grains that people may or may not be familiar with, and then just a ton of beans that I've listed, put together here. All of them--you know, a lot of people are afraid to cook beans. I mean, it's amazing how much people really don't know how to cook rice. It's so simple, and it's just going by these simple equations here. One disclaimer I have to add that's not on here is, if you are a higher elevation--if you live on a mountaintop--these times may change, so ... Ann Wixon: Oh, okay. [laughs] Chad Sarno: Elevation does affect cooking times. Ann Wixon: It does. Okay. Chad Sarno: But other than that, you know. A good way around beans, to make them more digestible--a lot of people, they avoid beans because they're gassy. Ann Wixon: Yes. Chad Sarno: It's one of those things that the easiest way to make them as least gassy as possible is, one, to soak them overnight--and they cook in less time. If I'm going to use black beans tomorrow, I'm going to soak them when I get home tonight. Then tomorrow night when I get home, I'm going to cook them, and they're going took cook in a half-hour, rather than an hour-and-a-half. Ann Wixon: Oh, all right, and then that takes care of some of the gas that they produce. Chad Sarno: Exactly. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Also, what you can do is, with the macrobiotic way, they use a little bit of kombu--kombu is a seaweed--and you can cook them with a piece of kombu, and that also removes that gassiness. Ann Wixon: Oh, okay. How do you spell that? Chad Sarno: Kombu? K-O-M-B-U. Ann Wixon: Okay, because I've never heard that before, so that's kind of a neat tip. Chad Sarno: That works as well. This is a great chart, and it's a great quick glance chart. A lot of these charts that we're going to go over now are just, it's all about, have them available in your kitchen instead of digging them up in a cookbook. Laminate them and put them on the inside of your cabinets. I know so many people that I've worked with that have, on the inside of their cabinets, they just have all these quick glance charts. That's going to make it easy for them. Ann Wixon: That's a great idea. Chad Sarno: There's that one. Then, let's move on to the next one, which, let's just talk about cooking methods in general. I think that's another one that people have a hard time getting around, is just general cooking methods. I have another chart called Healthy Eating Culinary Methods Defined. If we just want to look at that, and just run through a few. Ann Wixon: Okay.


Chad Sarno: There's some general cooking methods that I think everybody knows are the healthiest, such as steaming. Okay, steaming is one of the easiest, most ancient ways of healthy cooking. Again, you can also blanch. If you wanted to just make the color of a vegetable vibrant, and you didn't want the bitterness of some vegetables in their raw form, you can just blanch them. Put them in an ice bath, or cold water, so it shocks the heat a little bit, so they don't continue to cook. Then you can put those on salads. Some people prefer blanched broccoli, rather than raw broccoli. Ann Wixon: Mm-hmm. Chad Sarno: Another one is braising. Braising is a good one to infuse flavor. Now, you can do pot--it's basically also known as pot roasting--you can do this in the oven, or on the stovetop. You can get a braising pan to put in the oven, or you can do it on the stovetop. For example, tempeh--it's a fermented soy bean cake, similar to tofu, in pretty much the same category--and tempeh is one of those things that, it has a really strange, cardboard-y flavor to a lot of people who have never tried tempeh, that's kind of the first thing that folks say. But the easy, the best way to infuse flavor in tempeh--or in tofu, I feel--is braising. I would get a liquid, such as vegetable stock, or vegetable broth, or wine, or a mixture of the two. Then I'll put lots of fresh herbs in it, or dried spices. I'll bring that up to a simmer, and I'll slice some tempeh into quarter inch slices. I'll braise it, and I'll braise it for anywhere from a half-hour to 45 minutes, and that will infuse so much flavor into that tempeh, and then I can use it in the dish. Another couple items is: germinating is another one. You can do that through growing your own sprouts. There's a lot of great, healthful tools and tips out there. Again, talk about affordability. About one tablespoon of alfalfa seeds produces about three quarts of sprouts, and you can just pile those onto the salad. Again, you can start your own kitchen garden. There's lots of books out there that show it. Ann Wixon: Oh, that sounds ... This is called germinating. Okay. Chad Sarno: Yeah. Then, I'm just going down the list here, and there's so many. Poaching: It's similar to braising, but I do a lot of--with poaching, typically there is a presence of an acid and a sweetness, usually--so I'll use a lot of poaching with fruits. If I want to do poached pears, or poached apples, or poached peaches, a great way to infuse flavor into those more is, you know, cooking with wine, or cooking with some other juices, and green teas, or any kind of teas. You can bring to a simmer, drop the fruits in there, take them out of the liquid, and you'll have some great infused flavors. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Slow cooking is a great one. I think, and this is, again, out of convenience, too. Slow cooking, it's kind of, it's all about setting it and forgetting it. It's set the timer, and forget about it, and when you come home, your meal's done. That's a great way to look at it too. A lot of people do--I love doing slow cooking with beans. If you don't want to wait two hours or an hour-and-a-half to cook garbanzo beans. Ann Wixon: Right. Chad Sarno: Or black beans, you can just put them in a slow cooker, in a crock-pot, and just turn it on low in the morning, make sure there's enough liquid in there, and walk away. Eight hours later, you can come back, and it's done. Ann Wixon: Oh, that's great. Okay! Chad Sarno: It's the same thing with stews, you can do the same. Chop up some vegetables in


there, with the beans. You can throw some spices, some sea salt in there, some herbs, walk away. You come back, and you have a stew, you have a meal already made for you. Another one is steam frying. This is something that I'm going to talk about here real quick. There's another chart on there that I wanted to go over real quick, and this relates to steam frying. It's Cooking Without Oil. Now, there's a couple reasons why we're really trying to emphasize to our teams at Whole Foods to minimize, or eliminate, extracted oils. Is one, to just lighten up a dish. If you look at any oils, whether is the highest lignin flax oil that was harvested on top of this mountain ... [laughs] Ann Wixon: [laughs] Chad Sarno: It doesn't matter whether it's olive oil, whether it's flax oil, whether it's sunflower oil. Doesn't matter the quality of the oil. It's so calorie dense. If you look at it, it's anywhere from 120 to 140 calories per tablespoon. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: An easy way for people to lighten up their dishes is just to reduce their oil consumption and usage. What we've been doing is, we've been working with our prepped food teams--and also rolling this out with the public--is just, teaching new cooking methods. Just to kind of, step out of the box that we're so used to. Because whenever we cook anything, we're so used--and everybody is guilty of this--we're so used to dumping oil in a pan. Ann Wixon: Well, we are! That's usually the first thing you learn. Chad Sarno: Exactly. That's how you cook, right? Ann Wixon: Yes. Chad Sarno: That's how a lot of people cook. This is an amazing handout, and just a really simple way to reduce the caloric count in whatever dish that you're using--without jeopardizing the flavor. At the end of the day, yes, fat is flavor. There's no doubt around that. Now, I'm a trained chef, so it's, my career is built on fat, basically. [laughs] Ann Wixon: [laughs] Right, right. Chad Sarno: It's a good way to look at it is--I offer a test to whoever wants to try this out--is, if you make a stir fry, and after we go through this cooking method, try it out. If you make a stir fry that has oil in it, and then you have a stir fry that has no oil, using this method, you cannot taste the difference whatsoever. It's only, a lot of people use oil to caramelize, and all it does is just speed up the caramelization process. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Cooking without oil. Really simple tips. I think this is the most influential tip during any of my classes. Ann Wixon: Can you walk us through, just the quick steps to do that? Chad Sarno: Yes. Ann Wixon: That'd be great! Chad Sarno: Yeah, it's all about, so when you're not using oil, there's three main principles: high heat, no fat, and rapid motion, okay? No fat being, eliminating the oil. We make fun of this as, the


best alternative to oil is no oil. Ann Wixon: [laughs] Okay. Chad Sarno: Because it's really all about, we're so used to starting a pan, dumping oil in--whether it's a cold pan or hot pan. The easiest way to do it is, you want to start with a very hot pan, okay? You turn the burner on, you keep the pan on there, nothing's in it. Then, you want to do a little droplet test. You can drip water in it, and as soon as it beads up, and starts rolling around the pan, it's hot enough, okay? Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Then you have chopped onions--or whatever you're sautéing--if you're trying to caramelize fennel or carrots, or something like that, you can do it a similar way. But you have chopped onions, the most typical. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: You have a hot pan, then you add the chopped onions in. What happens, if you look at the science behind this, Ann--I like to really just dive in and look at the science of why things happen. If you were to start with a cold pan, and put cold onions, and then start to heat it up, the pores in the metal are going to contract at the same time the pores in the onions do. That's going to create burning. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: If you start with a hot pan, the pores are already contracted, okay, in the pan. When you add onions that are cold, they are going to contract at a different time, so they won't stick. If you add onions in just a hot pan, and you just add them in the pan, they will not stick. Then it's rapid motion, it's shaking the pan, it's using a rubber spatula. Then, without any oil, the onions are starting to cook. They're starting to slowly sweat, and to turn a little translucent. Ann Wixon: Mm-hmm. Chad Sarno: Then, right when they start to stick, and it gets to a point where they start to sweat, and then they start to stick. Right when they start to stick, they're starting to burn the bottom of the pan. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Then you add a little bit of liquid of your choice. My personal favorite is vegetable stock. You can make your own--or you can buy your own--low sodium vegetable stock. Then I add enough liquid to the pan, as I would add oil to the beginning of the dish. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Say I was going to add two tablespoons of oil in the beginning. Ann Wixon: A couple of tablespoons, yeah. Chad Sarno: I would add two tablespoons of any kind of liquid--wine, beer, stock, anything. Then what that does, then you do rapid motion and that deglazes the pan, and it kind of scoops up all the sugars that were just starting to burn out of the onions. Then it instantly caramelizes. That's the easiest way to start every dish. This little handout--going through the pictures--really sums it up, and it's the easiest way to start any dish, in working with lightening up just your average dish, or average stir-fry, or anything.


Ann Wixon: It sounds delicious. Chad Sarno: Yeah, and I mean, there's just so much flavor that you can still extract out of the onions. Because it's, again, it's all about not jeopardizing the flavor. Ann Wixon: Right. Chad Sarno: You can add herbs into it at that point. Then you can start your--whatever dish. Ann Wixon: Okay. Just to clarify, when we drop the water in the hot pan and it dances, sizzles on the pan, we add our onions or whatever, but we don't change the heat. Is that right? Chad Sarno: That is correct. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: That is correct. You keep it on high, you keep it on medium-high. Ann Wixon: Great! Perfect! Chad Sarno: Let's go through another one. Now, we've got the methods, we have the basics of cooking beans and grain. Ann Wixon: Right. Chad Sarno: We've talked about the four pillars, which is really the basis of this whole program that we're talking about, and making it easy. Ann Wixon: Yes. Chad Sarno: Let's talk about now, about creating recipes. I think that's probably the most important part. Ann Wixon: Perfect. Chad Sarno: Then we'll get into some examples, in a little bit. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Let's look at creating recipes. Let's look at, we have a Base Recipes chart, okay? Ann Wixon: Mm-hmm. Chad Sarno: Base Recipes chart. This is one of the charts--I was teaching for a number of years before I started opening the restaurants over in Europe, with raw foods, just cooking vegan foods, and so forth. I was teaching, and it was a lot of trial and error, because I would go in, and I'd demo six recipes. Then, there's only an amount of time would go by that the same people that would attend that class would say, "I need more recipes, because I'm sick of these." Ann Wixon: Sure. Chad Sarno: I started to create these charts--a series of charts--with all my trainings. I have a number of other ones, also, that are available. But this, I started to create a series of charts really to break it down for people, of creating, in general. Because I think a lot of people--especially my generation--there's a lot of people that, we're used to convenience, you know?


Ann Wixon: Yes. Chad Sarno: We're used to convenience, we're used to going out and just grabbing something that's already pre-made, and not really thinking through the actual cooking methods, and why we actually use certain ingredients. This is a great chart. This is, what it comes down to is, every recipe has a base, okay? Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: This is, I'm talking about making from scratch, okay? If you're making a marinade, a dressing, or a sauce especially, or a soup, everything has a base. What I like to say is, it's the four essential base components. One of them is a fat. I think fat is definitely an important piece. One of them is an acid. One of them is a salt, or a sodium. Then, sweet is an optional one, okay? Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Now, let's say for example, I'm going to make a dressing, for example. Ann Wixon: Mm-hmm. Chad Sarno: I'm going to look in that fat category, and you're going to pick and choose something from each category, and then you have a base recipe. Okay? Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Then what you're doing is, you're building the foundation of a recipe. Because then, from this foundation, then you add herbs, spices, and start to build from there. It's just like if you're, if you go back to any of your favorite dressings, or any kind of cookbooks, and you pick out one of those recipes that just didn't quite taste good. Ann Wixon: Yes. Chad Sarno: Most likely, it's missing one of these components. It's missing either a fat, an acid, a salt, or a sweet, okay. Ann Wixon: Oh, okay. Chad Sarno: When you work with these four components, it really brings a foundation to the recipe, so you can actually build on. Ann Wixon: You don't need to have all four elements, but you need to have at least one? Chad Sarno: No, what I'm saying is, you should always have a fat, an acid, and a salt. Ann Wixon: Okay, okay. Chad Sarno: A sweet is an optional. Ann Wixon: Is optional, okay. Chad Sarno: Also, if you're sodium intolerant, sodium is an optional as well. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: But a fat, acid, salt--and all of them have different roles, for example. Let's talk about


fats, for example. When I talk about fats, fats can be coconut, fats can be nuts and seeds, nut butters, olives, avocados, and so forth. What fat does is, it acts as a vehicle for all the other flavors. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: To smooth the flavors over the palate. What an acid does is, it helps to actually break down--let's say you're using it as a dressing or marinade, or a sauce--it helps break down the cell wall of the vegetable, so it actually softens it up a little bit. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: It also balances out with the sweet. For a sodium, sodium is a flavor enhancer, as we all know. Anything with sodium is going to up the flavor in the dish. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Then sweet really just rounds it all out. Working with these base components, let's just make a sauce real quick. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Let's look in the fat category. The fat category--let's say that you have a nut or seed butter. Let's use almond butter. Ann Wixon. Okay. Chad Sarno: Almond butter is a great alternative to peanut butter. A little bit more expensive, but it's absolutely delicious. Let's start with almond butter. Let's use an acid now. Let's go Thai, so let's make a Thai sauce. Let's make more like an almond butter, chili sauce kind of thing. Start with almond butter. The acid, let's say, let's use ... Hmm, what's a good acid we can use, that's more Eastern influenced? Let's say, lime, okay? Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Let's use some lime juice in there. Now, when we're thinking we're going Eastern with the flavors, okay, so now we have a direction of the flavor profile. Ann Wixon: Mm-hmm. Chad Sarno: Let's go ahead and use a salt now. Now, an Eastern salt would be--you could use sea salt--but a good Eastern salt would be either a miso or a tamari, or soy sauce, is a good Eastern salt. Ann Wixon: Mm-hmm. Chad Sarno: Let's say we can use some soy sauce or tamari in there. Okay, and then for a sweetener--because you want to balance out all those flavors--let's use a whole food sweetener, so let's use some dates. You can use a little bit of maple in there. Ann Wixon: Oh, fun. Okay. Chad Sarno: Let's use a little date. To dilute that a bit, we're just going to add a little water, just to dilute it for blending purposes.


Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Okay, so that is our base. We're going to blend that up, and then from there, you can build the flavors. Okay, so the next chart, if you can look at just getting an idea of that base chart, let's look at the next chart. Ann Wixon: Mm-hmm. Chad Sarno: Which is a Taste of Culture chart. Ann Wixon: When you say "blend", you actually mean just throw it in that blender? Chad Sarno: Throw it in the blender. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Or you can whisk it, if you really want to get some elbow grease in there. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Not the actual ingredient, elbow grease, but ... [laughs] Ann Wixon: No, I like the blender idea. [laughs] Chad Sarno: Let's look at the Taste of Cultures chart, okay? This is a global taste. Ann Wixon: This is very fun! Chad Sarno: Yeah, and again, it's all about getting inspired with cooking, and getting in the kitchen, just trying new things, and not being scared. Because the way that I describe the perfect dish is, it's 60% ingredients--so it's all about the quality of ingredients. Ann Wixon: But, you know what's really so great about these charts is--I mean, I love to get in the kitchen and try new things, and then I serve it, and everybody kind of goes, "Umm ... Not really digging this." Then, what do you do? This is great! This is taking out a lot of the potential mistakes, it feels like to me. This is really wonderful. Chad Sarno: Yeah, so it's very, very helpful. Looking at, let's think of that base recipe we just made. We have some almond butter, right? For the fat. Ann Wixon: Right. Chad Sarno: We have the acid, being some lime juice. Ann Wixon: Uh-huh, okay. Chad Sarno: We have salt, being some soy sauce. Ann Wixon: Right. Chad Sarno: We have the sweet being a little date, or a little maple, just to sweeten it up. Ann Wixon: Uh-huh. Chad Sarno: And we have a little bit of water. That's a base sauce.


Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Now, let's really make this Thai. Let's look in the Thai category here. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Okay. Describing this chart real quick, is, every ... It was amazing--when I was developing this chart is, what I was discovering in all these different cultures, and all these different cultural cuisines that I've set categories for--what's amazing is, everything in here, first of all, it blends flavor-wise. You can use anything in each category, and it blends flavor-wise together. Ann Wixon: That's spectacular. Chad Sarno: In the Thai category, if you want to emphasize spice, you can take four or five of those different herbs and spices there, throw them in a dish, and they're going to work. They're not going to conflict flavors. Ann Wixon: Fun! Fun, okay. Chad Sarno: One thing that I discovered here, Ann, in creating this chart, because I did a lot of research and a lot of work just to put together this one page. If you look at it is, all of these different ingredients that blend flavor-wise together actually grow indigenously in that country. Ann Wixon: Oh, interesting. Chad Sarno: It's so amazing. I mean, that blew me away when I actually discovered that. It's almost like God's blueprint that we should all be eating local. Ann Wixon: Oh! Yeah, that's right, that's true! Chad Sarno: Anyway, so that was a real amazing realization when I was making this chart. Ann Wixon: You know, I feel like we've just all been handed, like, a super chef secret. Thank you, thank you so much for sharing this with us. This is really cool. Chad Sarno: You're so welcome, and I enjoy it. Let's go back to that sauce. We have that sauce--that base almond sauce, out of the almond butter. You have all the base components: the fat, the acid, the salt, and the sweet, in it. Let's go to the Thai category now. Let's add, let's go into the herbs and spices side. Let's add some ginger in there. Let's add some chili in there, okay? Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Let's blend--and maybe a little kaffir lime leaf. That kaffir lime leaf is a traditional Thai leaf. It's very, very aromatic. Let's blend those up, let's throw those into the blender now. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Then, now when you taste that, the flavor is there. You have the balance, and then you have that kick of chili, you have that kick of ginger--the sweetness of the ginger, and then you have that really aromatic of the lime leaf, and it all blends flavor-wise. Let's look at what this will go well with. If you look down below, let's look here. Let's look at cauliflower. You can chop up some cauliflower and some potatoes, you can pour that sauce on it, and you have an amazing dish. You want to serve it with a grain, serve it with some jasmine rice, which is a traditional Thai rice.


Ann Wixon: Right. Chad Sarno: Then, on the bottom there, you can sprinkle on some toasted cashews, some toasted peanuts, some toasted almonds, to get that extra kick of protein in there, as well. Just looking at this one category, you can make a whole meal, knowing base recipes. Ann Wixon: Just looking at this chart, you can make a whole meal. This is so exciting. Chad Sarno: Yeah, a lot of fun there. Again, it's all about exploring new dishes, and exploring new flavors. Like I was saying, the way that I describe a perfect dish is, it's 60% ingredients, so it's all about the quality of ingredients. Working with whole foods, and working with organic--whenever possible, seasonal. Then, it's all about, just technique, learning these different charts. About 30% technique. Ann Wixon: Right, right. Chad Sarno: Then there's that 10% risk. [laughs] Ann Wixon: Right. [laughs] Chad Sarno: I like to always throw in there. In terms of developing recipes, you're always taking a risk. A lot of people only work within their comfort zone. Ann Wixon: Right, right. Chad Sarno: When you have these simple tools, it's all about just getting the courage to try new things, and I think that's a great first step. Ann Wixon: All right. This is exciting, so let's cook! [laughs] What recipes are you going to walk us through today? Chad Sarno: Yeah, now that we have all that ... Ann Wixon: Now that we have all that. You're right--I'm going to put these in, like, a clear sleeve or something, and keep them right in the kitchen, because this is fun. Chad Sarno: Yeah, they're a lot of fun. Let's actually work with some recipes now. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Now that we know all those basics, we've covered every basic I think that I can in an hour here. Ann Wixon: Mm-hmm. Chad Sarno: Let's actually make a full meal, all right. Ann Wixon: Okay, great. Okay! Chad Sarno: I'm just going to go through these recipes--there's a recipe packet here. We're going to start with, we're just going to zip through a couple recipes, all right? Ann Wixon: Okay. Sure. Chad Sarno: Now, when I was growing up, I was blessed with asthma. And the reason I say I was


blessed with asthma is--it was a very difficult journey--but I was diagnosed with asthma at a very young age, and I was on five or six different inhalers my whole childhood, handicapped from sports. It was just a very traumatic childhood, being handicapped with asthma. A friend of the family had told me if I stopped eating dairy products, it may help. Ann Wixon: Uh-huh. Chad Sarno: I was ready to do anything. I was 17 at the time. I stopped eating dairy, and within six months, I was off every inhaler that I was on my whole life. Ann Wixon: No kidding! Chad Sarno: Whether it's coincidental, or what, that's what put me on the path of health. Ann Wixon: Mm-hmm. Okay. Chad Sarno: At the time, I was actually seeking some alternatives out there. This was 15, 16 years ago, so there wasn't that many dairy alternatives. There was soy milk and rice milk, was all you could really find in the little health food store. Ann Wixon: Right. Chad Sarno: I started exploring some different recipe books, and started making almond milk, okay? Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Now this is a great, great way to incorporate a non-dairy milk, but still getting the kick of protein, and just a great alternative to cooking. You want to start with some almonds--or any kind of nut or seed. Then you use a cheap old blender, or you can use a Vitamix, whatever you wish. Ann Wixon: Mm-hmm. Chad Sarno: Just taking raw nuts or seeds, you want to put one part nut or seed, three parts water. Okay? Ann Wixon: Okay. That's easy. Chad Sarno: You're going to put that in a blender--so easy. What you're going to do is, you're just going to blend it up. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: You're going to blend it up, you're going to zip it up on high until it's as blended as blended can be. Then, what you're going to do is, you're going to take cheesecloth--or you can take a fine mesh strainer, also known as a chinois, any kind of mesh bag--and then you strain it. Then you pour the mixture through that, into a bowl. What you're doing is, you're catching all the bits, okay? Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Then you can strain it. If you're using a fine mesh strainer, you can just use your rubber spatula. Then on the end, in the bowl, you have a silky almond milk. That'll keep for about three to five days. I make--again, when we're talking about batch cooking--I'll make a big batch of this, and I'll put half of it in the freezer, and I'll take it out the night before I want to use it.


Ann Wixon: Fabulous. It freezes? Perfect. Chad Sarno. It freezes as well, yeah, and it'll keep for about three to five days in the fridge. Ann Wixon: Uh-huh. Chad Sarno: It's incredibly affordable. In terms of, how much you can make for--what are those, those boxes of almond milk are about $3.00 to $4.00. Ann Wixon: Yes. Chad Sarno: You can make at least three boxes of milk for that same price. Ann Wixon: Great! Okay. Chad Sarno: It's all about, again, investing some time. That's a great base for smoothies. A great smoothie recipe is--in addition to that, is my daughter's favorite. I've got a five-year-old little girl. Ann Wixon: Uh-huh. Chad Sarno: Her favorite is green smoothies. She loves green smoothies. When I say green smoothie, it's I start off with a non-dairy milk. Then I'll put in some fresh or frozen fruit. Then I'll put in some kale or spinach. A lot of people are probably cringing at that, but ... [laughs] Ann Wixon: Well, even I was like, kale? No kidding! Okay. Chad Sarno: It's one of those things, if you have fruit in there, the greens--and the bitterness of the greens--are completely undetected. If you have banana in there, or fresh berries in there, throw a date in there, throw a shot of maple--if you wish--in there. You can put a handful of spinach, you can put a couple kale leaves. Blend it until it's smooth, and it's an amazing smoothie. Ann Wixon: And it's green! But it doesn't taste like kale or spinach. Chad Sarno: Doesn't taste like it at all, because you have the sweetness and the tropical fruits in there--any kind of fruit that you add to it. Ann Wixon: That sounds great. Chad Sarno: It's a great way to incorporate greens into a kid's diet. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: If they don't eat greens, put it in a dark sippy cup, if they're young enough. Ann Wixon: [laughs] Right! Okay. Chad Sarno: Okay, so that's one way to incorporate greens, in a blended form. The next one is--one of my favorites--is a kale salad. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Kale, it's one of the highest micronutrient dense vegetables out there. When I say micronutrient dense, again, the more micronutrients per calorie than any other dark green out there.


Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: There's so many varieties of kale. There's dark kale, curly kale, Russian kale, Lacinato kale--also called dinosaur kale. I like, this is just a raw kale dish. A lot of people think that you have to steam it, but this is just delicious in its raw form. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: I'll chop up some raw kale. Ann Wixon: Does it matter which type you use? Chad Sarno: No, it doesn't matter. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: You can use chard, you can use spinach. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Any other dark green. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: You can use broccoli leaves, if you have broccoli in your garden. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Then I'll chop it up. Then I'll go ahead--and again, referencing that base recipe chart--I'm going to go ahead and add a fat to it. Let's add some avocado. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Then I'll add some lemon juice, for the acid. Then I'll add a pinch of sea salt, okay? Then for the sweetener, okay, I use a little bit of unconventional sweets--so I'm not going to throw in a fruit--but I'll throw in, I'll use bell pepper. Bell pepper is a nice sweetness, as well. Ann Wixon: Oh, so a red bell pepper? Chad Sarno: Yeah. I'll dice up some red bell pepper. Ann Wixon: Yep. Okay. Chad Sarno: Right there, we have the base recipe covered: We have the fat, we have the acid, the sweet, and the salt. Ann Wixon: Sounds delicious, yes. Chad Sarno: Then, you can build from that. Then I'll add some red onion, some green onion, and then a little bit of chili, to give it a little kick. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: You can add herbs to this. Then you get in there--and it's all about getting into your food--just get in there and start mashing the avocado, and creaming the avocado.


Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: With your hands. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: You're pressing it as you're doing it, almost massaging the kale. In the end, the kale softens, with the presence of the acid, and the salt, and the avocado creams--it almost creates a dressing. Just that alone is an incredible salad, really simple, really quick. This has been a recipe I've had for many, many years. Ann Wixon: Sounds fantastic. Chad Sarno: That's a nice little salad to serve. Let's go to this other one: Thai broccoli with almond chili sauce. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Now, the reason I mentioned the chili sauce is, this is what we made--with this recipe right here, looking at that base recipe chart. Ann Wixon: Oh, we did! Yes. Chad Sarno: We did. If you look at what's in red there--that's the base, okay? Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: In each recipe, the red is what the base is. I wanted to highlight that, so you can understand and reference back to that. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Almond butter is a fat, okay? We're going to add some almond butter. Ann Wixon: Right. Chad Sarno: Use some lemon juice, use some dates for sweetener. We're going to use the tamari for the salt, and then we're going to just build from there. We're going to add the garlic, and we're going to add the water, we're going to add the ginger. We're going to blend that up until smooth. That's an amazing sauce. It'll keep for over a week. I put this over broccoli. It's delicious with broccoli--either raw or steamed broccoli. Ann Wixon: Mm-hmm. Chad Sarno: I serve it with soba noodles, or whole-wheat noodles, and it's an amazing dinner. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Really, really affordable, especially if you use peanut butter. Incredibly affordable, cheap, and a great way to incorporate broccoli into your diet. You can serve that with some grilled tofu, which is delicious, as well. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: At the end of the day, it comes--and I mentioned this earlier--it all comes down to


the sauce. Marinades, sauces, and dressings: The three most important components in starting to adopt a healthier diet. Because if you have those three things down, everything else is a breeze. Ann Wixon: Yeah. Chad Sarno: Let's talk about a couple more here. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Let's talk about these creamed greens now. I'm going to make this base recipe, which is everything in red there. This is going to be a typical white sauce, okay? There's three basic mother sauces: there's a red, there's a brown, there's a white mother sauce. When I say "mother sauces," they're versatile sauces. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: With most classical cuisines, those mother sauces, that can be made into 10 different dishes, or 20 different dishes, or 20 different varieties. On this, we're going to make a very basic white sauce--similar to a béchamel, it's my version of a non-dairy béchamel. Ann Wixon: Oh, okay. Perfect! Chad Sarno: I'm going to start off with steam frying some onions. We talked about that earlier. Ann Wixon: Mm-hmm. Chad Sarno: We're going to steam fry some onions--just by, again, hot pan, cold onions. Sauté up, add a little vegetable stock, caramelize, and set those aside. I'm going to use those in the blender, so we're going to set those aside. Then I'm going to take some cashews. Now, this is where I mentioned also, the white beans. If you have a nut intolerance, or nut allergy, you can use white beans instead of this, you can use tofu instead of this. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: I'm going to take some cashews--you can soak them in water for a couple hours to soften them up, if you wish. Ann Wixon: Mm-hmm. Chad Sarno: Then I'll take a non-dairy milk. I'll add some onion powder, and then I'll add those onions that I just cooked. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: And a little bit of white miso. White miso is a, it gives it almost like a slight cheesy, cultured flavor at the end of it, almost like we're adding a little cheese to the sauce. Ann Wixon: Oh, okay, so like white cheddar, or something like that. Chad Sarno: Exactly. I'm using, between the miso and the nutritional yeast--nutritional yeast, you can find in the bulk department in Whole Foods. It's very, very different than brewer's yeast or baker's yeast. Those are not substitutions for nutritional yeast, I just wanted to make that clear. Ann Wixon: Well, I've never heard of nutritional yeast before.


Chad Sarno: Yeah, what it is--you can get it in the bulk department--and it's basically, it's used culinary-wise, it's very high in B vitamins from the nutritional standpoint. Ann Wixon: Oh, okay. All right. Chad Sarno: But it's a powdered cheese, basically. It tastes like a powdered cheese, but it's a non-dairy form. It's amazing on popcorn, just a little disclaimer there, so ... Ann Wixon: Oh, yeah! Okay. Chad Sarno: Amazing on popcorn. With a little bit of nutritional yeast, little bit of miso, I'm going to blend all that up, okay? All of that recipe into a sauce, okay? Ann Wixon: Mm-hmm. Chad Sarno: I'm going to blend that up. That sauce, right there, will act as any cream substitution would. This will reduce really nicely, so quickly, and cream up. For example, we're going to use greens in this dish. We blend up that sauce. I'm going to add some greens to a pan, steam fry up some onions, whatever you want to do--some shallots, some red onions. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Throw some greens in there. Those start to wilt a little bit, then I'm going to pour that sauce over them. That sauce is going to reduce so quickly, and it's going to really cream and blend the flavors in that sauce nicely, into that dish nicely. That's a great side dish, it's great over brown rice. Again, you can make a big batch. It's incredibly affordable if you're using white beans. You can make a big batch of this, take half of it, and freeze it. Ann Wixon: You can freeze it! Perfect! Okay. Chad Sarno: Completely, completely. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Another variation with that cream sauce is, if you wanted to make a gratin, a non-dairy gratin. Ann Wixon: Mm-hmm. Chad Sarno: Which is typically thinly sliced potatoes, layered with cream and cheese, and butter. I would just take thinly sliced potatoes, or parsnips, or celeriac, or whatever you wish. Thinly slice them--either with a knife, or with a mandolin. Ann Wixon: Mm-hmm. Chad Sarno: Then, I would layer it with a little bit of the cream sauce, and then just layer it again with the thinly sliced root. Ann Wixon: Sounds delicious. Chad Sarno. Just layer it up in a casserole dish. Ann Wixon: Uh-huh. Chad Sarno: Then bake it. Throw some tinfoil on it, bake it. Take the tinfoil off after about a half-hour of it baking, and it'll firm up like a gratin would, so you can actually slice it.


Ann Wixon: Oh, great, okay. Chad Sarno: You can make a white lasagna, too. You can--same thing--layer it with noodles, and do the same thing. Ann Wixon: Mm-hmm. Chad Sarno: You can slice it, and it firms up, because it reduces nicely while it bakes. Ann Wixon: What a great recipe! Chad Sarno: That's very simple, that's really a staple. Let's cover another one here. Let's jump down to the bottom there. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Let's jump down to the bottom, and we're going to make--this is, talk about affordable, and this is a kid-friendly dish. Kids love it. Ann Wixon: Perfect. Chad Sarno: Really easy on the purse strings for any family. This is, we're going to do a whole-wheat baked penne with a tofu ricotta and a vegetable-packed red sauce. This is my daughter's absolute favorite. Ann Wixon: Okay. This is a five-year-old's favorite. Okay. Chad Sarno: Five-year-old's favorite. Hopefully we'll have this tonight, actually. Ann Wixon: [laughs] Chad Sarno: It's making me hungry talking about it, so ... Ann Wixon: [laughs] You're making me very hungry! Chad Sarno: [laughs] I'll start off with some whole grain pasta, okay? You want to cook up that, set that aside, okay? Let's say you use penne. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: We'll cook that up, set it to the side. Let's make a tofu ricotta. Now, this is also a tofu crumble, okay? My reference point to ricotta is pretty far away. Ann Wixon: [laughs] Chad Sarno: Somebody might try this, and say it tastes like tofu crumble, with flavor. Yes, it is. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: But it tastes like a ricotta to me, and it works very nicely as a ricotta substitution. I'm going to take a firm tofu, I'm going to crumble it up in a bowl. Ann Wixon: Mm-hmm. Chad Sarno: Then I'm just going to go ahead and add the rest of these ingredients. I'm going to


add a little bit of tahini--which is a sesame butter--touch of that. Some small minced garlic. You can add nutritional yeast. If you don't have it, you can omit that. A little bit of nutmeg. Squeeze a lemon. Some black pepper, some sea salt. A little bit of onion--you can use some shallot, you can use red onions. Parsley, as well, you can chop that up. You can add basil, you can add oregano. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Then I'm going to put that all in a bowl, and then I'm going to steam up some spinach. You can buy frozen spinach as well, let it thaw out. You can use that instead, or you can steam up some fresh spinach. And Ann, I always try and sneak greens everywhere. Chad Sarno: Especially because I'm always trying to get my daughter to eat more greens. Then I'll go ahead and just combine all those ingredients. Again, just, I use my hands a lot. Just crumbling it with my hands, mixing and distributing the tahini and the lemon juice well. That right there, it's a delicious ricotta substitution. You can put it on a panini, you can put it in a wrap, you can just crumble it on a pizza. Ann Wixon: Mmm. Chad Sarno: In this case, we're going to use it as a ricotta. We're going to set that aside. Then we're going to make a marinara here. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: This is a no-oil marinara. Again, we're trying to lighten it up a little bit. We're using, again, the method of steam frying, of not using oil. We're going to heat up the pan, add the diced onions, allow them to caramelize, add the vegetable stock until they're caramelized. Then what I'll do is, I like to add shredded vegetables, because these almost melt as they cook. Ann Wixon: Ah. Chad Sarno: Zucchini and carrots, a great way for kids to get more nutrient dense vegetables in their diet, is just shred them so they're undetectable. Especially zucchini, you know, it almost melts as it cooks. Ann Wixon: What do you use to shred them? Chad Sarno: Just an kind of box shredder. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Or one of those handheld shredders. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Then I'm going to add some kale, thinly sliced kale, in there--again, you can use spinach instead--but then, some zucchini and some carrots, shredded. I'm going to cook that down for a little while with the onions. These are going to cook, and soften, and really just start to, kind of, melt all together, in terms of the flavors. Ann Wixon: Mm-hmm. Chad Sarno: Then I'm going to use, obviously, if tomatoes are not in season, my favorite canned tomatoes are two kinds. Muir Glen is a great one, for organic. Then, San Marzano--it's an Italian tomato that you can get in most stores, and obviously, Whole Foods. I'll use a combination of sauce and crushed, because I like a real rustic sauce.


Ann Wixon: Okay. Yes. Chad Sarno: No salt added, that's an important one, too. Because you want to be able to control your salt, rather than it be in an already existing ingredient. Ann Wixon: Mm-hmm. Chad Sarno: Then, after the kale and the zucchini and the carrots cook down, I'm going to add the canned tomatoes. I'm going to bring that up to a simmer. I'm going to bring that up to a simmer, let it reduce a little bit, and then I'm going to, at the end--this is where a lot of people, I think my grandmother taught me this--always add the fresh herbs at the end. That's the most important part of the sauce, she would always tell me. Ann Wixon: You know, that's a new, something new that we're hearing. Chad Sarno: Yeah. This is a lighter, more delicate herb. For example, there's another recipe in this recipe packet--it's a white bean ragout with rosemary. Ann Wixon: That sounds good. Chad Sarno: Now, I add the rosemary and the thyme in the beginning of that recipe. Ann Wixon: Mm-hmm. Chad Sarno: Because those are hearty herbs, so they don't break down as quickly. The hearty herbs would be: rosemary, thyme, sage, bay leaf. Those are real hearty herbs. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Whereas the delicate herbs are: oregano, basil, parsley--what else? Mint, mint is a very delicate one, as well. Cilantro. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: I add those at the end, because, again, we're talking about the base here. I've created a base sauce, then you're going to get those bursts of freshness. Ann Wixon: Yes. Chad Sarno: If you cook the herbs down with the vegetables and with the onions in the beginning, those are going to start to melt, and the flavor is going to melt, as well. You're not going to get that layer of flavor that you want to get with the fresh herbs. Ann Wixon: Okay. Chad Sarno: Then you're going to cook that down, season it to taste with salt and pepper, and that's ready to go. You can can that, you can throw that in the freezer, you can use that in so many different purposes with that vegetable-packed marinara. But going back to this whole-wheat penne, this baked penne, I add the cooked penne. Then some tofu ricotta--again, make double batches. Ann Wixon: Oh, okay. Chad Sarno: Then I'm going to put it in a big bowl. I'm going to put the cooked penne, put the ricotta recipe, and dump in the marinara. I'm going to toss that up. Get a casserole dish, and pour


the mixture in a casserole dish, and just bake it. I'm going to bake it, and it firms up, and it cooks nicely, and the flavors all blend together well. You can add a non-dairy cheese on, if you want. You can add fresh sliced tomatoes on top, if you wish. That dish alone is--kids love it, it's totally affordable, and it will feed a family with that recipe there. Ann Wixon: It sounds fantastic! Chad Sarno: Making me hungry now, Ann. [laughs] Ann Wixon: It is making me hungry, too! [laughs] Chad Sarno: Hopefully, those are great recipes to start with, and people can actually identify working with these different methods that we talked about: with the steam frying, working with the different basic equipment working with the base recipes, and cultural spices. Hopefully, these inspire folks to actually get in the kitchen and start making some changes. Ann Wixon: I think you've done a wonderful job of just illustrating how easy it is to cook healthy. We're not losing any of the taste, we're not losing any of the flavor, and this actually sounds kind of fun, and easy. I mean, all I think I need is a blender, and a good pan, a good pot. Chad Sarno: And some plastic sheets for those charts. Ann Wixon: Yeah, perfect! [laughs] Chad Sarno: [laughs] Ann Wixon: Well, Mr. Sarno, I thank you for your time, and for the valuable information you've shared with us. And thank you for these super chef secrets, and recipes, and the valuable work you're doing to help make the lives of our listeners healthier and happier, now and in the future. Chad Sarno: Ann, thank you so much. Ann Wixon: You bet! Thank you for listening to The Future of Health Now.

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